Effective Defense Support for Public Diplomacy (DSPD) with a Sub-Saharan Africa Target Audience: A Case Study of the African Crisis Response Force Proposal
Abstract : The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Support for Public Diplomacy (DSPD) sources and messages using the African Crisis Response Force (ACRF) as a controlled comparison case study. The ACRF case can provide useful lessons for USAFRICOM on how to communicate more effectively with its African partners. From a more narrow DSPD perspective, the absence of an explicit adversary in Africa means that military tactics there should be focused on capturing human terrain through the robust utilization of information operations rather than more conventional stratagems. To accomplish this, the DoD needs to understand how to communicate effectively with Africans. The command's focus on interagency cooperation and building partnerships with African states makes successful Information Operations even more critical and the role of DPSD even more central to ensuring that DoD actions align with and complement other elements of national power to synchronize an American grand strategy in Africa. The focus in this thesis is on informational causal mechanisms, defined as the "physical, social, or psychological processes through which agents with causal capacities operate, but only in specific contexts or conditions, to transfer energy, information, or matter to other entities." Using Wilbur Schramm's disaggregation of communications into a source and message, the case studies will treat the ACRF's and related DSPD sources and messages as independent variables, and the acceptance or rejection of ACRF as the dependent variable. The target audience is composed of the state-level actors who possessed the ability to accept or reject the ACRF proposal.
Senegal's Rôle in Ecomog: the Francophone Dimension in the Liberian Crisis
The phenomenon of state breakdown in the post-cold war era has significantly increased the demand for peacekeeping operations around the world. The United Nations has stepped boldly into the breach, considerably expanding its interventions in hotspots on all continents. Yet the capacity of the UN to respond is often uncertain, and this has sparked interest in the concept of regional peacekeeping as an alternative, especially since the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) deployed the Cease-fire Monitoring Group (Ecomog) to stem the ravages of civil war in Liberia.
Analysis of a coaxial-to-waveguide adaptor including a discended probe and a tuning post
A field matching analysis of a coaxial-to-waveguide adaptor incorporating a disc-ended probe and a tuning post is presented. In this analysis, the tuning post is considered as a short-circuited second probe. A computer algorithm for calculating the input impedance of this structure is developed. This algorithm is used to investigate and improve the operation of a commercially available coaxial-to-waveguide adaptor. >