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This paper examines the most significant processes of securitization and desecuritization occurring at the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) from its inception in 2008 until 2017, when UNASUR began to experience a gridlock. The analysis begins with the hypotheses of desecuritization of armed conflict among the South American countries, as well as their approach to problems drug-related. To this end, the paper is based on a critical theory of security with focus on securitization, and offers an expanded and/or discursive conception of security that goes beyond the military dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the Russian nuclear forces for 2006. The country continues to reduce its total nuclear forces in 2005, however, it plans for a new weapon systems and upgrades of existing one. Russian President Vladimir Putin attempts to reassert the country's nuclear strength and reinstate large-scale military exercises. Statistical data on the operational Russian strategic offensive weapons, nonstrategic and defensive weapons and projected strategic warheads from 2006 to 2015 are presented.

This article begins by exploring the media visibility of anonymity online, in particular in relation to trolls and online bullying. It then explores anonymity in the case of Chelsea Manning who leaked US military secrets but only lost anonymity sometime after her leak was made public. This discussion explores issues of responsibility and the reasons for being anonymous. The article then briefly discusses anonymity based on the discussion of the Manning case in relation to the Snowden case, where Snowden refused anonymity, and the Pentagon Papers. The article concludes by pointing out that issues of responsibility in relation to anonymity remain similar whether digital or not, but that anonymity now exists in a context in which there is greater ability to share information between many more people, faster and with radically lowered costs of publishing than before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how details of British Prime Minister Anthony Eden's secret accord with French and Israeli officials signed on October 24, 1956 to invade Egypt and seize the nationalized Suez Canal came to light in the following two decades despite opposition from officials. Topics covered include the efforts of Labour Members of Parliament to secure a Suez inquiry and official history, and arguments that emerged in the analysis, and the social underpinnings of secrecy in Britain.

Contests over the control of information are central to the perpetuation and critique of militarism. This article examines one of the most prominent sets of state document leaks in recent political history: the online posting of hundreds of thousands of US war logs and diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks. Bold statements were advanced in 2010 and afterward regarding what these releases made visible. In contrast, this article considers how disclosure and nondisclosure came bundled together. With reference to the tensions of keeping secrets and producing transparency, I suggest that the promise attached to the released documents did not just derive from the argument that they revealed modern statecraft, nor that such knowledge was tantalizingly out of reach, but from the manner in which what had been rendered knowable could be revisited over time. Through this argument I want to explore the affective knots, conceptual tangles, and problematic story lines associated with exposing militarism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Ensemble classifier system is applied to biometric verification. • For each base classifier, the classifier's competence is separately calculated. • A lip geometrical features measurements are proposed. • Experiments confirmed our method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods. Abstract Machine learning approaches are largely focused on pattern or object classification, where a combination of several classifier systems can be integrated to help generate an optimal or suboptimal classification decision. Multiple classification systems have been extensively developed because a committee of classifiers, also known as an ensemble, can outperform the ensemble's individual members. In this paper, a classification method based on an ensemble of binary classifiers is proposed. Our strategy consists of two phases: (1) the competence of the base heterogeneous classifiers in a pool is determined, and (2) an ensemble is formed by combining those base classifiers with the greatest competences for the given input data. We have shown that the competence of the base classifiers can be successfully calculated even if the number of their learning examples was limited. Such a situation is particularly observed with biometric data. In this paper, we propose a new biometric data structure, the Sim coefficients, along with an efficient data processing technique involving a pool of competent classifiers chosen by dynamic selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reveals some of the problems that arose between military censors and the media during the First World War. The article is written on the basis of the military censorship materials of the Supreme Commander headquarters of the Russian army, the censorship department of the Minsk military district and the materials of the periodical press. The authors conclude that the conflict was predetermined both by the imperfection of the censorship legislation, which provided an opportunity for the censors to evaluate the publications of newspapers and magazines at their own discretion, and by the censorship omissions of the media, which printed inaccurate news and placed information that the enemy could use. The result was ineffective military censorship and the failure of the press to fulfill its important mission: to contribute to the formation of public opinion in the rear in the interests of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main factor undermining the Russian army during World War I was not revolutionary propaganda but the predominance of peasants among the soldiers. The underlying peasant mindset, which persisted despite orders from above, led to fraternization with the enemy, the unintentional revelation of military secrets, and the development of views on internal and external enemies that contributed to military defeat and revolutionary upheavals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last few months of 1932, the Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski solved the problem of finding the internal connections of the rotors and reflector of the Enigma cipher machine used by the German army at that time. This allowed the Polish Cipher Bureau to construct an analogue of the machine, and subsequently to find effective methods for deciphering secret messages. Rejewski performed this feat virtually alone using cryptographic material provided by the Polish secret services. His knowledge of the theory of permutation groups was essential in solving this problem. This article describes in detail how to find the complete wiring of the rotors and reflector of Enigma, as well as other specifics, using data that Rejewski had at his disposal, by systematically presenting the resolution of all cases that could have been encountered. Similarly, we complete those stages of the procedure that were only outlined by Rejewski. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the Nuclear Posture Review, a congressionally ordered assessment of current and future plans for the U.S. nuclear arsenal from the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. Position on nuclear war planning system; Details on the concept of adaptive planning; Views on the idea regarding the effectiveness of a nuclear weapon.

