No description available.

We introduce a new, group fairness-inspired stochastic multi-armed bandit problem in the pure exploration setting. We look at the discrepancy between an arm’s mean reward from a group and the highest mean reward for any arm from that group, and call this the disappointment that group suffers from that arm. We define the optimal arm to be the one that minimizes the maximum disappointment over all groups. This optimal arm addresses one problem with maximin fairness, where the group used to choose the maximin best arm suffers little disappointment regardless of what arm is picked, but another group suffers significantly more disappointment by picking that arm as the best one. The challenge of this problem is that the highest mean reward for a group and the arm that gives that reward are unknown. This means we need to pull arms for multiple goals: to find the optimal arm, and to estimate the highest mean reward of certain groups. This leads to the new adaptive sampling algorithm for best arm identification in the fixed confidence setting called MD-LUCB, or Minimax Disappointment LUCB. We prove bounds on MD-LUCB’s sample complexity and then study its performance with empirical simulations. / Graduate

Yes / This report on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is one of 13 case studies (all of the case studies can be found at www.bradford.ac.uk/cics). This report is the result of an 11-day visit to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in September 2004. Wider research and information were used to complement the stakeholder interviews held during this period. The authors would like to thank Julia Buxton and William Godnick for comments on an earlier draft. The analysis and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policy of DFID or the UK government.

This briefing aims to clarify and highlight ways in which the spread, possession and (mis)use of SALW and related armed violence issues can be relevant in conflict assessments, and how they can be integrated better within such assessments. It employs the conflict assessment framework set out in DFID¿s conflict assessment guidelines, and thus aims particularly to assist people who may be: commissioning and developing terms of reference for a specific assessment; undertaking a desk-based and/or field assessment; and those taking forward the analysis to the development of programming responses. There already exists the potential for SALW issues to be addressed within DFID¿s existing conflict assessment guidelines, and thus this paper does not suggest that DFID¿s methodology has to change but rather `opened-up¿ to include SALW more fully within their analyses and the strategies they generate.

Under what conditions are drones effective in protecting civilians in armed conflict? And what shapes support for their use for civilian protection in armed conflict? Drones have been adopted into international peacekeeping operations for the protection of civilians in armed conflict based on the expectation of effectiveness in performing difficult tasks with limited risks. However, in the security studies literature, the question of the effectiveness of drones has been primarily explored within the context of the War on Terror. We know little about drones' effectiveness in non-combat areas like civilian protection in peacekeeping. This dissertation fills this gap by focusing on questions that emerge at the intersection of the fields of emerging technologies, peacekeeping, and civilian protection, political violence, and broader security studies, with the aim of extending this literature and providing policymakers and scholars a framework for conceptualizing emerging technologies for civilian protection in armed conflict. Empirically, it employs qualitative evidence consisting of document reviews, archival work, and expert interviews with officials at the UN headquarters and mission levels, mission intelligence officers, peacekeepers, and humanitarian workers in assessing the effectiveness of drones in peacekeeping for civilian protection. It additionally employs an original survey and a survey experiment among civilian adult populations in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to examine what shapes civilian support for the adoption of drones in peacekeeping. Overall, this dissertation provides valuable insights for both scholars and policymakers who, due to the limited research on this subject, often base assumptions about drone effectiveness in other domains like peacekeeping on their performance in combat contexts.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, School of Historical Studies, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis attempts to trace the effect of the increased size and complexity of armies and navies in the early VIth Century on the English supply services, and also to analyse selected campaigns as a test of governmental efficiency. The provision of ships, guns, gunpowder, and hand-weapons is first discussed, in relation to national self-sufficiency. Ship timber was occasionally imported, but England could, if necessary, have done without foreign supplies; the timber problem was not a pressing one at this period. Naval stores (pitch, cordage etc.) on the other hand, were almost always imported, and the Baltic had thus already acquired something of its later strategic importance. Equally important were the Netherlands. In 1509 all but the smallest artillery was obtained there. This was remedied by the beginning of large-scale bronze and cast-iron gun-manufacture in England; but England still depended on the Netherlands in 1550 for saltpetre (for gunpowder) and copper (for bronze). Werner Sombart's contention that military requirements stimulated the growth of large-scale industry is discussed; shipbuilding and cannon-founding support his argument, provided that the small-scale of industry in general at this period is borne in mind.

No description available.

La personnalité juridique internationale se définit comme la capacité à être titulaire de droits et à se voir imposer des obligations. La théorie classique ne reconnaît la qualité de sujet du droit international qu’aux États et pardérivation aux organisations intergouvernementales. D’autres acteurs, privés, les organisa-tions non gouvernementales, les entreprises, les individus ou encore des groupes armés non étatiques sont aujourd’hui de plus en plus présents sur la scène internationale. Nombre d’instruments convention-nels ont ainsi été développés pour tenir compte de leurs spécificités. C’est essentiellement avec le déve-loppement du droit international pénal, institutionnalisé avec la création de juridictions pénales interna-tionales, que la capacité de certains de ces acteurs à être titulaires de droits et débiteurs d’obligations internationales s’est accrue. Si le statut international des individus, des ONG ou des entreprises soulève moins de difficultés, les contours de celui des organisations armées (au sens large) demeurent encore flous. Leurs activités militaires sont potentiellement génératrices de crimes internationaux; des crimes « belliqueux»d’une part (crimes de guerre, crimes d’agression), d’autres crimes d’autre part (génocides, crimes contre l’humanité). Si le droit des conflits armés reconnaît l’existence de droits et d’obligations à des acteurs privés, il convient de s’interroger sur la relation entre le droit international pénal et la reconnaissance de la personnalité juridique internationale à des organisations armées. La Cour pénale internationale étant à la croisée des différentes branches du droit international, sa possible contribution à une subjectivisation internationale des organisations armées questionne,tant du point de vue de leur rôle dans la commission des crimes, que de leur capacité à en répondre. / International legal personality is defined as the capacity to be a holder of rights and to have obligations imposed on it. Classical theory recognizes only to States as international law subjects and by derivation to intergovernmental organizations. Other private actors, such as non-governmental organizations, com-panies, individuals and non-state armed groups, are nowincreasingly present on the international scene. Many conventional instruments have beendeveloped to consider their specificities. It is mainly with the development of international criminal law, institutionalized with the creation of international criminal courts, that the capacity of some of these actors to be rights holders and duty bearers has increased. While the international statusof individuals, NGOs or companies raises fewer difficulties, the scope of the international status of armed organizations (broadly speaking) remains unclear. Their military activ-ities potentially generate international crimes; « belligerent»crimes on the one hand (war crimes, ag-gression crimes), othercrimes on the other hand (genocides, crimes against humanity). While the law of armed conflict recognizes the existence of rights and obligations of private actors, the link between international criminal law and the recognition of the international legalpersonality to armed organiza-tions must be examined. As the International Criminal Court is at the crossroads of the various fields of international law, its potential contribution to the international subjectification of armed organizations raises questions, both in terms of their role in the commission of crimes and theirability to respond to them.