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Animation is the technique of producing a sequence of still pictures fast enough that our eye–mind connection interprets the sequence as motion. This chapter introduces the topic of animation by presenting four sketches. You’ll first implement a bouncing ball, namely a circle that moves in a window, changing direction (bouncing) off the sides. You’ll then implement a set of three bouncing balls, a bouncing pentagon, and a bouncing polygon in which the user can change the number of sides by pressing the mouse button.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has become a modern diplomatic instrument for the United States of America to use it the way it wants for. As the U.S. led Afghan peace process embraced the victory, Washington, Afghan Taliban and Kabul government have agreed upon limited ceasefire and withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan soil. Pakistani authorities are equally ready to cease the movement, amid the challenges posed by the FATF, by facilitating U.S.-Taliban peace deal in Qatar on Feb 29, 2020, the biggest development happened ever in South Asian region. It happened for the first time of grinding warfare since the U.S. invasion in 2001 which is considered to be a vital step to end the insurgency altogether in the region. Pentagon finally accepted Islamabad’s stance that there is no military solution to the Afghan imbroglio. Pakistani authorities, through Afghan authorities, are said to be taking over Pakistani Taliban purportedly operating from Afghanistan. After playing a key role in brokering the said peace deal, the challenge of FATF as a diplomatic tool to pile up pressure on Islamabad to mold its role in favour of the US and the Taliban talks.

Economic and trade linkages form an important aspect of the age-old relationship between India and Central Asia. The Central Asian region is strategically located in the middle of the Eurasian Cont...

On May 18, 1966, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara delivered a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Montreal entitled “Security in the Contemporary World.” Building on remarks that he had made in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), the title was deceptively bland and belied its significance. McNamara, heretofore loyal to Johnson, was publicly breaking ranks with official administration policy on Vietnam. In the weeks prior, back in the Pentagon, McNamara had considered and authorized the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s (JCS) proposals, which National Security Advisor Walt W. Rostow had endorsed, to expand Operation...

Purpose This paper aims to elaborate on the theory of fraud by enhancing the existing theories behind the factors that force people to commit fraud. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews the most commonly used and widely accepted models for explaining why people commit fraud – the fraud triangle, the fraud diamond, the fraud scale and the MICE model. The author argues that these models need to be updated to adapt to the current developments in the field and the ever-growing fraud incidents, both in frequency and severity, and builds on the theoretical background to create a new model so as to enhance the understanding behind the major factors which lead to the commitment of fraud. Findings The author identifies a major element – ego – which plays a crucial role in compelling people to commit fraud and concludes in the formation of the S.C.O.R.E. model, which is graphically depicted in the fraud pentagon. He goes further by adding the factor collusion to better apply in cases of white-collar crimes. Originality/value The paper develops the S.C.O.R.E. model to contribute to the development of fraud theory by identifying the key factors that play a major role in whether fraud will actually occur and acting as a theoretical benchmark for all future reference.

The epicenter of steady civilian oversight of the military is inside the Pentagon, yet the literature on civil-military relations surprisingly gives it little attention. This chapter focuses on civilian oversight inside the halls of the Pentagon by examining the key role played by the secretary of defense—the day-to-day “overseer in chief”—and by extension, his or her staff: the Office of the Secretary of Defense, particularly the policy arm. The chapter argues that the most crucial issues demanding oversight are force management, force employment, and force development, not publicly prominent but regionally focused issues. This chapter outlines three key dynamics essential to effective civilian oversight: capable civilians, consistent dialogue, and an atmosphere of trust and transparency.

