Tactical Engagement Research Articles

Whole-of-society approach or manufacturing intelligence? Making sense of state-CSO relation in preventing and countering violent extremism in Nigeria

ABSTRACT The boundaries of partnership between states and civil society organisations (CSOs), as well as who is counted and who gets to set them, have been the subject of ongoing debate. This discussion has gained particular significance in light of the growing securitisation and tactical engagement of CSOs in conflict, violence, and security. The discussion has led to the development of a theoretical framework known as “strategic exclusion, co-option, and containment” (SECC). Nevertheless, it is worth noting that, the importance of normative inquiries notwithstanding, there exists a dearth of contextual and empirical understanding regarding the dynamics of state-CSO interactions. To address this gap, this study examines the interactions between states and Muslim community-based CSOs in the implementation of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). The research draws from an ethnographic study involving various actors, including policymakers, security agents, non-state P/CVE practitioners, civil society group members, P/CVE donor-agency programme managers, and P/CVE coalition networks and steering committee members. The study argues that in the context of P/CVE, where a “whole-of-society” approach is promoted, the state utilises Muslim community-based CSOs primarily as intelligence producers to advance its interests, thereby undermining their agency in P/CVE practices. Despite its framing as a human security perspective on violent extremism, the whole-of-society approach in P/CVE remains deeply rooted in state-security logic and the continuation of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) practices. This ultimately constricts the spaces of engagement between the state and civil society.

Precision Targeting Companion: Empowering Marksmen with Smart Rifle Scopes

In the realm of modern warfare, the ability to swiftly identify and engage adversaries with precision is indispensable. This paper outlines our objective to contribute to this paradigm shift by undertaking a comprehensive exploration, and design, of accessories crucial for rifles, including smart scopes, auto- matic triggers, and intelligent magazines. Moreover, this paper introduces a groundbreaking innovation - the Precision Targeting Companion, an intuitive system integrated into rifle scopes, aimed at elevating the effectiveness and accuracy of marksmanship in dynamic combat scenarios. At its core, this system is a testament to the fusion of advanced technology with human ingenuity. By harnessing the power of cutting-edge image processing and predictive analytic, the Precision Targeting Companion offers marksmen a seamless and intuitive interface for detecting potential threats and predicting bullet trajectories in real-time. Yet, beyond its computational prowess, this system embodies a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by soldiers and law enforcement officers on the front-lines. It is a trusted companion, empowering users with the confidence to make split-second decisions in high-pressure situations. Key features of the Precision Targeting Companion include: 1. Swift identification of threats: Leveraging sophisticated image processing algorithms, the system swiftly identifies adver- saries within the user’s line of sight, providing crucial situational awareness. 2. Predictive guidance: Through intricate calculations and analysis, the system predicts bullet trajectories, enabling marksmen to make informed decisions and engage targets with precision. 3. Intuitive assistance: The system’s user-friendly interface overlays visual cues on detected targets and cross-hair alignment, offering intuitive guidance and facilitating seamless target tracking. In essence, the Precision Targeting Companion represents more than just a technological advancement; it is a testament to the enduring partnership between man and machine, working in harmony to safeguard lives and achieve mission success on the battlefield. Keywords: Precision Targeting Companion, Smart Rifle Scopes, Human-Centric Design, Tactical Engagement, Threat Detection, Predictive Guidance.

Social Determinant of Unconventional Resilience: Tactical Engagement in Medical-Martial Creativity.

Building on our strategic framework and operational model, we will discuss findings from our ethnographic study entitled, "The Impact of Catastrophic Injury Exposure on Resilience in Special Operations Surgical Teams (SOST)." Our goal is to establish that medical-martial creativity supports Special Operation Forces (SOF) medics' ability to fluidly modulate pressure amid real-time military medical decision-making in austere environments. We will use qualitative quotes to explore how SOST medics express medical-martial creativity in support of unconventional resilience. We continue to highlight tactical engagement by using bag sets as a metaphor for understanding the practical performance of this social determinant. To achieve our goals, we will: 1) define the social determinant of medical-martial creativity and provide a brief background on creativity; 2) thematize various ways in which medical-martial creativity is optimized or degraded; and 3) relate tactical engagement with medical-martial creativity to our metaphor of bag sets. We conclude by gesturing to how medical-martial creativity enables SOF medics' ingenuity, which allows them to freely maneuver complex real-time decision-making to support SOF mission success.