The main factor undermining the Russian army during World War I was not revolutionary propaganda but the predominance of peasants among the soldiers. The underlying peasant mindset, which persisted despite orders from above, led to fraternization with the enemy, the unintentional revelation of military secrets, and the development of views on internal and external enemies that contributed to military defeat and revolutionary upheavals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a brief description of French-Jewish history. Topics discussed include the French army officer Alfred Dreyfus arrest on charges of leaking French military secrets; impact of the crusades and expulsion on the situation of French Jewry; and relations between Israel and France in the time of Ben-Gurion as Prime Minister of Israel.

The amount of classified information has increased to an astonishing point in recent years--having more than tripled during the Obama Administration alone. Concerns about overclassification are not new, but they are especially troubling given the amount of information now being classified and the amount of persons being prosecuted for leaking classified information. As it stands, the executive branch retains power to determine what information should be classified and who should be prosecuted for leaking classified information. In essence, the Executive holds both pen and sword and it may wield both in its full discretion. This Note addresses: how the current classification system came about and how it currently stands; the tools available to prosecute leaks; and possible solutions to the problems of overclassification and overprosecution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education on the protection of classified information should be the top priority when it comes to ensuring the protection of the vital interests of the state. Some information should not be made available to the public because it is mainly related to national security, and no one should question the need to protect this kind of data. This paper is intended for educators dealing with the protection of classified information, and especially to those who work with or come into contact with confidential information in order to inform them of our national system of protection of classified information and enable the implementation of the existing legislation applying the heuristic model of education. This article describes the legal regulations governing the protection of dataand shows mandatory standards and measures for the protection of classified information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the development and classification of the U.S. military's Operation ARGUS nuclear weapons effects test, focusing on the militarization of science during the Cold War and the anti-militarism of scientists and Americans at the time. The author discusses scientists' motivations for pursuing military research and special attention is paid to the U.S. government's use of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) project as a cover for military projects. Physicist Nicholas Christofilos' theory of a protective electron shield generated by nuclear explosions is highlighted as the motivation for ARGUS, and the accelerated planning of the project is noted. Other topics include coverage of the project by newspaper the "New York Times" and reactions to the secret test.

Recent releases from the National Security Agency reveal details of TICOM, the mysterious 1945 operation targeting Germany's cryptologic secrets. Often mentioned by such authors as Kahn, Bamford, Parrish and Aldrich, for the first time the public has access to this information. This article provides a review in greater depth than has been previously covered in the open literature of the history of the TICOM operation, and its resulting intelligence, including the Germans' efforts against Soviet communications. In addition, some comments are provided on why TICOM has remained classified long after other similar information from World War II was declassified, and why locating TICOM documents is still difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Students of international relations should seek to understand the ways in which power in international relations can be amplified by secrecy. Discussions of ‘decision advantage’ over rival states have explained information asymmetries and means for competitors to gain advantages by keeping secret their sources of information or the special insights they gain even from information that is widely available. The histories of war, diplomacy and intelligence illuminate such advantages, and also show various ways in which secrecy amplifies ‘action’ advantages as well as ‘information’ advantages. That amplification often seems to be accomplished by the same people and organizations, and this essay suggests the prime reason for this common institutional co-location of secret functions can be termed the ‘economy of secrecy’. The key to grasping this point is to set aside traditional and academic distinctions between knowledge and action, and information and implementation, when viewing the moves of sovereignties. Sovereign leaders opt to co-locate their secret activities when they judge it too risky (e.g. potentially expensive and dangerous) to distribute secret-information and secret-action functions around too many different offices. The handful of subordinates that receive these functions are what we now call ‘intelligence agencies.’ Finally, a firmer grasp of the economics of secrecy can improve oversight of secrets and the offices that deal with them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to a letter to the editor by David Kahn regarding the alleged sale of U.S. cryptographic secrets to the Japanese in 1930 by Herbert Yardley within the issue.

Insight is provided into architecture practice supporting development of deployed communications and information system (CIS) capability in the context of Network Centric Warfare (NCW). In determining what NCW capability may be extant in various instantiations of a force, and at different epochs, an important starting point is to understand what connectivity can be supported. An NCW intra-nodal technical reference model and a set of simplified architecture descriptions are outlined to support analysis of connectivity between disparate nodes in a heterogeneous networking environment. The approach to connectivity analysis is drawn from graph theory, which allows the force to be represented in simplistic terms as a set of graph nodes and links supporting different types of information transfer. This is then related to the actual NCW infrastructure which is carrying the respective information flows. The methodology supports analysis of what platforms and organisations share the same communication bearers, the same networking environments, and the same computer-based applications, including consideration of protocols employed, traffic types supported, gateways provided, security services supported, and how many users/system and systems/user. The methodology was used to support connectivity analysis during a recent major military exercise in support of measuring NCW capability of a Networked Maritime Task Group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issue concerning the U.S. Federal Circuit's utilization of the Military and State Secrets Privilege on the patent lawsuit filed by Crater Corp. against Lucent Technologies. It reveals that the circuit's dismissal of Crater's patent infringement claim through the application of the Privilege has violated the constitutional rights of the investors. It states that the circuit's decision may affect the companies' willingness to carry out inventions needed by the military.

