Standing alongside your friends

Why do countries contribute troops to UN peacekeeping? Recognizing the incentives to free ride on the contributions of other countries, existing explanations have tended to focus on the private benefits of providing troops. There has been particular emphasis on some major contributing countries that gain financially from providing peacekeepers. An alternative explanation could be that countries prefer to deploy troops to peacekeeping alongside countries with similar foreign policy preferences in order to maximize jointly produced private benefits. Accordingly, the willingness to provide peacekeepers should depend on which other countries are providing troops to peacekeeping operations. The implications are explored within the context of games on networks, and it is demonstrated that in equilibrium countries that are more Bonacich central in the network of foreign policy preference contribute disproportionally to UN peacekeeping. Based on actual contributions to UN peacekeeping from 1990 until 2011, we find that policy complementarities explain why countries provide a larger proportion of peacekeepers to a particular mission. Importantly, centrality in the network of policy complementarities matters and not simply that countries have moderate policy preferences. There is robust evidence for the prevalence of peacekeeping alongside your ‘friends’; in effect, countries with a lot of ‘friends’ contribute more peacekeepers

Skid Testing with an Automobile

A study was conducted to evaluate the theoretical and practical aspects of using an automobile as a testing device for measurement of pavement slipperiness. Every parameter and significant event in the excursion history of a skidding automobile was measured and recorded. The resultant skid-resistance values, twenty-five in all, were compared and correlated. As a result of the study, the measurement of time in the velocity increment between 30 mph to 20 mph was selected as an interim standard test. A number of experiments were also conducted to aid in the interpretation of test results and to establish control tolerances for the standard test. The British Portable Tester was further evaluated on various roads common to Kentucky and was found to have limited usefulness