This thesis explores the impact of Western military interventions on the occurrence and motivations of female suicide bombers in Iraq, by utilizing a single case study method combined with Structured, Focused Comparison. The thesis examined the period before-and-after the 2003 U.S-led invasion of Iraq. The reserach identifies a significant increase in the use of female suicide bombers post-intervention, correlating this rise with intensified grievances, personal loss, and cases of sexual exploitation and abuse. The research analyzes the strategic, social and individual logics influencing these motivations. Findings suggest that Western military interventions exacerbate conditions leading to the radicalization and mobilization of women as suicide bombers, driven by a combination of personal trauma, societal pressure, and strategic aims to coerce foreign powers.

This study delves into the conflict landscape in the form of a case study of the Central African Republic, with a specific focus on the involvement of the private military company Wagner Group, framed within Mary Kaldor's theory of New Wars. The theory emphasises that since the 1990s wars have been carried out in the name of identity politics, are between the state and non-state actors, that violence is directed at civilians and that the global economy is a driving condition. These characteristics are generally true for the conflict in CAR. The Wagner Group's role remains largely unexplored within academic circles, necessitating a closer examination of its impact on conflict dynamics to better understand the broader implications for regional stability and global power dynamics. Since CAR became independent in 1960, CAR has been imprinted by armed conflict and widespread violence against civilians. In 2018 the government ceded parts of its monopoly on violence to the Wagner group through an agreement where the group protects the state in exchange for access to natural resources. The Wagner group's presence also contributes to increased regional conflict dynamics and can lead to increased violence and criminal activity.

The long-neck Kayans have long been subjected to scrutiny by both Thai and foreign writers. This study traces the historical existence of the Kayans in Burma and their status as refugees within Thailand. Since the arrival of the first group of Kayans in late 1984, this tribe have been of interest to the provincial government of Mae Hong Son, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, NGOs and tourism developers. All of these groups, in one way or another, claim to be protecting the interest of the Kayans. This thesis investigates the validity of claims that Kayan interests are being protected. It further questions the government’s move to centralise the Kayans into one settlement at Huay Pu Kaeng. I argue that the Kayan race is the most marginal beneficiary of the Kayan ethnic tourism and illustrate how their vulnerability has been exploited both by government agencies and tourism developers.

Currently, water demands are in continuous growth, which increases the pressure, in quantity and quality, on the available water resources globally. At the same time, the expected reduction of the natural water contributions, due to global change, depicts a new level of uncertainty. In this context, hydrological models are important tools for planning and managing water resources. Its correct application is essential in areas with high levels of water scarcity (arid and semi-arid regions). The southeast of Spain, the field work of this doctoral thesis, presents one of the highest rates of water scarcity and intensive exploitation of water resources in the European and global context. In addition, the frequency and severity of extreme events (floods) in this study region has increased during last decades as a direct consequence of the global change (climate change and land use changes). This doctoral thesis aims to analyse the intrinsic and complete problem of water resources in arid and semi-arid regions, that is, as a need (in case of scarcity and global change) and as a threat (in case of occurrence of extreme events or floods and global change) while studying certain management and adaptation strategies (technologies of wastewater reuse and water desalination) in view of the dual nature of water resources in arid and semi-arid climate areas, in this case in the southeast of Spain. Based on the above mentioned objective, five manuscripts have been performed and published as scientific articles in journals with high impact factor. These papers analyse certain paradigmatic study areas (hydrological basins, aquifers and municipalities) that belong to the southeast of Spain. Main results obtained in the mentioned scientific works can help local authorities responsible for the management and planning of water resources in this region. / Subprograma de Formación de Profesorado Universitario (FPU15/00636). Convocatoria 2015 del Programa Estatal de Promoción del Talento y su Empleabilidad del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte.

