- Email: [email protected]
Review Essay—Department of Defense (DoD) and Center for Defense Information (CDI) Web Sites
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Broadening Asia’s Security Discourse and Agenda is right to emphasize that environmental and economic issues can have some influence on national and international security policies. Its authors are wrong in their contention that environmental issues are decisive factors motivating the security policies of Asian nations. Traditional factors such as nationalism, apocalyptic and messianic religious conviction, ideology, and perceptions and realities about military strength and weakness are the key factors prompting Asian policymakers to follow the security policies they pursue. In addition, normative factors of human nature such as greed, fear, intellectual miscalculation, the lust for power, and other inherent human frailties play a far greater role in shaping the national security policies followed by these countries than the miscellaneous economic, political, and social factors described in these essays. Note and Reference 1. Simon, Julian L., & Kahn, Herman (Eds.), (1984). Examples of this literature include The Resourceful Earth: A response to global 2000. Oxford7 Blackwell; & Gale Moore, Thomas (1998). Climate of fear: Why we shouldn’t worry about global warming. Washington, DC7 Cato Institute; Michaels, Patrick J., & Balling, Robert C., Jr. (2000). The Satanic gases: Clearing the air about global warming. Washington, DC7 Cato Institute; & Lomborg, Bjorn (2001). The skeptical environmentalist: Measuring the real state of the World. Cambridge7 Cambridge University Press. Bert Chapman Government Publications Coordinator, HSSE Library, Purdue University 504 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2058 United States E-mail address: [email protected]. Fax: +1 765 494 9007. 11 August 2004 doi:10.1016/j.giq.2004.09.005
Review Essay—Department of Defense (DoD) and Center for Defense Information (CDI) Web Sites. Available at http://www.defenselink.mil/. Numerous visits between March and end of May 2004. Administered by Office of the Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence) 6000 Defense, Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-6000. Available at http://www.cdi.org. Numerous visits between March and end of May 2004. Administered by Center of Defense Information, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036-2109.
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The Web site of the Department of Defense (DOD), also known as DefenseLINK (http:// www.defenselink.mil/) and which originally was made electronically available to the public in October of 1994, consists of a multitude of links to a huge amount of textual documentation and extensive Web links to information sources concerned with U.S. military and homeland defense. It is produced as a bcooperative effort between the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) and the Defense Technical Information Center.Q While the Web site was initially conceived only as a tool to publish and distribute DOD news releases, it has subsequently evolved into a resource of far greater substance and utility. bAbout DefenseLINK,Q linked from the DefenseLINK site index, sets out a straightforward statement of the objectives of the DOD Web site, which are to (1) provide a single bstarting point for finding information on the U.S. military information online,Q and to (2) bsupport the overall mission of the Department of Defense by providing timely and accurate information about defense policies, organizations, functions, and operations.Q Several specific principles for making information available are enumerated under bDoD Principles of Information.Q As stated, these principles are as follows: (1) to make information bfully and readily availableQ unless this would be precluded by bnational security constraints or valid statutory mandates or exceptionsQ; (2) to provide information bwithout censorship or propagandaQ; (3) prohibit withholding information just to bprotect the Government from criticism or embarrassmentQ; and (4) allow information to be withheld that would badversely affect national security, threaten the safety or privacy of U.S. Government personnel or their families, violate the privacy of citizens of the United States or be contrary to law.Q A link from bPrinciples of InformationQ to DoD Directive 5122.5 of September 27, 2000, is provided. This directive specifies in detail the responsibilities and functions of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, who is responsible for maintaining the content and integrity of the DoD Web site. Obviously, discretionary decisions regarding the inclusion some information may be subjectively influenced to a greater or lesser degree by the specific political philosophy in place at the time decisions are made as to what constitutes bnational securityQ imperatives. There is also a link from bDoD Principles of InformationQ to the bFreedom of Information ActQ (FOIA) program page (http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi). This provides a gateway to access and view FOIA information as it pertains specifically to the DoD. Sources provided include basic information about the FOIA within the DoD, information regarding FOIA administration and implementation guidance within the DoD, the annual reports FOIA activity within the DoD from 1996 to the present, and a briefing page which provides general back ground information, among other things. Since DefenseLINK is obviously a very extensive and complicated site in its totality, it is helpful to first get a grasp of basic initial searching pathways. Clicking on bDoD Web sitesQ listed under bSpecial InterestQ (http://www.defenselink.mil/sites) first displays a listing of the what the DoD considers the bmost important and most popularQ sites. Clicking on one of these in turn presents another extended list of sites related to that topic. For example, selecting bArmed ForcesQ will display links to the Web sites of the five service branches, the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy. An alternative way to view and
