美军心理战部队一瞥

20世纪后半期,美军在对外军事行动中开始有计划地实施心理战。作为执行战场心理战任务的直接力量,美军心理战部队逐渐为世人所知晓。半个世纪以来,这支富有神秘色彩的部队频繁出没于世界各个角落,为美军达成战略目的,赢得战场胜利,立下了汗马功劳,成为美军特种作战部队中的一个亮点。随着心理战战略地位的上升和信息技术的发展,新世纪的美军心理战部队将展现出全新的面貌。     

不断走出国门的德国国防军

近来,围绕德国联邦国防军海外维和的新闻接二连三地在媒体出现,先是在中东维和的德军战舰与以色列战机"擦枪走火",再是驻阿富汗德国维和士兵玩弄人头骨的图片被曝光以及涉嫌虐待囚犯。冷战后不断走出国门的德国联邦国防军引起了世人的关注。     

蓬勃发展的海上远程对地攻击武器

在最近的几场局部战争中,舰载或潜射巡航导弹成为了美军打击陆上目标的首选武器。最近美军又计划推出DD(X)“未来水面作战舰艇”的对地攻击型,以取代原计划研制的DD21。美军为何如此青眯于“由海向陆攻击”? 这一方面是因为海军的主要作战任务已经发生了改变:在冷战时期,海军的主要任务是在深海执行战略决战,夺取制海权;今天,海军更多地是在近岸水域支援两栖攻击部队或陆上快速反应部队执行维和、     

关注美军心理战

信息社会的发展和信息技术的进步,以及建立在信息论和控制论基础上的现代认知心理学的创立,为美军心理战的发展提供了前所未有的机遇。心理战正在成为一种独立的作战样式,并在美国国家安全中占据重要地位。随着美国在对外军事行动中有计划、有步骤地实施心理战,作为执行战场心理战任务的直接力量——美军心理战部队,也逐渐为世人所知晓,成为美军特种作战部队中的一个亮点。     

撩开美军心理战部队的面纱

近年来,在美国实施的对外军事干预行动中,心理战部队愈来愈起着重要的作用,并因其杰出的表现而被称为指挥官手中的“利剑”。随着美国军事战略的调整和美军“建设21世纪部队,打赢21世纪战争”军事思想的确立,心理战部队的作用和建设备受美军当局的高度重视。 一、编成及任务 心理战部队是美军特种作战部队的一个组成部分,各军种均有实施心理战的任务。在编制上美军心理战部队自成体系,独立编成,序列上归美军特种作战司令部下属的民     

图片新闻

公安部第三支维和警察暴队赴海地执行任务2005年12月12日,公安部第三支维和警察防暴队赴海地执行维和任务。机场上举行了隆重的欢送仪式。公安部部长助理孙永波,公安部维和事务领导小组成员单位及山东省公安厅领导,武警学院副院长杨隽,维和培训中心政委李春增等到首都机场送行。摄影报道：亚东、战强边消警部队2005年第三期师职干部培训班开班全国公安边消警部队2005年第三期师职干部培训班开班仪式,于12月5日在武警学院举行。公安部人事训练局李民真副局长出席开班仪式并讲话。仪式由副院长杨隽主持。院长张世瑷、政委王铁民,公安部…     

美军第4心理战群的发展研究

本文考察了美军唯一的现役心理战部队——美军第4心理战群的发展历史，阐述了其现行的编制、主要任务、教育训练等方面的情况，对其在近期几场局部战争中的心理战实践进行了经验总结，并对其未来的编制改革、心理战装备投入及与信息战的集成等方面的发展趋势作了分析探讨。     

维和部队出征利比里亚

2006年4月18日上午,北京军区隆重组织赴利比里亚执行维和任务部队的出征仪式。朱启司令员向维和和工兵、运输、医疗分队授旗,符廷贵政委讲话,总部、军区机关和北京市及军区部队代表共计1000余人为维和官兵壮行。根据中央军委决定,中国参加利比里亚维和行动的工兵、运输、医疗分队实施第三次轮换。此次轮换分队由北京军区派出,共计558人,分别接替现在     