Burn Baby Burn In the final hours of May 28, ongoing demonstrations sparked by Floyd’s murder escalated when the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct building was gutted in an act of arson Walz ordered the full mobilization of the Minnesota National Guard with a minimum of 2,000 soldiers set to occupy the Twin Cities Metro area – by the end of May 30, the number of Guardsmen had risen to over 5,000 –and Walz announced if necessary the Pentagon mobilized US Army military police as reinforcements [ ]the press conferences hammered home the consequences that would befall the protestors once the “dos” veered into the “dont’s”: citations, arrests, jail time, and even the worse if the issue was pressed [ ]the local TV stations were partner to an all-day civics lesson undergirded with a dose of abject terror

The performance of graphene-based (opto)electronic devices depends critically on the graphene/metal interface formed at the metal contacts. We show here that the interface properties may be controlled by topological defects, such as the pentagon–heptagon (5–7) pairs, because of their strongly enhanced bonding to the metal. To measure the bond energy and other key properties not accessible for the embedded defects, we use azulene as a molecular model for the 5–7 defect. Comparison to its isomer naphthalene, which represents the regular graphene structure, reveals that azulene interacts more strongly with a Pt(111) surface. Its adsorption energy, as measured by single-crystal adsorption calorimetry (SCAC), exceeds that of naphthalene by up to 116 kJ/mol (or up to 50%). Both isomers undergo hybridization of their frontier orbitals with metal states, as indicated by X-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS/UPS) and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy combined with molecular orbital (MO) projection analysis through dispersion-corrected, periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Based on the NEXAFS/DFT analysis, the stronger bond of the 5–7 system is attributed to the different energetic response of its unoccupied frontier orbitals to adsorption. Adsorption-induced bond-length changes show substantial topology-related differences between the isomers. Electron transfer occurs in both directions through donation/back-donation, resulting in the partial occupation (deoccupation) of formerly unoccupied (occupied) orbitals, as revealed by periodic energy decomposition analysis (pEDA) for extended systems. Our model study shows that the topology of the π-electron system strongly affects its bonding to a transition metal and thus can be utilized to tailor interface properties.\ud \ud

The pavilion of ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) was fabricated in the form of 3-dimensional pentagonal tiling by wood formwork. Mann/McLoud/Von Derau discovered a 15th monohedral tiling convex pentagon in 2015 using a computer algorithm. Each unit of UHPFRC pentagon in 2-dimensional plane is the same but they are changed into different shapes in 3-dimensional vault type for the pavilion. To generate the 3-D shape two attractor points were located on the ground level. The transformation from 2-dimensional pentagonal tiling into 3-D vault was generated by Reino® and Grass hoper®. The data of formwork for units of UHPFRC was generated and then fabricated by wood. The fabrication of wood formwork relies on 6-axis robot cutting. To give structural stability of the vault the thickness of lower units was increased. The advantage of flow of UHPFRC enabled us to place UHPFRC into each of wood formworks. The lateral pressure of young UHPFRC was controlled by external screw jacks to avoid the deformation of wood formworks during curing. The connections between units relied on bolts and elastic pads. The connection behavior of bolts to transfer shear was guaranteed by the experimental program for strength.

RESUMEN El presente artículo de investigación da cuenta de la incidencia que tiene la debida aplicación de los medios probatorios en Colombia en la efectividad del encargo de auditoría, a partir de la identificación de las variables que se ponen de manifiesto en el pentágono del fraude. Se parte de la problemática actual en procesos judiciales en los cuales el contador actúa en calidad de perito, y entonces se evidencia que algunas de las pruebas presentadas ante un juez, y que pretenden servir -en ese proceso- como material probatorio, no son tenidas en cuenta por no obedecer a los principios de ser amplias, suficientes y competentes, careciendo, por lo tanto, de toda validez. Desde el aspecto metodológico, es una investigación de tipo documental, que utiliza técnicas de análisis crítico de la información que permitieron compilar la información para hacer un análisis del problema objeto de estudio. Como reflexión final se obtuvo que el pentágono del fraude, como herramienta que caracteriza los diferentes eventos de fraude que se pueden presentar en una organización, ha sido ampliamente identificado y brinda elementos importantes en el encargo de auditoría, que una vez articulado de estricta manera con la aplicación de los elementos propios de los medios probatorios en Colombia, permite aumentar la eficacia y minimizar los riesgos en el levantamiento de la información como material probatorio en un proceso judicial. ABSTRACT This research paper aims to reveal the incidence of a proper application of the rules of evidence in Colombia, concerning the effectiveness of an audit engagement. This stems from the identification of variables settled in the Pentagon of fraud. The starting point relies on the conundrum of giving expert evidence as an accountant within a trial. It becomes stark that some evidence was not taking into account because it does not dovetail with the principles of being broad, sufficient and competent. Therefore, the evidence was lacking any reasonable validity and reliability. In terms of the methodology, this is a documentary-approach research, using techniques of critical analysis of data. Such an approach allowed collecting data so as to analyze the problem of study. As a conclusion, using the Pentagon of fraud as a tool to characterize different events of a fraud that may arise in companies has been widely identified and brings relevant elements in an audit engagement. The strict articulation with the proper application of the rules of evidence in Colombia allows increasing the efficiency and decreasing the risks insofar as the collection of data as evidence material within a judicial process.

