Structural performance of two aerobrake hexagonal heat shield panel concepts

Structural sizing and performance are presented for two structural concepts for an aerobrake hexagonal heat shield panel. One concept features a sandwich construction with an aluminum honeycomb core and thin quasi-isotropic graphite-epoxy face sheets. The other concept features a skin-rib isogrid construction with thin quasi-isotropic graphite-epoxy skins and graphite-epoxy ribs oriented at 0, +60, and -60 degs along the panel. Linear static, linear bifurcation buckling, and nonlinear static analyses were performed to compare the structural performance of the two panel concepts and assess their feasibility for a lunar transfer vehicle aerobrake application

Pandemic threatens to drive wedge into US-Gulf relations

It is early days, but first indications are that the global pandemic is entrenching long-drawn Middle Eastern geopolitical, political, ethnic, and sectarian battle lines rather than serving as a vehicle to build bridges and build confidence. The coronavirus crisis is also changing the region's political landscape as non-governmental organizations and militants in countries like Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon fill gaps where governments have failed to cater to social and health needs created by the pandemic. The empowerment of NGOs and militant groups, particularly where they fill a gap without coordinating with government, potentially raises security issues as militants capitalize on their ability to show up the state's lack of capability

Arbitration under the Canada Labour Code: A Neglected Policy and an Incomplete Legislative Framework

Arbitration under the Canada Labour Code\u27 is an elusive subject. There is not independent text on law in the federal jurisdiction, where grievance arbitration is a neglected policy operating within an imcomplete legislative framework. The lack of prominence of a federal body of arbitral law and practice is readily exemplified by the fact that the federal law influence is frequently ignored or overlooked. A pertinent example is a 1976 case involving British Columbia Telephone Company and the Federation of Telephone Workers of British Columbia in which an arbitration board of three prominent members of the bar proceeded pursuant to the Labour Code of British Columbia. 2 Such oversights are not confined to British Columbia. In Ontario arbitrators have applied provincial legislation to arbitrations involving Air Canada3 and C. N. Telecommunications

Xinjiang: Pan-Turkism Fuels China’s Hearts-and-Minds Campaign

Chinese efforts to woo Saudi Arabia’s ethnic Chinese community highlight the People’s Republic’s effort to avert criticism from the Muslim world of its crackdown in the north-western province of Xinjiang and strengthen relations with the kingdom and Middle Eastern nations. The efforts to woo a community, a significant part of which is of Turkic origin, identifies itself as Turkestani, and long supported greater rights, if not independence for Xinjiang’s Uyghur population, are part of a larger, long-standing global Chinese effort to ensure the support of a mushrooming Chinese diaspora not only for its policy in Xinjiang but also for its anti-Taiwanese One China policy and growing economic and geopolitical influence

The Long Shadow of the Gulf Crisis

Dug in for the long haul in its increasingly bitter dispute with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Qatar is emerging as a key player in efforts to prevent tension between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, from spinning out of control. Qatar’s increasing role counters Saudi and UAE efforts to shape Palestinian politics in their mold. It further underlines the two Gulf states’ 15-month old failed effort to force Qatar to bow to their will by imposing a diplomatic and economic boycott

How Much Solidarity with Iran can the China-led SCO afford?

If Europe’s Achilles Heel is obstacles to putting credible mechanisms in place to protect its companies against US sanctions, China’s weak spot is its ruthless campaign to tame Islam in China, particularly among Uighurs in the strategic northwest province of Xinjiang. So far, it has been able to do so with little international response because Saudi Arabia and other Islamic states have looked the other way. The question is whether an effective Chinese countering of US sanctions that would significantly weaken the impact on Iran may prompt Saudi Arabia and others to revisit the issue

The Emerging New World Order\u27s Alarm Bells: Men Like Brandon Tarrant and Andreas Breivik

This week\u27s attack on two mosques in New Zealand reflects a paradigm shift: the erosion of liberal values and the rise of civilisationalism at the expense of the nation-state. So do broader phenomena like widespread Islamophobia with the crackdown on Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang as its extreme, and growing ant-Semitism These phenomena are fuelled by increasing intolerance and racism enabled by far right and world leaders as well as ultra-conservatives and jihadists.   These world leaders and far-right ideologues couch their policies and views in terms of defending a civilization rather than exclusively a nation-state defined by its citizenry and borders

Middle Eastern Protests Challenge Debilitating Gulf Counterrevolution

Much of the Middle East's recent turmoil stems from internecine Middle Eastern rivalries spilling onto third country battlefields and Saudi and United Arab Emirates-led efforts to roll back the achievements of the 2011 popular Arab revolts and pre-empt further uprisings.   This week's successful toppling of ailing Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and months of anti-government demonstrations that have put Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir on the defensive suggest that the Saudi-UAE effort may be faltering

Turkic Chinese Soup: a Barometer of Anti-Chinese Sentiment

A heavy soup made of pulled noodles, meat, and vegetables symbolizes Central Asia's close cultural and/or ethnic ties with China's repressed Turkic and Hui Muslims. It also explains growing Central Asian unease with China's re-education campaign in its north-western province of Xinjiang and its signature infrastructure and energy driven-Belt and Road initiative

Turkish-Chinese Spat Puts Central Asian Leaders on the Spot

A Turkish-Chinese spat as a result of Turkish criticism of China's crackdown on Turkic Muslims in its strategic but troubled north-western province of Xinjiang complicates efforts by Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states to at best deal quietly behind closed doors with the plight of their citizens and ethnic kin in the People's Republic.   China's threat that the Turkish criticism of its massive surveillance and detention campaign, involving the alleged incarceration in re-education camps of up to one million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims would have economic consequences and the temporary closure of the Chinese consulate in the Mediterranean port city of Izmir serves as warnings to others in the Muslim world what could happen if they break their silence