Defense 101 Michael E. O'Hanlon
2021, 2021-05-15
eBook
In Defense 101, a concise primer for understanding the United States' $700+ billion defense budget and rapidly changing military technologies, Michael O'Hanlon provides a deeply informed yet ...accessible analysis of American military power. After an introduction in which O'Hanlon surveys today's international security environment, provides a brief sketch of the history of the US military, its command structure, the organization of its three million personnel, and a review of its domestic basing and global reach, Defense 101 provides in-depth coverage of four critical areas in military affairs: • Defense Budgeting and Resource Allocation: detailed budget and cost breakdowns, wartime spending allocations, economics of overseas basing, military readiness, and defense budgeting versus US grand strategy • Gaming and Modeling Combat: wargaming, micro modeling, nuclear exchange calculations, China scenarios, and assessments of counterinsurgency missions • Technological Change and Military Innovation: use of computers, communications, and robotics, cutting-edge developments in projectiles and propulsion systems • The Science of War, military uses of space, missile defense, and nuclear weapons, testing, and proliferation For policy makers and experts, military professionals, students, and citizens alike, Defense 101 helps make sense of the US Department of Defense, the basics of war and the future of armed conflict, and the most important characteristics of the American military.
Since the end of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, the UK and Rwanda have developed close political, economic and security relations. However, the relationship could be tested with the recent ...renewal of diplomatic relations between Rwanda and France. Jonathan Beloff examines why the Rwandan government, and particularly its armed services, the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), will favour continuing security relations with the UK rather than France. He argues how historical experiences influence current perceptions of security dynamics within Rwanda’s foreign affairs.
The transformation, which has always existed for the armies throughout history, evolved in a different direction with the end of the Cold War, and it was believed that the conventional army approach ...could not adequately respond to the changing security threats for states. This situation has revealed the necessity of restructuring armies under the new threats and mission types that emerged. In this study, the new missions for the armed forces, which emerged as a result of the change in the military with the end of the Cold War and which are the subject of the discipline of military sociology, are discussed through the analysis of the US, Russia, and Türkiye. While the states in the two opposite blocks of the Cold War period put military institutionalization and practices on the top of their agenda in line with the leading powers of the blocks, the main problem of the study is how this process will be realized in the new period after the Cold War. As per the way the problem is posed, the three countries selected are considered appropriate for this analysis. Contrary to the traditional view, this study argues that the sole function of armies is now not only to battle but that they have gained different functions in the new era and that the countries have created new missions and institutional structures quite similar to each other, in contrast to the military understandings that diverged in line with the rigid blocs of the past. In the Turkish literature, there are almost no studies on the new missions that have emerged as a direct result of the transformation of the armies. Therefore, it is hoped that this study will make original contributions to the military sociology literature.
Abstract
Introduction
U.S. Navy crewmembers experience sleep deprivation and circadian misalignment due to long workdays. They frequently work rotating schedules that impose >6 hr of jetlag daily, ...resulting in disrupted circadian rhythms. This study assessed sleep and mood of crewmembers on a Navy ship.
Methods
Volunteer crewmembers (N=868) from 7 ships participated in studies of mood, work and rest patterns. Sleep was assessed for ~12 days with actigraphy and daily activity logs. Mood was assessed using the Profile of Mood States (POMS).
Results
Crewmembers slept ~6.59 ± 1.0 hrs/day; 27.1% sleep ≤6 hours/day. Approximately 69% of the crewmembers had POMS Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) scores ≥50th percentile adult norms. Specifically, four of six POMS Subscales exhibit degraded mood (Vigor: 83.3%; Confusion/Bewilderment: 63.4%; Anger/Hostility: 62.7%; Fatigue: 59.7%). Compared to officers, enlisted personnel were 4.52 (95% CI 1.13 - 18.1) times more likely to have elevated (≥75th percentile) Anger/Hostility scores and lower Vigor scores (RR=2.84, 95% CI 1.20 - 6.73). Approximately 10% of enlisted crewmembers had depression scores ≥75th percentile; no officers fell into this category. Crewmembers working non-circadian shifts were 1.77 (95% CI 1.10 - 2.85) times more likely to have elevated anger scores (≥75th percentile). Multiple regression showed that daily sleep duration, number of sleep episodes per day, gender, rank, and watchbill type were significant predictors of TMD scores. Enlisted, females, and crewmembers with split-sleep had worse TMD scores. Compared to crewmembers on fixed watchbills, those using non-circadian watchbills were 1.17 times (95% CI 1.04 - 1.32) more likely to have higher (≥50th percentile) TMD, Anger/Hostility (RR=1.30, 95% CI 1.13 - 1.50), and Fatigue scores (RR=1.36, 95% CI 1.18 - 1.57). Notably, sleep duration was associated with improved TMD scores of crewmembers on fixed watchbills, but worse TMD scores for individuals on non-circadian, rotating watchbills.
Conclusion
Crewmembers report poor mood according to POMS Total Mood Disturbance, Vigor, Confusion/Bewilderment, and Anger/Hostility subscales. Enlisted crewmembers had worse mood compared to officers, female (as compared to male) crewmembers also reported worse mood. Of note, females were under-represented in the senior rank structure.
Support (If Any)
none.
At the Tate Clark, Tiana
The Virginia quarterly review,
10/2023, Volume:
99, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Next to your bent-over body, the museum label has a picture of Gordon, the infamous formerly enslaved Union soldier with the scourged back trashed with vicious scars in a triptych from the July 4th ...issue of Harper's Weekly from 1863. Does horror compel us more than beauty? A picture of Gordon's back is next to your back on the wine-deep wall of the museum, which looks like old, dried blood. Another museum label shares thoughts from Ellen Gallagher, an American artist whose work investigates race and repetition through visual language, consumerism, and Afrofuturism.
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