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Few issues are more important to states' security than their ability to acquire modern weaponry. Today, advanced industrial democracies possess three options for doing this. In principle, they can: autonomously produce their own armaments, import them from foreign suppliers, or collaborate with other states to co-produce common weapons. In this study, we examine the factors driving state decisions to either collaboratively or autonomously procure advanced weaponry. To this end, we analyse French and British decisions about whether or not to collaborate in the domain of combat aircraft. To preview our conclusion, we draw on the Varieties of Capitalism approach to argue that the underlying institutional structures of national political economies explain why otherwise similar states have enacted divergent policies. Within Étatist France, dense exchanges and close relationships within elite networks enable large defence contractors to veto government decisions that contravene their preferences. By way of contrast, Britain's liberal market economy empowers its government to impose its preference for collaborative projects onto aircraft manufacturers, even when the latter attempt to lobby in favour of promising national designs. Thus, what variety of capitalism a state practises determines whether governments or contractors occupy the metaphorical cockpit when it comes to making procurement policies.

Almost all technology is dual use to some degree: it has both civilian and military applications. This feature creates a dilemma for cooperation. States can design arms control institutions to curtail costly competition over some military technology. But they also do not want to limit valuable civilian uses. How does the dual use nature of technology shape the prospects for cooperation? We argue that the duality of technology presents a challenge not by its very existence but rather through the ways it alters information constraints on the design of arms control institutions. We characterize variation in technology along two dual use dimensions: (1) the ease of distinguishing military from civilian uses; and (2) the degree of integration within military enterprises and the civilian economy. Distinguishability drives the level of monitoring needed to detect violations. When a weapon is indistinguishable from its civilian counterpart, states must improve detection though intelligence collection or intrusive inspections. Integration sharpens the costs of disclosing information to another state. For highly integrated technology, demonstrating compliance could expose information about other capabilities, increasing the security risks from espionage. Together, these dimensions generate expectations about the specific information problems states face as they try to devise agreements over various technologies. We introduce a new qualitative data set to assess both variables and their impact on cooperation across all modern armament technologies. The findings lend strong support for the theory. Efforts to control emerging technologies should consider how variation in the dual use attributes shapes this tension between detection and disclosure.

This paper is a continuation of research into the possibility of using fuzzy logic to assess the reliability of a selected airborne system. The research objectives include an analysis of statistical data, a reliability analysis in the classical approach, a reliability analysis in the fuzzy set theory approach, and a comparison of the obtained results. The system selected for the investigation was the aircraft gun system. In the first step, after analysing the statistical (operational) data, reliability was assessed using a classical probabilistic model in which, on the basis of the Weibull distribution fitted to the operational data, the basic reliability characteristics were determined, including the reliability function for the selected aircraft system. The second reliability analysis, in a fuzzy set theory approach, was conducted using a Mamdani Type Fuzzy Logic Controller developed in the Matlab software with the Fuzzy Logic Toolbox package. The controller was designed on the basis of expert knowledge obtained by a survey. Based on the input signals in the form of equipment operation time (number of flying hours), number of shots performed (shots), and the state of equipment corrosion (corrosion), the controller determines the reliability of air armament. The final step was to compare the results obtained from two methods: classical probabilistic model and fuzzy logic. The authors have proved that the reliability model using fuzzy logic can be used to assess the reliability of aircraft airborne systems.

PurposeThis paper explores whether data back the claim that imports of armaments are inherently bad for economic growth. Regardless of one's point of view, the production and trade of weaponry is a significant industry with serious economic implications that warrant investigation. The financial repercussions of military spending have been extensively studied, but the economic effects of arms importation remain unknown.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a pooled mean group approach to investigate the nexus between arms imports, military expenditure and per capita GDP for a balanced panel of twenty-five of the top arms importers in the world from 2000 to 2021.FindingsThe authors find that arms imports and military spending negatively impact GDP per capita in the short run, but military spending is beneficial over the long run. The authors also used the Dumitrescu Hurlin Granger causality test, which revealed a unidirectional causation between per capita GDP and military expenditure, and a unidirectional causal relationship from military spending to arms imports.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is deficient in a few aspects: first, it looks at only those countries comprising the top 70% of arms imports. Second, it omits many political, technological and legal factors that impact arms imports and military expenditures.Originality/valueThis paper looks into the impact of defense spending and arms imports on economic growth for twenty-five nations with the highest share of arms imports in recent times. It is a significant addition to the literature as it resolves the debate of whether or not the military expenditure is wasteful and whether arms imports significantly harm the nation's economic growth.

