Acquisition Of Arms Research Articles

Life Expectancy in Africa: Improving Public Health Policy, Augustine Adu Frimpong

Reviewed by: Life Expectancy in Africa: Improving Public Health Policy by Augustine Adu Frimpong Patrick Chukwudike Okpalaeke BOOK REVIEW of Frimpong, Augustine Adu. 2020. Life Expectancy in Africa: Improving Public Health Policy. With a foreword by Onyumbe B. Lukongo. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. 260 pp. $105 (hardback), $99.50 (ebook). In a critical survey of most countries in the Global South, less developed or developing economies tend to share certain similar features—poor health systems, poverty, insecurity, and more—and this has perpetually frustrated developmental struggles within these countries, even as little effort is made to address the issues at hand. This is unsurprising, as most African leaders would rather spend state resources on regime securitization (Appiagyei-Atua et al. 2017; Mulbah 2018, chap. 4; Van Wyk 2007) instead of human security where matters of health improvement and standardization should have been key concerns, especially in countries aspiring to level up with the developed economies of the world. The slowness of Africa's developmental strides has received a large dose of academic investigation from political, economic, and cultural perspectives, but Augustine Adu Frimpong's Life Expectancy in Africa: Improving Public Health Policy engages the discourse on Africa's quest for development through a dual perspective—health and economic growth. Frimpong's analyses open up a new vista on some of the reasons Africa is still trapped in a quagmire and how the continent could be liberated through a concerted effort devoid of external blueprints that would ensure sufficient and healthy human-capital resources. Life Expectancy in Africa has five chapters, a preface, foreword, and appendices. In chapter 1, Frimpong situates his work within existing literature that explores the links among life expectancy, health, development, and underdevelopment. He traces how life-expectancy levels in most African countries have been inconsistent, as well as how, based on Western models, they have continued to struggle not to fall. Besides civil wars, strife, and conflicts that have negatively affected African countries, corruption, the so-called sit-tight syndrome, and bad leadership have frustrated attempts at improving life expectancy in Africa. Frimpong reinforces the idea that health is wealth, since "the wealth of every nation can be measured by the health status of its citizens" (3). To buttress the argument embedded in Life Expectancy, he explores his ideas through theories (system theory, spatial theory, conflict theory, and economicgrowth theory) and models (health model, slow-growth model) as a [End Page 139] practical way of showing how increased life expectancy based on quality and improved health care can stimulate and sustain not just economic, but national development. Frimpong's methodology, based on the specifications of spatiotemporal and spatial analyses in certain models, helps strengthen analyses of the nature of health policies. It furnishes population samples, specifies the nature of data used in the research, and invokes hypotheses and questions that serve as guides, telling how each of these layout indices helped the research arrive at the targeted results. Generally, it reveals that conflict—both internal and external—has affected Africa's life expectancy more than other factors, especially since the fifteenth century, when foreigners began to invade the African continent. Worse still, postcolonial Africa has been submerged in a series of armed conflicts, many of which have seen countries spending their resources on the acquisition of arms and ammunition, rather than on items that could help improve citizens' health. Over more than five decades (1960–2015), Frimpong's research reveals the staggering figures associated with life expectancy in Africa: "In relation to the data analysis, the majority of the African countries were not doing well in terms of the numbers of years[;] an average African is likely to live between 56 years (minimum) and 75 years (maximum)" (53). In both the northern and southern regions of Africa, general life expectancy ranges between forty-nine and fifty-two years. Nothing accounts for these figures more than armed conflicts, which have ravaged the continent. Frimpong concludes that life expectancy in Africa could be improved through sustainable high-quality health policies. This assertion has been tested in most developed economies, where policymakers (and the government) prioritize citizens' health care and make approaches to attaining longevity affordable, as that is...

