On September 28, 2000, Israel's Likud party leader, Ariel Sharon, visited the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. His visit spawned the al-Aqsa Intifada, a period of significant Palestinian resistance that has never "officially" ended, and whose reverberations continue to be felt to this day. This thesis assesses Israel's counter-terror strategies and tactics during the al-Aqsa Intifada in light of established scholarly measures of effectiveness. It focuses on specific Israeli actions aimed at countering Palestinian resistance. These include: targeted assassinations, home demolitions, collective punishments, border controls, administrative detention, controls on terrorist financing and technological advances. It assesses those tactics, year by year, to determine whether or not there was a correlation between the tactics and the number of anti-Israeli terrorist incidents. This tactical analysis provides a basis on which to appraise Israeli counter-terror strategy and its long-term effectiveness. It concludes with a consideration of the long-term implications of the Israeli's experience.

The attack on the USS Cole within a civilian port, and the increased threat of pirating and terrorism on the high seas, underscore the immediate need for a maritime non-lethal capability. This research uses modeling and simulation to explore the requirements and tactical use of non-lethal capabilities in a maritime force protection mission. Specifically, a multi-agent simulation emulates a tactical-level mission in which a U.S. Navy vessel returning to Naval Station, Norfolk, VA, encounters a variety of maritime surface threats. Data farming is the method used to address the research questions by applying high performance computing to the simulation model, with the intent of examining a wide range of possibilities and outcomes. The non-lethal capabilities are analyzed in their effectiveness to 1) determine intent, 2) deter inbound surface vessels, and 3) engage targets identified as hostile through the continuum of force.

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / In this thesis I examine the theory of Valued Information at the Right Time (VIRT) and the benefits its implementation can provide to the Navy's best example of accurate information-sharing, the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC). The primary premise of VIRT is that only information which has some value to the user and could impact mission accomplishment should be allowed to flow from a source to the user. If information has little or no value to the individual it is destined for, it must simply be regarded as overhead and should not be sent/received. Using a simple simulation I show in this thesis that VIRT has the potential to provide benefits of orders of magnitude versus a non-VIRT implementation. The Navy's CEC program represents a premier air track data sharing mechanism. It enables ships augmented with this capability and residing on the network to share fire control quality information on the individual parameters of air tracks such as location, course, speed, and altitude. There is a place for VIRT implementation within CEC. Such an implementation can prove beneficial both to CEC as an internal user of information and also as a supplier to external entities of its valuable track information. Finally, I provide a notional VIRT-enabled, product-line architecture for a coalition information-sharing system. If both the concept of VIRT and CEC are to have a place in the future of information-sharing, the issue of providing this information to our coalition partners must be addressed.

Interrogation Tactics The aim of my diploma thesis is to provide an overview of methods of interrogation. The topic Interrogation Tactics is very broad, so I am especially focusing on the use of tactical procedures in a situation when the person is not willing to testify truthfully. The thesis is split into 5 key chapters, each of those attempts to summarize the most essential issues within the relevant field. The first part of this work outlines general aspects and also analyzes problems of examination and statement. This chapter introduces characteristics, definition and representation of interrogation and its legal background. Complete concept of the most common kinds of examinations are also described here. In order to satisfy the objective of examination, i.e. to get knowledge of relevant facts, thorough and accurate preparation is necessary. Otherwise the examination may not fulfill its task successfully. I focus on that in the second part of this thesis. In the third chapter called "Interrogation Tactics" I concentrate on the actual practice of interrogation tactics. Attention is paid to the general construction of questioning, i.e. its consecutive phases, and various individual situations that may occur during the interrogation are also discussed. This chapter pursues better understanding...

We present here TIGER, a Tactical Inference Generator computer program that was designed as a test-bed program for our research, and the results of a series of surveys of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) testing the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: There is agreement among military experts that tactical situations exhibit certain features (or attributes) and that these features can be used by SMEs to group tactical situations by similarity. Hypothesis 2: The best match (by TIGER of a new scenario to a scenario from its historical database) predicts what the experts would choose. We have conducted three surveys of SMEs and have concluded that there is, indeed, a statistically significant confirmation of Hypothesis 1, that there is agreement among military SMEs that tactical situations exhibit certain features (or attributes) and, that these features can be used to group, or identify, similar tactical situations. The statistical confidence level for this confirmation of Hypothesis 1 is greater than twice the prior probability. In order to test Hypothesis 2 we constructed, after SME survey analysis, a series of algorithms, which we present here, for the analysis of SME identified tactical features (or attributes) including: interior lines, restricted avenues of approach, restricted avenues of attack, slope of attack, weighted force relationships and anchored or unanchored flanks. Furthermore, the construction, and implementation, of these algorithms, required the design and implementation of certain `building block' algorithms including: range of influence, optimal FindPath, ComputeGroupsByThreshold and ComputeGroupsByNumber. We further present an overview of TIGER, itself, and the built-in utilities necessary for creating three-dimensional tactical situations, complete with terrain, elevation and unit types as well as our implementation of Gennari, Fisher and Langley's CLASSIT classification system. Lastly, we present TIGER's classification of twenty historical tactical situations and five hypothetical tactical situations and the SME survey results of TIGER's classification that resulted in TIGER correctly predicting what the SMEs would choose in four out of five tests (using a one sided Wald test resulted in p = 0.0001 which is statistically significant).