This thesis implements a novel distributed, deterministic algorithm for as few unmanned agents as possible to detect and cover as many static targets of unknown location as possible. This algorithm, Pruning-Perception-Decision (PPD), strikes the balance of exploration versus exploitation by maximizing the number of targets covered by each agent. Agents can cover only one grouping of targets at a time and continue exploring until they find an uncovered target. In doing so, agents' search area is discretized into a grid, where the average percent coverage of each tile is monitored with respect to each agent's field-of-view. Once all agents are covering targets and the average area-coverage value stabilizes, PPD terminates. Alternately, if all targets are found and there exist additional explorer agents, PPD terminates when a time threshold is reached. Simulations show that implementing PPD results in faster convergence than the state-of-the-art by nearly an order of magnitude as well as improved target coverage. Additionally, results of a second demonstration suggest that PPD could be applied to targets appearing and disappearing. / Master of Science / In this thesis, a new process is proposed that uses as few agents as possible to detect and cover as many target points as possible; such configurations can be applied to defense, search-and-rescue, and environmental relief missions, to name a few. This thesis focuses on a scenario where autonomous agents aim to locate and cover as many unknown targets in the world as possible using as few agents as possible. To reach this goal, a new algorithm is formulated, Pruning-Perception-Decision (PPD), which involves detecting and covering static targets whose number and location are unknown to agents in advance. Specifically, some of these agents travel to unvisited regions of a square world to find targets while remaining agents cover known targets. In most cases, agents will find and cover all targets. When there are fewer agents than targets, however, agents may cover the the same number of targets as there are agents, at least, or may cover all targets in the search space, at most. The number of targets covered in this case depends on how spread apart the targets are in the world with respect to agents' field-of-view. Otherwise, when there are equal numbers of agents and targets in the search space, agents are guaranteed to find and cover all targets. In simulations, PPD was shown to perform significantly better than a similar state-of-the-art algorithm. A second demonstration shows that PPD may also be applied when targets appear and disappear.

Jamming is an ongoing threat that plagues wireless communications in contested areas. Unfortunately, jamming complexity and sophistication will continue to increase over time. The traditional approach to addressing the jamming threat is to harden radios, such that they sacrifice communications performance for more advanced jamming protection. To provide an escape from this trend, we investigate the previously unexplored area of jammer exploitation. This dissertation develops the concept of antifragile communications, defined as the capability for a communications system to improve in performance due to a system stressor or harsh condition. Antifragility refers to systems that increase in capability, resilience, or robustness as a result of disorder (e.g., chaos, uncertainty, stress). An antifragile system is fundamentally different from one that is resilient (i.e., able to recover from failure) and robust (i.e., able to resist failure). We apply the concept of antifragility to wireless communications through several novel strategies that all involve exploiting a communications jammer. These strategies can provide an increase in throughput, efficiency, connectivity, or covertness, as a result of the jamming attack itself. Through analysis and simulation, we show that an antifragile gain is possible under a wide array of electronic warfare scenarios. Throughout this dissertation we provide guidelines for realizing these antifragile waveforms. Other major contributions of this dissertation include the development of a communications jamming taxonomy, feasibility study of reactive jamming in a SATCOM-type scenario, and a reinforcement learning-based reactive jamming mitigation strategy, for times when an antifragile approach is not practical. Most of the jammer exploitation strategies described in this dissertation fall under the category of jammer piggybacking, meaning the communications system turns the jammer into an unwitting relay. We study this jammer piggybacking approach under a variety of reactive jamming behaviors, with emphasis on the sense-and-transmit type. One piggybacking approach involves transmitting using a specialized FSK waveform, tailored to exploit a jammer that channelizes a block of spectrum and selectively jams active subchannels. To aid in analysis, we introduce a generalized model for reactive jamming, applicable to both repeater-based and sensing-based jamming behaviors. Despite being limited to electronic warfare scenarios, we hope that this work can pave the way for further research into antifragile communications. / Ph. D.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out what activities of ambidexterity impact start-up companies’ efficiency and business growth in Sweden’s market.Methodology: To understand the research objectives, a qualitative study with 10 in-depth and semi-structured interviews was conducted with startup companies, founders and managers to gain insights.Findings: This study identified two new constructs; environmental dynamism and company nature, that are novel to measure ambidexterity start-up business performance.Research limitations/implications: The focus on Swedish startups limits the transferability. Therefore, future research should be conducted in other countries or in different context settings.Originality/value: This study contributes to the entrepreneurial research proposing proactive and reactive engagement with clients and contributes to strategic leadership theory, identifying that organization such as self-learning and collaboration fosters innovation among employees

