Design of local heterogeneous system control networks of a new generation with the preservation of the optimality of the main topological functionals of the network

The paper discusses On-Board Computing Control Systems (OBCS) in astronautics, avionics, autonomous mobile devices, robotics, weapons control and multi-core microprocessors. This is sort of a “backbone”, which unites many sensors, calculators, control and executive devices. The architecture of these networks was developed some 30-40 years ago. At that time, these systems met the technical conditions in terms of dynamics and reliability. Nowadays, these systems must perform their functions for 10 to 15 years without maintenance. The performance of system networks must be high enough to solve such tasks as monitoring “swarms” that comprise hundreds of objects or work as a “garbage collectors” in space orbits. Nevertheless modern system networks continue to be based on bus or multi-bus architectures. Since these systems are serial for active nodes, a multi-bus solution is a main way to increase the performance of networks by using very high frequencies that amount to 2 ÷ 4 GHz. It’s an extensive path of development, which is problematic. More acceptable would be an intensive path of development, which, in electronics and computer engineering, is associated with the parallelism of task execution. It means that the operating frequencies may not be ultra-high, not exceeding that of modern devices for frequencies of 10 – 600 MHz. However, such devices should work in a parallel mode. The paper proposes a new approach to designing of heterogeneous parallel control system networks, solving parallel tasks, and a conflict-free management of “passive” nodes. To the best of our knowledge, such control system networks are not available as yet.

Protocol to the Convention on the Prohibition of Bacteriological (Biological) Weapons – History, Main Provisions, Significance and Reasons for Not Signing

Received 30 January 2021. Accepted for publication 20 March 2021 The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (BTWC) does not have a legally binding verification regime. An attempt by the Ad Hoc Group of Experts, created by the UN Committee on Disarmament, to strengthen the BTWC by developing a legally binding document – the Protocol, was blocked by the United States in July 2001. The purpose of this work is to study the history, main provisions, significance and reasons for not signing the Protocol to the BTWC. The attention is paid to the events in biological weapons control, which have led a number of countries to the understanding of the necessity to develop the Protocol. The background of the US actions to block this document is the subject of special consideration. During the Second Review Conference on the Implementation of the Convention (8–25 September 1986, Geneva) the USSR, the German Democratic Republic and the Hungarian People's Republic proposed to develop and adopt the Protocol as an addition to the BTWC. This document was supposed to establish general provisions, definitions of terms, lists of agents and toxins, lists of equipment that was present or used at production facilities, threshold quantities of biological agents designed to assess means and methods of protection. The proposed verification mechanism was based on three «pillars»: initial declarations with the basic information about the capabilities of each State Party; inspections to assess the reliability of the declarations; investigations to verify and confirm or not confirm the alleged non-compliance with the Convention. The verification regime was to be under the control of an international organization – the Organization for the Prohibition of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons. However, the US military and pharmaceutical companies opposed the idea of international inspections. The then US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John Robert Bolton II, played a special role in blocking the Protocol. During the Fifth Review Conference in December 2001, he demanded the termination of the Ad Hoc Group of Experts mandate for negotiations under the pretext that any international agreement would constrain US actions. The current situation with biological weapons control should not be left to chance. Measures to strengthen the BTWC should be developed, taking into account the new fundamental changes in dual-use biotechnology. It should be borne in mind, that the Protocol, developed in the 1990s, is outdated nowadays.

EFFECTIVE APPLICATION AND PROSPECTS OF IMPROVEMENT OF ANTI-TANK ROCKET COMPLEX MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Tanks are one of the main means of implementing aggressive plans to capture land territory. To combat tanks and other armored vehicles the projectiles with different types of warheads and anti-tank guided missiles are used. The best means of defeating tanks are anti-tank missile systems (ATMS), which are classified by aiming methods. The purpose of this work is to review the prospects for development and use of existing ATMS by analyzing the trends of new national and foreign weapons control systems. Anti-tank missile systems of most advanced world‟s armed forces are, predominantly, second-generation systems with a semi-automatic infrared or laser beam guided systems. Missiles of these systems have a high probability of hitting the target (and penetration of armor) when firing under good visibility conditions. The retrofit of the second- generation systems is being done by increasing the protection against jamming caused to aiming systems due to creating combined infrared and thermal coordinators, improving signal processing methods, and increasing the flight speed of missiles and the reliability of command transmission. The tank engine is a powerful contrasting source of thermal energy. The main weak links of systems with semi-automatic guidance systems in terms of jamming counteraction are the operator who tracks the target along the missile's flight, and the coordinator of the missile's command aiming that can be “blinded”. Large-scale works on the creation of next generation anti-tank missile systems based on the latest scientific and technological achievements have been considered. The system‟s operator is one of the weakest links. Careful attitude to the life of every Ukrainian warrior should be a priority, as it is in the modern militaries of the world. This attitude can be ensured by using a reliable missile weapons both natioanl and foreign that would be capable of hitting enemy tanks from a safe distance with a remote control using “fire-and- forget”principle.

Towards a Postcolonial, Anti-Racist, Anti-Militarist Feminist Mode of Weapons Control

The last decade has seen some notable feminist successes in the regulation of the international arms trade, one of the ‘hardest’ areas of international security. Nonetheless, they have not been straightforward or clear-cut gains. Feminist critiques of militarism indicate the scale of the ongoing challenges around weapons control. Furthermore, feminist analysis has long had an ambivalent relationship with anti-racist and postcolonial politics. The argument of this chapter is that efforts to integrate gender into initiatives to regulate or abolish the arms trade are inadequate unless they also centre racial and postcolonial politics within and between states and unless they address more directly the question of when the use of force is justified. The chapter discusses the overlapping imperatives of postcolonial, anti-racist and anti-militarist politics for feminist modes of weapons control as a contribution to the next generation of WPS scholarship.

The Ben Pimlott Memorial Lecture 2019—Britain and the Making of Global Order after 1919

On the centenary of the Paris Peace Conference, the lecture explores Britain’s pivotal role in the development of a rules-based global order. It reveals how Britons fashioned the practices and norms of new international institutions, including the League of Nations, to manage relations between states, markets, and civil society. The lecture uncovers why economic, social, and environmental issues took on as much importance as the more familiar concerns of border protection and weapons’ control. It draws on the correspondence of key internationalists, including women and student activists, who wanted to institutionalize global order in a way that advanced the needs of women, children, and the family as the concern of global security, and shows how preference was given to business groups and central bankers. The lecture exposes the connected history of the First World War with the global order forged to build peace, underlining the important role of the blockade, and the multilateral relationships it engendered. It reveals how British dominance after 1919 encouraged it to use the League of Nations a multilateral hub to manage Britain’s relations with Europe and with its empire, and the legacy of this history for international relations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

16. The ‘Second’ Cold War, 1981–5

This chapter focuses on the so-called ‘second’ Cold War spanning the years 1981–5. Ronald Reagan came to power on the back of a general rightwards shift in the political mood. He concentrated on a presentational role in government and pursued a simple foreign policy. He dismissed détente as a communist trick, was initially determined to resist the spread of the Soviet Union’s influence wherever it threatened and, going beyond that, wanted to carry the new Cold War into the Soviet camp. The chapter first considers US–Soviet relations during the new Cold War, paying attention to ‘Reaganomics’, before discussing the crisis in Poland in 1980–2. It then explores the issue of nuclear weapons control and the ‘Year of the Missile’ and concludes with an assessment of the war in Afghanistan up to 1985.