Military computer games continue to evoke a uniquely contradictory public, intellectual, and critical response. Whilst denigrated as child’s play, they are played by millions of adults; whilst dismissed as simplistic, they are used in education, therapy, and military training; and whilst classed as meaningless, they arouse fears over media effects and the propagandist influence of their representations of combat. They remain the object of intense suspicion, and as part of a new and growing mass medium, they are blamed for everything from obesity to falling literacy standards, and from murder to Abu Ghraib. Much of the suspicion surrounding military computer games has been caused by the development of the military-entertainment complex - the relationship between the computer game industry and the U.S. military which has seen the production of dual-use games, co-produced by the military and the computer game industry and released for both military training and commercial sale. This relationship has placed military computer games at the centre of an intensely politicized debate in which they have become characterized as a mass medium which functions under the control of the military and political establishment and which promotes the militaristic ideals of the neoconservative Bush administration. This thesis serves as a fundamental reevaluation of such preconceptions and prejudices, and in particular, a complete reevaluation of the understanding of the relationship between computer games and American militarism. Its analysis focuses on three main areas: firstly, the content of military computer games; secondly, the determinants which affect the production and representation of war in computer games; and thirdly, the contribution of the representation of war in computer games to the misunderstandings and misconceptions concerning warfare which, in turn, have supported American militaristic beliefs.

The objective of this research was to develop a framework whereby the United States Naval Surface Forces could be provided with better information to determine their overall readiness capability. This study utilized the new Readiness Assessment and Reporting Standard (S9410-AN-STD-010/AEGIS) as a guide. Also, a System Design Methodology was used as a tool to develop mathematical models for generating the readiness capability for a particular system. The specific system selected for demonstrating this framework was the Gun Weapon System (GWS) being developed for the Arleigh Burke DDG-51 Class Destroyer.

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.

The dissertation looks at the transformation of civil-military relations in Poland and Hungary, Russia and Ukraine between the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in July 1991 and the enlargement of NATO in March 1999. It presents new qualitative data based on approximately 120 elite interviews conducted by the author of politicians, military officers, defence analysts, and journalists in the countries in the study. In general, the focus is on the civilian side of the civil-military equation. Specifically, the work assesses the state of civil-military relations on the basis of three interconnected indicators: the making of security policy and defence reform as a test of civilian control, the role of civilians in the ministry of defence, and the strength of agencies of civilian oversight. It is argued that the differences observed in the state of civil-military relations among the states in the study can be explained by the interaction of three main factors. In Poland and Hungary, the external incentives to establish democratic control of the armed forces reform were positive, while in Russia and Ukraine the impact of external actors - of which NATO was by far the most significant - was negative or ambiguous. The attitude of the political and military elite in Poland and Hungary was more open to the adoption of new norms of civil-military relations than was that of the elite in Russia and Ukraine. And in Poland and Hungary the state of the polity and economy presented a less significant internal constraint on reform. The central finding of the dissertation is that in Poland and Hungary reformers tried - with mixed success - to adopt the forms of democratic civil-military relations as part of their drive to integrate with Western politico-military structures without seeking to understand the logic behind them. The result was a "politics of mimicry", a process of imperfect copying of liberal-democratic norms of civil-military relations which, nonetheless, culminated in these countries being admitted to NATO in 1999. In Ukraine and Russia, by contrast, in a time of profound budgetary exigency, the armed forces were left to solve their own problems absent much civilian control except that exercised infrequently and arbitrarily by the head of state.

In recent years, Millimetre-Wave (MMW) frequencies (30-300 GHz) have been exploited for a variety of attractive applications such as astronomical observation, medical imaging, aircraft aided-control landing, security and concealed weapons detection. All this was also possible thanks to the advances in high frequency circuits where Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs) represent a key factor. Systems working at MMW often use metal waveguides as interconnect elements and transitions are em- ployed to transfer the signals from these elements to the Radio Frequency (RF) circuits. The objective of this thesis is to design, fabricate and characterise electromagnetic transitions between rectangular waveguide (WR) and planar transmission lines at G-band frequencies (140-220 GHz). The first part of this work presents an overview of the electromagnetic properties of the atmosphere at MMW frequencies and their use for passive MMW imaging applications. Fundamental design concepts and prototypes of real-time imagers are also represented, based on the pioneering work carried out at QinetiQ Ltd. An extensive review of the scientific literature on waveguide transitions presents previous designs and architectures. The work proceeds through design, simulation, fabrication and measurements of G-band transitions highlighting advantages and disadvantages of different structures. The novel design of Elevated E-plane probes, used as waveguide to microstrip transitions in this work, extends the fabrication technique of MMIC air-bridges to build suspended metal structures and provides an additional optimising parameter to improve the reflection performance of the transition by decomposing the substrate influence on the metal probe. The innovative Elevated E-plane probe is fabricated on Semi-Insulated Gallium Arsenide (SI-GaAs) and it is MMIC-integrated, reducing system complexity and optimizing fabrication and assembly costs. The core of the thesis details the fabrication processes and procedures and a separate section describes the manufacture of G-band rectangular waveguide blocks that host the transitions. The overall fabrication is carried out using in-house facilities at the University of Glasgow without the aid of external facilities. Measured results are presented and discussed, validating design and simulations. This work has led to a successful design and fabrication of GaAs-integrated rectangular waveg- uide to microstrip line transition at G-band.