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select from a comprehensive list of sites is to select from a alphabetical letter menu near the top of the page. Some examples of the type of information that may be found here include the Annual Report of the Secretary of Defense to the President and the Congress, simply identified under the menu entry as bAnnual Report.Q These reports, which now run to more than 200 pages, cover topics such as force risk management, operational risk, institutional risk, and future challenges risk, as well annual reports from the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force and defense budget tables. These reports provide a good overview of annual DoD activity and are archived online beginning with 1995. Under bBudgetQ defense budget information is given for 2001 through the coming fiscal year (presently 2005), including considerable budget information on topics such as procurement and research and development. The bNational Defense Budget EstimatesQ (Green Book) link is loaded with many tables and much data. Yet another entry, bAgencies,Q provides links to the home pages of most defenserelated agencies, while bBase Realignment and ClosureQ (BRAC) links to reports on this ongoing and controversial subject, as well as to the criteria for closing bases in the United States and the BRAC sites for the Army, Air Force, and Navy. bDirectivesQ provides access to the Washington Headquarters Services (WHS) home page from which the thousands of documents classified as directives and instructions may be found. The purpose of these documents is basically to manage the internal operations of the DoD. The subject link on the WHS page groups directives and instructions under their respective subjects. An interesting comparison with the WHS page is provided by Federation of American Scientists bIntelligence Resource ProgramQ site (http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/ dod/), which covers bDefense Department Intelligence and Security Doctrine, Directives, and InstructionsQ grouped by topic, with many linked to their full text. Two other links from DoD Web site are bAbout DoD SitesQ and bOther DoD Sites.Q The bquick-referenceQ link circles back to the main DoD Web sites page, while the bdirect accessQ link refers one to the bOther DoD SitesQ page that provides a search engine for the Web sites of the major services and also the option to search bAll Other DoD Web Sites/SourcesQ by keyword. There is also a link to bDoD Web Policies,Q which provides a convenient way to review the guidelines for the topics on Web security policy, findability, privacy, and accessibility. Clicking on bDoD Resource LocatorQ from the bOther DoD SitesQ page also links to the same search engine mentioned above, but this page also provides information on the DoD’s Web site registration system. Clicking on bAdvanced SearchQ from the Web locator page links to yet another search engine similar to the one mentioned above, but one which provides for more involved searching by selecting fields from pull down menus. Links are also provided from the advanced search page to two other major DoD sources, the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), and the DTIC’s Scientific and Technical Information Network (STINET). Yet another DoD search engine option is provided through http://www.defenselink.mil/ search/. The options here are to search either the DefenseLINK domain (.mil) or the entire .mil domain using one of four external commercial search sites, Google, alltheweb, FirstGov, or SearchMil. As stated on the Web site, the DefenseLINK domain includes bmost Web resources now part of the DoD main public Web service.Q Also included are bmany but not all
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Web resources offered by or on behalf of the DoD headquarters.Q The .mil domain is defined as including the bgreat majorityQ of DoD sites, but a few may exist in the .edu or .com domains and so may not be found by searching the .mil domain. Dissemination of news and press release information, a stated primary original purpose of the DoD site, obviously continues to be fulfill an important function judging by the number of news source components that can be linked under bPress ReleasesQ on the home page. bToday in DoDQ provides information on daily events from the most current day down through an archive covering daily events beginning with 1999. bNews ReleasesQ presents much interesting information on a wide range of topics and is archived beginning with October 1994 and is frequently updated. For example, a detailed cumulated roster of all National Guard and Reserve units mobilized as of April 28, 2004, consisting of 210 pages is available here. bSpeechesQ is another important component presenting the text of speeches considered, bofficial statements of the Department of DefenseQ are provided and are archived back to 1995. bNews TranscriptsQ are intended to bdocument all DoD news briefings and significant interviewsQ and include such interesting things as interview transcripts by Bob Woodward with DoD Secretary Rumsfeld on May 19, 2004, regarding the Iraq war. Another site providing news is Defend America (http://www.defendamerica.mil/). As stated in the Web page header, its purpose is to present bU.S. Department of Defense News About the War on Terrorism.Q This has been designed as a very colorful and visually eye catching site. Current new stories, such as bWar on Terror dMission of a GenerationT Rumsfeld SaysQ and bThreat Shows Terrorists Intend to dHit the United States HardTQ are first summarized in brief, with a link provided to the full text of the story. However, the most prominently displayed news stories and pictorial graphic change very frequently. There is an extensive section titled bThe New Iraq,Q which provides news and information focused on that conflict. Reports found here such as bFact Sheet: The Transition to Iraqi Self