Professional Writing

[SpitfireV]

Got a good mark for that one. :)

Anyway, I've managed to get a different topic for the intel failures, using Ames and Hanson as a case study on how intelligence failures (within the context of the cycle) contributed to Soviet intelligence penetrating the two different agencies.

 

[Marauder06]

Got a good mark for that one.

Anyway, I've managed to get a different topic for the intel failures, using Ames and Hanson as a case study on how intelligence failures (within the context of the cycle) contributed to Soviet intelligence penetrating the two different agencies.

That ought to be a good read!

 

[Marauder06]

OK here it is. It's kinda rubbish but I'd happy for some feedback. 1k words is really not enough for even a nibble at how the terrorism operation is going.

Spitty-

I read your paper, and I agree with the underlaying theses, particularly with regard to Pakistan's support of violent extremist groups. A couple of notes/suggestions:

-"War on Terror" was President Bush's thing, President Obama uses "Overseas Contingency Operations."
-You said "Warisistan" but I think you meant "Waziristan."
-"Detention" is also misspelled.

 

[SpitfireV]

Spitty-

I read your paper, and I agree with the underlaying theses, particularly with regard to Pakistan's support of violent extremist groups. A couple of notes/suggestions:

-"War on Terror" was President Bush's thing, President Obama uses "Overseas Contingency Operations."
-You said "Warisistan" but I think you meant "Waziristan."
-"Detention" is also misspelled.

The spellingky I have no excuse for! Thanks for your other comments too mate, agreed.

 

[Marauder06]

Here is the final paper I wrote for this semester. It was for a strategy/history class I really liked. For this paper, we could write on anything we liked as long as it tied into strategy. I decided to take a chance and try something "funny and witty" (some here like to remind me that I'm neither ;) ). I applied the grand strategic principles of the books we studied over the past semester (Art of War, The Prince, On War, The Armada, The Peloponnese War, The History of Rome, etc.) and see how they might be applied in a bar on a Friday night. I also added in some references to some of our other readings, and to some inside jokes from the class. The bit at the end is a little jab at my professors for not including On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao to the syllabus. I admit I hadn't read much out of these books before I took the course, but I thought there would be many site members better-read than I who would get the jokes and find this amusing.

 

[SpitfireV]

I have to do an essay on why certain landmines are banned for use but weapons such as napalm is not. I was going to argue that AP mines are a lasting influence on ground and difficult to remove while napalm and the like is a "use once" kind of weapon. Thoughts?

 

[Polar Bear]

Napalm sticks to kids

 

[Marauder06]

I have to do an essay on why certain landmines are banned for use but weapons such as napalm is not. I was going to argue that AP mines are a lasting influence on ground and difficult to remove while napalm and the like is a "use once" kind of weapon. Thoughts?

I think that's exactly right. Landmines are an "area denial" weapon, which have very long "shelf lives" and are very indiscriminate weapons. In contrast, napalm is an "instantaneous effect" weapon. Interestingly, the US is one of the countries which is not a signatory on the international treaty to ban land mines. MOO, this is because 1) the US recognizes the extreme utility of area-denial weapons, and 2) IIRC, all of our landmines have built-in self destruct mechanisms and 3) we are very, very careful as to when, where, and how we use them. For these reasons, the US does not believe we need to sign the treaty; we're responsible enough without it. Again, this is MOO and AFAIK not an official position of the USG.

Another related issue is the use of cluster bombs. Again, they are a highly effective area-denial and direct targeting system, but they, like napalm, are instantaneous. Only... sometimes they're not. Apparently there is a high dud rate of the cluster munitions, and being round like baseballs, many times they're picked up and played with, with unfortunate results.

 

[SpitfireV]

Area denial. That's the word I was looking for. That stuff on why you guys use it is really interesting too. Thanks for the post mate.

 

[Marauder06]

Glad to do it.