Social Determinant of Unconventional Resilience Tactical Engagement with Bonding Patterns.

Building upon our strategic framework and operational model, we will discuss findings from our ethnographic study, entitled: "The Impact of Catastrophic Injury Exposure on Resilience in Special Operations Surgical Teams (SOSTs)," to explain the tactical nature and importance of social determinants within our new characterization of unconventional resilience. Our fourth paper in this series, will explain how bonding patterns establish the quality of intra- and interpersonal connections that create a tensive conduit for the pressure of performance within our operational model, allowing for dynamic freedom of maneuver to take place in ambiguity. We will use qualita- tive quotes to illustrate various ways SOST medics relate to themselves, other people, and the Special Operations Forces (SOF) culture. To achieve our goals, we will: 1) provide an in- troduction to social determinants as tactical engagement with unconventional resilience; 2) define the social determinant of bonding patterns as extrapolated from qualitative data as well as use qualitative data to thematize various types of bonding patterns; and 3) relate tactical engagement with bonding pat- terns to our metaphor of bag sets. We conclude by gesturing to the importance of bonding patterns in orienting SOF medics' proprioception and kinesthesia in the SOF performance space.

Social Determinant of Unconventional Resilience: Tactical Engagement with Impression Management.

Building upon our operational model, we will discuss findings from our ethnographic study titled "The Impact of Catastrophic Injury Exposure on Resilience in Special Operations Surgical Teams" to establish that impression management allows Special Operation Forces (SOF) medics to navigate implicit social status symbols to either degrade or optimize performance. We will use qualitative quotes to explore how Special Operations Surgical Team (SOST) medics engage in impression management to establish individual, team, and/or organizational competency to deal with ambiguity. To achieve our goals, we will: 1) provide a background on impression management and perception of competency; 2) define the social determinant of impression management extrapolated from qualitative data as well as use qualitative data to thematize various types of impression management; and 3) relate tactical engagement with impression to our metaphor of bag sets. We conclude by gesturing to the importance of impression management in orienting SOF medics' proprioception and kinesthesia in the SOF performance space.

The South African Air Force in Korea: an evaluation of 2 Squadron's first combat engagement, 19 November until 2 December 1950

South African participation in the Korean War (1950-1953) in direct support of an international military offensive led by the United States of America demonstrated the National Party administration's commitment to opposing Communism. This article details how the deployment of South African Air Force 2 Squadron achieved the strategic objectives of the South African government in supporting the anti-communist United States-led United Nations coalition in the Korean War. It evaluates the performance of South Africa's Air Force in their first operational test since the Second World War. The combat operations discussed under the scope of this article include the first tactical engagement of 2 Squadron in support of the initial advance (19 November to 21 December) 1950 and then later, the retreat of the United Nations force.

Chinese “female force” in an “American Factory”: Women’s identity formation in an English reading club

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the mediated narratives and identity construction of a reading club of female workers in call centers of multinational corporations in Dalian China, where the discourse of an empowering ‘female force' has been popularized and scrutinized on Chinese social media. These professional workers manage and construct their emerging middle-class identities through embodied experiences and mediated discourses fostered by an English reading club that is both online and offline. Responding to recent critiques of neoliberal feminism in the Chinese context, this study uses a mixed-method approach to unpack the complex processes of these women's identity construction and performance through participatory reading practices. This includes ethnographic participant observation in offline reading club activities, in-depth interviews, and a discourse analysis of mediated narratives on social media (WeChat). We argue that Chinese working women's identity construction and performance are shaped by complex intersections of class, nation, gender and workplace/institutions, where their encounters are in flux, given the changing neoliberal globalization process after China’s four-decade long opening up reform. This study challenges and extends the critique of neoliberal feminism and finds evidence of agency and tactical engagement whereby female workers negotiate their emerging middle-class identities and forge possible solidarities within a networked workplace.