GovernmentQ and bToday’s Iraq, A Year of Progress,Q while informative, definitely put a rosy and positive spin on developments and, as might be expected, fail to acknowledge that problems exist except in minor ways. Links are found at the end of the Defend America main page to the Web sites of the nine Unified Combatant Commands. One of these is the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), whose geographical area of responsibility includes 27 nations stretching from the Horn of Africa through the Middle East and Central Asia. Some of the major types of information found here include press releases (2001+), news stories archive (September 2002+), and DoD transcripts (October 2001+), all related to the geographical area covered by CENTCOM. Another link is to bInformation on International Contributions to the War on Terrorism,Q which provides brief information on the contributions to this effort being made by more than fifty countries. These is also a link to the issues of the Coalition Bulletin, published since October 2002, which is intended to cover the activities of the binternational stabilizationQ program in Afghanistan. Also found are links to the Web sites of major U.S. government and military bodies, to important bMilitary NewsQ sources, and rather surprisingly, also to the Web sites of a large number of major U.S. newspapers. A search engine feature (http://www.defenselink.mil/search/news.html) provides for searching by topic across all news subcategories by selecting either some or all of the subcategories for searching. Results are displayed along with the .mil domain search engine,
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which can then be used for additional searching if desired. Another service, bNews by EMailQ (http://www.defenselink.mil/news/subscribe.html), can be used to for request that new information in selected categories, such as bDoD News ReleasesQ or bNews Transcripts,Q etc., be sent by e-mail either in text or HTML versions to the requesting party. Both of these functions may also be linked to from bAbout News.Q A major DoD Web site that complements the type of resources found on the main DefenseLINK site is that of the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) (http:// www.dtic.mil/). The DTIC is a part of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA; http://www.disa.mil/), who is charged with information systems management for the DoD and with consolidating computer services. As stated under bWho We AreQ on the DTIC homepage, DTIC bis the central facility for the collection and dissemination of scientific and technical information for the Department of Defense.Q As such, it provides access to such things as btechnical reports and summaries of ongoing researchQ and its bTechnical Report DatabaseQ (TR) includes a number of categories of information, including technical reports, conference proceedings, journal articles, DoD sponsored patent applications, studies and analysis reports, etc. A link from the DTIC home page under bHow We Do What We DoQ provides an alphabetical listing of bapproximately one hundred Web sites,Q thus providing yet another avenue to view a listing of topical Web sites of possible interest. The DTIC’s Scientific & Technical Information Network (STINET; http://stinet.dtic.mil/) is a primary access point for locating the technical DoD information that the DTIC provides. The STINET consists of both public and private domains. Information from the Public STINET is openly available free of charge and contains citations to all reports that have been entered into the technical reports database since December of 1974. In addition, in also contains the full text of many of the included documents. Options for searching included on the bDTIC CollectionsQ search engine include searching the technical reports collection or only the full text collection. Another option is provided under STINET MultiSearch. This permits searching for scientific and technical information across a wide range of additional sources, including those of other federal agencies, as well as some nongovernmental sites. bDatabase DescriptionsQ contains brief overviews of the contents of each site, which permits more focused searching. The Private STINET site provides an expansion of the Public STINET with the enhancement of additional services. However, it is available only to registered users who are employees of a DoD organization, another U.S. government agency, or a DoD contractor. While the Department of Defense site provides a plethora of factual information on all types of defense topics, the Center for Defense Information (CDI; http://www.cdi.org/), a respected research organization on defense issues, approaches defense topics from a different perspective in that it provides more critical analysis and opinion from a wide variety of sources, including its own research, while at the same time seeking to avoid the holding of positions on public policy issues as an organization. Positions and opinions are left to the responsibility of the individual researchers or sources. As stated in the heading to the CDI’s Defense Monitor publication, the CDI bconducts in-depth research on the social, economic, environmental, political, and military components of international security.Q The initial page upon opening the site displays bWhat’s New.Q This links to full text resources on a number of defense-related topics derived from diverse sources. For example,
