The North African Franchise: AQIM's Threat to U.S. Security; Strategic Insights, v. 8, issue 5 (December 2009)
Al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is a growing and evolving North African franchise of Al Qaeda. While the group carries out a significant number of attacks within the Sahel, they have not executed attacks in the United States or Europe. There is significant research concerning the historical development of AQIM . However, there is a dearth of literature on the threat that this group poses to the United States. The purpose of this paper is to fill this research gap and evaluate the threat that AQIM poses to US security. My analysis will demonstrate that AQIM’s operations in Europe and Iraq are a security threat to US facilities and personnel. Moreover, this paper will demonstrate that AQIM has both the intent and capability to conduct attacks against US targets in Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb: A “Glocal” Organization
There are many conditions that push local terrorists groups toward internationalization. Similarly, many local conditions and roots seem to continue to influence groups. The current literature on terrorist groups has sometimes neglected to analyze this double phenomenon of internationalization and local roots. With a concrete assessment of the recent violence in Algeria, this article demonstrates that GSPC/Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb is a good example of this dual nature, mixing local and global (e.g., “glocal” 1 ), traditional and imported practices, and high- and low-tech technologies.
Kinematic Modelling and Simulation of a 2R Robot Using SolidWorks and Verification by MATLAB / Simulink Regular Paper
The  simulation  of  robot  systems  is  becoming very popular, especially with  the  lowering of  the cost of computers,  and  it  can  be  used  for  layout  evaluation, feasibility studies, presentations with animation and off‐ line programming. The  trajectory  planning  of  redundant manipulators  is  a very  active  area  since  many  tasks  require  special characteristics  to  be  satisfied.  The  importance  of redundant manipulators has  increased over  the  last  two decades  because  of  the  possibility  of  avoiding singularities  as  well  as  obstacles  within  the  course  of motion.  The  angle  that  the  last  link  of  a  2  DOF manipulator makes with the x‐axis is required in order to find the solution for the inverse kinematics problem. This angle  could  be  optimized  with  respect  to  a  given specified  key  factor  (time,  velocity,  torques)  while  the end‐effector  performs  a  chosen  trajectory  (i.e., avoiding an obstacle) in the task space. Modeling  and  simulation  of  robots  could  be  achieved using  either  of  the  following  models:  the  geometrical model (positions, postures), the kinematic model and the dynamic model. To  do  so,  the  modelization  of  a  2‐R  robot  type  is implemented. Our main  tasks  are  comparing  two  robot postures with the same trajectory (path) and for the same length  of  time,  and  establishing  a  computing  code  to obtain the kinematic and dynamic parameters. SolidWorks  and MATLAB/Simulink  softwares  are  used to check the theory and the robot motion simulation. This  could  be  easily  generalized  to  a  3‐R  robot  and possibly therefore to any serial robot (Scara, Puma, etc.). The verification of the obtained results by both softwares allows  us  to  qualitatively  evaluate  and  underline  the validityof  the  chosen  model  and  obtain  the  right conclusions. The results of  the simulations are discussed and an agreement between the two softwares is certainly obtained.