Intelligence Studies: some thoughts on the state of the art

The paper is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the field of Intelligence Studies but summarises the major currents in research in this area, in the last twenty years. In addition, it suggests directions for future research concluding that Intelligence Studies represents a healthy and growing activity of great relevance to contemporary security governance. There are identified a few challenges for the development of the domain, mainly the fact that Anglo-American authors and subject matter continue to dominate the literature, and the fact that the relations between the academic institutions and intelligence agencies, the civil-military relations, have not always been easy

The politics of the strategic defence and security review: centralisation and cuts

This article examines the politics of the October 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), focussing on the points of difference between the main political parties (and within the Cameron coalition government) and the political dynamics of the review process. In examining how the government's core mission to reduce the country's ‘historic deficit’ impacted on the review process and outcomes, we are also able to highlight the practical results of a political philosophy that is currently being implemented across Whitehall. We argue that defence is a path-finding policy area for a new kind of post-industrial bureaucratic environment typified by a ‘thin-client’ and ‘smart customer’ function that interacts with industry

Work in progress: a novel method of creating an academic content repository

This paper outlines a project aimed at addressing the issue of the scalability of online academic support. This project is being run during the Autumn semester at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Toowoomba Australia, in conjunction with the Australian Digital Futures Institute. The study attached to the project will use Design-Based Research to evaluate the effectiveness of a simple, but innovative academic content and metadata creation tool referred to as Academic Assist. Academic Assist has been recently developed at USQ as a plug-in block for the moodle-based Learning Management System employed at USQ for its several hundred online subjects. The pilot project and associated study now extends over nine subjects, including three consecutive subjects in computer engineering; and covers faculties of Engineering, Education, Business, Science and Arts. Some preliminary results are presented here. Complete results of the study including acceptance surveys, expert reviews and usage statistics will be presented at FIE 2009

Lost over Libya: the 2010 strategic defence and security review – an obituary

Immediately after the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government following the May 2010 general election, the conduct of a Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), in line with election manifesto pledges, was announced. This SDSR was published just prior to the Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010. It was intended to be a fundamental review of Britain’s defence and security posture, based on the strategic need established by the 2010 National Security Strategy, rather than another example of the budgetary salami slicing seen in the 1990s and in the revisions to the 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) during the 2000s. The message was clear: the SDSR was distinctive precisely because it was the operational embodiment of the NSS’s strategic assessment. However, by the turn of 2011, the SDSR was already being seen as fundamentally flawed by parliamentarians, defence professionals and expert commentators alike (continues ...

The Politics of the Strategic Defence and Security Review: Centralisation and Cuts

This article was published in the journal, The Political Quarterly [© The Authors 2012. The Political Quarterly © The Political Quarterly Publishing Co. Ltd.] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2012.02278.xThis article examines the politics of the October 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), focussing on the points of difference between the main political parties (and within the Cameron coalition government) and the political dynamics of the review process. In examining how the government's core mission to reduce the country's ‘historic deficit’ impacted on the review process and outcomes, we are also able to highlight the practical results of a political philosophy that is currently being implemented across Whitehall. We argue that defence is a path-finding policy area for a new kind of post-industrial bureaucratic environment typified by a ‘thin-client’ and ‘smart customer’ function that interacts with industry

Robot bilby for emerging engineers

The Robot Bilby Competition is forging valuable links between Universities and secondary schools in Australia and encouraging high school leavers to consider a career in Engineering. At a time when universities are keen to encourage secondary school students into science and engineering disciplines and schools are looking to enhance their technology programs, such competitions provide a win-win scenario. This paper presents the development, features and outcomes of the Robot Bilby Competition and Technology Workshops, and the recent introduction of the Online Bilby Simulator. The composition of these programs is presented, with statistics showing their acceptance by teachers and students of the Darling Downs Region

Hardware-based engineering problem solving for on-campus and external teams

We contend that engineering analysis and design will continue to rely on the synthesis of experimental observations and theoretical analyses. For the past three years, we have been providing teams of on-campus and external students the opportunity to work with actual engineering hardware as a focus for engineering analysis and problem solving. Providing external teams of student with the opportunity to problem solve with actual engineering hardware represents a number of challenges. By focusing on initial value problems and requiring the teams to design the parameters necessary to achieve the desired system performance, we have been able to expose both on-campus and external teams to problem solving with testable physical systems and actual engineering hardware

Infrastructure for remotely accessible laboratories at the University of Southern Queensland

Technological developments during the last two decades have made it possible for educational institutions to establish systems for the remote access of hardware and software resources. Teaching staff have come to recognise the benefits of laboratories that can be remotely accessed. Remote access of hardware and software resources is of particular interest to the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) because of its high proportion of distance mode students. Work towards setting up remotely accessible laboratories at USQ started in 2007. This paper reports on the University's remote laboratory communication infrastructure and the reasoning behind its configuration. It also provides details of the various techniques that are being used for interfacing with laboratory hardware. The paper includes a discussion on the initial experience of staff and students using the remote access system and what is being done to improve user experience

Hyperlinked concept map enhancements for electronic study materials

The use of topic maps and concept maps has long been encouraged by instructional designers as a means of providing an overview of content in study materials. Educational theory and practice affirm the effectiveness of concept mapping: as a concise summary of a body of knowledge; as a practical means by which students can construct and record their own knowledge; and as a means of evaluating student understanding. This paper presents the aims, methodology and initial findings of a project commenced in Semester 1 2008, to include hyperlinked concept maps as an enhancement to electronic study materials. The project aims to evaluate their effectiveness: in improving student understanding of the concepts in the course; and as a means of navigating and accessing electronic study materials. The course of study is in the field of Microcomputer Design