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New Members, New Challenges for EU Defense Policy (May 7) provides an article from the Swiss International Relations and Security Network (ISN), while Operational Iraqi Freedom: Theater Air and Missile Defense History (May 6) is a report from the 32nd Air and Missile Defense Command based at Fort Bliss, Texas. Other items may be from the CDI Defense Monitor as well as from numerous other sources. The Defense Monitor, linked under bNewslettersQ and now apparently a bimonthly publication, contains the full text of relatively short articles that provide analysis and opinion by the article authors. The Defense Monitor covers a lot of ground in terms of the topics covered. For example, recent topics have included articles on the defense budget, U.S. military assistance, missile defense and congress, space dominance, and global base realignment. This site begins with December 2000 and continues to the present. Clicking on bWeekly Defense MonitorQ enters a site that has not been updated since the end of October, 2003. However, there is a hidden feature here that is not obvious until one clicks on 2003 and then, from the first entry bWeekly Defense Monitor Archive,Q one can open the archive which contains a full text of all issues back to volume 1 in 1997 through August 14, 2003. The archive can be very useful in tracking information on a topic. For example, volume 2 (number 50) of December 29, 1998, contains an interesting article on bFiguring the Costs of U.S. Policy on Iraq: Containment, Compliance, Collapse.Q It would be nice if this link to the archive was made a little more obvious and less obscure. Another interesting resource linked under bNewslettersQ is the bCDI Russia Weekly.Q This contains links to the full text of articles from a number of diverse sources such as the Moscow Times, RIA Novosti, Interfax, In the National Interest Web site, National Review Online, Radio Free Europe, and even excerpts from remarks and testimony given at U.S. congressional hearings. It is archived back to 1998 and may be searched by keyword(s). Selecting and clicking on a topic listed from the pull down menu under bProgramsQ will automatically display a listing of links related to that topic under bMain IssuesQ and bRelated Items.Q A number of areas have also been identified as bHot SpotQ issues. Coverage of the areas listed under bProgramsQ varies greatly. Obviously, those that have been identified as bHot SpotQ issues, such as missile defense, space security, terrorism, nuclear issues, children and armed conflict, etc., have been highly developed in the amount of information provided. Other topics listed under programs such as the intelligence community, failed states, peacekeeping, and weapons systems have few or no entries in many or most categories. While the information that is provided for aviation is interesting and useful, it is disappointing in its meagerness or nonexistence. However, if missile defense is chosen as the topic for example, the information provided is extensive. bMain IssuesQ will provide links to the full text of reports and other documentation on the topics such as costs, news and opinion, treaties and laws, systems, and U.S. foreign policy, etc. Under bRelated ItemsQ are found links to bPress Releases,Q bReports,Q and bIssue Briefs.Q bReportsQ links to the full text of research papers from organizations such as the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, the Simons Centre for Peace and Disarmament Studies at the University of British Columbia, and the Monterey Institute for International Studies. Similar links to full text resources are also provided under the press releases and issue briefs headings. bMissile Defense UpdatesQ is another very useful category
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that gathers together information from a wide range of sources on a periodic basis. All the entries are annotated and the originating source of the information is clearly stated, with links to the full text of the publication being given if electronically available. Just using these two sites alone can provide one with a plethora of reliable and authoritative information on defense topics. In many respects, they serve to basically complement each other in terms of the types of sources of information provided. Anyone with an interest in researching defense-related topics should make it a point to visit these sites regularly. Roger Anderson Bibliographer for Political Science and International Documents Librarian, Anschutz Library, University of Kansas, Level 3 Anschutz, Lawrence, KS 66045, United States E-mail address: [email protected]. Fax: +1 (785) 864 5705. 28 May 2004 doi:10.1016/j.giq.2004.09.006
Population and Development Report: Water Scarcity in the Arab World Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. New York: United Nations University Press. 35 pp. $10.00 USD. ISBN 92-1-128268-3 (paper). This is the first report in a series of United Nations publications that will provide insight into the blinks between population and development and their economic, social and political impacts at national and regional levelsQ (p. 1). It examines issues raised by the United Nations in a previous conference,1 and in General Assembly considerations.2 Using seven tables with foci from population projections to contraceptive use, and relevant publications cited as footnotes, this 35-page booklet concentrates on a topic of international interest. As the Introduction makes known immediately, bfreshwater is a particularly pressing issue in the Arab region, which contains a modest 1.1 percent of global renewable freshwater for a total of 4.6 percent of the world’s populationQ (p. 1). While the ratio between water and population is substantial, it is nothing in comparison to what the future will bring. The urban population in the Arab region (i.e., in those countries that are part of the League of Arab States) has tripled in the 30 years from 1970 to 2000 to 150 million, and projections call for a doubling to 300 million by 2030. This sixfold increase in as many decades is significant, but for some small countries—Comoros, Djibouti, Oman, and Qatar—with less than one million urban dwellers in 1970, the projections suggest a much larger urban population, with Oman estimated to attain 63 times this quantity by 2030. Oman had increased by 2000 this population subset by more than 20 times the 1970 amount. These latter three countries already have over 75% of their national populations in an urban setting, so the need for improved sanitation and services is a continuing—and growing—concern.
