Reclaiming the Party’s Control of the Gun: Bringing Civilian Authority Back in China’s Civil-Military Relations

ABSTRACT

Since emerging as China’s top leader following the 18th Party Congress, Xi Jinping has moved swiftly to consolidate his formal authority as Central Military Commission chairman over the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. In redressing the civil-military imbalance wrought by Dengist economic reforms, the commander-in-chief has combined institutional mechanisms with the use of fear to impose authoritative civilian control over the military. This paper proposes that a combination of changes to the Chinese strategic environment has contributed to Xi’s utility of the anti-corruption campaign to purge the regime’s coercive forces of its previous underpinnings, and advances that the war on military malfeasance has given rise to a new set of dynamics in civil-military relations in post-Reform China.     

GHANA ELECTION 2000

Ghana achieved a victory for democracy on 7 January 2001 when Kufuor, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), was inaugurated as its president. For Kufuor, this was the end of a ‘political wilderness’ that lasted 29 years. His victory was celebrated with a nationwide sense of relief and joy. Almost 100 days after the government assumed power, it still enjoys massive support from the people and a new tolerance level that is unique in competitive Ghanaian politics. This article highlights areas of concern where the new government must tread carefully, particularly in respect of issues dealing with the military and the need for security sector reform to enable the military to accept civilian control. The discussion on foreign policy demonstrates the need for a more nuanced approach to the concept of ‘good neighbourliness’, situated within a clear differentiation between party and national interests. The economy has to improve and offer benefits to the public if such tolerance is to be sustained. The election results showed a need for consensus and coalition-building in parliament to consolidate this important victory.     

Assessing military reform in Indonesia

This article seeks to assess the magnitude of military reform in Indonesia and its impact in establishing greater levels of professionalism within the armed forces. To this end, the authors will offer some reflections on the studies of civil-military relations and military transformation for inculcating a higher degree of military professionalism; analyse to what extent the process of military reform in Indonesia has reshaped the institutional role of the armed forces; and discern three major strategic gaps in Indonesia's military reform, namely the “legal loopholes and regulation vacuum,” the “shortcomings of democratic civilian control,” and the “defence-economic gap.” This article asserts that military professionalism will grow more substantially depending on the ability of civilian elites to exercise effective control over the military and the capacity of the government to transform the military establishment keeping pace with strategic challenges and operational requirements.     

加快推动国防科技和武器装备军民融合发展

国防科技和武器装备领域是军民融合发展的重点,也是衡量军民融合发展水平的重要标志。加快国防科技和武器装备军民融合发展,是保军强军的重要支撑,更关乎国家安全和发展一系列重大问题,必须从战略高度深刻领会其全局意义,以清醒头脑研判国防科技和武器装备军民融合发展形势,用务实举措推动国防科技和武器装备军民融合创新发展。     

Budget allocation,national security,military intelligence,and human capital: a dynamic model

This study develops a dynamic model that integrates military intelligence into the defense capability of the country and the optimal allocation of its government budget. We assert that the effectiveness of the country’s military intelligence is contingent on the quality of its human capital, which, in turn, implies a long-term positive relationship between the government’s various civilian expenditures and its capacity to achieve a cost-effective intelligence and, hence, military capability. This relationship is developed within a multiple-period arms race model between two rivals. Using this model and stylized data for the Israeli–Syrian arms race, we show that an appropriate budget shift from defense to civilian expenditures during the initial periods of the planning horizon will gradually (over a decade, say) increase the quality of human capital in the country and, thus, the effectiveness of its intelligence, which, in turn, will increase the country’s future security and welfare.     

Leadership at NATO: Secretary General Manfred Woerner and the Crisis in Bosnia

NATO's post-Cold War transformation, as well as the military alliance's decision to use force in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, has been examined from multiple perspectives. Among an array of diplomatic, historical and political approaches, however, analysts have given little attention to the role played by NATO's top civilian leader in Brussels, the Secretary General. On the crisis in Bosnia, no research has been devoted to the leadership of Secretary General Manfred Woerner, who oversaw NATO as it moved toward aggressive military action in the Balkans. Using an approach that examines the Secretary General's leadership from three perspectives, this article provides the first assessment of Woerner's role in shaping alliance policy on Bosnia. The findings suggest that Woerner was a critical leader in influencing NATO decisions, which provides new explanations for NATO's conduct in the Balkans, and speaks to the broader literature on NATO's evolution after the Cold War.     

