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Some ABCs of Graphs and Games

Jennifer Beineke and Lowell Beineke

in The Mathematics of Various Entertaining Subjects: Research in Recreational Math

This chapter explores some objects in which graphs have a role, some explicit, some not obvious. These graphical objects are presented as mathematical exhibits at a museum. The chapter starts with ... More

This chapter explores some objects in which graphs have a role, some explicit, some not obvious. These graphical objects are presented as mathematical exhibits at a museum. The chapter starts with the Amazing Asteroid, following this with a theorem (Bernstein's Bijection), a couple of games (Chromatic Combat and Devious Dice), an episode of Eluding Execution, a coin-tossing game (Flipping Fun), and an African adventure game (Get the Giraffe). Versions of these explorations have all been successfully used with students at various levels—whether in the classroom, for Math Club, or for independent investigation—but they can be appreciated by wider audiences too. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of how one of the topics in particular is contributing to successful research experiences for undergraduates.Less

Introduction L’imaginaire de mai

Margaret Atack

in May 68 in French Fiction and Film: Rethinking Society, Rethinking Representation

The month of May in the year 1968 was truly an exceptional episode in French history thanks to the violence of street battles with the police, the level of popular support for the protesters, the ... More

The month of May in the year 1968 was truly an exceptional episode in French history thanks to the violence of street battles with the police, the level of popular support for the protesters, the size of the demonstrations, the millions on strike, and the endless discussion all around. It felt like a revolution, with the old order being torn apart and notions of spontaneity and immediacy being connoted all around. May was an object of historical knowledge before it even began to be over, with articles for the newspaper Combat turned into a tract and pinned on trees; while subversive journals and large amounts of newsprint were being devoted to the events. Contemporary newsreels shadowed the story of May from university crisis to national crisis as the May riots and strikes gained progressively in prominence. May is a monstrous library, as well as an unsolvable puzzle, or so it seems. May was the crossroads through which history, social change, social and political theorizations of the individual and society, have all passed.Less

“We Refuse to Be ‘Good Germans’”: Germany in a Divided Decade, 1959–1969

Brian C. Etheridge

in Enemies To Allies: Cold War Germany and American Memory

This chapter shows that while most West German officials believed that the apparent “anti-German wave” signified an upsurge in anti-German feeling, an examination of the constituent parts of the wave ... More

This chapter shows that while most West German officials believed that the apparent “anti-German wave” signified an upsurge in anti-German feeling, an examination of the constituent parts of the wave reveals that the story was far more complex. The various events in and about Germany—the swastika daubings of 1959–1960, the Eichmann trial, the publication of William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich—offered a new set of symbols for Americans to use in discussing their current and future foreign and domestic policies. Most important, with the fragmentation of the postwar consensus in light of civil rights activism, increasingly violent riots, open dissent against American foreign policy, and outright cultural rebellion, the state's ability both to contain alternative narratives of Germany and maintain a media monopoly on Germany's meaning for America faltered. Conjuring the Cold War narrative failed to persuade many Americans to stay within the fold. Although the state-sanctioned narrative endured and remained evident in mainstream products such as Hogan's Heroes and Combat! Germany was remembered and deployed by different groups to critique the Cold War consensus itself.Less

Stryker Brigade Combat Team vs Future Combat System: An Institutional After Action Report on Innovation in the Transformation Decade

David Fastabend

in Landpower in the Long War: Projecting Force After 9/11

This chapter extends the time-honored tactical technique of the Operating Force--the After Action Report--and applies it to two transformation efforts of the US Army: the successful fielding of the ... More

This chapter extends the time-honored tactical technique of the Operating Force--the After Action Report--and applies it to two transformation efforts of the US Army: the successful fielding of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT), and the ill-fated Future Combat System (FCS). Five "institutional innovation challenges" are applied to each effort: Forecasting the Environment. Did the Army accurately forecast the Operating Environment that shaped these programs? Defining the Problem. Did the Army effectively (and compellingly) define the operational problem(s) the programs should solve? Aligning the Innovation Approach. Was the institutional innovation model properly aligned to Army institutional realities? Exploiting and Mitigating Process. Were the programs able to leverage institutional process while mitigating process limitations and pitfalls? Leveraging the Human Dimension. Did the program properly account for the human factors of leadership, politics, complexity, and culture? The disparate success of these two capability development efforts is clearly traceable to how they fared in addressing these challenges.Less

Replaying history: reading Close Combat

Barry Atkins

in More than a Game: The Computer Game as Fictional Form

This chapter explores two distinct characteristics that can be found in a game such as Close Combat. Firstly it looks at it in relation to the more general sub-genre of game-fictions, the real-time ... More