Book Reviews
Broadening Asia’s Security Discourse and Agenda is right to emphasize that environmental and economic issues can have some influence on national and international security policies. Its authors are wrong in their contention that environmental issues are decisive factors motivating the security policies of Asian nations. Traditional factors such as nationalism, apocalyptic and messianic religious conviction, ideology, and perceptions and realities about military strength and weakness are the key factors prompting Asian policymakers to follow the security policies they pursue. In addition, normative factors of human nature such as greed, fear, intellectual miscalculation, the lust for power, and other inherent human frailties play a far greater role in shaping the national security policies followed by these countries than the miscellaneous economic, political, and social factors described in these essays. Note and Reference 1. Simon, Julian L., & Kahn, Herman (Eds.), (1984). Examples of this literature include The Resourceful Earth: A response to global 2000. Oxford7 Blackwell; & Gale Moore, Thomas (1998). Climate of fear: Why we shouldn’t worry about global warming. Washington, DC7 Cato Institute; Michaels, Patrick J., & Balling, Robert C., Jr. (2000). The Satanic gases: Clearing the air about global warming. Washington, DC7 Cato Institute; & Lomborg, Bjorn (2001). The skeptical environmentalist: Measuring the real state of the World. Cambridge7 Cambridge University Press. Bert Chapman Government Publications Coordinator, HSSE Library, Purdue University 504 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2058 United States E-mail address: [email protected]. Fax: +1 765 494 9007. 11 August 2004 doi:10.1016/j.giq.2004.09.005
Review Essay—Department of Defense (DoD) and Center for Defense Information (CDI) Web Sites. Available at http://www.defenselink.mil/. Numerous visits between March and end of May 2004. Administered by Office of the Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence) 6000 Defense, Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-6000. Available at http://www.cdi.org. Numerous visits between March and end of May 2004. Administered by Center of Defense Information, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036-2109.
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The Web site of the Department of Defense (DOD), also known as DefenseLINK (http:// www.defenselink.mil/) and which originally was made electronically available to the public in October of 1994, consists of a multitude of links to a huge amount of textual documentation and extensive Web links to information sources concerned with U.S. military and homeland defense. It is produced as a bcooperative effort between the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) and the Defense Technical Information Center.Q While the Web site was initially conceived only as a tool to publish and distribute DOD news releases, it has subsequently evolved into a resource of far greater substance and utility. bAbout DefenseLINK,Q linked from the DefenseLINK site index, sets out a straightforward statement of the objectives of the DOD Web site, which are to (1) provide a single bstarting point for finding information on the U.S. military information online,Q and to (2) bsupport the overall mission of the Department of Defense by providing timely and accurate information about defense policies, organizations, functions, and operations.Q Several specific principles for making information available are enumerated under bDoD Principles of Information.Q As stated, these principles are as follows: (1) to make information bfully and readily availableQ unless this would be precluded by bnational security constraints or valid statutory mandates or exceptionsQ; (2) to provide information bwithout censorship or propagandaQ; (3) prohibit withholding information just to bprotect the Government from criticism or embarrassmentQ; and (4) allow information to be withheld that would badversely affect national security, threaten the safety or privacy of U.S. Government personnel or their families, violate the privacy of citizens of the United States or be contrary to law.Q A link from bPrinciples of InformationQ to DoD Directive 5122.5 of September 27, 2000, is provided. This directive specifies in detail the responsibilities and functions of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, who is responsible for maintaining the content and integrity of the DoD Web site. Obviously, discretionary decisions regarding the inclusion some information may be subjectively influenced to a greater or lesser degree by the specific political philosophy in place at the time decisions are made as to what constitutes bnational securityQ imperatives. There is also a link from bDoD Principles of InformationQ to the bFreedom of Information ActQ (FOIA) program page (http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi). This provides a gateway to access and view FOIA information as it pertains specifically to the DoD. Sources provided include basic information about the FOIA within the DoD, information regarding FOIA administration and implementation guidance within the DoD, the annual reports FOIA activity within the DoD from 1996 to the present, and a briefing page which provides general back ground information, among other things. Since DefenseLINK is obviously a very extensive and complicated site in its totality, it is helpful to first get a grasp of basic initial searching pathways. Clicking on bDoD Web sitesQ listed under bSpecial InterestQ (http://www.defenselink.mil/sites) first displays a listing of the what the DoD considers the bmost important and most popularQ sites. Clicking on one of these in turn presents another extended list of sites related to that topic. For example, selecting bArmed ForcesQ will display links to the Web sites of the five service branches, the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy. An alternative way to view and