预备役部队要研究的心理战

预备役部队在未来信息化战争中,担负着重要的使命任务,提高预备役部队官兵心理战攻防能力,加强预备役部队心理战建设,是当前需要解决的一个重要课题。要搞好顶层设计。心理战作为重要的作战样式,已经从战术战役层次提升到国家战略层次。提高心理攻击能力和心理防卫能力,加强心理战建设,必须从国家战略的高度,搞好顶层设计,健全法规体系,统一组织协调,使心理战建没逐步走上法制化正规化科学化轨道。一是完善配套法规体系。心理战虽然已经以法规的形式写人《政工条例》,但相关的配套法规制度还不完善,心理战作战思     

台军心理战部队探秘

在经过10年的研究与筹建之后,台湾陆军不久前正式组建了专业化的心理战部队。这支部队仍沿袭蒋介石时期的“政战大队”名称,主要遂行心理威慑和信息欺骗行动。此次台心理战部队的组建首先从陆军开始,将来进一步扩编成为跨军种部队,指挥权限在台军方“参谋本部”。这支以美军心理战部队为“蓝本”的特种部队目前已完成先期编装工作,正由台军“陆军总部”进行第三阶段运作。该部队的装备由直升机、电子战飞机与多个分别装置在陆基、海基与空中的高功率无线电发射平台组成。其第一个任务就是与台湾军方其他电子战单位合作,监视中国大陆党、政、军动态。     

To Protect and Serve: Civilian Policing and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo

Since the end of the Cold War the process of nation building has become a priority in the attempt to maintain world order and security in the wake of the instability and devastation wrought by failed and war-torn states. The proliferation of nation-building missions has led to their diversification and the need to marshal a vast array of resources in order to attain substantial levels of success. This article deals with a new and important component of peacekeeping and nation-building missions, that of civilian policing. The article outlines the goals of using civilian police officers in nation-building missions and discusses a variety of problems (pragmatic, legal, and cultural) that policing may introduce to such missions. This discussion is focused around the civilian policing component of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. It delineates the successes and hardships so far experienced during the mission in Kosovo and explores the insights that the mission may provide for similar projects in the future.     

Does military spending stimulate growth? An empirical investigation in Italy

This paper investigates the effect of military burden on economic growth and extends previous works on the optimal size of government expenditure by exploring how external threat affects the preferences of the households and, in turn, economic growth. Post World War II Italian data are used to estimate nonlinear growth models using time-series semi-parametric methods. The estimates show that total government and civilian burdens are productive, whereas, military burden has significant effects on economic growth through the expenditure for peacekeeping missions, which reduces the insecurity in the home country. This may justify economically the current not negligible budget devoted to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.     

Rentier peacekeeping in neo-patrimonial systems: The examples of Burundi and Kenya

International peacekeeping in Africa has developed dynamically in the last decade. The majority of global missions are deployed to the continent, the largest regional contingent of troops comes from Africa, and the African Peace and Security Architecture has made significant progress. Peacekeeping is Africanized today more than at any time before. However, mainstream research has insufficiently paid attention to African agency in this context. This article sheds light on the often neglected influence of African politics on international peacekeeping missions. The focus is set on the consequences of neo-patrimonial political systems, which can use international peacekeeping missions as an opportunity to generate rents. It will be shown that such a rent-seeking approach is highly problematic for the troop-contributing as well as mission-hosting countries. Instead of curbing conflict, rentier peacekeeping is prolonging and exporting it. The empirical examples used are the Burundian and Kenyan involvement in peacekeeping in Somalia.     

From Civil War Victor to Cold War Guard: Positional Warfare in Korea and the Transformation of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, 1951–1953

This article analyses the impact of the Korean War on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), particularly the period of positional warfare from 1951 to 1953. In the war of movement between October 1950 and June 1951, the PLA relied on its civil war era weapons and experience, including the doctrine of ‘battle of annihilation’. Operations in early 1951 suggested that the civil war legacies of the PLA no longer applied to the realities of combat in Korea. Based on both Soviet aid and domestic mobilisation, the PLA managed to build the material foundation for positional warfare and rapidly improved its logistics. Operationally, on the defensive, the PLA developed combined operations integrating infantry, artillery, and armoured forces. The PLA learned the lessons of the Korean War and strengthened its ties with the Soviet armed forces in order to modernise itself. The Korean War thus transformed the PLA from Civil War victor to Cold War guard.     

