A Framework for NGO-Military Collaboration
Abstract : What do military professionals need to know about NGOs? The literature on NGOs includes very little about NGO-military relationships in troubled areas. Moreover, the U.S. military fails to convey or encourage an adequate understanding of NGOs in its publications and mid-career military education. Drawing abductively from scholarly literature and inductively from case studies and practitioner interviews, I theorize that the efficacy of NGO-military collaboration varies with the type of NGO (INGO or LNGO) and the type of operation. I crystallize this argument into a typology of NGO-military outcomes. I find that military cooperation with international NGOs is most productive during humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief operations, whereas military cooperation with local NGOs is most productive during conflict and post-conflict operations.
Uncertain partners: NGOs and the military
The 1990s witnessed an explosion of Western military involvement in complex emergency operations requiring cooperation with relief agencies. Recent operations include a failed attempt to reconstitute viable central government in Somalia, return of democratically elected government to Haiti, alleviation of human suffering in Rwanda and Zaire, operations to end conflict and to support multi-ethnic government in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and an effort to stop ethnic terror in Kosovo. In these operations US and allied militaries, UN agencies and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have worked together to ameliorate the suffering caused by war and poor governance. Yet, despite this mounting experience, the military has failed to take adequate advantage of the skills and capabilities of relief agencies. As a result, operations are often needlessly chaotic. At best, this chaos leads to a waste of time and effort; at worst, the cost is measured in lives and suffering.
Economics of General-Purpose Assembly Robots
Summary A study of the comparative economics of various automatic assembly systems using general-purpose assembly robots is described. In the study, use is made of a “typical” candidate assembly whose profile is obtained from statistical analysis of actual products submitted by interested companies. It is shown that the choice of assembly system and the various parts presentation methods depends on three main factors, namely: the annual production volume per shift, the number of parts in the product and the equipment payback period.