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select from a comprehensive list of sites is to select from a alphabetical letter menu near the top of the page. Some examples of the type of information that may be found here include the Annual Report of the Secretary of Defense to the President and the Congress, simply identified under the menu entry as bAnnual Report.Q These reports, which now run to more than 200 pages, cover topics such as force risk management, operational risk, institutional risk, and future challenges risk, as well annual reports from the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force and defense budget tables. These reports provide a good overview of annual DoD activity and are archived online beginning with 1995. Under bBudgetQ defense budget information is given for 2001 through the coming fiscal year (presently 2005), including considerable budget information on topics such as procurement and research and development. The bNational Defense Budget EstimatesQ (Green Book) link is loaded with many tables and much data. Yet another entry, bAgencies,Q provides links to the home pages of most defenserelated agencies, while bBase Realignment and ClosureQ (BRAC) links to reports on this ongoing and controversial subject, as well as to the criteria for closing bases in the United States and the BRAC sites for the Army, Air Force, and Navy. bDirectivesQ provides access to the Washington Headquarters Services (WHS) home page from which the thousands of documents classified as directives and instructions may be found. The purpose of these documents is basically to manage the internal operations of the DoD. The subject link on the WHS page groups directives and instructions under their respective subjects. An interesting comparison with the WHS page is provided by Federation of American Scientists bIntelligence Resource ProgramQ site (http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/ dod/), which covers bDefense Department Intelligence and Security Doctrine, Directives, and InstructionsQ grouped by topic, with many linked to their full text. Two other links from DoD Web site are bAbout DoD SitesQ and bOther DoD Sites.Q The bquick-referenceQ link circles back to the main DoD Web sites page, while the bdirect accessQ link refers one to the bOther DoD SitesQ page that provides a search engine for the Web sites of the major services and also the option to search bAll Other DoD Web Sites/SourcesQ by keyword. There is also a link to bDoD Web Policies,Q which provides a convenient way to review the guidelines for the topics on Web security policy, findability, privacy, and accessibility. Clicking on bDoD Resource LocatorQ from the bOther DoD SitesQ page also links to the same search engine mentioned above, but this page also provides information on the DoD’s Web site registration system. Clicking on bAdvanced SearchQ from the Web locator page links to yet another search engine similar to the one mentioned above, but one which provides for more involved searching by selecting fields from pull down menus. Links are also provided from the advanced search page to two other major DoD sources, the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), and the DTIC’s Scientific and Technical Information Network (STINET). Yet another DoD search engine option is provided through http://www.defenselink.mil/ search/. The options here are to search either the DefenseLINK domain (.mil) or the entire .mil domain using one of four external commercial search sites, Google, alltheweb, FirstGov, or SearchMil. As stated on the Web site, the DefenseLINK domain includes bmost Web resources now part of the DoD main public Web service.Q Also included are bmany but not all
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Web resources offered by or on behalf of the DoD headquarters.Q The .mil domain is defined as including the bgreat majorityQ of DoD sites, but a few may exist in the .edu or .com domains and so may not be found by searching the .mil domain. Dissemination of news and press release information, a stated primary original purpose of the DoD site, obviously continues to be fulfill an important function judging by the number of news source components that can be linked under bPress ReleasesQ on the home page. bToday in DoDQ provides information on daily events from the most current day down through an archive covering daily events beginning with 1999. bNews ReleasesQ presents much interesting information on a wide range of topics and is archived beginning with October 1994 and is frequently updated. For example, a detailed cumulated roster of all National Guard and Reserve units mobilized as of April 28, 2004, consisting of 210 pages is available here. bSpeechesQ is another important component presenting the text of speeches considered, bofficial statements of the Department of DefenseQ are provided and are archived back to 1995. bNews TranscriptsQ are intended to bdocument all DoD news briefings and significant interviewsQ and include such interesting things as interview transcripts by Bob Woodward with DoD Secretary Rumsfeld on May 19, 2004, regarding the Iraq war. Another site providing news is Defend America (http://www.defendamerica.mil/). As stated in the Web page header, its purpose is to present bU.S. Department of Defense News About the War on Terrorism.Q This has been designed as a very colorful and visually eye catching site. Current new stories, such as bWar on Terror dMission of a GenerationT Rumsfeld SaysQ and bThreat Shows Terrorists Intend to dHit the United States HardTQ are first summarized in brief, with a link provided to the full text of the story. However, the most prominently displayed news stories and pictorial graphic change very frequently. There is an extensive section titled bThe New Iraq,Q which provides news and information focused on that conflict. Reports found here such as bFact Sheet: The Transition to Iraqi Self GovernmentQ and bToday’s Iraq, A Year of Progress,Q while informative, definitely