Yes / Prominent writers in industrial relations (IR) have concluded the field is in significant decline, partly because of a failed theory base. The theory problem is deepened because other writers conclude developing a theory foundation for industrial relations is neither possible nor desirable. We believe advancing IR theory is both needed and possible, and take up the challenge in this paper. A long-standing problem in theorizing industrial relations has been the lack of agreement on the field’s core analytical construct. However, in the last two decades writers have increasingly agreed the field is centred on the employment relationship. Another long-standing problem is that writers have theorized industrial relations using different theoretical frames of reference, including pluralist and radical-Marxist; different disciplinary perspectives, such as economics, sociology, history, and politics; and from different national traditions, such as British, French, and American. In this paper, we seek to advance IR theory and better integrate paradigms and national traditions. We do this by developing an analytical explanation for four core features of the employment relationship—generation of an economic surplus, cooperation-conflict dialectic, indeterminate nature of the employment contract, and asymmetric authority and power in the firm—using an integrative mix of ideas and concepts from the pluralist and radical-Marxist streams presented in a multi-part diagram constructed with marginalist tools from conventional economics. The diagram includes central IR system components, such as labour market, hierarchical firm, macro-economy, and nation state government. The model is used to explain the four features of the employment relationship and derive implications for IR theory and practice. Examples include the diagrammatic representation of the size and distribution of the economic surplus, a new analytical representation of labour exploitation, identification of labour supply conditions that encourage, respectively, cooperation versus conflict, and demonstration of how inequality of bargaining power in labour markets contributes to macroeconomic stagnation and unemployment.

Depuis le début des années 1980, le phénomène de la sous-traitance en forêt n'a cessé de croître. Dans le rapport du comité interministériel sur « les rapports collectifs du travail en milieu forestier » on y indique que 85 % des travaux de récolte en forêt seraient actuellement effectués par des entrepreneurs. Partant de « simple » travailleur forestier sans trop de formation, l'entrepreneur forestier est devenu avec le temps un « chef d'entreprise » nécessitant des connaissances en gestion. Actuellement, les entrepreneurs forestiers du Québec sous-traitant la récolte de la matière ligneuse connaissent des difficultés organisationnelles et financières. Toutefois, un diagnostic précis des causes pouvant expliquer ces difficultés est difficile puisque peu d'entrepreneurs peuvent présenter des données fiables concernant leur processus opérationnel. L'objectif général de ce projet est d'utiliser l'expérience acquise des entrepreneurs forestiers sous-traitant la récolte et la théorie qui entoure la gestion de l'entreprise afin de développer un tableau de bord de gestion. Ce tableau de bord aura deux principales fonctions; mesurer la performance et agir à titre de mémoire du système. Pour mener à terme ce projet, trois objectifs spécifiques ont été identifiés; 1- Faire un bilan des outils et principes permettant l'élaboration d'un tableau de bord de gestion, 2- Décrire une entreprise type pour évaluer les besoins d'un entrepreneur forestier et de ses partenaires d'affaires, 3- Proposer un tableau de bord adapté aux besoins retenus en identifiant les limites et obstacles. Un sondage mené auprès des mandataires des opérations forestières révèle que dans 97 % des cas, les entrepreneurs ne possèdent pas de système de gestion autre que comptable. Une étude de cas a été réalisée chez un entrepreneur forestier afin d'étudier les indicateurs de performance qu'il utilise. Il en résulte que peu d'informations parviennent à l'entrepreneur d'une façon compréhensible et facilement utilisable. À l'aide de l'information recueillie, une plate-forme d'analyse basée sur la théorie des tableaux de bord et appuyée par des analyses de statistique de contrôle de procédé a été proposée pour suivre l'évolution de la performance d'un entrepreneur au cours d'une saison de récolte. L'établissement des limites naturelles du comportement du procédé démontre une très grande variabilité. / A project was lunched in 2004 with the objective of developing a performance dashboard build purposefully for Canadian harvesting entrepreneurs. The dashboard was to have two principal functions; 1) measure the actual performance of the entrepreneur, 2) build a tactical memory for the procurement system. To carry out this project, three specific objectives were identified; 1-Make a review of the tools and principles allowing the development of a performance dashboard, 2-study at close range a representative company to evaluate the specific needs of the forest contractor as well as his business partners, 3- Propose a performance dashboard adapted to these needs. A survey carried out near the agents of the forest operations reveals that in 97 % of the cases, the contractors do not have a system of management other than countable. Through a case study we then studied the performance indicators used by companies and contractors. Clearly, even in Québec's "nurtured" relationship between a contractor and the forest company, little information was provided to the contractor in a way that suited his needs and current abilities. A platform, based on the theory of the performance dashboards and supported by of statistics of control of process used was proposed to track the performance of a contractor. The establishment of the natural limits of the process shows a great variability for this system. The implementation of performance dashboard would be beneficial to contractors but several obstacles still impeded their application.