As part of organizational politics, influence allows employees to impact the attitudes and behaviors of peers, supervisors, and subordinates. Even though there are a variety of influence tactics, this thesis examines the few tactics used individually and in combination in an upward direction. This thesis adds to upward influence literature by discussing not only effective upward tactics, but also strategies found in unsuccessful attempts, providing insights for employees. The individual influence tactics discussed to be most successful are rational persuasion, consultation, and ingratiation, while exchange tactics are likely to lead to a failed influence attempt. The combined influence tactics found to lead to a greater chance of success are soft and rational tactics, while combinations of hard as well as hard and soft tactics were shown to be less successful in upward influence attempts. Additionally, limitations and future research on upward influence are identified in the thesis.

Engaging Space focuses on arranging as means to engage with space. The adaptive arrangements and spatial negotiations of street vendors provide the stimulus for my inquiry. Noticing the various ways vendors constantly engage spatially has led me to observe the ways spatial practices are adapted to suit various requirements. What might I learn, as an interior practitioner, from the spatial practices of street vendors? How might this be applied to an interior practice, to inform an understanding of adaptive methods to engage with space? Undertaking a practice of vendoring, the projects then become engaging spaces - exploring a practice of arranging to produce interiors.

Males of the Mexican lizard Sceloporus minor (Phrynosomatidae) exhibit striking variation in dorsal coloration, both within and among populations, which may have arisen by sexual selection. The possible significance of this trait was investigated through a combination of observational and experimental approaches. This research revealed that males in one population (La Manzana) in NW Hidalgo exhibit three discrete color morphs (blue, yellow, red) each characterized by morphological, physiological and behavioral differences. Furthermore, these morphs can be identified by an objective approach to color assessment (spectroradiometry). In addition, males in a second population (Escalerillas) from SE San Luis Potosí were also found to occur in at least two color morphs (yellow and red), suggesting that color polymorphism may be general in this species. The hypothesis of sensory exploitation by male contest competition was tested for S. minor from Escalerillas; however, no support for this hypothesis was found. Overall, results from this study are consistent with the hypothesis of alternative reproductive tactics in S. minor.

Takeovers are used as a mean for companies to grow and gain entry to new markets. Hos-tile takeovers, apart from the friendly takeovers, is when an acquirer tries to takeover a corporation against the will of management, shareholders and board of directors of the target company. All listed companies run the risk of being a target for a hostile takeover, and to-day many companies are trying to involve actions protecting them from possible threats. Lacking protection can evolve into a costly defense program with actions with fictitious names such as White knight, Pac-man and Poison pills. The purpose with this thesis is to describe and analyze hostile takeovers and hostile takeover attempts in Sweden, and the defense tactics involved in the process. In this thesis a deductive approach will be used, where theories are used as guidance when searching for explanations. On the basis of the defense tactics described in the theory empirical data has been gathered with the purpose of seeing if the expectations reflect reality, and conclusions about their efficiency. The thesis has used a quantitative research method where the focus is on what, where and when. The aim of the thesis is to classify targeted features and count them, with the intent to construct statistical models with an underlying purpose of explaining what is observed. The most frequently used defense tactic used by the target company in a hostile takeover in the Swedish market is to attack the logic of the bid. Around 56 percent of the targets in a hostile takeover or a hostile takeover attempt have used this defense tactic to avoid a hos-tile takeover. The aim with an implemented defense tactic is to avoid a hostile bid or making it impossible for the hostile bidder to proceed with the bid and close the deal. The White knight and White squire defense tactic is the most successful defense tactic when it comes to not finalizing the hostile bid, in 90 percent of the cases the deal is not closed if the target chooses to use a White knight as a defense tactic. A secondary objective with a defense tactic is to force the hostile bidder to increase the bid and pay more for the target company. In the Swedish market, the use of Corporate restructuring as a defense tactic has made the hostile bidder to increase the bid in 67 percent of the cases and the use of Positive public information has forced the hostile bidder to increase the bid in more than half of the cases. The question why these defense tactics are the most frequently used strategies, is explained by two variables. The first one is the cost and simplicity variable, where Attack the logic of the bid and Public information ends up. These defense tactics are cost efficient and can be seen as natural step for the target company when deciding not to approve of the offer made by the acquirer. The second variable is the proven efficiency, where the target knows if implementing this defense tactic the risk of being acquired by the hostile bidder is relatively low, a good example of this is the White knight defense.

No description available.