Structures used in intrasexual competition span a continuum, with pure weapons that are used exclusively in physical fights at one extreme and pure aggressive signals that are used exclusively to assess and threaten rivals at the other. We propose this weapon-signal continuum offers a framework for understanding the variation in allometric slopes among intra-sexually selected structures. We predict allometric slopes will become steeper as the relative importance of signaling increases, because aggressive signaling will favor the evolution of hypervariable structures that facilitate the assessment of subtle differences in body size. We provide preliminary empirical support for the continuum hypothesis using species with different types of armaments and offer suggestions for how to test the weapon-signal continuum among closely related species.

The paper presents an analysis of the operational properties of paint coatings for use in military technology in the field of masking. The assessment of the properties was performed on the basis of measurements of the surface geometric structure and adhesion using the peel method. The measurements of specular gloss, colour in the range of 400-700 nm and reflectance in the range of 350-1200 nm were made in relation to the requirements of the Polish Defence Standard NO-80-A200. Coating systems are characterised by their low roughness and good adhesion. Due to their operational properties, the developed coating systems can be used on armaments and military equipment.

El trabajo analiza la innovación en la industria militar en España entre 1878 y 1939 a partir de las patentes y los contratos de defensa. El alto porcentaje de contratos de productos patentados (63%) es indicio de una notable relación entre patentes y contratos. Esto se ve confirmado por la coincidencia en el orden de los principales países en ambas variables. El test econométrico confirma la estadística descriptiva y, además, evidencia que las patentes a priori más valiosas (de invención, puestas en práctica, más longevas y empresariales) tienen una correlación más fuerte con los contratos. Desde la óptica sectorial también se observa una correlación positiva y significativa, aunque menos intensa que desde el espacial. El análisis micro confirma la estrecha relación de las patentes con la actividad del sector de armamento militar, explicita los protagonistas y las vías de esa relación (importación, producción local y licencias) y explica las disparidades observadas en el análisis agregado. The paper analyses innovation in the military industry in Spain between 1878 and 1939 on the basis of patents and defence contracts. The high percentage of contracts for patented products (63%) is indicative of a remarkable relationship between patents and contracts. This is confirmed by the coincidence in the order of the top countries in both variables. The econometric test confirms the descriptive statistics and, in addition, shows that a priori more valuable patents (of invention, implemented, longer-lived and entrepreneurial) have a stronger correlation with contracts. From a sectoral perspective, a positive and significant correlation is also observed, although less intense than from a spatial perspective. The micro analysis confirms the close relationship of patents with the activity of the military armament sector, makes explicit the actors and channels of this relationship (import, local production and licensing) and explains the disparities observed in the aggregate analysis.

With the development of artificial intelligence technology, the market for virtual personal assistant (VPA) devices is emerging as a new battleground for global information technology companies. This study develops a comprehensive research model, based on perceived value theory, to explain potential customers’ intentions to adopt and use VPA devices. It investigates the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, and product-related characteristics (i.e., portability, automation, and visual attractiveness). The research model and hypotheses are evaluated through Partial least squares analysis, using 313 survey samples. The results show that perceived usefulness and enjoyment have a significant impact on usage intention. Among the three constructs reflecting software- and hardware-based utilitarian value, content quality has the strongest impact on perceived usefulness. From the perspective of hedonic value, content quality, which is also a utilitarian attribute of VPA devices, and visual attractiveness positively affect perceived enjoyment. This study concludes by discussing implications and offering useful suggestions for academia and practice.

Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. civilian gun stock has grown from approximately 192 million (65 million handguns) to approximately 265 million (113 million handguns). In 2015, gun owners owned more weapons and were more likely to own both handguns and long guns than in 1994. As in 1994, ownership in 2015 was highly concentrated: the median owner owned two, but the 8 percent of all owners who owned ten or more accounted for 39 percent of the stock. Approximately seventy million firearms changed hands within the past five years (from 2011 to 2015); most were purchased. Two and a half percent of Americans had guns stolen within the past five years, accounting for an estimated five hundred thousand guns per year.

We consider estimation and inference in panel data models with additive unobserved individual specific heterogeneity in a high-dimensional setting. The setting allows the number of time-varying regressors to be larger than the sample size. To make informative estimation and inference feasible, we require that the overall contribution of the time-varying variables after eliminating the individual specific heterogeneity can be captured by a relatively small number of the available variables whose identities are unknown. This restriction allows the problem of estimation to proceed as a variable selection problem. Importantly, we treat the individual specific heterogeneity as fixed effects which allows this heterogeneity to be related to the observed time-varying variables in an unspecified way and allows that this heterogeneity may differ for all individuals. Within this framework, we provide procedures that give uniformly valid inference over a fixed subset of parameters in the canonical linear fixed effects model and over coefficients on a fixed vector of endogenous variables in panel data instrumental variable models with fixed effects and many instruments. We present simulation results in support of the theoretical developments and illustrate the use of the methods in an application aimed at estimating the effect of gun prevalence on crime rates.