Scenes of Amani, Tanzania: Biography of a postcolonial landscape

In this paper an architect, two social anthropologists, and an architecture historian assess the postcolonial landscape of Amani Hill research station, a once highly productive and century-old site of scientific research. Rather than an ‘objective’ description of the overall site, this is done through six ‘scenes’ composed of photographs, drawings, and short essays that each highlight particular aspects of the ‘biography’ of this landscape. The mapping is accompanied by two reflections. Starting from cultural geographer John Wylie’s observation that ‘landscape is tension’, we discuss some frictions embedded in the inquiry of such a mundane postcolonial landscape. Subsequently, we engage with the work of mapping as ethnographic experiment, examining the unanticipated effects that our architectural survey produced within the local community. Together, the three parts of the article underscore the inevitability of tactical engagement with the material elements that make up the postcolonial landscape, even in seemingly detached survey work.

The Power of Renewable Resources: Orlando's Tactical Engagement with the Law of Intestacy

The Power of Renewable Resources: <i>Orlando</i>'s Tactical Engagement with the Law of Intestacy

Comparison of coherent and incoherent laser beam combination for tactical engagements

The performance of a multibeam laser system is evaluated for coherent and incoherent beam combination under tactical scenarios. For direct comparison, identical aperture geometries are used for both, coherent or incoherent, combination methods. The analysis assumes a multilaser source coupled with a conventional 0.32 m diameter, on-axis, beam director. Parametric analysis includes variations over residual errors, beam quality, atmospheric effects, and scenario geometry. Analytical solutions from previous results are used to evaluate performance for the vacuum case, providing an upper bound on performance and a backdrop for organizing the multitude of effects as they are analyzed. Wave optics simulations are used for total system performance. Each laser in the array has a wavelength of 1.07 μm, 10 kW (25 kW) output power, and Gaussian exitance profile. Both tracking and full-aperture adaptive optics are modeled. Three tactical engagement geometries, air to surface, surface to air, and surface to surface, are evaluated for slant ranges from 2.5 to 10 km. Two near-median atmospheric profiles were selected based upon worldwide climatological data. The performance metric used is beam propagation efficiency for circular target diameters of 5 and 10 cm.

Maneuvering control simulation of underwater vehicle based on combined discrete-event and discrete-time modeling

When designing or acquiring underwater vehicles such as submarines and torpedoes, it is necessary to predict their performance precisely and perform tests repeatedly using modeling and simulation at both the engineering level and the tactical engagement level. For simulation performed for analysis purposes at the engineering level, which requires a considerable amount of computation power, a discrete-time system simulation that computes significant values at every single unit time using the established mathematical model or engineering model is mainly employed. To simulate a complex or complicated task such as a traffic analysis or tactical measure of effectiveness (MOE) analysis at the engagement level, it is appropriate to use a discrete-event system simulation that causes transition between model states through the triggering of events on the basis of the passing of messages between simplified mathematical models coupled in various ways. In this paper, we studied a maneuvering control of underwater vehicle from the perspective of a combined discrete-event and discrete-time system simulation; the simulation model is established on the basis of discrete-event system specification (DEVS) formalism, which is a representative modeling formalism of a discrete-event system simulation. In detail, the simulation includes DEVS modeling implementations of simulation execution time control and discrete-time step size control in real time at the time of performing a discrete-time system simulation for the purpose of three-dimensional visualization or carrying out a performance analysis using the DEVS model. This hybrid approach makes possible to build a simulation-based expert system which supports the decision making for the acquisition of an underwater vehicle.

&lt;em&gt;Come Buy, Come Buy: Shopping and the Culture of Consumption in Victorian Women's Writing&lt;/em&gt;, by Krista Lysack

