Problems of State Efficiency and Terrorism in North Africa
The study examines how the state inefficiency in North Africa has led to the increase of the terrorism in these countries. The reasons of the terrorism in these countries are fairly complex, cannot describe with only one feature, like the Islamic fundamentalism, but much too far related to state efficiency issues.The study will analyze the segments of the state inefficiency that are typical as the reasons for the terrorism in North Africa, but will examine the countries on by one, as well. That is, there are general phenomena which are closely related to the terrorism, there are special features in these countries, too, which cannot be described with the general tendencies in themselves.Finally, conclusion will be made on the strategies in developing the efficiency of the state which could serve as a tool in the counter-terrorism of North African countries. The standpoint of the study is that terrorism cannot be defeated by the military itself, but by a complex development of the state functions which are capable to eliminate the roots of the terrorism.
The Pragmatics of Performance: Putting 'Faith' in Aid in the Sahrawi Refugee Camps
Since the 1970s, Sahrawi refugees have depended upon humanitarian assistance and political support offered by a variety of secular and faith-based non-governmental organizations. In this article I explore the ways in which Sahrawi refugees’ political representatives (the Polisario Front) have mobilized religiously-related claims to maximize diverse short- and long-term benefits both inside and outside the camps. In light of the contemporary geopolitical context, including localized concerns regarding ‘Islamism’ and ‘terrorism’ in North Africa, I argue that notions of ‘secularism’ and ‘religious tolerance’ have been invoked during interactions with different non-Sahrawi audiences to demonstrate the ‘ideal’ nature of the Sahrawi camps. In particular, the presence and activism of American evangelical humanitarians are invoked by the Polisario Front to demonstrate the ‘ideal’ nature of the camps as spaces of ‘religious tolerance’ and ‘inter-faith dialogue’. However, the presence of evangelical humanitarians equally has the potential to create an irreconcilable rupture not only with other, non-evangelical donors (including ‘secular’ Spanish ‘Friends of the Sahrawi’), but also between the Polisario and the very refugees which this organization purports to represent. I conclude the article by arguing that rather than creating a dialogic process between refugees and both secular- and faith-based humanitarians, maintaining the appearance of ‘religious tolerance’ is ultimately founded upon a system of repress-entation which purposefully centralizes certain groups, identifiers and dynamics whilst simultaneously displacing and marginalizing the potential for debate and contestation.
Far-field dispersal modeling for fuel-air-explosive devices
A computer model for simulating the explosive dispersal of a fuel agent in the far-field regime is described and is applied to a wide variety of initial conditions to judge their effect upon the resulting fuel/air cloud. This work was directed toward modeling the dispersal process associated with Fuel-Air-Explosives devices. The far-field dispersal regime is taken to be that time after the initial burster charge detonation in which the shock forces no longer dominate the flow field and initial canister and fuel mass breakup has occurred. The model was applied to a low vapor pressure fuel, a high vapor pressure fuel and a solid fuel. A strong dependence of the final cloud characteristics upon the initial droplet size distribution was demonstrated. The predicted fuel-air clouds were highly non-uniform in concentration. 18 refs., 86 figs., 4 tabs.