The Vietnam War was one of the most traumatic events ever to afflict the US Military. From the ashes of this defeat, the US Military sought to renew itself. As part of this process of renewal, the US Army in particular engaged in serious soul searching as to how, and under what circumstances, the United States ought to commit itself to war. The answers that were derived from this soul searching are known collectively as the Powell Doctrine, named after General Colin L. Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993). The elements of the Doctrine are as follows: the need for “overwhelming” force; the need for public and Congressional support; the need for clear objectives; the need for a clear “exit strategy”; and force should only be used in the “vital national interest.” This thesis will advance four principal arguments: first, that the evolution of the Powell Doctrine cannot be understood without reference to the US experience in Vietnam; second, that the various elements of the Powell Doctrine have a logical relationship to one another which means that the Doctrine as a whole should be considered as a single, integrated body of thought; and, third, that Colin Powell, in his Foreign Affairs article, is simply giving public articulation to an intellectual climate that had already become influential before his ascent to the Chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And that, whilst the Powell Doctrine does deserve to be called a doctrine in the military sense of the word, this is not a full explanation of the conditions Powell has laid down as they encroach upon profoundly political issues. And thus, whilst the Powell Doctrine does deserve the title “doctrine,” it is also an attempt to formulate a coherent set of principles to inform US “National Security” policy in areas that go beyond those traditionally seen as being of military concern.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The United States is moving into a new era in which the enemy no longer provides symmetric opposition. The Navy and Marine Corps will face new challenges in the way they deploy and conduct future operations. One important way that these challenges will be met involves sea-based operations, which provide the sustainment necessary for prolonged operations and prevent unwanted operational pauses. Recent combat operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) demonstrated difficulties when sustaining forces from logistics bases ashore. For example, advancing the Army and Marines to Baghdad in OIF consumed large amounts of fuel and ammunition. The resupply could not replenish supplies and an operational pause began on 29 March, 2003. In order to prevent operational pauses, rapid movement from the sea to the objective must be implemented. This thesis analyzes the problem of finding an optimal mix of Combat Logistics Force shuttle ships required to sustain the sea-base. This is accomplished through two optimization models: The first one determines a shuttle mix ensuring required inventory levels at the sea-base are maintained at all times. Since this requirement may cause some shuttles to be loaded partially, in the second model we manually assign the shuttle mix and then minimize unmet demand. This model yields a mix of shuttles that strikes a balance between shuttle cost and meeting sea-base demand. This thesis uses varying distances for conducting analyses over several scenarios. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The unwillingness to correct deficiencies in current COIN Doctrine or to follow the correct methods within current doctrine will lead to continued instability and possible failure of counterinsurgency operations and governments in states with large Islamic populations. The conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq is insurgent in nature, therefore requires a Counterinsurgent strategy. Current US Army Doctrine focuses entirely on the Counterguerilla aspect of an insurgency, rather than viewing the insurgency in its entirety. Therefore, not only is the COIN doctrine is inadequate, it also requires an overall governing strategy which must include the engagements of both the populace, and the infrastructure of the insurgency, as well as counterforce operations against the guerillas. The entire hierarchy of COIN Doctrine is skewed in favor of the conventional units who write it. Currently all COIN operations fall under Support and Stability Operations, as do Counterguerrilla Operations in doctrinal hierarchy that is written by the US Army Infantry Branch. However, US Army Special Forces Branch writes Insurgency and Foreign Internal Defense Doctrine (COIN falls under FID for all Internal Defense and Development [IDAD] Programs). The unique qualifications of Special Forces units make them ideal for creating, developing, instituting, and commanding these operations. Special Forces soldiers are language and culturally trained to operate within these nations, and normally have habitual associations previously developed with the people and militaries of these nations. / Major, United States Army

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis establishes an analytical framework for identifying and discussing strategic factors considered important when implementing NCW as a new warfighting concept for the information age. Although the findings have a broad application, focus has been on a Norwegian NCW implementation. A key question is if the emerging NCW concept is a feasible defense alternative for smaller nations. Central to the study are factors found in the strategic environment, such as Norway's strategic freedom of maneuver, affiliation with NATO, the impact of national interests, economic and technological assumptions, and the cultural premises that underlie the power of information. The changing features in the nature of conflict and in future potential opponents will also influence NCW mission challenges, opportunities and constraints. A particularly important mission challenge is the neglected military view of low-intensity conflicts as "worthy" military missions as well as the sociological impact on networked actors and opponents, as conditioned by new trends in the information age. A key finding is that NCW, which also takes into consideration the impact of other strategic factors discussed in this thesis, has the potential to rise to the many challenges and achieve many of the objectives currently "floating" in existing military transformation strategies. / Commander, Royal Norwegian Navy

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / A "Bold Case for Unconventional Warfare" argues for the establishment of a new branch of service, with the sole responsibility of conducting Unconventional Warfare. The thesis statement is: Unconventional Warfare is a viable tool for achieving national security objectives under certain circumstances. Hypothesis One states that in order for UW to be effective it must be managed in accordance with specific principles. Hypothesis Two states that to optimize UW a new branch of service under the Department of Defense is required. Chapter II establishes the strategic requirement, laying the foundation by explaining the differences between UW and conventional warfare. Chapter III explains the requirements for dealing with substate conflicts. Chapter IV articulates the operational construct for UW revolving around an indigenous-based force in order for the US to gain influence in a targeted population. The second half of this thesis, Chapters V - VI, analyzes policy, doctrine, and schooling, as well as case studies of USSF efforts in the Vietnam War and El Salvador in order to reveal a conventional military aversion to the use of UW. The conceptual discussion of Chapters I thru IV supported by the research of Chapters V and VI together make "A Bold Case for UW." / Captain, United States Army / Major, United States Army