Reviewed by: Come Buy, Come Buy: Shopping and the Culture of Consumption in Victorian Women's Writing Lise Shapiro Sanders (bio) Come Buy, Come Buy: Shopping and the Culture of Consumption in Victorian Women's Writing, by Krista Lysack; pp. x + 238. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2008, $49.95, $26.95 paper, £44.95, £24.50 paper. In Come Buy, Come Buy, Krista Lysack offers a fresh perspective on the study of consumer culture in Victorian England, examining the significance of shopping through the lens of women's desire and pleasure. Analyzing sources ranging from novels and poetry written by women to a prominent suffrage journal, Lysack argues that these texts represent the woman shopper "going to market on her own, not as an object of exchange but as a subject" and that the emergent discourse of women's consumer agency enabled new and "dissident" forms of identity (12). Each of the five chapters incorporates a historicizing approach to primary sources, a thorough account of recent criticism, and original readings of both canonical and lesser-known literary texts. Thus Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market (1862), often read as a narrative of female homosocial desire and self-sacrifice against the backdrop of a dangerous male marketplace, becomes an examination of women's participation in imperialism, whether as consumers of "Eastern" goods distributed by Liberty's and other department stores of the period, or as the poem's own "poachers" of exotic fruits foreign to English soil, sold by racialized "goblin men." According to this reading, Lizzie transgresses the bounds of proper consumer practice through "visual tactics" (48), looking but refusing to buy on the market's terms. Similarly, the eponymous heroine of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret (1862) offers another form of transgression in her status as a "disorderly" consumer (58)—a version of the pathological shopper who formed the subject of much mid-century anxiety over the dangers of consumption—whose very identity reveals the artificiality of Victorian femininity. In a chapter on Middlemarch (1871–72), Lysack contrasts Rosamond's class-conscious domestic expenditure with Dorothea's thrift, arguing that both women trade against the future in a way that distinguishes their consumption from traditional forms of domestic economy. Although these texts have been much analyzed in Victorian studies, Lysack succeeds in persuading her readers to think differently about the gendered politics of consumption in each case. The focus of the remaining two chapters and a brief afterword on fin-de-siècle and early-twentieth-century writing implicitly reorients the terrain of the Victorian to address, to use Rita Felski's phrase, the gender of modernity. Turning to the poetry of Michael Field, Lysack argues that Field's woman-centered lyrics alter the masculine dynamics of the gaze, substituting an alternative method of consumption based on female same-sex desire. For Lysack, Sight and Song (1892) is an example of a reconfigured literary aestheticism based on connoisseurship, which rejects the logic of possession and exchange for a new economy of pleasure shared between women. Lysack concludes her study with an analysis of Votes for Women (1907–18), the organ of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), and details the journal's coverage of shops designed to sell suffrage in the form of pamphlets, buttons, scarves, and related ephemera. This chapter reads the WSPU's use of consumer culture as a tactical engagement with the public sphere in which women's practice of "shopping for the vote" becomes an act of claiming citizenship on their own terms. In her afterword, Lysack considers Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (1925) as another depiction of the female [End Page 765] shopper, focusing not on Clarissa but on her daughter Elizabeth, whose meandering path through the West End suggests a new set of possibilities for the modern woman. Lysack ultimately locates Victorian women's agency in their resistance to being coded as objects of exchange and their active pursuit of pleasure through shopping. For theoretical support, she turns to Michel de Certeau, who offers "poaching" as an alternative consumer practice (or "antidiscipline"), and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, whose model of "becoming-woman" reconfigures desire as plenitude rather...

STEPS–Structured Tactical Engagement Process

ABSTRACT Crisis negotiation is the preferred tactic when law enforcement personnel are confronted with a barricaded, or hostage, situation. Police organizations across North America spend considerable time and resources to ensure that officers are specially trained in negotiation techniques. However, given the complexity and variety of crises situations, it is unrealistic to think crisis negotiators can learn specific strategies for every situation. Instead, a good crisis negotiation model must be flexible enough that it applies to virtually any situation regardless of the context, subject state-of-mind, or other constraints. The present paper presents a new theory of crisis negotiation called the Structured Tactical Engagement Process (STEPS). This flexible model provides an overall framework for both understanding and influencing a barricaded subject's behavior in order to reach a peaceful resolution. The model is designed to be easily translated into practice and facilitate training of negotiators as w...

An Analysis of Engagement Algorithms for Real-Time Weapons Effects

Performance and fidelity requirements are the main drivers when selecting algorithms for real-time weapons effects. In many cases, look-up tables are the method of choice for real-time applications. Look-up tables have had wide-spread use in trade studies, planning tools, training simulations, and other applications and have proven to be both extremely valuable for real-time casualty assessment and at times misunderstood in what capabilities they provide. Look-up tables facilitate fast retrieval of vulnerability data, with measurable trade-offs between memory requirements, computation requirements, and fidelity. As processing power has increased, higher-fidelity algorithms of casualty assessment have gained wider use, suggesting that look-up tables may eventually become obsolete. This paper describes the casualty assessment modeling spectrum from low fidelity to high fidelity, including look-up tables, curve fits, physics-based models, and finite element codes. Each type of model is examined, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. Guidelines for how to determine what model type to select and what factors should be considered when selecting a model are discussed. Principles outlined in this paper are being used to support model selection for the OneTESS program, the Army's next generation tactical engagement simulation system.