This chapter explores two distinct characteristics that can be found in a game such as Close Combat. Firstly it looks at it in relation to the more general sub-genre of game-fictions, the real-time strategy game, to which it belongs. Then it considers it in terms of its reference to other historical texts that focus on military matters, and other texts sometimes labelled ‘counterfactual’ historical works. In looking at this game-fiction as a specifically historical text, the chapter concentrates on the ways in which Close Combat attempts to negotiate two ambitions that would seem to be incompatible with one another. On the one hand, Close Combat attempts to address the desire for a level of scholarship comparable to that which informs the conventional historical work — it must be ‘accurate’, its attention to detail must satisfy an audience already likely to be conversant with the period in which it is set, its reference must always be to the historical record. On the other hand, this is not a narrative history or a historical documentary, it is a game-fiction. It depends on its ability not only to reflect or iterate historical detail from a supposedly ‘objective’ position (with its fixed distance reflecting that adopted by a certain type of military historian who concentrates on the details of the hardware over the human story), but for its most basic readability on its potential for departure from the historical record.Less

Camus as Journalist

Joseph Frank

in Responses to Modernity: Essays in the Politics of Culture

In the early years of his career, before The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger made their mark, Albert Camus was far better known as a journalist than in any other capacity. He published articles ... More

In the early years of his career, before The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger made their mark, Albert Camus was far better known as a journalist than in any other capacity. He published articles between 1944 and 1947 in Combat, an underground journal established before France was liberated, and which continued to appear for a few years after that time. Journalism seems to form a very minor aspect of Camus' multifarious activity as novelist, playwright, theatre director, and cultural-political commentator, but it played a much larger role in his life than is usually recognized. Camus refuses to accept the repugnance of mankind so prominent in Jean-Paul Sartre, and so unforgettably dramatized in the latter's play, Huis Clos (No Exit). But when The Myth of Sisyphus was published in 1942, it was at first considered part of the philosophy of existentialism brought into vogue by Sartre's novel, stories, and his major philosophical work, Being and Nothingness.Less

The Facts of War: Cinematic Intelligence and the Office of Strategic Services

Simon Willmetts

in In Secrecy's Shadow: The OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema 1941-1979

This chapter tells the story of the OSS Field Photographic Unit (FPU) and its impact on American cinema and society. Led by the legendary Hollywood film director John Ford, the FPU produced training, ... More

This chapter tells the story of the OSS Field Photographic Unit (FPU) and its impact on American cinema and society. Led by the legendary Hollywood film director John Ford, the FPU produced training, reconnaissance and propaganda films for the CIA’s wartime predecessor. In doing so, it is argued here, they made a significant contribution to what theorist Paul Virilio termed “the logistics of perception”, or the ways and means by which war is perceived. By helping to transform the second-hand experience of war from a predominantly textual to a mostly visual experience, the FPU left a profound legacy.Less

Knowledge versus Execution in Dynamic Judgment Tasks

Ann M. Bisantz, Alex Kirlik, Neff Walker, Arthur D. Fisk, Paul Gay, and Donita Phipps

in Adaptive Perspectives on Human–Technology Interaction: Methods and Models for Cognitive Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction

This chapter deals with two features of dynamic, interactive environments that make a standard application of the lens model problematic. The research presented here is one of the many efforts ... More

This chapter deals with two features of dynamic, interactive environments that make a standard application of the lens model problematic. The research presented here is one of the many efforts initiated and supported under the Tactical Decision Making Under Stress (TADMUS) program. A laboratory simulation modeled on the naval Combat Information Center (CIC) environment and the task of the Anti-Air Warfare Coordinator (AAWC) is observed in this fieldwork. Applying the lens model to the laboratory simulation in the context of the CIC and the AAWC was complicated by the dynamic nature of the task and environment. The lens model analysis indicated that the differences between high and low performers could be explained in part by the consistency with which participants executed their judgment strategies and in part by task knowledge.Less

Militarized Mestizajes: Combat, Transculturation, and Imperialism in Latina/o Life Writing From the War on Terror

B. V. Olguín

in Violentologies: Violence, Identity, and Ideology in Latina/o Literature

Chapter 5 focuses on how the War on Terror’s permutations of Latina/o war literature, theater, television, film, and popular music present methodological and political challenges to conventional ... More