МЕТОДИКА ОЦЕНКИ ВОЕННО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОГО ЭФФЕКТА ОТ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ ЛИЗИНГА КАК ИНСТРУМЕНТА ПРИОБРЕТЕНИЯ ВООРУЖЕНИЙ, ВОЕННОЙ И СПЕЦИАЛЬНОЙ ТЕХНИКИ

The present paper contains a method of evaluation of military and economic effect of use of leasing as a tool of acquisition of arms, military and special equipment. A de-scription of factors that have an impact on the value of military and economic effect of use of leasing is given. It is demonstrated that leasing is not a tool of reduction of cost of acquisition of arms, military and special equipment. Leasing should be used as a tool of management of life cycle of arms, military and special equipment.

West German Defence Cooperation and Secret Arms Exports to Pakistan in the 1960s

Based almost entirely on declassified government documents, this article seeks to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive evaluation of the Federal Republic of Germany’s (FRG) defence cooperation and the transfer of small arms, ammunition and missiles under a 1962 secret defence agreement as well as the saga of the clandestine transfer of aircraft and (unsuccessful) export of tanks to Pakistan in the 1960s. West Germany was well aware that the real motivation behind the Pakistani acquisition of arms and ammunition was to use them in a fratricidal conflict with India. An ‘influential’ Pakistani lobby, working assiduously in the West German Federal Foreign Office and West German Federal Ministry of Defence, was responsible for the sale of the F-86s. The FRG’s refusal of large-scale deliveries to Pakistan was largely because of apprehensions that an Indian recognition of the German Democratic Republic’s actions would have a cascading effect on developing countries.

Taxing Butter while Buying Guns

ABSTRACT This study examines whether governments use the revenues accruing from agricultural taxes to finance their arms imports. This policy issue is especially of importance for developing countries as the decision to finance the acquisition of arms using agricultural taxes will create a trade-off between two important policy objectives in these countries: on the one hand, ensuring food security for the population at large and, on the other hand, improving national security. Our empirical findings generally suggest that governments in developing countries partly finance their arms imports by increasing the agricultural tax rate. It turns out that the magnitude of this effect relies to a certain extent on country-specific factors such as whether a country has to deal with a security threat, strength of the democratic institutions in place, and the regular occurrence of major shocks to the domestic food provision. Also, taxes on cash crops intended for export are more likely to be used for financing the arms imports compared to taxes on import-competing or subsistence crops.

Indigenous Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: The Moderating Effect of Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Turkana County, Kenya

The role of entrepreneurship in post-conflict reconstruction is largely understudied. Micro and Small livestock enterprises play an important economic and socio-cultural role amongst many Kenyan communities. The objective of this study was to establish the moderating effect of post-conflict reconstruction on the relationship between indigenous entrepreneurship and economic development in Turkana County. This study is anchored on institutional theory. Positivism and phenomenology paradigms and a cross sectional research design was adopted. The target population was all micro and small livestock enterprises that are registered members of the Livestock Marketing Association (LMA) in Turkana County; comprising of 598 livestock enterprises. A sample of 339 micro and small livestock enterprises were selected for the study using simple random sampling techniques. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics like mean, standard deviation, cumulative variance, Skewness, Kurtosis, ANOVA and regression analyses. The results revealed that Post-conflict reconstruction has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between indigenous entrepreneurship and economic development in Turkana county, (F=50.22, P=0.000). The study suggests legislation of laws and policies by the national and County governments, prohibiting acquisition of small arms. Policy initiatives should support indigenous livestock enterprises for instance, creation of a suitable environment for these businessesto obtain credit. Itstime both levels of governments enhance their environmental factors to lower uncertainty, raise indigenous livestock entrepreneurs to participate at the global economy, attracting FDI, private sector development, employment, increased exports and finally spur economic development through huge investments in health, education while impacting wealth levels.

Nuclear Security and Diplomacy in South Asia: Future Prospects for the Nuclear Pakistan

This paper rationalizes the major pressures on Pakistani nuclear program in a regional perspective and explores the sufficiency of various solutions that Pakistan can adopt to cope with them. The paper argues that though Pakistan reluctantly entered the nuclear race compelled by India, the club of early nuclear powers does not recognize this compulsion. The pressures on Pakistan are multifarious: sanctions on acquisition of arms, aid, and engaging in economic activities and overt/covert diplomacy (ranging from persuasion to intimidation and isolation). The paper finds that for Pakistan, besides nuclear arms, the main issues are her statehood, security, and development. The paper recommends that future demographic developments and finding a solution to the economic woes would help Pakistan in making its nuclear programme safe. The change in global perception about Pakistan’s economic and security needs would help in achieving this aim.