The problem of instability of industries, clusters and states influences the countries’ economies. Unavoidable changes became an attribute of the strategic planning at every level. As a result, an effective tool is needed to evaluate stability at different levels in such a way that will make it possible to manage the changes. In this paper the concept of Macroeconomic Stabilization Pentagon (MSP) was analyzed for its applicability for the EU countries of low-an-middle-income economies including Ukraine. The data analysis brought new understanding of the assessment of the public policies’ effectiveness. The model has proven its efficiency not just in the sphere of public administration, but also for the micro level management. The authors proposed the Microeconomic Stabilization Pentagon to be implemented in the research at the level of enterprises

Cylinder-shaped graphitic networks in carbon nanotubes have attracted interest from scientists in various disciplines. The chemical synthesis of their segmental molecules is being accepted as a challenging and appealing subject in the chemistry field, and their synthesis deepens our understanding of curved and conjugated arrays of hexagons. We herein report the synthesis of cylinder-shaped molecules containing non-hexagon bridges in their conjugated systems. Multiple pentagon units were embedded in the cylinder-shaped, discrete molecules, and the stereoisomerism originating from their helical carbon arrangements was revealed. Structural analyses using NMR, UV-vis absorption and single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies provided fundamental experimental information on the curved systems conjugated via pentagons. This study provides the first experimental guide for further exploration of anomalous non-hexagon arrays of graphitic carbons in cylinder shapes.

Cylinder-shaped graphitic networks in carbon nanotubes have attracted interest from scientists in various disciplines. The chemical synthesis of segments thereof is considered as a challenging and appealing subject in chemistry, and deepens our understanding of curved and conjugated arrays of hexagons. We herein report the synthesis of cylinder-shaped molecules containing non-hexagon bridges in their conjugated systems. Multiple pentagon units were embedded in the cylinder-shaped discrete molecules, and the stereoisomerism originating from their helical carbon arrangements was studied. Structural analysis by NMR, UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction provided fundamental experimental information on the curved systems with conjugation across the pentagons. This study provides the first experimental guide for further explorations of anomalous non-hexagon arrays of graphitic carbon materials with cylindrical shapes.

The Pentagon announced a third “offset” strategy in 2014, claiming that the United States faces threats from Russia, China, and elsewhere that require the development and deployment of cutting-edge technologies – robots, autonomous systems, and 3D printing, for example – to maintain US military superiority. The authors compare the new offset with earlier offsets that gave the United States a military advantage over the Soviet Union during the Cold War, even though the Soviets had massive conventional forces. This time around, though, the authors conclude that an offset is unnecessary to keep the United States in the lead, and that it is really just an excuse to increase defense spending.