Chapter 5 focuses on how the War on Terror’s permutations of Latina/o war literature, theater, television, film, and popular music present methodological and political challenges to conventional understandings of Latina/o relationships to power as inherently oppositional to capitalism and US imperialism. These relatively new genres include Latina/o War on Terror combat action memoir and related oral histories; wounded warrior narratives; protofascist Special Forces Über-warrior memoir and biographical profiles; Conscientious Objector testimonio, ideologically ambivalent wartime theater, and pacifist performance art; military command memoirs by junior and senior officers; as well as Latina/o spy memoir, biography, and historical fiction. Despite the authors’ profound differences in cultural heritage, experiences, and aesthetic capacities, their cultural productions cohere around intersecting, and diverging, violence-based theories of knowledge and being that extend through, but also far beyond warfare and wartime contexts. They also demonstrate the stark right-wing turn in a large segment of contemporary Latina/o life writing, which accentuates the wide range of ideological trajectories identified in earlier chapters.Less

The Escalation of Rhetoric: The Launch of Combat (1936)

Christophe Bident

in Maurice Blanchot: A Critical Biography

This chapter focuses on the launch of the publication Combat. Its circumstances and aims are unpacked, and Blanchot’s editorial and journalistic roles explored.

Operation Tomahawk: 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, 23–24 March 1951

William T. Bowers

in Striking Back: Combat in Korea, March-April 1951

One tool available to General Ridgway that could be used to trap and destroy part of the enemy forces was the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT). The escape of the enemy from Ch'unch'on led ... More

One tool available to General Ridgway that could be used to trap and destroy part of the enemy forces was the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT). The escape of the enemy from Ch'unch'on led General Ridgway to look for another opportunity to use the 187th Airborne RCT. The new operation, code-named Courageous, would involve the U.S. I Corps, but a key element of the plan was the use of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team to seize the area around Munsan-ni and trap the enemy frontline units, setting them up for destruction (code-named Operation Tomahawk). A discussion on the preparations on this plan and the drop is presented. In addition, the action at drop zone south is described. The 2d Battalion action, consolidation on the drop zone, and the 4th Ranger Company at Hill 205 are elaborated upon as well. The capture of Hill 205 on 24 March ended the fighting around the drop zone. In general, Operation Tomahawk was a success, except for one key aspect; the enemy had not been caught in the trap.Less

The Advance East: 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, 24–25 March 1951

William T. Bowers

in Striking Back: Combat in Korea, March-April 1951

Commanders believed that the only hope for UN success was a rapid move east by the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT) to hit the rear of the Chinese in front of the 3d Division. However, the ... More

Commanders believed that the only hope for UN success was a rapid move east by the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT) to hit the rear of the Chinese in front of the 3d Division. However, the 187th Airborne with its attached Task Force Growdon was in the midst of resupply activities, and would be hard pressed to move fast enough to catch the enemy before they pulled back. Capt. Charles E. Weddle of the 187th Airborne RCT's S-3 section describes the receipt of the order. Capt. John Wahl provides details of the airborne regiment's movement plan. About the time that the move to the east started, the resupply vehicles of Task Force Growdon and the “land tail” of the 187th Airborne RCT began to arrive. On 25 March, Task Force Kobbe returned to Munsan-ni with the 999th Field Artillery battery. There the battalion was refueled by the trains that had arrived from Seoul. The remaining elements of Task Force Growdon moved to Seoul, where the task force was dissolved. It also discusses the actions near Parun-ni. The fire, resupply and medical supports are then addressed.Less

Cuting the Uijongbu Road: 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, 26–28 March 1951

William T. Bowers

in Striking Back: Combat in Korea, March-April 1951

On 26 March, the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT) resumed its attack to cut the enemy escape route. The action that took place on Hill 228 is illustrated. About the same time that Company ... More

On 26 March, the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT) resumed its attack to cut the enemy escape route. The action that took place on Hill 228 is illustrated. About the same time that Company F moved north to attack Hill 178, the 3d Battalion moved up on line south of the 1st Battalion and began its attack on Hill 228. Elements of the 1st Battalion moved forward to support Company I's attack on Hill 228. On 26 March determined enemy resistance had again prevented the 187th Airborne RCT from cutting the Uijongbu road and trapping the Chinese. On the morning of 27 March, patrols from the 2d Battalion indicated that the enemy threat on the northern flank was reduced. The attack to the east was to continue. Soon after dawn, the 3d Battalion, with Company K in the lead, resumed its advance up Hill 228. The plan of attack for 28 March called for the 1st and 3d Battalions to seize Hills 322 and 299. After these objectives were secured, the regiment would continue the attack to Hills 507 and 519. An assessment of Operation Tomahawk is provided.Less

Operation Swing—The Push to the East: 23d Infantry Regiment, 4–8 April 1951

William T. Bowers

in Striking Back: Combat in Korea, March-April 1951

The advance to Line Kansas, scheduled to begin 3 April, was named Operation Rugged; the subsequent limited movement toward the Iron Triangle was designated Operation Dauntless. The 2d Division's 23d ... More