Os Atos Regulatórios Protecionistas Aplicados à Indústria Armamentista e Suas Consequências

Este trabalho tem como finalidade identificar as origens e as consequências dos atos regulatórios do Estado brasileiro para a aquisição de materiais bélicos, focando-se naqueles promovidos pelo Exército Brasileiro, através de decisão discricionária, e pelas forças auxiliares de segurança, ao momento do processo licitatório. Para tal, será necessário demonstrar a evolução legislativa que gerou o cenário do comércio armamentista atualmente evidenciado no país, e os princípios administrativos em conflito, em especial aqueles vinculados ao processo de licitação, previstos à Lei 8.666, de 21 de junho de 1993.Através da análise econômica, pois, evidenciar-se-á os meios e os fins pretendidos pela legislação, avaliando-se se estes são atingidos, e se benéficos.

Military Malthusianism and the strategic partnership in the FX-2 program

Jurgen Brauer and Paul Dunne detect in Military Malthusianism a vulnerability in the occurrence of offsets. This vulnerability is perceived from the fact that the unit cost of large arms systems increases faster than government budget revenues. One of the consequences of this fact is the governments’ search for greater economic efficiency through the globalization of the production and acquisition of arms. If in one hand this theory affirms that we will see more and more unconventional conflicts, on the other it justifies the construction of strategic partnerships in the production of weapons systems, such as the Brazil-Sweden Strategic Partnership, under the FX-2 Program. Thus, this article seeks to evaluate the presence of Military Malthusianism in the Brazilian case, the compliance of the Brazil-Sweden Strategic Partnership with the National Defense Strategy (END, in Portuguese), and analyzes the role of this Partnership in the FX-2 Program.

Wrist tendon moment arms: Quantification by imaging and experimental techniques

Subject-specific musculoskeletal models require accurate values of muscle moment arms. The aim of this study was to compare moment arms of wrist tendons obtained from non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to those obtained from an in vitro experimental approach. MRI was performed on ten upper limb cadaveric specimens to obtain the centrelines for the flexor carpi radialis (FCR), flexor carpi ulnaris (FCU), extensor carpi radialis longus (ECRL), extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB), extensor carpi ulnaris (ECU), and abductor pollicis longus (APL) tendons. From these, the anatomical moment arms about each of the flexion-extension (FE) and radioulnar deviation (RUD) axes of the wrist were calculated. Specimens were mounted on a physiologic wrist simulator to obtain functional measurements of the moment arms using the tendon excursion method. No differences were observed between anatomical and functional values of the FE and RUD moment arms of FCR, ECRL and ECRB, and the RUD moment arm of ECU (p > .075). Scaling the anatomical moment arms relative to ECRB in FE and ECU in RUD reduced differences in the FE moment arm of FCU and the RUD moment arm of APL to less than 15% (p > .139). However, differences persisted in moment arms of FCU in RUD, and ECU and APL in FE (p < .008). This study shows that while measurements of moment arms of wrist tendons using imaging do not always conform to values obtained using in vitro experimental approaches, a stricter protocol could result in the acquisition of subject-specific moment arms to personalise musculoskeletal models.

Financial Modeling of Accounting Costs Acquisition of Arms

Financial Modeling of Accounting Costs Acquisition of Arms

Neoclassical Realism and South Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Policy

This article develops a neoclassical realist model of decisionmaking that starts with the realist foundation of power, then layers on additional variables at both the domestic and individual levels. Based on a psychological conception of power, and differentiating the state, the regime, and the government, the model integrates prior neoclassical studies that emphasize elite perceptions, state structure, and strategic culture. As an illustrative example, the model is applied to South Korea’s current policymaking regarding potential acquisition of nuclear arms. While South Korea is assessed to have sufficient power to pursue nuclear weapons, the lack of military utility coupled with likely harm to economic and reputational interests suggest continued rejection of such a policy.