put a rosy and positive spin on developments and, as might be expected, fail to acknowledge that problems exist except in minor ways. Links are found at the end of the Defend America main page to the Web sites of the nine Unified Combatant Commands. One of these is the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), whose geographical area of responsibility includes 27 nations stretching from the Horn of Africa through the Middle East and Central Asia. Some of the major types of information found here include press releases (2001+), news stories archive (September 2002+), and DoD transcripts (October 2001+), all related to the geographical area covered by CENTCOM. Another link is to bInformation on International Contributions to the War on Terrorism,Q which provides brief information on the contributions to this effort being made by more than fifty countries. These is also a link to the issues of the Coalition Bulletin, published since October 2002, which is intended to cover the activities of the binternational stabilizationQ program in Afghanistan. Also found are links to the Web sites of major U.S. government and military bodies, to important bMilitary NewsQ sources, and rather surprisingly, also to the Web sites of a large number of major U.S. newspapers. A search engine feature (http://www.defenselink.mil/search/news.html) provides for searching by topic across all news subcategories by selecting either some or all of the subcategories for searching. Results are displayed along with the .mil domain search engine,
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which can then be used for additional searching if desired. Another service, bNews by EMailQ (http://www.defenselink.mil/news/subscribe.html), can be used to for request that new information in selected categories, such as bDoD News ReleasesQ or bNews Transcripts,Q etc., be sent by e-mail either in text or HTML versions to the requesting party. Both of these functions may also be linked to from bAbout News.Q A major DoD Web site that complements the type of resources found on the main DefenseLINK site is that of the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) (http:// www.dtic.mil/). The DTIC is a part of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA; http://www.disa.mil/), who is charged with information systems management for the DoD and with consolidating computer services. As stated under bWho We AreQ on the DTIC homepage, DTIC bis the central facility for the collection and dissemination of scientific and technical information for the Department of Defense.Q As such, it provides access to such things as btechnical reports and summaries of ongoing researchQ and its bTechnical Report DatabaseQ (TR) includes a number of categories of information, including technical reports, conference proceedings, journal articles, DoD sponsored patent applications, studies and analysis reports, etc. A link from the DTIC home page under bHow We Do What We DoQ provides an alphabetical listing of bapproximately one hundred Web sites,Q thus providing yet another avenue to view a listing of topical Web sites of possible interest. The DTIC’s Scientific & Technical Information Network (STINET; http://stinet.dtic.mil/) is a primary access point for locating the technical DoD information that the DTIC provides. The STINET consists of both public and private domains. Information from the Public STINET is openly available free of charge and contains citations to all reports that have been entered into the technical reports database since December of 1974. In addition, in also contains the full text of many of the included documents. Options for searching included on the bDTIC CollectionsQ search engine include searching the technical reports collection or only the full text collection. Another option is provided under STINET MultiSearch. This permits searching for scientific and technical information across a wide range of additional sources, including those of other federal agencies, as well as some nongovernmental sites. bDatabase DescriptionsQ contains brief overviews of the contents of each site, which permits more focused searching. The Private STINET site provides an expansion of the Public STINET with the enhancement of additional services. However, it is available only to registered users who are employees of a DoD organization, another U.S. government agency, or a DoD contractor. While the Department of Defense site provides a plethora of factual information on all types of defense topics, the Center for Defense Information (CDI; http://www.cdi.org/), a respected research organization on defense issues, approaches defense topics from a different perspective in that it provides more critical analysis and opinion from a wide variety of sources, including its own research, while at the same time seeking to avoid the holding of positions on public policy issues as an organization. Positions and opinions are left to the responsibility of the individual researchers or sources. As stated in the heading to the CDI’s Defense Monitor publication, the CDI bconducts in-depth research on the social, economic, environmental, political, and military components of international security.Q The initial page upon opening the site displays bWhat’s New.Q This links to full text resources on a number of defense-related topics derived from diverse sources. For example,