The article focuses on the role of military informatization in the structure of the state's military affairs. It mentions that military informatization is essential for the existence and development of both the theory and practice of military affairs. The article also introduces the concept "army control infosphere" and describes the properties and various types of information resources, the formalized and the non-formalized.

In April 2006, the Bush administration launched a variety of new attacks on the press following the unauthorized disclosure of classified information. Leakers and the recipients of leaks were targeted for criticism and denunciation, and were threatened with prosecution. The very real possibility of a de facto Official Secrets Act no longer seemed unthinkable in the context of the continuing war on terror. Yet the government's obsession with secrecy did not begin with the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Bush administration's contempt for the public's right to know amounts to an organized assault on freedom of information that is unprecedented since the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act forty years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sets out, with comments, an account by A. G. Denniston (the operational head of the British Government Code and Cypher School in 1939) of the meeting near Pyry, Poland, in July 1939, when Polish cryptanalysts revealed how they broke Enigma, and a letter by Dillwyn Knox on the meeting's outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a personal narrative of observations from a desert mountain overlooking Nevada's Tikaboo Valley on a secret base in Groom Lake. As far as the U.S. Air Force is concerned, the base does not exist. Therefore, the planes that fly into and out of the base obey civilian flight rules, which allows people to detect their radio transmissions. Groom Lake has evolved since its establishment in 1954 as a place to test U-2 stealth planes into a place where appropriated MiG fighter planes are tested by a group of pilots in order to develop strategies against them.

The article focuses on issues related to state secrets and executive power in the U.S. formation that has historically been publicly available. Secrecy claims are raised so routinely and broadly that in some cases, the administration officials involved do not even know what the allegedly secret documents contain. Taken together, administration officials' statements interpreting law and their blanket denials of requests for documents demonstrate an intention to greatly expand the power of the executive branch to withhold information from the public, free from any kind of oversight.

This article reports that in the first book of The "Art" of Rhetoric, Aristotle, a philosopher, discusses the relative reliability of various kinds of witnesses in proving a judicial case, distinguishing first between ancient and recent witnesses, and then between well-known persons who have given a decision on any point and those who share the risk of the trial if they are thought to be perjurers. It is informed that in the winter of 1707-08, William Gregg, a clerk in the office of the secretary of state, Robert Harley, was found to have been selling military secrets to the French. Condemned to death, he was repeatedly offered his life in exchange for inculpating Harley.

The May 2002 tranche of British Security Service files released to the Public Record Office included hitherto classified policy files containing documents on Secret Service Committee meetings held from 1919 to 1923. This body wrote an important yet relatively obscure chapter in British intelligence history: the post-First World War reorganization and retasking of British secret service machinery, the focus now being Soviet Russia. However, by encouraging the deliberate overstatement of the Bolshevik 'subversive' threat and then backing excessive measures to counter it, some British officials may have sown the seeds of government's later inability to detect a much graver peril to national security, that of Soviet espionage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The president of the United States issues a variety of directives to communicate to his staff and to the nation. One such directive is commonly referred to as a national security directive. National security directives have been used, in some form, by every president since Truman. Frequently classified national security directives can have wide-ranging impact on foreign and domestic policy and provide insight into the strategies of an administration. The use of national security directives and their availability is the subject of this article. The first part of the article provides a history of national security directives, by president. The second part offers suggestions on locating the text of directives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Features the history of the secret operation of the Marine Corps through the enlistment of Navajo 'code talkers' in the United States. Application of codes in war; Accomplishment of the group during the World War II; Suggestions for teaching activities for students.

Focuses on the relevance of fundamental science research (FSR) in security classification in Russia. Scope and definition of fundamental science; Use of the security classification in military orientation and civilian problems; Account on the specific traits of FSR in the premature security classification of theories or paradigms.

Focuses on the Research Information Service (RIS) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the 'special relationship' in allied scientific information and intelligence in 1916-1918. Demands made by the war on resources of science and scholarship; Origins of the RIS; Relationship between the U.S. and Great Britain in security and defense science; Allied cooperation and scientific diplomacy.

Focuses on the charges leveled by Central Intelligence Agency analyst Sam Adams on the Enemy Order of Battle of the 1968 Tet offensive in the Vietnam War and the conditions that existed within the American intelligence community on the eve of the offensive. Importance of Order of Battle estimates for military commanders; How military intelligence was prepared for estimating enemy units; Discussion about the differing estimates within the administration; Analysis of Adams' claims of a conspiracy to keep Order of Battle estimates from highest level of military commanders.