Hezbollah: A Regional Armed Non-State Actor

This thesis examines Hezbollah’s transition into a regional armed non-state actor (ANSA). Specifically, how did this transition happen? To unpack this puzzle, this thesis studies Hezbollah’s maneuvers in multiple theatres: Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, and focuses on its operations in Syria. The civil war in Syria, this thesis considers, and its spillovers across the region, was the conduit for Hezbollah’s transition. It argues that its engagement in Syria’s turmoil was a war of necessity. More importantly, three variables underpinned the transition: Hezbollah’s sectarian mobilization and instrumentalization of its sectarian identity, the shift of into a quasi-army mixing between classical and guerilla tactics and formations, and its embed as a partner in the axis that now extends from Beirut to Tehran, via Damascus and Baghdad. Hezbollah intervened in Syria to prevent the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and emerged triumphant on the regional scene. That said, the year 2018 provided a set of conditions, impossible to reproduce, that allowed Hezbollah to reach its apogee on both the domestic and regional theatres. In sum, the implication of this thesis to the field is straightforward: ANSAs are playing prominent roles in the regional order in the Middle East, and Hezbollah, for instance, has helped tilt the power balance during Syria’s civil war in favor of the regime and its main regional partner, Iran. Further, it added to the sectarianism debate arguing that Hezbollah instrumentalized its sectarian identity and adopted a sectarian mobilization policy for what was in fact a regional geopolitical contest

A new modal-based damage location indicator

Vibration-based damage detection techniques use the change in modal data as an indicator to assess damages in the structure. Knowing the structural dynamic characteristics of the healthy and damaged structure, the estimation of the damage location and severity is possible by solving an inverse problem. This paper presents a mathematical expression relating damage location and depth to the frequency shifts of the bending vibration modes. This expression permits the extraction of a series of coefficients that characterize each damage location and are independent of the damage severity. The vector aggregating these coefficients for a given location constitutes a Damage Location Indicator (DLI) that unambiguously characterizes the position of a geometrical discontinuity in the beam. A set of vectors typifying all locations along the beam may be used as patters opposable to the damage signature found by measurements. The similarity between the signature and one of the patterns indicates the location of damage

Geometrically nonlinear isogeometric analysis of laminated composite plates based on higher-order shear deformation theory

In this paper, we present an effectively numerical approach based on isogeometric analysis (IGA) and higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) for geometrically nonlinear analysis of laminated composite plates. The HSDT allows us to approximate displacement field that ensures by itself the realistic shear strain energy part without shear correction factors. IGA utilizing basis functions namely B-splines or non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) enables to satisfy easily the stringent continuity requirement of the HSDT model without any additional variables. The nonlinearity of the plates is formed in the total Lagrange approach based on the von-Karman strain assumptions. Numerous numerical validations for the isotropic, orthotropic, cross-ply and angle-ply laminated plates are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method

Gerakan Aktif tanpa Kekerasan: sebuah Transformasi Perjuangan Masyarakat (Kasus Masyarakat Moro-Moro Register 45 Mesuji Lampung)

Forest conflict Register 45 Mesuji Lampung sticking out the end of the year is a agrarian chronic conflict and widespread impact. A conflict that has lasted more than fifteen years has spawned a variety of violence, evictions and abandonment of the constitutional rights of citizens. Moro-Moro communities are experiencing citizens entity waiver of constitutional rights, which in turn have a significant impact on their social life and consciousness. This paper uses ethnographic approach that aims to provide an overview of the successful struggle of managing conflict with social intelligence. This paper attempts to use Pierre Bourdieu\u27s ideas about habitus to analyze the process of transformation of the Moro-Moro communities who struggle to change the stigma of a peace maker trouble maker eventually gave birth to the support from various circles of society

Economic Analysis of Strategies to Combat HLB in Florida Citrus

citrus greening, huanglongbing, asian citrus psyllid, Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,