To guide the development of the armed forces’ future, the incoming president will want to offer guidance to the Pentagon on grand strategy and the supporting principles and planning framework to size and shape the joint warfighting force. This strategic direction will be a critical aspect of the initial national security planning effort and will provide guidance as to the number of kinds of wars that the Pentagon must be prepared to deter or win should deterrence fail. This article offers options and guidance for two major components of U.S. defense policy. These are Design Principles and alternative Force Design Constructs. These force constructs are not the strategy itself, but they are the requisite building blocks and guidance which defense policymakers use to shape the desired force and explain that force in its requests for the funding required from the American people.

The combined star/pentagon connection of five-phase induction machines was recently demonstrated as a promising compromise between conventional star and pentagon connections. It combines the advantages of both star and pentagon connections without any additional hardware for winding changeover. This connection is based on two five-phase single layer concentrated winding sets shifted in space by ?/10 and connected in a combined star/pentagon configuration to provide five-phase terminals. Since the combined star/pentagon connected induction machine is fundamentally an asymmetrical ten-phase machine, the machine mathematical model possesses additional subspaces, which affect the behavior of the machine especially under open line conditions. Starting from the conventional five-phase and m -bar squirrel cage induction machine model, the phase-variable model of the combined star/pentagon connection is introduced in this paper. The corresponding equivalent dq model with five decoupled subspaces, which can account for air gap harmonics up to ninth order, is then derived. Finally, it was shown that the machine model could be simply approximated with only two subspaces similar to a conventional five-phase induction machine with sinusoidally distributed winding, where the flux produced by the nonfundamental subspace could be neglected. The model is verified using a 1 kW prototype five-phase induction machine. Scopus

Fallon documents the source of misguided interrogations and torture after 9/11.

The interpretation of dissolved gas analysis (DGA) is one of the most important procedure to identify the incipient fault which may occur in transformers. Various interpretation methods can be used; however, they may identify different fault types for the same investigation case. This paper aims to study the performance of DGA interpretation, i.e., IEC Ratio, Duval Triangle and Duval Pentagon, and Doernenburg Ratio. The performance of the DGA interpretation techniques is evaluated from twenty-four fault cases obtained from both academic references and problem investigated transformers utilized in an electrical power plant in Thailand. It was found that the Duval Pentagon method provided the highest consistency DGA interpretation compared with other methods. Duval Pentagon also has the capability to distinguish the normal aging of the insulation system from other fault types.

Filiació URV: SI As a bridge to connect medium-sized fullerenes, fused-pentagon C74 is still missing heretofore. Of 14-246 possible isomers, the first fused-pentagon C74 with the Fowler-Manolopoulos code of 14-049 was stabilized as C74Cl10 in the chlorine-involving carbon arc. The structure of C74Cl10 was identified by X-ray crystallography. The stabilization of pristine fused-pentagon C74 by stepwise chlorination was clarified in both theoretical simulation with density functional theory calculations and experimental fragmentation with multistage mass spectrometry.

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) extend financial and related services to the poorest population with an ultimate objective of poverty alleviation. Microfinance industry has seen an impressive growth in the past decade, although debates have stirred in recent years regarding their role and impact on society. Excessive profit making by MFIs retarded the desired social impact, thus, providing evidence for mission drift from the social objective of poverty alleviation to profit generation. The mission drift was evident during the microfinance crisis of 2010, which is marked as the critical stage in the history of Indian microfinance. In 2010, a spate of client suicides brought bad reputation for the sector and created funding and liquidity issues. Against the backdrop of crisis, the study intends to examine multi-dimensional performance of MFIs and the enabling factors for the year 2010–2012. The Pentagon performance model was proposed to capture the multi-dimensional performance. An empirical evaluation of the MFI performance for the year 2010 and subsequent years would render a clear picture on the rise and fall of the industry.

In September 2015, news reports surfaced that more than 50 U.S. intelligence analysts working with the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) had filed complaints with the Pentagon's inspector general alle...