Military westernization and state repression in the post-Cold War era

The waves of unrest that have shaken the Arab world since December 2010 have highlighted significant differences in the readiness of the military to intervene in political unrest by forcefully suppressing dissent. We suggest that in the post-Cold War period, this readiness is inversely associated with the level of military westernization, which is a product of the acquisition of arms from western countries. We identify two mechanisms linking the acquisition of arms from western countries to less repressive responses: dependence and conditionality; and a longer-term diffusion of ideologies regarding the proper form of civil-military relations. Empirical support for our hypothesis is found in an analysis of 2523 cases of government response to political unrest in 138 countries in the 1996–2005 period. We find that military westernization mitigates state repression in general, with more pronounced effects in the poorest countries. However, we also identify substantial differences between the pre- and post-9/11 periods.

An Alternate Theory for the Acquisition of Arms to the Collective Goods Theory

This article offers an alternate theory for the acquisition of arms to the collective goods theory. Deduced from structural neorealist principles, this structural theory of arms acquisition shows how structural forces at work shape and condition arms acquisitions for a particular country much more than what is commonly acknowledged. It supplements what is lacking in the collective goods theory of arms acquisition, namely the postulates of the structure part and the link between interest and structure. This study accounts for the disproportionate expenditures in terms of system-wide structure and polarity, as well as lower subsystemic structures such as relational and dyadic structures.

An integrated approach to calculate life cycle costs of arms and military equipment

In a situation when government expenditures for defense are more restrictive, any investment in the acquisition of arms and military equipment (AME) is a question that does not allow errors in decisions. Accordingly, the economic analysis of the investment must be detailed and unavoidable. In the past, the initial cost of procurement of AME was often the primary, and sometimes the only one criterion in decision-making. Neglecting the analysis of costs throughout the life of assets in prefeasibility studies is the main cause of unplanned investment in the later stages of the life cycle of investment, and also of a number of problems in the functioning and unfulfilling or partially fulfilling the goals of the system.

First records of the genus Ulocrinus miller et gurley (Crinoidea, Cromyocrinidae) from the upper carboniferous beds of the Moscow syneclise and Oka-Tsna Swell

Three new species of the genus Ulocrinus, which is recorded for the first time in the Upper Carboniferous of the Moscow Region, are described. These are U. neverovoensis sp. nov. and U. karchevskyi sp. nov. from the Kasimovian Stage and U. grishini sp. nov. from the Gzhelian Stage. Intraspecific variability and structural variations in arms are considered. The uniserial arm structure is established for the first time in juvenile Ulocrinus. The sequence and causes of the acquisition of biserial arms in cromyocrinids are discussed.

Frontier citizenship and state fragility in Kenya

Insecurity is a major problem amongst the nomadic communities in North western Kenya. The communities include the Pokots, Turkana, Marakwet, Toposa and Karamoja. Using the Pokot Community as a case study of nomadic life style, this paper examines the environmental constraints, cattle rustling and small arms as triggers of Pokot community movements into their frontiers; -zones of contact of states or communities. In search of water and pasture, the Pokot traverse their frontiers and interact socially, economically and environmentally with their neighbours. The movements expose their cattle and property to banditry and cattle rustling. The Pokots thus acquire small arms to protect their livestock and property even though the acquisition of and stocking of arms is the responsibility of the government. So the acquirement of small arms by the Pokot creates a fragile insecurity situation characterised by cattle rustling and banditry. As Kenyan citizens, the Pokots have a social contract with the state to provide security but this is not the case because of the transitional nature, as nomads. Insecurity to the nomadic communities manifests in terms of environmental, natural resource based and identity based conflicts. It is concluded that addressing insecurity in this region has to lessen banditry, cattle rustling, social underdevelopment and negative ethnicity. The steps towards solving state fragility and insecurity ought to take cognizance of the interactions between frontier citizens, environmental constraints, traditions, politics and acquisition of small arms. Key words: security, frontier, cattle rustling, democracy

