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The purpose of this chapter is to describe and analyze the operational styles of the American and Netherlands armed forces displayed in the ISAF operations in Southern Afghanistan. The aim is to ascertain if and how these differences converge as a consequence of common experiences in the area of operations. The methodology is based on written published information, as well as newspaper, and internet sources. The findings demonstrate that although there are considerable differences in operations styles between both national militaries, common experiences urge them to learn from each other, and hence to develop some sort of isomorphism in their operations. This tendency is not unique to the military. Isomorphism is a well-known phenomenon in the sociology of organizations and it relates to the idea of supranational convergence of policies, which is an important topic of study in political science. The limitations of this chapter pertain to the fact that only two national armed forces have been studied and that there is only little primary material to rely on. The practical implications are numerous. It stresses the tendency and need for national militaries, who are engaged in multinational military cooperation, to learn from each other while trying to reach for the maximum results of their endeavors. The point of isomorphism in national militaries developing as a result of common experiences has never been described before, certainly not in terms of well established concepts of the sociology of organizations and political science.

Outlines a research project on smart guns: weapons that can only be fired by someone recognized as an authorized user. Technologies under research include electronic tags and implicit enabling, magnetics, radio‐frequency and command disablement and biometrics, using fingerprints, voice recognition and hand geometry. Concludes that smart‐gun technology can help prevent the unauthorized use of law‐enforcement guns. Purely mechanical options could work: the simplest is building a keyed lock into the gun. Other ideas to be studied include barcodes, implants, acoustics and combinations of devices.

It is no longer merely far-fetched science fiction to think that robots will be the chief combatants, waging wars in place of humans. Or is it? While artificial intelligence (AI) has made remarkable strides, tempting us to personify the machines “making decisions” and “choosing targets”, a more careful analysis reveals that even the most sophisticated AI can only be an instrument rather than an agent of war. After establishing the layered existential nature of war, we lay out the prerequisites for being a (moral) agent of war. We then argue that present AI falls short of this bar, and we have strong reason to think this will not change soon. With that in mind, we put forth a second argument against robots as agents: there is a continuum with other clearly nonagential tools of war, like swords and chariots. Lastly, we unpack what this all means: if AI does not add another moral player to the battlefield, how (if at all) should AI change the way we think about war?

Using long-run trend data for US tactical and bomber aircraft, Norman Augustine’s Law 16 famously suggests continuously rising US armament unit costs. By the year 2054, the country’s entire defence budget would be expended on a single aircraft, which an industry colleague dubbed as the Battlestar Galactica. However, while it is thought provoking, what does Law 16 in fact entail? It appears that the mechanics of Augustine’s ‘Law’ has never been examined in detail. To help disentangle the matter and assess its relevance in the context of today’s battlefield technology, which is increasingly focussed on the application of large numbers of small, cheap, expendable, electronically linked, yet highly autonomous systems, this chapter introduces the concept of an Augustine weapons system.

Technologies are constantly developed to address new demands and provide further opportunities. Owing to a number of potential application areas of nanotechnologies within this sector, the purpose of this study is to take defense as a case and propose a strategic roadmap for the use of nanotechnologies in the Turkish Defense Industry.

The study presented in this paper uses a bibliometric analysis of the most cited publications in the past decade with the aim of identifying the trends in the development of nanotechnology. Interviews were carried out with experts based on the featured words of bibliometric analysis (nanoparticles, nanostructure, self-assembly, drug delivery, graphene, etc.) to reveal the commercialization time of nanotechnology products and applications. After that, a survey was carried out with engineers for determining the possible emergence time of nanotechnology applications and/or products used in military up to year 2035. Finally, a roadmap was created based on the obtained data from bibliometric analysis, interviews and survey results.

Nanotechnology roadmap was prepared, one which would contribute to the preparation of the defense industry for the future and help in keeping up with technological developments.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Interviews and surveys have limitation with the bounded rationality of corresponders.

The paper proposed a nanotechnology roadmap for the defense sector with a data-led foresight practice.

Performing such a study is considered to be crucial for the armies of developed and developing countries, so that the military sector also avails benefits from this revolutionary technology. Quantitative and qualitative methods were mixed for developing the roadmap.

The growing dependence on the Internet and related technologies has led to the creation of a new type of warfare, “information warfare” (infowar) which is based on attacking and infiltrating opposing information infrastructures. The chances of information infrastructures being subjected to attacks have increased correlatively with the growth of networked, multinational organizations and e‐commerce. Although challenging, it is becoming extremely important to protect and safeguard information infrastructures from any attack. Info‐war is definitely a concern for most nations due to increased susceptibility of information systems to perpetrators. Many nations have confirmed that their information systems have already been successfully penetrated, introducing a unique and potentially devastating twenty‐first century threat. Discusses the types of info war attacks, proposes a framework for identifying various zones where the info war attack could create damage to information infrastructures, and suggests some mechanisms to safeguard against the info war attacks.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a guide for managing the provision of on-campus student housing facilities (SHFs) security and safety measures.

This study adopted a mixed-method approach; the questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect quantitative data, whereas the interview was used to collect qualitative data. Descriptive and inferential statistics and importance-performance analysis models were used to analyse the quantitative data, whereas content analysis was used for the qualitative data.

This study found that students rated the satisfaction of all the SHFs safety and security measures below the level of importance. Three categories of performance level (i.e. poor, average and good) were determined. It also became evident that most of the measures were performing averagely, quite a number were poorly performing and few were performing well.

Data was collected from only one university; therefore, the findings of the research may not be generalised. A study that expands the number of participating universities is recommended.

The guide developed can be used by the facility and/or hostel managers to ensure appropriate management of SHFs security and safety measures. The guide can also assist to ensure that all the essential safety measures are provided when designing, constructing or upgrading SHFs. It would also aid in the development of policy frameworks for SHFs security and safety.

Although several studies have been conducted on SHFs, studies that mainly focussed on prioritising SHFs security and safety measures are lacking. With this paper, the authors also demonstrate the practicality of the use of the IPA model to aid the process of developing improvement priorities.

Dr. L. Botting, Engineering Controller—Advanced Systems, discusses the historical and technical background to one of NGL's many contributions to the Panavia Tornado, describes its operation and the newly established advanced manufacturing unit at NGL's Ordnance Division in Crewkerne which produces it.