French Exception or Western Variation? A Historical Look at the French Irregular Way of War

ABSTRACT

This article aims at challenging the notion of a French exception in the realm of irregular warfare, suggesting that it rather amounts to a western variation. Born out of a transatlantic community under British influence, the French irregular experience carried on through the early Cold War challenges, strengthening France’s ties with its Western allies. France’s subsequent involvement in post-colonial counter-insurgencies did contribute to generating some specific strategic features, although never totally disconnected from international circulation. Finally, the post-Cold War order significantly drove French irregular warfare back into its Western fold through the adoption of US- and NATO-sponsored concepts and doctrines, thus enhancing interoperability and some degree of standardisation.     

Clausewitz and Low-Intensity Conflict

The end of the Cold War led some commentators to question the relevance of Clausewitz's thought in a strategic environment where low-intensity conflict (LIC) would predominate. On the contrary, however, Clausewitz's understanding of the intensity of warfare, and its relationship with the political environment of any given time, makes his thinking compatible with changing historical circumstances. The current War on Terror, for example, can be comfortably accommodated within Clausewitz's concept of war. However, a move away from Clausewitz in US doctrine has been coupled with a rejection of LIC in favour of the erroneous notion of ‘operations other than war’. Consequently, such doctrine lacks the clarity required for its proper dissemination.     

Uncovering foreign military innovation

An analysis of US assessments of Germany's development of armored warfare illustrates the problems that intelligence agencies face as they attempt to understand military innovation. The covert nature of German Army's tank research in the years immediately following World War I limited the number of indicators of Berlin's interest in armored warfare. Similarly, the United States possessed at best a fragmentary picture of German experimentation with armor. By the outbreak of World War II, however, US military attaches had nonetheless developed an accurate understanding of German concepts of armored warfare. If the United States is to avoid strategic surprise in the future, it must cultivate intelligence sources and employ considerably different methods from those of the Cold War.     

美国在非洲维和的经验教训及其启示

开展维和行动是实现联合国宗旨和维护世界安全与稳定的重要手段。作为联合国安理会五大常任理事国之一,美国是联合国完成维和任务不可或缺的,甚至具有决定性作用的国家。冷战时期美国的非洲维和行动在争吵和小心翼翼中进行,冷战后美国的非洲维和战略经历了积极主动向有选择地介入转变的过程,当前美国的非洲维和行动则是在崇尚自主的前提下推广美国特色的维和,以期最大限度地彰显美国实力、维护美国核心利益。审视美国非洲维和战略的演变,汲取足够的经验教训,有利于更好地根据世情和国情定位中国未来的维和战略。     

Peacekeeping and civil–military relations in Uruguay

ABSTRACT

There have been over 90,000 UN peacekeepers deployed around the world to 78 peacekeeping operations (PKOs) in over 125 countries since 1948. Some scholars have made the case that these missions have had a positive impact on the relationship between the military and the civilians they work for. However, other scholars have identified a negative impact on civil military relations (CMR). This paper contributes to this debate by investigating how peacekeeping has impacted civil-military relations in Latin America's most prolific contributor to peacekeeping: Uruguay. This paper finds that PKOs in Uruguay have facilitated post-transitions attempts by civilians to build first-generation control, but not second-generation control. Further, PKOs have marginally improved military effectiveness, but we find that they do not improve societal trust in the armed forces.     

Early warning,the protection of civilians and United Nations peacekeeping operations

This commentary traces the increasing importance of early warning in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping, an emphasis that has emerged in connection with the evolution of protection of civilians mandates in UN peacekeeping missions. It examines the current and emerging practice of early warning in UN peacekeeping as well as the challenges faced, drawing on case studies from the UN missions in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The authors also propose a set of basic principles upon which early warning in UN peacekeeping operations might be approached in the future.