Going to War With the Allies You Have: Allies, Counterinsurgency, and the War on Terrorism

Washington must recognize that its allies, including those in the security forces, are often the source of counterinsurgency problems as well as the heart of any solution. The author argues that the ally\u27s structural problems and distinct interests have daunting implications for successful U.S. counterinsurgency efforts. The nature of regimes and of societies feeds an insurgency, but the United States is often hostage to its narrow goals with regard to counterinsurgency and thus becomes complicit in the host-nation\u27s self-defeating behavior. Unfortunately, U.S. influence often is limited as the allies recognize that America\u27s vital interests with regard to fighting al-Qa\u27ida-linked groups are likely to outweigh any temporary disgust or anger at an ally\u27s brutality or failure to institute reforms. Training, military-to-military contacts, education programs, and other efforts to shape their COIN capabilities are beneficial, but the effects are likely to be limited at best.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1727/thumbnail.jp

Kosovo and the Great Air Power Debate

The following section provides an overview of how to think about air power and coercion, addressing several key limits of the current literature. We next examine NATO goals in Kosovo and the mixed success eventually achieved. Using that baseline, we explore various explanations for Belgrade\u27s eventual capitulation and clarify how air power\u27s role in each of them should be understood; we leave aside the issue of whether coercion was a proper strategy for addressing the Balkan crisis and focus instead on how to assess air power as a tool of that strategy. We conclude with recommendations for recasting the air power debate to better reflect air power\u27s true contributions and limits

MIMO Extension to DVB-SH

DVB-SH is a hybrid satellite-terrestrial system combining a satellite component and a complementary ground component to provide service in all types of environments, i.e., outdoor and indoor coverage in urban, sub-urban and rural. This paper reports the studies on multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) extension to the existing DVB-SH standard. MIMO techniques are considered in this paper for achieving increased spectral efficiency and reliability in the challenging satellite and hybrid channel environment

Diasporas and secessionist conflicts : the mobilization of the Armenian, Albanian and Chechen diasporas

This article examines the impact of diasporas on secessionist conflicts, focusing on the Albanian, Armenian and Chechen diasporas and the conflicts in Kosovo, Karabakh and Chechnya during the 1990s. How do diasporas radicalize these conflicts? I argue that despite differences in diaspora communal characteristics and the types of the secessionist conflicts, a common pattern of mobilization develops. Large-scale diasporic support for secessionism emerges only after independence is proclaimed by the local elites. From that point onwards diasporas become engaged in a conflict spiral, and transnational coalitions are formed between local secessionist and diaspora groups. Depending on the organizational strength of the local strategic centre and the diasporic institutions, these coalitions endure or dissipate. Diasporas exert radicalization influences on the conflict spiral on two specific junctures – when grave violations of human rights occur in the homeland and when local moderate elites start losing credibility that they can achieve the secessionist goal

Sustained vs episodic mobilization among conflict-generated diasporas

There is increased interest in the connectivity of migrants with both their host-lands and their original homelands. This article brings a social movement perspective to bear on the issue of diaspora mobilization. Why do conflict-generated diasporas from the same original homeland and living in the same host-land mobilize in sustained versus episodic ways? This article focuses on the sustained mobilization of Bosnian Muslims versus the episodic mobilization of Croats and Serbs in the Netherlands in the early 2010s. I argue that a traumatic issue that binds three actors – diaspora, host-state, and home-state – is central to such mobilization. This issue is the failure of Dutch peace-keeping forces to protect the Srebrenica enclave in 1995. Migration integration regimes, threats from radical right parties, host-state foreign policy, and transnational influences can trigger episodic diaspora mobilization, but not sustain it

Authoritarian Regime Learning: Comparative Insights from the Arab Uprisings

This paper examines the learning of authoritarian regimes in the early phase of the Arab uprisings. Differentiating conceptually between learning and policy change, we analyze and compare the authoritarian regimes of Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, and Syria and their reactions to the challenge of "late riser" oppositional protests. We first show that the four regimes initiated very diverse measures in the domains of repression, material co-optation, and legal reforms. With regard to the sources of learning, we find that proximity is a determining factor, in terms of both geography and political similarity. Using the case of Bahrain, we then demonstrate that structural factors such as internal power structures, regional and international pressures, or state capacity can decisively constrain the implementation of learning-induced policy change. Overall, the paper aims to contribute to the emerging research on the international dimension of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and beyond

2016 Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research and education.