美国创新体系军民深度融合发展特点及启示

美国具有全球最为先进的军事科技实力、军事科技创新能力和国防保障能力,美国的科技创新体系具有军民融合深度发展的特点,在军民融合创新发展上没有明显的时间滞后,是世界上军民融合科技创新体系发展最好的典型样板国家。论文梳理分析美国国防创新系统及其特点,分析美国国防科技经费预算、研究方向和项目流程,研究分析美国促进军民融合创新与发展的制度保障体系,总结美国创新体系中军民深度融合发展的特点,解析美国军民融合发展中的典型案例、各自成功的模式和主要经验,并结合我国军民融合发展的实际情况提出建议。     

Country survey XVI the defence sector in the economy of a declining superpower: Soviet Union and Russia, 1965-2001

The Soviet Union was able to develop a large military-industrial complex and become the world's second superpower despite deficiencies in its centrally planned economy because defence was given high priority status and special planning, rationing and administrative mechanisms were used to attain national security objectives. However, in the period 1976-85 the effectiveness of priority protection diminished and defence institutions experienced more of the problems typical of the shortage economic system. The heavy defence burden also created growing difficulties for the civilian economy. The attempts by the Gorbachev government to reform the defence sector and improve defence-economic relationships during perestroika (1985-91) uniformly failed. For most of the transition period, the Russian military-industrial complex has been adversely affected by its low priority status, cuts in defence spending, instability of the hybrid politico-economic system, and negative growth of the economy. The armed forces and defence industry have been reduced in size and their outputs of military services and equipment have fallen to low levels. Nevertheless, the Russian armed forces still have over one million troops, significant stocks of sophisticated conventional weapons, and a large nuclear arsenal. The government of President Putin has raised the priority of the defence sector, increased real defence spending, and adopted ambitious plans to revive Russian military power. It is likely, though, that tight resource constraints will hamper efforts to reform the armed forces and to upgrade weapons. By 2010 Russia will be an important, but not dominant, military power in Eurasia.     

从非权力影响力的要素构成谈新时期部队领导干部威信的树立

贯彻以人为本,加强管理的民主化是部队管理发展的新趋势。部队管理中越来越强调现代军队领导干部的非权力影响力,塑造领导干部在官兵中的威信和号召力。从信仰、品格、知识、能力、感情等要素构成分析部队领导者非权力影响力的形成途径,对树立领导干部的威信,提高领导干部的能力,创新部队管理模式,具有现实意义。     

Do Employers Favor those with Military Experience in the U.S. Reserve Forces? Evidence from a Field Experiment

This study examines whether completed service in the military reserves results in a civilian labor market benefit. Reservists are not completely absent from the civilian labor market during their military service, possibly allowing them to receive the benefits associated with military experience without forgoing valuable civilian labor market experience. Using a resume study, the results suggest that completed service in the military reserves, relative to no military experience, increases the probability of receiving a request for an interview by 19%.     

推进国防动员军民融合深度发展的对策思考

军民融合式发展是实现富国与强军相统一的必由之路,也是增强国防动员潜力、提高国防动员能力的有效途径。在新的形势下推进国防动员建设,必须进一步强化军民融合观念,完善军民融合机制,提高军民融合层次,增强军民融合实效,努力促进动员潜力随经济实力同步增长、动员能力随需求拓展不断提升,实现经济效益、社会效益与国防效益有机统一。     

人工智能技术军民双向转化的内涵特征、主要障碍和政策建议

人工智能技术是引领经济社会发展的战略性前沿性技术。人工智能技术军民双向转化作为国家实施创新驱动发展战略的重要方式,具有很强的超前性、联动性和不确定性。但人工智能技术军民双向转化亟待系统布局,完善机制并统一标准。下一步要建立军地沟通常态化协调机制,促进人工智能技术成果转移转化,推进科技创新平台基地的统筹布局和开放共享。     

CIVILIANISING MILITARY FUNCTIONS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The privatization of activities previously performed by government has been a major characteristic of economic policies over the past two decades. This article examines the potential for privatization of military activities in the African context. Four categories in which this has or might occur are mercenaries employed by a government to provide for defence or to supplement its own military; private security company personnel employed to protect economic assets or to advise and train the local military; the contracting out of the provision of goods and services ranging from heavy weapons through to accounting services; and the transfer of non-core activities currently undertaken by the military to other government departments or civilian bodies. Of these, the last is of potential importance in Africa, given the wide range of activities which its militaries have come to perform. Three examples where private sector organisations or other government departments could play a much larger and probably more cost-effective role are peacekeeping, internal security and surveillance, resource protection and rescue activities.     