 

[SpitfireV]

Could somebody tell me if the list on the right hand side is reasonably accurate as to mines that in service still?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/m77.htm

 

[Marauder06]

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Volume 8, Issue 1

DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 1, 2012

DESCRIPTION

The Yale Journal of International Affairs (YJIA) is a biannual print journal and online platform (yalejournal.org) that seeks to bridge the gap between the academic and policy worlds. YJIA publishes articles, interviews, and op-eds by scholars, think tanks, policy practitioners, and advanced graduate students on international affairs topics with implications for policy. We look for original argumentation and insightful criticism.


Recent contributors to the Yale Journal of International Affairs include: Francis Gavin, Robert Jervis, John M. Owen IV, Marc Trachtenberg, Stephen M. Walt, David Cohen, Alexander Evans, Janet Napolitano, Oona Hathaway, Stanley McChrystal, Tony Blair, Paul Collier, Joseph Stiglitz, John Negroponte, and Mary Kaldor, among others. To view YJIA’s archives, visit us online at yalejournal.org


SUBMISSIONS
The Yale Journal of International Affairs accepts three types of submissions for its print journal:
1) Articles (3,000 to 5,000 words) – Please include a 100-word abstract
2) Op-Eds (800 words or less)
3) Book Reviews (2,000 words or less)
FORMATTING YOUR SUBMISSION*
· All citations should take the form of endnotes.
· All submissions must conform to the conventions of the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition
· All submissions must include a short bio, which should indicate current institutional affiliation and must not exceed three sentences in length.

Submissions must be sent by email as Microsoft Word documents to YJIA Editor-in-Chief Mark Redmond at mark.redmond@yale.edu no later than November 1, 2012.


* Failure to follow these guidelines may result in your piece not being considered. Authors will be notified of the status of their submissions no later than five weeks after the submissions period has closed. Release of Volume VIII, Issue I is expected in Winter 2013. The views expressed in this journal do not necessarily represent those of the Journal’s editorial board, board of advisors, or any other entity at Yale University.



For further information, please contact:
Mark J. Redmond, Editor-In-Chief | mark.redmond@yale.edu
Yale Journal of International Affairs, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511
www.yalejournal.org

 

[Texas_Medic]

Here is the final paper I wrote for this semester.

Funny read, really enjoyed it. To bad Bismarck could never get the "double cannae" in that bar room that his roommate Count Schlieffen promised.

 

[Marauder06]

Funny read, really enjoyed it. To bad Bismarck could never get the "double cannae" in that bar room that his roommate Count Schlieffen promised.

That is brilliant, actually. It might have to go into the revision...

 

[Texas_Medic]

Hey, I'm just here to help.;)​

 

[Texas_Medic]

I'm writing a paper on the constitutionality of the War Powers Act/ Resolution of 1973. I'm interested in thoughts about whether people feel it is constitutional or not. Its a 3 page maximum, thank god, so it will be fairly easy but I found the topic interesting from a constitutional perspective. Currently, and since the act has been passed, no one in the executive office has agreed with the constitutionality of it.

 

[Marauder06]

Yeah, IIRC it gets pretty regularly ignored by the executive branch. Which pisses off the legislative branch.

I don't know a lot about the topic but if you want to post your paper here, I'm sure a couple of us will read it and tell you how crappy it is provide useful feedback.

 

[Texas_Medic]

... I'm sure a couple of us will read it and tell you how crappy it is ....

I am sure that will be the case, for now I am just doing some reading on the subject since I know squat other than what you stated. I hope to write it up next week sometime. I like to be under pressure procrastinate.

 

[Marauder06]

Search for it here on the site. I think someone pissed me off posted something that interested me about this subject, which caused me to get off my ass to prove him wrong in an Internet fight do some research on it. If we didn't delete it, it might still be here.

 

[Dame]

I have to do an online help guide this semester. It's not so much a white paper as a how-to or manual for a user. We'll be using MadCap Flare which is a new program for me. But it does use XML which I recently began learning. Anyway, the bit that has me stumped is what to write the manual for. What might you like to see online help for? Think product. Higher tech than a toaster. Oh, and if anyone has a manual for an SA-H351 made by Sigma/Trimm for the U.S. Navy about 15 years ago, I would dearly love to have that. I wrote it and the company is long gone. It would be close to the perfect project. The drive canisters looked like this: