Accurate weather forecasts are vital to air combat operations. Quantitative assessments of forecasts and their operational impacts are essential to improving weather support for war fighters. We adapted an existing U.S. Navy, web-based, near-real time system for collecting and analyzing data on the performance and operational impacts of military forecasts. We used the adapted system to collect and analyze data on Air Force Weather (AFW) forecasts, and the planning and execution of flying operations, at six Air Combat Command and Pacific Air Forces bases. We analyzed the data to develop quantitative metrics of forecast performance and operational impacts. Our results indicate that planning weather forecasts (PWFs) have a higher potential for making positive contributions to air operations than do mission execution forecasts (MEFs). This is notable because AFW units spend significantly less time developing PWFs than MEFs. Surface visibility, cloud ceilings, and cloud layers caused most negative mission impacts, indicating these phenomena should be a focus of future research and training. We found high levels of mission success even when forecasts were inaccurate, perhaps due to aircrew and mission flexibility. Our analyses revealed a need for improved education of flying units on the nature and availability of AFW products.

The United States suffered a rather severe diplomatic defeat in the collapse of the Nationalist government of China following World War II. It may be possible, by reducing the policy to its essential elements, to determine if a course of action in one given component of the policy was correct or in error, or if it is the usual gray area--neither black nor white, neither totally correct nor totally in error--that defies a valid conclusion.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This report examines the place of non-citizen soldiers, veterans, and their families in U.S. political and civil life. Historically, military service has allowed marginalized groups to earn their social and political status as equal citizens. Part one of this report explores why, despite this history, recent legislative changes, and a 2002 Executive Order eliminating the legal and bureaucratic barriers to naturalization, less than forty percent of the non-citizen servicemen and women today actually acquire U.S. citizenship while on active duty. Part two examines the political and policy context surrounding a soldier's decisions to naturalize. It suggests that some soldiers may be “undocumented”; they forgo naturalization to protect themselves and their families. Part three discusses the legal, political, and normative implications of current policy. Some practices, such as the deportation of alien veterans, challenge the foundations of the American political order. The place of undocumented soldiers and veterans raises important issues about civic obligation, the cultural narratives that define membership in and service to the state, and the ruling political collations in which these narratives find support. / text

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This is a study in supreme command, its nature and the course of its development within the fabric of the English Constitution during the decade or so prior to the shattering of the peace of the old world and the coming of the War in Europe. It is a study concerned with an examination of the formulation and development of defence policy only in so far as these factors helped determine the course and outcome of the struggle, which occurred during these years, to establish an effective form of supreme command. [...]

My research examines the degree to which France was able to define an autonomous policy towards Nato in the period 1981-1992. In so doing, it addresses three central questions. What was the nature of French Alliance policy? To what extent did it prove capable of achieving the goals set for it by French policy makers? What constraints, if any, acted upon Alliance policy? My research, therefore, is intended to not only provide a detailed account of French Alliance policies, but also to offer a critical assessment of those policies, and explanation as to why they took the form they did. The thesis argues that French Alliance policy under Mitterrand displayed a marked continuity with the policies of his predecessors. However, whilst de Gaulle in particular had managed to reap substantial benefits from a policy involving non-integration into Nato military commands, a policy of 'independence' proved increasingly inappropriate as a means of achieving the goals set by French officials. A rapidly shifting international situation, along with a deteriorating domestic economic capacity to maintain an autonomous defence posture, rendered the traditional options of French Alliance policy increasingly dysfunctional. Based on this, the thesis goes on to illustrate the fact that the failure of policy to adapt to profoundly altered circumstances can be attributed to factors within France. Both the prevalent belief system in France - the so-called consensus on defence and foreign policy - and the nature of the policy-making process acted in such a way as to restrict the possibility of policy adaptation. Based on these findings, the thesis concludes by making some observations as to the limitations of many of the theories which deal with foreign policy.

No description available.

Throughout history, Australia and New Zealand have developed a special relationship due to their close geographic proximity and their similar cultural and colonial backgrounds. Ever since 1986, when New Zealand was suspended from the trilateral Security Treaty Between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States of America (ANZUS), Australia has been New Zealand's closest ally. As a result, the thesis specifically focuses on trans-Tasman defence relations after 1986, with a particular emphasis on attitude trends towards the bilateral defence relationship. Overall, the thesis aims to find out whether there has been a drift in the bilateral defence relationship between Australia and New Zealand since 1986. In this regard, it examines two main questions: first, is the Australian-New Zealand defence relationship is less close today than it was in 1986? The thesis findings show that there has indeed been a visible drift in trans-Tasman defence relations. In both countries, the relationship is much less talked about today than it was in 1986. Second, do Australians and New Zealanders view the bilateral defence relationship any more negatively today than they did in 1986? As the results show, the disagreement over defence spending, New Zealand's decision to restructure the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) as well as the ANZUS split were the main factors that have brought about some distance between both countries' defence policies and priorities. However, beside the downs in the bilateral defence relationship, there have also been ups embodied by the sometimes rather elusive Anzac spirit, the optimism that surrounded the creation of Closer Defence Relations (CDR) in the 1990s and, most notably, enhanced trans-Tasman cooperation in peacekeeping, primarily in the immediate regional neighbourhood. Importantly, Australians and New Zealanders do not see the defence relationship any more negatively today than they did in 1986. Indeed, opinion trends at all societal levels have been remarkably constant over the last two decades. Based on these findings, the thesis concludes that the bilateral defence relationship may well become closer again in the future, especially if both countries continue their close cooperation in regional peacekeeping. This appears to be the most promising way ahead for the Anzac defence relationship in the 21st century.