Much has been written about Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky. His development of the “Deep Battle” military theory in the late 1920s and 1930s, the attendant mechanisation of the Red Army and his role in the development of the Soviet military/industrial complex have been well-researched. The “Tukhachevsky Affair”, the discussion surrounding his execution in the military purge of 1937, continues to attract interest. However, a detailed analysis of his early life and Civil War command career has never been completed. This gap is filled by this thesis. Tukhachevsky’s early life is explored to provide background, but also to provide a biographical account and to illustrate who he was when he joined the Red Army and Bolshevik Party in 1918. The thesis demonstrates that he was not a communist at this stage. However, his command experiences during the Civil War, combining military tactics of continuous manoeuvre warfare with constant frontline mobilisations, political agitation and repression, allowed him to develop a theory of class warfare and saw his conversion to a belief in the efficacy of Marxist principles when applied to military methods. Tukhachevsky’s success in the Civil War is compared to his failure in the Polish-Soviet War and the basis for the latter is that his continuation of class warfare methods were unsuitable for the conflict in Poland. The success of Tukhachevsky’s class warfare methods is explained by their relevance to the situation and social fabric of Russia at the time. The retention of these principles to form the basis of the operational side of “Deep Battle” is argued, as is Tukhachevsky’s openness to innovation in weaponry and tactics gleaned during his Civil War command. Tukhachevsky’s role in the early Red Army formulation is detailed, as is his development of the concept of “unified command” involving the creation of Red Commanders. The Communist Party leadership’s use of Tukhachevsky as a “troubleshooter” to deal with prioritised areas during the Civil War, leading to his service on every major Front at crucial stages is highlighted, as are the connections he made on the Civil War battlefields, friendly and hostile. It is shown that during his Civil War commands he met with those with whom he would later work and that their collaboration and experimentation began almost immediately.

No description available.

Chile and Colombia are two prosperous economies among the main FDI recipients in Latin America. Both countries underwent structural reforms that favored the entrance of transnational corporations and liberalized the economies. Considering that FDI flows have been largely resource-seeking and market-seeking it seems that the main driver of FDI in these two countries, besides their resource endowment, is economic growth. The document explores the hypothesis of growth-driven FDI carrying out cointegration and Granger causality tests at aggregate and sector levels. After the introduction, Chapters 2 and 3 present the evolution of world FDI flows and a literature review. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the policy framework in Latin America and the evolution of FDI in Chile and Colombia. Finally, Chapter 6 presents the estimations and Chapter 7 the conclusions. The findings of the analysis suggest a long-term relationship between FDI and growth and validate the hypothesis of growth-driven FDI at the macroeconomic level. However, at the sector level the existence of a long run cause-effect relationship cannot be established in most of the cases. Regarding the direction of Granger causality at this level results are heterogeneous across sectors. The main conclusion of the thesis is that economic growth does Granger cause FDI at the aggregate level, but at the sector level the causal linkage seems not to be direct. (author's abstract)

This thesis reconstructs and explains the arms relationship that successive U.S. administrations developed with the Shah of Iran between 1950 and 1979. This relationship has generally been neglected in the extant literature leading to a series of omissions and distortions in the historical record. By detailing how and why Iran transitioned from a low order military aid recipient in the 1950s to America’s primary military credit customer in the late 1960s and 1970s, this thesis provides a detailed and original contribution to the understanding of a key Cold War episode. By drawing on extensive declassified archival records, the investigation demonstrates the not only the importance of the arms relationship but also how it reflected, and contributed to, the wider evolution of U.S.-­‐ Iranian relations from a position of Iranian client state dependency to a situation where the U.S. became heavily leveraged to the Shah for protection of the Gulf and beyond -­‐ until the policy met its disastrous end in 1979 as an antithetical regime took power in Iran.

