An Overview of Databases on Conflicts and Political Issues

This paper provides an overview of important projects concerned with the development of databases on conflicts, crises and similar political events and those dealing with the structural characteristics of nation-states. The various databases are usually differently conceptualized, even when they describe the same phenomenon. Different conceptualization of the problem leads to distinct operational definitions, and eventually to divergent coding rules. Therefore, the researcher intending to use the existing data for statistical analysis or modelling social processes can become lost browsing the multitude of diverse datasets. In this overview, the short descriptions of important data-gathering projects include information on the institutions where the projects are placed, their principal investigators, time span and number of cases they include. Finally, all databases are classified according to their focus (event/structure) and their level (nation state/international relations) of observation

Mary Rose or on Useless Weapon

Ovaj rad nastoji smjestiti poblem oblikovanja i odabira oružja u njegove društvene, kulturne i psihološke okvire. Osnovna pitanja koja se u radu postavljaju jesu: može li odabir oružja biti iracionalan i, ako može, kada on takvim postaje? Razmatranjem nekih neutilitarnih faktora koji, ovisno o kontekstu, imaju veći ili manji utjecaj na odabir oružja, oslikava se kompleksnost problema i pokušava se izbjeći nekritičko pridijevanje pojma “iracionalno”. Na temelju brojnih povijesnih primjera i nekih već postojećih razmatranja daje se pozitivan odgovor na postavljeno pitanje. Odabir oružja postaje iracionalan kada zahtjevi koji bi trebali biti sporedni (primjerice estetski) dobiju prioritet te oružje postane jednostavno neupotrebljivo.This paper tries to place the problem of creation and the choice of weapon in its social, cultural and psychological frameworks. Basic questions made in the paper are: can the choice of weapon be irrational, and if so, when does it become irrational? Consideration of some non-utilitarian factors which, depending on the context, have larger or smaller impact on the choice of weapons, portrays the complexity of the problem and tries to avoid the uncritical supplement of the term “irrational”. On the basis of numerous historical examples and some existing studies we can give the affirmative answer to the question. The choice of weapon becomes irrational when demands that should be subordinate (for example, aesthetic) have priority and, thus, the weapon becomes simply useless

Između rata i mira

Richards, Paul (ur.) (2005.) No Peace No War: An Anthropology of Contemporary Armed Conflicts. Athens: Ohio University Press. 214 str

Der Militärdienst als Faktor zur Verbesserung des gesellschaftlich-politischen Status?

Razmatrajući dva aspekta vojnih organizacija – organizacijski i vrijednosno-normativni – u ovom se radu pokušavaju razmotriti utjecaj vojne službe na unapređenje građanskih prava i društvenoga položaja žena, etničkih/nacionalnih manjina i homoseksualaca/lezbijki. Prvo, u pogledu organizacijskih obilježja, kao središnje pitanje razmatrat će se ustroj vojne službe. Odsluženje vojnoga roka na više je načina usko povezano s pitanjima građanskih prava i dužnosti, a samim time i građanske pripadnosti, što se najočitije vidi u konceptu vojnika -građanina (citizen soldier). Pristupanje vojsci kroz povijest pružalo je nepovlaštenim skupinama priliku da unaprijede svoj društveno-politički status. Drugo, tradicionalna vrijednosno-normativna obilježja vojnih organizacija, odnosno vojna (sup)kultura, legitimira ili delegitimira postojeće diskriminacijske prakse spram nositelja drugačijih, jednom riječju "drugih", identiteta. Suvremene oružane snage postaju inkluzivnije i tolerantnije te prihvaćaju antidiskriminacijske odredbe. Istodobno, većina oružanih snaga prolazi kroz organizacijske promjene. Sve više vojski ukida opću vojnu obvezu, dok se u većini preostalih o mogućnosti ukidanja vojne obveze vodi javna rasprava. Vojna služba postaje osobni izbor, čime se ukida smisao pojma građanina-vojnika. Oružane snage prestaju biti platformom za ostvarenje političkih prava i unapređenje društvenoga statusa.The article discusses the impact of military service on civil rights and social status of women, ethnic/national minorities and gays/lesbians. Military service is analysed in its two principal aspects – organizational and cultural. First, regarding the organizational dimension, the central issue is the institution of military service. The issue of conscription is closely connected to the concept of civil rights and duties, and to citizenship status. This is most clearly expressed through the idea of citizen-soldier. During history, joining the army represented an opportunity for underprivileged individuals to foster their socio-political status. Second, traditional military norms and values, that is, military (sub)culture, legitimizes or delegitimizes discriminatory praxes towards "others". Contemporary armed forces are becoming more inclusive and tolerant, and are adopting antidiscriminatory policies and regulations. At the same time, many of them are abolishing conscription or, others, discussing the possibility of abolishment of conscription. Military service has become an individual choice, and the citizen-soldier concept became meaningless. Armed forces ceased to be the platform for improvement of political rights and social status.Im Artikel werden zwei Aspekte militärischer Verbände – Organisation und Werte-/Regelsystem – hinterfragt und die Frage untersucht, ob die Ableistung des Militärdienstes die Bürgerrechte und die gesellschaftliche Stellung von Frauen, ethnischen / nationalen Minderheiten sowie Homosexuellen / Lesben verbessern kann. Zunächst wird, im Hinblick auf den genannten Organisationsaspekt, als zentrale Frage die Struktur des Militärdienstes untersucht. Die Möglichkeit, den Militärdienst auf verschiedene Arten abzuleisten, ist eng mit der Frage der Bürgerrechte und -pflichten verbunden, und somit zugleich auch mit der Frage der bürgerlichen Zugehörigkeit, was am Konzept des Bürgersoldaten (citizen soldier) am anschaulichsten wird. Der Beitritt zum Militär diente im Laufe der Geschichte immer wieder dazu, deprevilegierten Bevölkerungsgruppen zu einer Verbesserung ihrer gesellschaftlich-politischen Stellung zu verhelfen. Sodann konstatiert die Verfasserin, dass durch die traditionellen wertmäßig-normativen Merkmale militärischer Verbände bzw. die militärische (Sub-)Kultur bestehende diskriminierende Praktiken, die gegen Vertreter anderer, sprich: "andersartiger" Identitäten gerichtet sind, legitimiert oder delegitimiert werden. Zeitgenössische Militärverbände werden inklusiver und toleranter und eignen sich antidiskriminierende Vorschriften an. Gleichzeitig durchlaufen die meisten militärischen Verbände große organisationsmäßige Wandel. In immer mehr Ländern wird die allgemeine Wehrpflicht aufgehoben, während in den übrigen Ländern diese Option zumeist öffentlich diskutiert wird. Der Militärdienst wird zur persönlichen Entscheidung, wodurch der Begriff des Bürgersoldaten seinen Sinn einbüßt. Die Streitkräfte eines Landes sind nicht länger eine Plattform zur Verwirklichung politischer Rechte und zur Verbesserung der gesellschaftlichen Stellung des Einzelnen

An Image Processing System for Visual Servoing of Soccer Robot

In this project, presents a global system for mapping and tracking of the movement of some of Soccer Robot using image processing for color filters of the robot and labeling marker for mapping the position of each robot. Robot's marker consists of a combination of two colors as the robot and team identity. To generate a global information, Camera placed on the robot soccer field. Feedback resulting from the coordinate information and soccer robots feature on Soccer games in real time. Output data in the form coordinate position of the ball, robots, and headings. Data will be processed and sent to the robot to control the movement and strategy on the soccer robots