Place making and place breaking: Migration and the development cycle of community in colonial Mexico

ABSTRACTAlthough scholars increasingly recognize that community survival depends on ongoing processes of renovation and innovation, and not simply on the persistence of past identities into the present, the historical processes of community formation and fragmentation in colonial situations is seldom documented. In this article, I examine both the tactical engagement of indigenous peasant migrants with the colonial Mexican state over spatial rights and the migrants' emergent sense of place in a newly settled locale. I suggest that place making involves place breaking, and I seek to add a diachronic dimension to understanding of indigenous societies and identity politics.

Serious Fun: Berlin Dada's Tactical Engagement with German National Narration

German Dada, particularly the Berlin performance practices of George Grosz and Richard Hülsenbeck, shifted the ‘eternal’ history of the German Reich into the immediacy and annihilation of the postwar Berlin environment. These practitioners formed their social and political opinions into Dada's own German national narrative. The Weimar government responded by classifying ‘Dada’ as obscene, putting its members on trial, and judging its practices to be detrimental to the reforming German nation. The issues raised by Berlin Dada's performance practices formed the basis for Berlin Dada's future historical treatment by its own members, who sought to establish the German cell's primacy as both the singular heir to Hugo Ball's Cabaret Voltaire and the only legitimate mode of Dada expression in Weimar Germany.

Angola and the Great War

In Africa Germany had always held a covetous eye for the northern portion of the Portuguese colony of Angola, and World War I provided the long-sought opportunity for it to take what it wished. Neutral Portugal was initially intimidated into concessions on Angola which was invaded by a small German force that wreaked havoc well beyond the interesting one-day battle. The German action turned out to be an isolated tactical engagement, however, that bore little relation to its long-stated strategic objective of making southern Angola part of German South West Africa. The Portuguese recovered from the chaos that the Germans had created and by September 1915 had established a peace that lasted 46 years until the uprising in 1961.

Effectiveness of MMW aerosols in defeating a battlefield surveillance radar: field demonstration preliminary results

The US Army ERDEC is developing advanced aerosol systems to combat threat surveillance, fire control, and seeker systems operating in the visible, infrared, and millimeter wave portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. One such system is the M56 multispectral smoke generator, which presently operates in the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum; a millimeter wave (MMW) Module is in development to extend the M56 spectral range. This paper documents preliminary results of a field demonstration test of the M56 MMW Module. An MMW instrumentation radar was modified to simulate the scan pattern and radar parameters of a tactical battlefield surveillance radar system. A test grid was populated with both stationary and moving tactical targets, and the radar scanned the grid to simulate a surveillance radar in operation. Once a realistic tactical engagement scenario was developed, MMW aerosols were deployed to demonstrate the impact such aerosols could have on radar detection and classification performance.

Aircrew embedded training

A discussion is presented of the applications of the concept of embedded training for advanced military aircrew training. Three prototype embedded training programs in various phases of development are reviewed. Also reviewed is the current state-of-the-art in advanced simulation and range system technologies. Simulators, ranges, and embedded training are discussed with respect to their ability to satisfy a nominal tactical engagement. Each is found to have its own particular shortfalls. Current embedded training applications are found to have one thing in common with simulation: in general, both are presently limited to single-ship training capabilities. Embedded training is discussed not as a low-cost alternative to simulators and ranges but rather as an adjunct whose cost and effectiveness remain to be demonstrated. >

Comparing Success Rates In Simulated Combat: Intelligent Tactics vs. Force

Bakan categorized military tactics according to their reliance on "force" or "intelligence" suggesting that tactics that rely on the latter are more effective. Intelligence refers to an emphasis on local creativity, surprise, stealth, and adaption, while force relates to an emphasis on central direction, direct power, and hierarchical structure. Bakan's hypothesis was tested in realistic field exercises (n = 237) that employed tactical engagement simulation of weapons to simulate casualties and record events. The field exercises consisted of platoon-level, light infantry offensive operations. Intelligence was defined in terms of the extent of previous training (in stealth); force was defined by the personnel force ratio, reflecting the degree of numerical predominance on offense. Training in intelligent tactics increased the odds of the offense winning in simulated battle by 30 to 1, compared with the force ratio, which only increased these odds by 3 to 1-highlighting the importance of intelligent tactical training.