ABSTRACT CONTACT MECHANICS OF GRADED MATERIALS WITH TWODIMENSIONAL MATERIAL PROPERTY VARIATIONS G&ouml / kay, Kemal M.S., Department of Mechanical Engineering Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Serkan Dag September 2005, 62 pages Ceramic layers used as protective coatings in tribological applications are known to be prone to cracking and debonding due to their brittle nature. Recent experiments with functionally graded ceramics however show that these material systems are particularly useful in enhancing the resistance of a surface to tribological damage. This improved behavior is attributed to the influence of the material property gradation on the stress distribution that develops at the contacting surfaces. The main interest in the present study is in the contact mechanics of a functionally graded surface with a two &ndash / dimensional spatial variation in the modulus of elasticity. Poisson&rsquo / s ratio is assumed to be constant due to its insignificant effect on the contact stress distribution [30]. In the formulation of the problem it is assumed that the functionally graded surface is in frictional sliding contact with a rigid flat stamp. Using elasticity theory and semi-infinite plane approximation for the graded medium, the problem is reduced to a singular integral equation of the second kind. Integral equation is solved numerically by expanding the unknown contact stress distribution into a series of Jacobi polynomials and using suitable collocation points. The developed method is validated by providing comparisons to a closed form solution derived for homogeneous materials. Main numerical results consist of the effects of the material nonhomogeneity parameters, coefficient of friction and stamp size and location on the contact stress distribution.

Bibliography: p. 61. / Issued also as a Master of Science thesis in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, 1968. / M.I.T. Project DSR 70054. Research Grant NSFC-472.

Η διπλωματική εργασία συνίσταται στην κατασκευή και έλεγχο μιας πειραματικής διάταξης στην οποία ένα πνευματικό κινητό έμβολο ασκεί σταθερή πίεση σε οποιαδήποτε επιφάνεια διέλθει κάτω από αυτήν. Η διάταξη περιλαμβάνει κύλινδρο και βαλβίδες πεπιεσμένου αέρα, αισθητήρα πίεσης και Προγραμματιζόμενο Λογικό Ελεγκτή (PLC) για τον έλεγχο της διάταξης. Επίσης, πραγματοποιείται έλεγχος μέσω Labview για σύγκριση αποτελεσμάτων. Η διάταξη αποτελείται από μια αναλογική βαλβίδα, μια On/Off βαβλίδα, ένα κύλινδρο πεπιεσμένου αέρα και μια ειδικά κατασκευασμένη διάταξη άσκησης της πίεσης η οποία περιλαμβάνει και τον αισθητήρα μέτρησης της πίεσης. Επίσης υπάρχει ενισχυτής τάσης ο οποίος παρεμβάλλεται μεταξύ του αισθητήρα και της αναλογικής εισόδου του PLC. Στο κάτω άκρο της διάταξης διέρχεται μια τυχαία ξύλινη επιφάνεια. Βασικός σκοπός της εργασίας είναι ο PID έλεγχος της διάταξης μέσω της λειτουργικής μονάδας FM 355. Η μονάδα FM 355 της SIEMENS είναι μια λειτουργική μονάδα που έχει την δυνατότητα να πραγματοποιήσει Hardware PID έλεγχο καθώς και ασαφή έλεγχο σε εφαρμογές θερμοκρασίας. Επίσης, ένα πολύ σημαντικό χαρακτηριστικό της είναι η δυνατότητα λειτουργίας και όταν υπάρχει απώλεια επικοινωνίας με τη CPU του PLC. Η μονάδα FM 355 ελέγχει την αναλογική βαλβίδα ενώ ο έλεγχος της On/Off βαλβίδας γίνεται μέσω της CPU του PLC. Για τη λειτουργία της διάταξης επιλέγεται η επιθυμητή τιμή της πίεσης που θα ασκηθεί στην επιφάνεια. Αυτή η τιμή τροφοδοτείται στη CPU και κατ’ επέκταση στην μονάδα FM 355. Οποιαδήποτε μετακίνηση της επιφάνειας η οποία οδηγεί σε αλλαγή της πίεσης παρακολουθείται από τον αισθητήρα και γίνεται αυτόματη προσαρμογή της διάταξης ώστε να υπάρχει παρακολούθηση της επιφάνειας. Ο έλεγχος μέσω Labview χρησιμοποιεί ακριβώς την ίδια λογική και πραγματοποιήθηκε για την εξαγωγή πολύ χρήσιμων συμπερασμάτων. / This Diploma Thesis consists of the construction and control of an experimental automated system. In this system a pneumatic moving piston applies constant pressure to any surface that passes under it. The system includes a pneumatic cylinder, pneumatic valves, a pressure sensor and a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) to control the system. Also, control via Labview is implemented, to be used for results comparison. The system consists of a proportional control valve, an On/Off valve, a pneumatic cylinder and a specially manufactured system for pressure application that also includes the pressure sensor. There is, also, a voltage amplifier that is used between the output of the pressure sensor and the analog input of the CPU. A random wooden surface passes under the experimental system. The primary purpose of the Diploma Thesis is the PID control of the system using the function module FM 355. The FM 355 module from SIEMENS is a function module that is capable of utilizing hardware PID control and fuzzy control in temperature applications. Also, a very important characteristic of the module is the ability to function even when there is loss of communication with the CPU. The FM 355 module controls the proportional valve, while the On/Off valve is controlled by the PLC CPU. In order for the system to work, the desired pressured to be applied must be chosen. This value is inserted into the CPU and from there it is sent to the FM 355 module. Any movement of the wooden surface that leads to a change of pressure, is monitored by the sensor and the system automatically adjusts to track the surface. Control via Labview implements exactly the same logic as mentioned above and was used to extract very useful conclusions.

