Distribution of the delay time and the dwell time for wave reflection from a long random potential

We re-examine and correct an earlier derivation of the distribution of the Wigner phase delay time for wave reflection from a long one-dimensional disordered conductor treated in the continuum limit. We then numerically compare the distributions of the Wigner phase delay time and the dwell time, the latter being obtained by the use of an infinitesimal imaginary potential as a clock, and investigate the effects of strong disorder and a periodic (discrete) lattice background. We find that the two distributions coincide even for strong disorder, but only for energies well away from the band-edges.Comment: Final version with minor corrections in text, 4 pages, 2 PS figure

Enter the Age of Csywar: Some Reflections on an Emergent Trend

This article uses the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict as a jumping-off point for a broader, preliminary reflection on the continuing evolution of war in the digital age. It is the contention here that we are witnessing an emergent phenomenon of what we might call csywar. Intervening states engaged in csywar—best understood as an indirect, hybrid strategy—seek to attain data, infrastructural, and epistemic dominance over the target state. This article discusses various defensive counter-csywar strategies that target states could pursue, such as fostering data, infrastructural, and epistemic resilience internally, and makes the case for developing deterrent counter-csywar capabilities against hostile intervening states

The 4M Way of Combating Violent Extremism: An Analysis*

This article puts forth a “4M Way” of dealing with the threat of violent Islamist extremism in Southeast Asia. It argues that our narrative must be fundamentally more attractive to the target audience than the competing vision of the violent extremists. The memes that constitute our narrative in the social media space must be “stickier” than those of the violent extremists. The personal credibility of our messenger in the eyes of the target audience should exceed that of extremist ideologues vis-á-vis that same audience. The mechanisms that we employ to impart our messages to the target audience must be more effective that those employed by the violent extremists. Finally, we must ensure that the market receptivity of the target audience is promoted —by coordinating whole-of-government policies such that activities within the counter-narrative space are supported and not inadvertently undercut by policy and military missteps in the wider operational space

The Growth of ISIS Extremism in Southeast Asia: Its Ideological and Cognitive Features—and Possible Policy Responses

This article examines the radicalization of young Southeast Asians into the violent extremism that characterizes the notorious Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). After situating ISIS within its wider and older Al Qaeda Islamist ideological milieu, the article sketches out the historical landscape of violent Islamist extremism in Southeast Asia. There it focuses on the Al Qaeda-affiliated, Indonesian-based but transnational Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network, revealing how the emergence of ISIS has impacted JI’s evolutionary trajectory. The article surveys major explanations of how radicalization into violent extremism (RIVE) occurs, setting the stage for the ensuing discussion of two features of RIVE in Southeast Asia: violent Islamism and extremism. It shows that for sound policy reasons “radicals” and “extremists” should be viewed as analytically distinct and argues that extremism itself, not just violent extremism, is a problem that should be addressed in Southeast Asia and beyond. It asserts that there is no such thing as “nonviolent” extremism and suggests that “not-yet violent” extremism is a more accurate term. The article concludes by discussing operational and strategic policy options

Understanding Myanmar’s Buddhist Extremists: Some Preliminary Musings

This article examines Buddhist extremism in Myanmar. It argues that Buddhist extremism—like other types of religious extremism—is an acute form of fundamentalism. The article begins with a survey of how extremism is usually understood in the theoretical literature, showing that its religious variant is best conceived of as an acute form of fundamentalism. It then fine tunes this understanding, arguing that religious extremism is a fundamentalist belief system that justifies structural violence against relevant out-groups. The article outlines seven core characteristics of the religious extremist culled from the various theoretical approaches to extremism. It employs these seven characteristics to examine Buddhist extremism in Myanmar, particularly in the way it has fueled violence against the ethnic minority Rohingya Muslim community in that country, giving rise to a humanitarian crisis with potential wider regional repercussions. The article reiterates that to cope with the ongoing Rohingya crisis, policy makers within and outside Myanmar must acquire a much deeper understanding of Buddhist extremism

The White Supremacist Penetration of Western Security Forces: The Wider Implications

This article argues that recent instances of white supremacist penetration of Western security forces should not be regarded as isolated issues. They are related to the worrying wider phenomenon of the gradual societal and political mainstreaming of white supremacist ideas in Western countries. Drawing on the German and US cases as examples, the article unpacks the argument by first examining the core theories of white supremacism: the “great replacement” and “white genocide.” It then explores how these theories have been weaponized, before proceeding to analyze the structure and modalities of the white supremacist threat. The article then considers the wider ideological ecosystems that sustain white supremacist worldviews in Germany (the New Right) and in the United States (the alt-right), before finally outlining four possible approaches to combat the challenge of white supremacism in Western societies

Regularity of symbolic and ordinary powers of weighted oriented graphs and their upper bounds

In this paper, we compare the regularities of symbolic and ordinary powers of edge ideals of weighted oriented graphs. For a weighted oriented graph $D$, we give a lower bound for \reg(I(D)^{(k)}), if $V^+$ are sinks. If $D$ has an induced directed path $(x_i,x_j),(x_j,x_r) \in E(D)$ of length $2$ with $w(x_j)\geq 2$, then we show that \reg(I(D)^{(k)})\leq \reg(I(D)^k) for all $k\geq 2$. In particular, if $D$ is bipartite, then the above inequality holds for all $k\geq 2$. For any weighted oriented graph $D$, if $V^+$ are sink vertices, then we show that \reg(I(D)^{(k)}) \leq \reg(I(D)^k) with $k=2,3$. We further study when these regularities are equal. As a consequence, we give sharp linear upper bounds for regularity of symbolic powers of certain classes of weighted oriented graphs. Furthermore, we compare the regularity of symbolic powers of weighted oriented graphs $D$ and $D'$, where $D'$ is obtained from $D$ by adding a pendent. We show linear upper bounds for regularity of symbolic and ordinary powers of complete graph $K_n$ and $K_n'$.Comment: This is an updated version of arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.04705. Comments are welcom

Diffusion at constant speed in a model phase space

We reconsider the problem of diffusion of particles at constant speed and present a generalization of the Telegrapher process to higher dimensional stochastic media ($d>1$), where the particle can move along $2^d$ directions. We derive the equations for the probability density function using the ``formulae of differentiation'' of Shapiro and Loginov. The model is an advancement over similiar models of photon migration in multiply scattering media in that it results in a true diffusion at constant speed in the limit of large dimensions.Comment: Final corrected version RevTeX, 6 pages, 1 figur