军民融合背景下军工企业多元化发展战略研究

冷战结束后,欧美多数军工企业在军转民的过程中采取多元化的经营战略,壮大企业规模并寻求进一步的发展。随着我国军民融合战略的深入实施,军工企业不再是封闭独立的单一军品生产基地,而是顺时应势逐步实现军品和民品同步多元化发展的战略转型。通过分析我国军工企业军转民的历史进程与国际经验,结合多元化战略的特点,考察军工企业在军转民过程中实施多元化战略的动因,构建军工企业多元化战略的选择函数。本文认为,军工企业选择多元化战略应考虑企业自身实际情况,积极响应国家政策,培育核心竞争力;同时,军转民过程作为军民融合深度发展的重要一环,会促使军工企业往多元化的方向发展,而多元化战略的实施也会加快军民融合深度发展的进程。     

领导的非权力影响力与和谐官兵关系

构建和谐官兵关系,充分发挥军队领导干部的非权力影响力,塑造领导干部在官兵中的威信和号召力,是融洽官兵人际关系,实现有效沟通的重要途径。其对建设团结、合作、友爱、稳定的军内环境,具有现实意义。     

Institutionalizing supreme command: explaining political–military integration in the Vietnam War, 1964–1968

Under what conditions can leaders achieve wartime political–military integration? In the Vietnam War, political–military integration exhibited dramatic variation: in the air war, the US was able to tightly integrate its political objectives and military conduct, but in the ground war, the American military prosecuted a strategy that was both divorced from broader political objectives and was immune from Washington's influence. I argue that the nature of information management between the military and civilian leadership explains the pattern of political–military integration in the Vietnam War more completely than do explanations that focus on the organizational cultures of professional militaries.     

Civil–Military Relations in India: The China Crisis and After

The pattern of civil–military interaction in India is informed by the notion that civilians should refrain from involvement in operational matters. The emergence of this trend can be traced back to the defeat against China in 1962. In its aftermath, the belief that the debacle occurred because of civilian interference took hold. Thereafter, politicians restricted themselves to giving overall directives, leaving operational matters to the military. The Indian ‘victory’ in the subsequent war with Pakistan was seen as vindicating this arrangement. This essay argues that the conventional reading of the China crisis is at best misleading and at worst erroneous. Further, it contends that the subsequent war with Pakistan actually underscores the problems of civilian non-involvement in operational issues. The historical narrative underpinning the norm of civilian abstention is at the very least dubious.     

Iraq's role in the 1973 Arab‐Israeli War

The events of the 1973 Arab‐Israeli War serve as an early indicator of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's willingness to use military power to address foreign policy concerns. In that war, Iraq intervened on the Syrian front with an armored division, other supporting units, and over 100 aircraft. This intervention, which occurred despite severe political and military difficulties, was larger than any previous Iraqi contribution to the anti‐Israeli struggle. Baghdad later asserted that Iraqi forces had saved Damascus from possible Israeli occupation, and these claims have been widely repeated by a variety of authors of different nationalities with various degrees of agreement or skepticism. Nevertheless, Iraqi claims to have saved Damascus from Israeli capture are false since the Israelis did not view the seizure of the city as important to their strategy for victory. Rather, the Iraqi presence on the Golan Heights was useful to the Arab war effort as one of many factors helping to delay the Israeli advance and prevent some important Syrian targets from being placed within artillery range of the Israeli force. Iraqi military shortcomings were well highlighted in this conflict, and many were repeated in the early stages of the war with Iran.     

地方物流供应商“藏捏”信息行为的监管机制

针对军民融合现代军事物流体系内物流实体存有"藏捏"信息行为,难以实现信息真正共享,妨害军队物资采购的问题,从地方物流供应商"藏捏"信息动机分析入手,考虑到安全保密原则,基于交纳保密保证金的做法对格罗夫斯机制进行修改,建立地方物流供应商"藏捏"信息行为的监管机制,并运用算例证明了该机制的科学有效性。     

袁国平军队政治工作思想与方法研究

袁国平是我党我军最早从事军队政治工作的杰出代表,在长期的军队政治生活实践中,袁国平从不成熟走向成熟,逐渐形成了一整套独有的从事政治工作的思想与方法,其内容广泛,特点鲜明,为搞好我党早期的军队政治工作做出了巨大贡献,其精华部分是我军思想工作建设的宝贵财富,对于当前的政治工作建设仍具有极大的参考价值。