This paper presents the steady-state mathematical model of a five-phase induction machine with a combined star/pentagon connection. The connection splits the stator winding into two five-phase windings displaced in space by ?/10 and connected in a combined star/pentagon configuration. Recent work limited to an experimental investigation demonstrated that the connection possesses improved fault tolerance when compared to a conventional star-connected stator, as well as avoids the pentagon connection problems. Although the machine has five-phase terminals, it is intrinsically an asymmetrical ten-phase machine, which introduces additional subspaces in the machine's mathematical model. In order to theoretically investigate and thoroughly assess this connection against conventional connections, this paper introduces the steady-state mathematical model based on vector space decomposition and symmetrical component theory. Finite-element analysis is first used to investigate the different harmonic current components induced in the cage rotor circuit, upon which the effect of different subspaces can be clarified and the required transformation matrix from phase variables to their sequence components can be derived. The model is verified using a 1-kW prototype five-phase induction machine. 1982-2012 IEEE. Scopus

This study examines the eminent domain action in 1942 where the federal government took 411 acres of land, including an African American neighborhood, to construct the Pentagon building in Arlington County, Virginia. The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution acknowledges the right of the federal government to exercise eminent domain where needed for the common good, but requires that property owners be given just compensation. This study explores the issue of compensation: what the residents lost when they were forced to move, how that loss was compensated, and whether the compensation was “just.” The study data include interviews with former residents of the neighborhood, oral histories, land records, census data, photographs, and newspaper articles. The study concludes that the federal government compensated the residents for land and buildings, but was unable to compensate for a lost community. For many residents, that community is mourned even 72 years later.

The causes of religious violence have attracted numerous explanations in the years since the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Towers. However, most forms of religious extremism do not result in violence (e.g., the Amish, Hasidim, Jains) and religious groups have not cornered the market on egregious violence. Nevertheless, religious violence does occur, and this paper examines the interplay of social networks and religious violence. It builds on Cass Sunstein’s “law of group polarization,” which predicts that when like-minded people deliberate as an organized group, the general opinion shifts toward extreme versions of their common belief. It argues that internally dense religious groups that maintain few ties to the wider society are more likely to embrace extreme views and behavior than are those that are not as dense and/or remain tied to the wider society. The argument is then tested using social network analysis methodologies to examine the evolution of the Hamburg Cell, which played a critical role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It concludes with a series of policy recommendations that can limit but not eliminate religious extremism and violent behavior in the future.

This paper proposes a switchless pentagon-shaped microstrip patch antenna for radar and radionavigation applications. The antenna is built on Rogers RT5880 substrate with five rectangular radiating elements on top. Five ports have been set up to operate at 13.5 GHz resonant frequency. Besides having reflection coefficient below -10 dB, the antenna also offers high gain when about 8.29 dB is achieved. The proposed antenna also has a bi-directional radiation pattern with 360° of beam steering.

This article, written within days of the 9/11 attacks, argued strongly against seeing al-Qaida and its Taliban hosts in Afghanistan as an enemy to be fought with sustained military force, and that a vigorous pursuit of those behind the attacks, using a legal approach to bring them to justice, would have been the right way forward.

It is no secret that the relationship between the US military and civilians in the Bush administration had deteriorated markedly since the start of the Iraq War. In its December 2006 report, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group—of which Robert Gates was a member until President George W. Bush tapped him to replace Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense (2006)—explicitly recommended that "the new Secretary of Defense should make every effort to build healthy civil-military relations, by creating an environment in which the senior military feel free to offer independent advice not only to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon but also to the President and the National Security Council." But Bush also entered the White House with an ambitious defense policy agenda, which made continuation of the civil-military conflict all, but inevitable. According to a Military Times poll, 42 percent of US troops disapproved of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq.

This chapter discusses the new methods used in restricting and controlling the international media during the Gulf War from the perspective of Finland. In the UN Security Council, Finland voted for the right to use military power to oust Iraq from Kuwait. During the war, the Finnish media were highly dependent on Western news agencies and Cable News Network (CNN). US information officers attempted to prove their reliability in many ways. One government official told the Washington Post on January 19, 1991, "We really don't get engaged in disinformation". Only one Finnish journalist was accredited to Saudi Arabia. Three different methods of controlling the media were applied during the war: feeding, competing, and restricting. After the war many journalists, especially those from the United States, described being caught between two evils: the Pentagon and the enthusiastic home front.

