‘Responsibility to protect’ and the African Union: Assessing the AU’s capacity to respond to regional complex humanitarian and political emergencies

Despite its many institutional and political weaknesses and limitations, the African Union (AU) has been developing a variety of tools and mechanisms to respond effectively to complex disasters and emergencies (both natural and manmade) by building up a comprehensive regional security architecture. Furthermore, it has become the first and only regional or international organisation to enshrine the principle of ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) in its Constitutive Act. This regional approach to and formal endorsement of the R2P principle allowed it to assume a particular place in the promotion of peace and security in its area. This article aims to critically assess the effectiveness of the AU on the African continent by exploring its real capacity in preventing and responding to emergencies and violent conflicts, and therefore in rendering the principle of R2P operational. The article argues that the formalisation of principles does not necessarily mean their effective implementation. The organisation's use of the R2P principle is also greatly conditioned by internal and external factors.     

The minmax multidimensional knapsack problem with application to a chance‐constrained problem

In this paper we present a new combinatorial problem, called minmax multidimensional knapsack problem (MKP), motivated by a military logistics problem. The logistics problem is a two‐period, two‐level, chance‐constrained problem with recourse. We show that the MKP is NP‐hard and develop a practically efficient combinatorial algorithm for solving it. We also show that under some reasonable assumptions regarding the operational setting of the logistics problem, the chance‐constrained optimization problem is decomposable into a series of MKPs that are solved separately. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

Minimizing makespan in a multimode multiprocessor shop scheduling problem

We study the problem of multimode scheduling tasks on dedicated processors, with the objective of minimizing the maximum completion time. Each task can be undertaken in one among a set of predefined alternative modes, where each mode specifies a required set of dedicated processors and a processing time. At any time each processor can be used by a single task at most. General precedence constraints exist among tasks, and task preemption is not allowed. The problem consists of assigning a mode and a starting time to each task, respecting processor and precedence constraints, to minimize the time required to complete all tasks. The problem is NP-hard in several particular cases. In previous works, we studied algorithms in which a solution was obtained by means of an iterative procedure that combines mode assignment and sequencing phases separately. In this paper, we present some new heuristics where the decision on the mode assignment is taken on the basis of a partial schedule. Then, for each task, the mode selection and the starting time are chosen simultaneously considering the current processor usage. Different lower bounds are derived from a mathematical formulation of the problem and from a graph representation of a particular relaxed version of the problem. Heuristic solutions and lower bounds are evaluated on randomly generated test problems. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 46: 893–911, 1999     

Ungoverned space? Examining the FARC's interactions with local populations in Northern Ecuador

The Ecuadorian state has long been absent from the regions along its northern border with Colombia. I argue that this lack of state presence has allowed non-state armed groups and criminal organizations space to not only operate from these areas, but also, to challenge and change the relationship between local populations and the Ecuadorian state. After reviewing theoretical approaches to concepts of changing security paradigms and ungoverned space, the article details the conditions that have allowed armed groups, specifically the FARC, to take advantage of the lack of state presence along Ecuador's northern border.     

A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS OF THE NEXUS BETWEEN DEFENCE SPENDING AND GROWTH IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A REPLY

Hatzinikolaou raises a number of issues related mainly to the econometrics of our paper. These issues are categorized according to the three stages of econometric analysis: specification, estimation, and diagnostic checking. We categorize our reply to his comments accordingly.     

Mixed rules in multi‐issue allocation situations

Multi‐issue allocation situations study problems where an estate must be divided among a group of agents. The claim of each agent is a vector specifying the amount claimed by each agent on each issue. We present a two‐stage rule. First, we divide the estate among the issues following the constrained equal awards rule. Second, the amount assigned to each issue is divided among the agents in proportion to their demands on this issue. We apply the rule to two real‐world problems: the distribution of natural resources between countries and the distribution of budget for education and research between universities.     

The economic policy of acquiring foreign currency in wartime: The example of Croatia

This paper attempts to describe the methods employed by the Croatian government in order to acquire the foreign currency which was essential for strategic imports during the period 1991–1995. The starting point for this was the fact that foreign currency was in the hands of Croatian households, export companies, and Croatian companies abroad. The Croatian central bank gained access to households’ foreign currency principally by gaining their confidence. It gained access to companies’ currency by means of “export rights”, and perhaps also as a result of the integration of political and economic positions which was a relic of the former Yugoslavia.