Guidelines for use of wild mammal species in research are updated from Sikes et al. (2011). These guidelines cover current professional techniques and regulations involving the use of mammals in research and teaching; they also incorporate new resources, procedural summaries, and reporting requirements. Included are details on capturing, marking, housing, and humanely killing wild mammals. It is recommended that Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs), regulatory agencies, and investigators use these guidelines as a resource for protocols involving wild mammals, whether studied in the field or in captivity. These guidelines were prepared and approved by the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM), in consultation with professional veterinarians experienced in wildlife research and IACUCs, whose collective expertise provides a broad and comprehensive understanding of the biology of nondomesticated mammals. The current version of these guidelines and any subsequent modifications are available online on the Animal Care and Use Committee page of the ASM website (http://mammalogy.org/uploads/committee_files/CurrentGuidelines.pdf). Additional resources pertaining to the use of wild animals in research are available at: http://www.mammalsociety.org/committees/animal-care-and-use#tab3. Resumen—Los lineamientos para el uso de especies de mamíferos de vida silvestre en la investigación con base en Sikes et al. (2011) se actualizaron. Dichos lineamientos cubren técnicas y regulaciones rofesionales actuales que involucran el uso de mamíferos en la investigación y enseñanza; también incorporan recursos nuevos, resúmenes de procedimientos y requisitos para reportes. Se incluyen detalles acerca de captura, marcaje, manutención en cautiverio y eutanasia de mamíferos de vida silvestre. Se recomienda que los comités institucionales de uso y cuidado animal (cifras en inglés: IACUCs), las agencias reguladoras y los investigadores se adhieran a dichos lineamientos como fuente base de protocolos que involucren mamíferos de vida silvestre, ya sea investigaciones de campo o en cautiverio. Dichos lineamientos fueron preparados y aprobados por la ASM, en consulta con profesionales veterinarios experimentados en investigaciones de vida silvestre y IACUCS, de quienes cuya experiencia colectiva provee un entendimiento amplio y exhaustivo de la biología de mamíferos no-domesticados. La presente version de los lineamientos y modificaciones posteriores están disponibles en línea en la página web de la ASM, bajo Cuidado Animal y Comité de Uso: http://mammalogy.org/uploads/committee_files/CurrentGuidelines.pdf). Recursos adicionales relacionados con el uso de animales de vida silvestre para la investigación se encuentran disponibles en (http://www.mammalsociety.org/committees/animal-care-and-use#tab3)

Brutalisation as a Survival Strategy: How the 'Islamic State' Is Prolonging Its Doomsday Battle

The recent bomb attacks at the Istanbul airport (28 June 2016), in a tourist cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2 July), and in Bagdad (3 July) were part of a "Ramadan campaign" announced by the spokesman of the self-declared 'Islamic State' caliphate in late May 2016. This series of attacks was intended to make the Islamic holy month of Ramadan "a month of calamity everywhere for the non-believers." It has generated significant international attention for an organisation which has recently lost the cities of Ramadi and Falluja in Iraq and which is under serious pressure in the strategic city of Manbij in Syria. This article analyses the Islamic State's (IS) contextual use of different forms of violence and argues that the attacks and the defeats are two sides of one coin: the group is losing territory and credibility by failing to continue with its expansion of the universal Islamic caliphate that "Caliph" Abu Bakr promised in summer 2014; it is now compensating for these territorial losses by expanding its field of action through terrorist attacks, thereby suggesting a fictitious expansion. The article explains how the group has exhibited a three-stage "cycle of violence" in which violence has served specific functions. In the first stage, from roughly 2003 to 2010, violence was used as part of a mobilisation strategy. In the second stage, from 2010 to 2015, violence served mainly to facilitate the group's expansion and rule. In the third stage, which began in 2015, the increasingly brutal violence and the fictitious expansion have constituted the centrepiece of a survival strategy. Against this background, the article suggests that the Islamic State will most likely not have a future as a territorial entity but will, at best, survive as a terrorist apocalyptic sect