This strategy vis-a-vis the press was developed with even greater success during the December 1989 US invasion of Panama. The invasion was scheduled to take place during the Christmas season, coincidentally also overshadowed by the civil war in Romania and the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu. Journalists were kept as far away from the conflict as possible. Experienced reporters were concerned with the extent of military censorship, which was far greater than was necessary to prevent the leakage of sensitive military information. Censorship was used to eliminate information that might create a negative picture of US soldiers. Norman Schwarzkopf was pleased to describe how press agencies were deceived into contributing to the disinformation on Iraq. The only Norwegian journalist who reported the war from within Iraq said that the reporting from the war was a catastrophe, that the mass media had itself to blame, and that the media were drawn into propaganda service for the Pentagon.

The paper considers the challenges of the shifting from circuit switching to packet switching. American military communications passed three generations of transformation: from signaling SS7 and intelligent networks to IP protocol and, finally, to the extremely ambitious plans of cybersecurity of networks. Some difficulties on the way of network digital transformation are discussed.

In the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraqi forces prosecuted a mass campaign of pillage and destruction. Under the coordinated direction of Iraqi curators who were well acquainted with Kuwait’s cultural treasures, occupying Iraqi troops plundered thousands of cultural objects from museums, libraries, and archives. Among the pillaged cultural spoils were Kuwait’s national archives, comprising the emirate’s historical memory. Until recently, Iraq was beholden to UN sanctions demanding the return of missing persons and property, including Kuwait’s archives. Although the United Nations Security Council for many years has facilitated efforts to search for the lost archives, these efforts have proved futile. This article explores the plausibility of the two most likely scenarios surrounding the cold case of Kuwait’s missing archives: 1) that the current search for the archives has overlooked the possibility that they were unknowingly seized by US forces in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and are currently being held by the Pentagon; and 2) that the archives may have been intentionally destroyed as part of Saddam Hussein’s aim to obliterate Kuwait’s national identity and annex the emirate as Iraq’s nineteenth province.

Several methods are available for the interpretation of dissolved gas analysis (DGA) results in oil-filled electrical equipment. These methods use ratios of the five main hydrocarbon gases formed, namely H 2 , CH 4 , C 2 H 6 , C 2 H 4 , and C 2 H 2 , either 2-gas ratios, e.g., in IEEE [1] and IEC [2]; 3-gas ratios, in Duval Triangles 1 to 7 [3]; or 4-gas ratios in [4]. In this article a new method is presented using 5-gas ratios in a "pentagon" representation applicable to mineral oil-filled equipment. Carbon oxides CO and CO 2 are examined separately as in other methods.

Bush’s Iraq War, as Henriksen describes, is the apogee in America’s cycles of international engagement since the Cold War. Bush defied allies along with others in going to war without UN approval. This war, pretexted on the notion that Iraq possessed chemical and nuclear weapons, sees implementation of a preemptive war strategy to prevent mega-death weapons being used. The Pentagon quickly defeats Hussein’s armies before stumbling into an insurgency and sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites. The White House turns to its second rationale for invasion when it finds no weapons of mass destruction. It embraces democracy promotion with a Wilsonian fervor not only in Iraq but also in the Republic of Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan Lebanon while intervening militarily in Liberia and Haiti to save democracy.

The attacks against the WTC and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, were not only a heinous crime against innocent and defenseless civilians. They represented an act of war. And war is a political instrument. That is, it’s the continuation of politics by other means, as the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz famously put it, even if the traditional international understanding of war didn’t provide for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, since they weren’t committed by another State, as happened when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Instead, they had been committed by terrorists. Nevertheless the attacks would serve as pretext so President George W. Bush could declare an endless war, or the war of good against evil, according to his Manichean Weltanschauung.