The advance to Line Kansas, scheduled to begin 3 April, was named Operation Rugged; the subsequent limited movement toward the Iron Triangle was designated Operation Dauntless. The 2d Division's 23d Infantry Regimental Combat Team (RCT) played a key role in the ensuing operations. Because of the lack of roads in the new area of operations, engineer teams were dispatched to find routes that could be improved for movement and supply. Although the engineers were unsuccessful in locating trails that could be improved for vehicular movement, there was one existing road that followed the Soyang River from Ch'unch'on through Naep'yong-ni. However, there were problems with this road. The chapter discusses the relief of the marines and the initial attack of 3d Battalion, 23d Infantry. Orders from the 23d Infantry Regiment called for continuing attacks to clear the high ground to the left of the Soyang River road. It also describes the “Rock of Gibraltar”. Overcoming the North Korean fortifications atop the “Rock of Gibraltar” and the surrounding high ground would require something more than a direct assault.Less

Conclusion: “How Do You Love Your Family and Leave Them to Go to War?”

Glen Donnar

in Troubling Masculinities: Terror, Gender, and Monstrous Others in American Film Post-9/11

This concluding chapter interrogates the presumed eradication of deep-seated anxieties identified throughout the book about the failings of males in “protective” roles in recent Hollywood film. The ... More

This concluding chapter interrogates the presumed eradication of deep-seated anxieties identified throughout the book about the failings of males in “protective” roles in recent Hollywood film. The chapter focuses on the jingoistic 12 Strong (2018), which recounts the story of the first Special Forces team deployed into Afghanistan following 9/11. The film restages both America’s initial military response to the originary terror attacks and of reassuring “male action” subgenres—from the cavalry western to the WWII combat film—to erase the gendered sense of failure of 9/11 and the irresolution of the “war on terror.” The film’s coda showcases the supposedly triumphant return of soldier-father heroes, paragons of idealized American masculinity, to the home. However, the chapter finds that gendered anxieties about “protective” failings persist through multiple genre and narrative incoherences, which invert the “hero’s homecoming” and reiterate just how pervasive and enduring “gender trouble” remains in American film post-9/11.Less

First Female Guerrilla: Life on the Front Lines of Revolution

Tiffany A. Sippial

in Celia Sánchez Manduley: The Life and Legacy of a Cuban Revolutionary

This chapter draws upon letters sent between Sánchez and other members of the 26 July Movement (M-26-7) to reveal the ways in which an official narrative of Sánchez’s hero status began taking shape ... More

This chapter draws upon letters sent between Sánchez and other members of the 26 July Movement (M-26-7) to reveal the ways in which an official narrative of Sánchez’s hero status began taking shape in the Sierra Maestra. Aside from her role in smuggling arms into the Sierra Maestra, maintaining rebel communications, bringing international media attention to the movement, she participated in direct combat, earning her the title “first guerrilla of the Sierra Maestra.”Less

War and Home—No Safe Place

M. Jan Holton

in Longing for Home: Forced Displacement and Postures of Hospitality

This chapter proposes that many combat soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have returned home to confront a psychological or spiritual displacement prompted by post-traumatic stress ... More

This chapter proposes that many combat soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have returned home to confront a psychological or spiritual displacement prompted by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or moral injury. These forms of displacement threaten the soldier’s sense of safety and security in the home place. PTSD and moral injury can so invade the life of combat veterans through symptoms such as flashbacks and hypervigilance or shame and guilt that even the physical home becomes threatened. Throughout the chapter we glimpse ways that military training methods, which are intend to desensitize soldiers to killing and instill a sense of exceptionalism necessary for successful combat, create a double bind for soldiers, who must then come to see themselves as victims in order to seek effective treatment for psychological and moral injury.Less

Implementing a Balanced Counterinsurgency Strategy In Northeast Afghanistan, May 2007–July 2008

Nathan R. Springer

in Culture, Conflict, and Counterinsurgency

In this chapter the author examines the successful implementation of balanced counterinsurgency strategy in northeastern Afghanistan though the lens of his experience. The author defines a balanced ... More

In this chapter the author examines the successful implementation of balanced counterinsurgency strategy in northeastern Afghanistan though the lens of his experience. The author defines a balanced counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy as the appropriate level of effort applied to killing and capturing the enemy, versus partnering with and protecting the Afghan population, and enabling the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) to operate independently. The weighting of this effort is determined by the unique local conditions of each area of operation to include such variables as; insurgent’s force, enemy’s disposition and composition, effectiveness of ANSF. The author concludes that only after we carefully analyze, study, and understand the nature of the conflict and the human environment of the area of operation, can we select the right approach to success.Less