Independent Origins of New Sex-Linked Chromosomes in the melanica and robusta Species Groups of Drosophila

BackgroundRecent translocations of autosomal regions to the sex chromosomes represent important systems for identifying the evolutionary forces affecting convergent patterns of sex-chromosome heteromorphism. Additions to the sex chromosomes have been reported in the melanica and robusta species groups, two sister clades of Drosophila. The close relationship between these two species groups and the similarity of their rearranged karyotypes motivates this test of alternative hypotheses; the rearranged sex chromosomes in both groups are derived through a common origin, or the rearrangements are derived through at least two independent origins. Here we examine chromosomal arrangement in representatives of the melanica and the robusta species groups and test these alternative hypotheses using a phylogenetic approach.ResultsTwo mitochondrial and two nuclear gene sequences were used to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships of a set of nine ingroup species having fused and unfused sex chromosomes and representing a broad sample of both species groups. Different methods of phylogenetic inference, coupled with concurrent cytogenetic analysis, indicate that the hypothesis of independent origins of rearranged sex chromosomes within each species group is significantly more likely than the alternative hypothesis of a single common origin. An estimate tightly constrained around 8 My was obtained for the age of the rearranged sex chromosomes in the melanica group; however, a more loosely constrained estimate of 10–15 My was obtained for the age of the rearrangement in the robusta group.ConclusionIndependent acquisition of new chromosomal arms by the sex chromosomes in the melanica and robusta species groups represents a case of striking convergence at the karyotypic level. Our findings indicate that the parallel divergence experienced by newly sex-linked genomic regions in these groups represents an excellent system for studying the tempo of sex chromosome evolution.

Unnatural acts

International relations theory overdetermines proliferation but few states possess nuclear arms. This article maintains the linguistic construction of ‘proliferation’ accounts for the international nonnuclear order. Following an overview of its approach, the article begins with a review of earlier works and notes the inability of ‘nuclear language studies’ to account for the order of rejection rather than acquisition of nuclear arms. The article traces that limitation to a practical assumption about the world that animates scholars to attend to how wordsdistortrather than create reality. The article then introduces a version of constructivism that claims speech acts produce constitutive rules that create what ‘is’ and oblige order (as ‘same use’) to suggest how language accounts for the order that turns on rejection of nuclear weapons. Finally, the article illustrates how states, following this constructivist process, often used discursive practices that emphasized the ‘unnatural’ to create ‘proliferation’ between 1958 and 1968.

Unanswered Threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power

Unanswered Threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power. By Randall L. Schweller. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 200p. $29.95. In this insightful and elegantly written book, Randall Schweller examines the phenomenon of underbalancing, which he defines as situations in which “threatened countries have failed to recognize a clear and present danger, or, more typically, have simply not reacted to it or, more typically still, have responded in paltry and imprudent ways” (p. 1). The study is motivated by the failure of many states throughout history to act in accordance with the cardinal prediction of structural realist theory that states will tend to balance against rising powers that threaten their survival, through the acquisition of arms and/or allies. Schweller argues that domestic political factors account for this discrepancy, enhancing or diminishing the ability and/or willingness of states to mobilize their national resources in response to systemic dangers.

Demobilization: The Dialectics of PLA Troop Reduction

In recent years, Western and Asian countries have been warning, and warned, against the so-called ”China threat.” These warnings reflect Beijing's military-related policies, primarily the consistent increase in China's defence expenditures since the early 1990s, its resumed acquisition of arms from the former Soviet Union, its continued nuclear tests, and its contribution to the proliferation of conventional, semi-conventional and, allegedly, non-conventional weapons. In their repeated attempts to refute the “China threat” syndrome, Chinese leaders stress, among other things, the 25 per cent cut of about one million troops in the size of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), announced in the mid-1980s. Reportedly slicing it from about 4.2 million to about 3.2 million, this massive demobilization is usually treated, not only byChina watchers but also by the Chinese themselves, as an essential aspect of their ongoing defence reform which goes hand-in-hand with military-tocivilian conversion.