For many austerity-hit Western countries, the defence budget has been a prime target for significant cuts. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the United States. Yet one element of the Pentagon's budget continues to grow: cyber. High-profile security breaches at the corporate level and reports of cyber-espionage at the national level seemingly justify the vast sums involved in ensuring cyber-security. However, Robert M Lee and Thomas Rid argue that ‘cyber-angst’ is damaging – and self-serving. In this article, they list thirteen reasons why such cyber-security hype is counterproductive.

In May 2013 the Pentagon released an unclassified summary of the top-secret Air-Sea Battle (ASB) Concept. ASB serves to focus the Pentagon’s efforts to organize, train and equip the armed forces against advanced weapons systems that threaten the US military’s unfettered freedom of access and action in the global commons. While officials claim ASB is merely improve service interoperability and could be applied in any number of conflict situations, this article argues that in fact the doctrine represents the Pentagon’s plan for confronting China’s increasingly capable and confident military. This raises two urgent questions: how does ASB fit into an overall US foreign policy toward China – and, if a military confrontation cannot be avoided, are there less risky alternatives, such a maritime blockade, that can achieve the same ends as ASB?

Scholars, journalists, and government officials have tried to understand al-Qa'ida and its predecessor, Maktab al-Khidamat, since the early 1980s. These efforts increased significantly after the 11 September 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon. Yet, despite this attention, questions remain unanswered. What factors have influenced al-Qa'ida leaders over time as they have made and executed strategic decisions? How have they defined their relationship with affiliated groups in the context of these decisions? This present article utilizes private al-Qa'ida documents, captured by United States Navy Seals during a raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, and recently released to the public, to answer these questions. In doing so, it casts doubt on some of the conventional explanations for al-Qa'ida's trajectory between 2004 and 2013.

This essay sets forth a research agenda to begin filling some key gaps in terrorism studies. Since the September 2001 Al Qaeda attacks against the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon that claimed over 3000 lives, interest in terrorism research has increased. After these attacks, the United States and other governments prioritized the scientific study of the causes of and responses to terrorism. Importantly though, our review of the terrorism literature demonstrates that despite this progress, intriguing questions remain underexplored or altogether unexplored. This essay identifies four gaps in terrorism studies: (1) employing non-terrorist comparison groups, (2) broadening the dependent variable (focus of study), (3) exploring exceptions/anomalies to “established” findings, and (4) engaging measurement issues. We discuss these issues and outline a research agenda that could begin to fill these gaps.

This essay foregrounds a dimension of Las Vegas that other authors only touch on inpassing: its connections to empire. The authors propose a post-imperial analysis of thecity based on a reconstruction of its history and a reading of the traces of this history inthe city’s architecture and its self-presentation in American popular culture. Thisanalysis of Las Vegas as ruinopolis draws attention to the ruin sites of the city and itshinterland, reading them through the lens of empire. We work out the imperialterritoriality of Las Vegas, including the derelict space of the Las Vegas Paiute IndianColony, the ‘Pentagon Desert’around the city with its so-called ‘national sacrifice zone’,and the Strip, with Caesars Palace. We conclude with a post-imperial reading of Venturi,Scott Brown and Izenour’s canonical Learning from Las Vegas and of the ruin signs ofthe Neon Boneyard.

This article provides an investigatory overview of the Pentagon's military analyst program, what it is, how it was implemented, and how it constitutes a form of propaganda. A technical analysis of the program is applied using the theoretical framework of the propaganda model first developed by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman. Definitions and parameters of what constitutes propaganda as outlined by Chomsky and Herman, particularly through their analysis of ‘filtering’ mass media news through ‘sourcing’, are drawn on in order to determine how various aspects of the program can be qualified as propaganda.

Since the 2001 attacks by Al Qaeda against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that claimed over 3000 lives, public and scholarly interest in the causes and prevention of terrorism have increas...