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New Members, New Challenges for EU Defense Policy (May 7) provides an article from the Swiss International Relations and Security Network (ISN), while Operational Iraqi Freedom: Theater Air and Missile Defense History (May 6) is a report from the 32nd Air and Missile Defense Command based at Fort Bliss, Texas. Other items may be from the CDI Defense Monitor as well as from numerous other sources. The Defense Monitor, linked under bNewslettersQ and now apparently a bimonthly publication, contains the full text of relatively short articles that provide analysis and opinion by the article authors. The Defense Monitor covers a lot of ground in terms of the topics covered. For example, recent topics have included articles on the defense budget, U.S. military assistance, missile defense and congress, space dominance, and global base realignment. This site begins with December 2000 and continues to the present. Clicking on bWeekly Defense MonitorQ enters a site that has not been updated since the end of October, 2003. However, there is a hidden feature here that is not obvious until one clicks on 2003 and then, from the first entry bWeekly Defense Monitor Archive,Q one can open the archive which contains a full text of all issues back to volume 1 in 1997 through August 14, 2003. The archive can be very useful in tracking information on a topic. For example, volume 2 (number 50) of December 29, 1998, contains an interesting article on bFiguring the Costs of U.S. Policy on Iraq: Containment, Compliance, Collapse.Q It would be nice if this link to the archive was made a little more obvious and less obscure. Another interesting resource linked under bNewslettersQ is the bCDI Russia Weekly.Q This contains links to the full text of articles from a number of diverse sources such as the Moscow Times, RIA Novosti, Interfax, In the National Interest Web site, National Review Online, Radio Free Europe, and even excerpts from remarks and testimony given at U.S. congressional hearings. It is archived back to 1998 and may be searched by keyword(s). Selecting and clicking on a topic listed from the pull down menu under bProgramsQ will automatically display a listing of links related to that topic under bMain IssuesQ and bRelated Items.Q A number of areas have also been identified as bHot SpotQ issues. Coverage of the areas listed under bProgramsQ varies greatly. Obviously, those that have been identified as bHot SpotQ issues, such as missile defense, space security, terrorism, nuclear issues, children and armed conflict, etc., have been highly developed in the amount of information provided. Other topics listed under programs such as the intelligence community, failed states, peacekeeping, and weapons systems have few or no entries in many or most categories. While the information that is provided for aviation is interesting and useful, it is disappointing in its meagerness or nonexistence. However, if missile defense is chosen as the topic for example, the information provided is extensive. bMain IssuesQ will provide links to the full text of reports and other documentation on the topics such as costs, news and opinion, treaties and laws, systems, and U.S. foreign policy, etc. Under bRelated ItemsQ are found links to bPress Releases,Q bReports,Q and bIssue Briefs.Q bReportsQ links to the full text of research papers from organizations such as the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, the Simons Centre for Peace and Disarmament Studies at the University of British Columbia, and the Monterey Institute for International Studies. Similar links to full text resources are also provided under the press releases and issue briefs headings. bMissile Defense UpdatesQ is another very useful category
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that gathers together information from a wide range of sources on a periodic basis. All the entries are annotated and the originating source of the information is clearly stated, with links to the full text of the publication being given if electronically available. Just using these two sites alone can provide one with a plethora of reliable and authoritative information on defense topics. In many respects, they serve to basically complement each other in terms of the types of sources of information provided. Anyone with an interest in researching defense-related topics should make it a point to visit these sites regularly. Roger Anderson Bibliographer for Political Science and International Documents Librarian, Anschutz Library, University of Kansas, Level 3 Anschutz, Lawrence, KS 66045, United States E-mail address: [email protected]. Fax: +1 (785) 864 5705. 28 May 2004 doi:10.1016/j.giq.2004.09.006
Population and Development Report: Water Scarcity in the Arab World Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. New York: United Nations University Press. 35 pp. $10.00 USD. ISBN 92-1-128268-3 (paper). This is the first report in a series of United Nations publications that will provide insight into the blinks between population and development and their economic, social and political impacts at national and regional levelsQ (p. 1). It examines issues raised by the United Nations in a previous conference,1 and in General Assembly considerations.2 Using seven tables with foci from population projections to contraceptive use, and relevant publications cited as footnotes, this 35-page booklet concentrates on a topic of international interest. As the Introduction makes known immediately, bfreshwater is a particularly pressing issue in the Arab region, which contains a modest 1.1 percent of global renewable freshwater for a total of 4.6 percent of the world’s populationQ (p. 1). While the ratio between water and population is substantial, it is nothing in comparison to what the future will bring. The urban population in the Arab region (i.e., in those countries that are part of the League of Arab States) has tripled in the 30 years from 1970 to 2000 to 150 million, and projections call for a doubling to 300 million by 2030. This sixfold increase in as many decades is significant, but for some small countries—Comoros, Djibouti, Oman, and Qatar—with less than one million urban dwellers in 1970, the projections suggest a much larger urban population, with Oman estimated to attain 63 times this quantity by 2030. Oman had increased by 2000 this population subset by more than 20 times the 1970 amount. These latter three countries already have over 75% of their national populations in an urban setting, so the need for improved sanitation and services is a continuing—and growing—concern.