La planification tactique des opérations forêt-usines est centrée sur trois éléments principaux : la récolte, le transport et la transformation du bois. La planification de cette chaine d’approvisionnement est très complexe. Il existe déjà des outils pour faciliter la décision de décideur tels que FPInterface et Optitek, tous deux développés par FPInnovations. Cette mémoire vise à développer un module d’optimisation qui est connecté aux utiles de simulation. LogiOpt est constituée d'un modèle mathématique. Le modèle développé vise l’optimisation de la chaîne d’approvisionnement entre la forêt et l’usine en concentrant les efforts sur les activités que l’entreprise planifie conjointement avec son entrepreneur d’opérations forestières principal. Grâce à ces solutions de logiciels de simulation et de notre modèle mathématique, nous combinons à la fois dans notre cadre récolte, le transport, l'allocation des bois et des opérations de production. Pour tester notre model mathématique, nous avons utilisé les données d’une année d’exploitation à une entreprise québécoise œuvrant dans le milieu forestier. Nous avons comparé nos résultats avec un plan tactique manuel « simulé ». De ce fait, nous avons constaté que LogiOpt effectue une meilleure allocation de la matière première en allant récolter dans moins de blocs de récolte tout en utilisant des bois ayant un meilleur rendement en usine. Conséquemment, on produit plus de produits finis en usine tout en utilisant la même quantité de bois qu’un plan tactique plus traditionnel. / Forest and sawmills tactical planning is based on three main elements: wood harvesting, wood transportation and wood transformation. Planning the whole supply chain, is quite complex. Tools have been built to help manager in his decision process, for example FPInterface and Optitek, which were developed by FPInnovations. The aim of this thesis is to develop an optimization module, LogiOpt, which will be integrated to simulation tools. LogiOpt is made of a mathematical model. The developed model aims at optimizing the supply chain between the forest and the mills. Using simulation software solutions and our mathematical model, we combine at the same time in our framework harvesting, transportation, wood allocation and production operations. To test our mathematical model, we used data obtained from one business year of a Quebec based wood manufacturer. We compared our results with a manual simulated tactical plan. In this regard, we observed that LogiOpt performs better in wood allocation between sawmills, harvesting in less harvesting while using wood with better output. We then end up producing more finished products at sawmills using the same wood quantity as a traditional tactical plan.