No description available.

En 2005, l’article 1er du Statut général des militaires était révisé. A la version précédente de 1972, était ajoutée l’exigence du consentement au sacrifice suprême comme contrainte liée à l’état militaire. Cet ajout nous a conduit à nous poser une question simple mais essentielle : si le sacrifice suprême est une caractéristique fondamentale et traditionnelle du métier des armées, pourquoi a-t-il été jugé nécessaire de le faire apparaitre dans un texte de loi encadrant l’activité militaire ? De cette simple question sont nées de nombreuses interrogations portant sur la pratique du sacrifice et les normes qui l’entourent. Au travers de l’approche constructiviste et de perspectives provenant de différentes disciplines académiques telles que la sociologie, la philosophie, l’histoire ou les relations internationales cette thèse vise à démontrer que le sacrifice suprême ne devrait pas être imposé par une loi. En montrant que le sacrifice est avant tout une pratique religieuse et économique adossée à une transcendance et au besoin de reconnaissance, ce travail souligne qu’en l’absence de ces éléments le sacrifice suprême ne peut être exigé. Par ailleurs, envisagée hors du cadre des guerres traditionnelles, la mort pro patria, initialement légitimée par la défense de la patrie, n’est plus pertinente. L’intervention en Afghanistan illustre nos réflexions. Cette étude de cas permet d’expliquer comment, afin de maintenir l’idéalité du sacrifice suprême, cette intervention a été décidée dans le cadre d’un processus de sécurisation et été présentée de manière trompeuse comme une guerre justifiée par la menace que le terrorisme représente à l’encontre des démocraties libérales. / In 2005 the 1972 Statut général des militaires (General statute of military personnel) underwent a major revision: the addition of the consent to supreme sacrifice to the constraints of the profession of arms. This addition gives rise to a simple but essential question: why, given that sacrificing one’s life for the nation is the very essence of the military, is it necessary to add such an obligation in a legal document? From this simple question stem many other interrogations about the practice of supreme sacrifice and the norms surrounding it. Through the constructivist approach and using perspectives from different academic fields such as sociology, philosophy, history and international relations, this doctoral thesis aims at demonstrating that supreme sacrifice should not be imposed by a law. Showing that sacrifice is first and foremost a religious and economic practice built up against both a transcendence and the need for gratefulness, this work underlines that in the absence of these factors supreme sacrifice cannot be demanded. Furthermore, out of the framework of traditional wars the pro patria mori, initially legitimized by the need to defend the homeland, is no longer relevant. In order to support our point we will use the case of the intervention in Afghanistan, demonstrating how, in order to maintain the ideality of supreme sacrifice, it has been decided through a securitization process and presented in a misleading way as a war justified by the threat terrorism represents to liberal democracies.

No description available.