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The War on Terrorism and What We Can Learn from our War with Fire

Whitley, John B.; Yonas, Gerold Y.

The highly leveraged, asymmetric attacks of September 11th have launched the nation on a vast ''War on Terrorism''. Now that our vulnerabilities and the enemies' objectives and determination have been demonstrated, we find ourselves rapidly immersed in a huge, complex problem that is virtually devoid of true understanding while being swamped with resources and proposed technologies for solutions. How do we win this war? How do we make sure that we are making the proper investments? What things or freedoms or rights do we have to give up to win? Where do we even start? In analyzing this problem, many similarities to mankind's battle with uncontrolled fire and the threat it presented to society were noted. Major fires throughout history have destroyed whole cities and caused massive loss of life and property. Solutions were devised that have gradually, over several hundred years, reduced this threat to a level that allows us to co-exist with the threat of fire by applying constant vigilance and investments in fire protection, but without living in constant fear and dread from fire. We have created a multi-pronged approach to fire protection that involves both government and individuals in the prevention, mitigation, and response to fires. Fire protection has become a virtually unnoticed constant in our daily lives; we will have to do the same for terrorism. This paper discusses the history of fire protection and draws analogies to our War on Terrorism. We have, as a society, tackled and successfully conquered a problem as big as terrorism. From this battle, we can learn and take comfort.

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Emerging Technologies and MOUT

Yonas, Gerold Y.; Moy, Timothy D.

Operating in a potentially hostile city is every soldier's nightmare. The staggering complexity of the urban environment means that deadly threats--or non-combatants-may lurk behind every corner, doorway, or window. Urban operations present an almost unparalleled challenge to the modern professional military. The complexity of urban operations is further amplified by the diversity of missions that the military will be called upon to conduct in urban terrain. Peace-making and peace-keeping missions, urban raids to seize airports or WMD sites or to rescue hostages, and extended urban combat operations all present different sorts of challenges for planners and troops on the ground. Technology almost never serves as a magic bullet, and past predictions of technological miracles pile high on the ash heap of history. At the same time, it is a vital element of planning in the modern age to consider and, if possible, take advantage of emerging technologies. We believe that technologies can assist military operations in urbanized terrain (MOUT) in three primary areas, which are discussed.

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National Needs Drivers for Nanotechnology

Yonas, Gerold Y.; Picraux, Samuel T.

Societal needs related to demographics, resources, and human behavior will drive technological advances over the next 20 years. Nanotechnology is anticipated to be an important enabler of these advances, and thus maybe anticipated to have significant influence on new systems approaches to solving societal problems as well as on extending current science and technology-based applications. To examine the potential implications of nanotechnology a societal needs-driven approach is taken. Thus the methodology is to present the definition of the problem, and then examine system concepts, technology issues, and promising future directions. We approach the problem definition from a national and global security perspective and identify three key areas involving the condition of the planet, the human condition, and global security. In anticipating societal issues in the context of revolutionary technologies, such as maybe enabled by nanoscience, the importance of working on the entire life cycle of any technological solution is stressed.

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Intense beams: The past, present, and future

BEAMS 1998 - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on High-Power Particle Beams

Yonas, Gerold Y.

In this paper we review the present status of z-pinches, and predict what the future holds. Although nobody can predict the future, the past 30 years have taught us some lessons that can be applied to the next 30 years.

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Technology transfer in the national laboratories

Yonas, Gerold Y.

The title of this paper might unfairly provoke readers if it conjures up visions of vast stores of high-tech gadgets in several hundred technology warehouses'' (also known as federal laboratories) around the country, open for browsing by those in search of a bargain. That vision, unfortunately, is a mirage. The term technology transfer'' is not really as accurate as is the term technology team-work,'' a process of sharing ideas and knowledge rather than widgets. In addition, instead of discussing the efforts of more than 700 federal labs in the US, I mean to address only those nine government-owned, contractor-operated multiprogram labs run by the Department of Energy. Nevertheless, the topic of technology team-work opportunities with DOE multiprogram national lab is of significance to those concerned with increasing economic competitiveness and finding technological solutions to a host of national problems. A significant fraction of US R D capabilities rests in the nine DOE multiprogram national laboratories -- and these labs have only just begun to join the other federal laboratories in these efforts due to the passage and recent implementation of the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of 1989.

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14 Results
14 Results