Just How Important Are ‘Hearts and Minds’ Anyway? Counterinsurgency Goes to the Polls

Despite all the talk of ‘hearts and minds’ being the key to counterinsurgency, local public opinion is rarely studied and when it is, it often yields surprising conclusions. Through analyzing polling data from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, this article shows that public opinion is less malleable, more of an effect rather than a cause of tactical success, and a poor predictor of strategic victory. As a result, modern counterinsurgency doctrine’s focus on winning popular support may need to be rethought.     

Becoming the enemy: Convergence in the American and Al Qaeda ways of warfare

The United States and Al Qaeda represent two fundamentally different forms of warfare. The US, with its basis in the Western way of warfare, relies on an almost totally instrumental form of warfare and Al Qaeda, with its basis in the Islamic way of warfare, fights an expressive, existential form of warfare. This paper illustrates how both sides' ways of warfare are converging toward each other. It also argues that this is in fact a good thing because it will allow the US to understand its enemy and thereby allow the US to defeat him in terms he can understand.     

Asymmetry of Values,Indigenous Forces,and Incumbent Success in Counterinsurgency: Evidence from Chechnya

This article fills the gap in existing scholarship on asymmetric conflict, indigenous forces, and how socio-cultural codes shape the dynamics and outcomes of conflict transformation. Specifically, it identifies three key socio-cultural values commonplace in honorific societies: retaliation, hospitality, and silence. As sources of effective pro-insurgent violent mobilisation and support from among the local population, these values provide insurgents with an asymmetric advantage over much stronger incumbents. Using the case studies of the two Russian counterinsurgencies in Chechnya, the article shows the mechanisms on the ground through which Moscow’s deployment of indigenous forces against insurgents helped to stem the tide of conflict, reversing the insurgents’ initial advantage in terms of asymmetry of values.     

Bureaucracy Does Its Thing: US Performance and the Institutional Dimension of Strategy in Afghanistan

It is not too soon to draw cautionary lessons from the inconclusive results of US performance during more than 11 years of Operation ‘Enduring Freedom’ in Afghanistan. As in Vietnam, fundamental difficulties persist in adapting enduring institutions to the requirements of strategy. At the heart of the matter is tension between the assumptions that underlie counterinsurgency as practiced in Afghanistan and organization of the US Armed Forces, State Department, and Agency for International Development. Knowledge of basic principles and necessary changes is available to answer the question, could the US have done better?     

Military Maladaptation: Counterinsurgency and the Politics of Failure

Tactical learning is critical to battlefield success, especially in a counterinsurgency. This article tests the existing model of military adaption against a ‘most-likely’ case: the British Army’s counterinsurgency in the Southern Cameroons (1960–61). Despite meeting all preconditions thought to enable adaptation – decentralization, leadership turnover, supportive leadership, poor organizational memory, feedback loops, and a clear threat – the British still failed to adapt. Archival evidence suggests politicians subverted bottom-up adaptation, because winning came at too high a price in terms of Britain’s broader strategic imperatives. Our finding identifies an important gap in the extant adaptation literature: it ignores politics.     

Accounting for army recruitment: White and non-white soldiers and the British Army

A statistically based enquiry into recruitment into the British Army over the period 1987-2000 shows that two factors tend to induce young men to enlist: high levels of unemployment in the civilian sector and positive signals from the authorities that the Army is in a recruiting phase. The same result obtains, broadly speaking, in the context of both white and non-white (ethnic minority) recruitment, although the willingness of ethnic minority young men to contemplate an Army career is only about a quarter of that of white men, other things being equal. Correspondingly, the Army shows no signs of reaching the target agreed with the Commission for Racial Equality in 1997 for a 1 percentage point increase annually in the percentage of recruits being drawn from the ethnic minorities. This article has something to say about how the Army might improve its performance in this regard by offering more in-service training and education to otherwise underqualified recruits and concentrating recruitment effort on regions of high ethnic minority unemployment.     

Forced displacement and behavioral change: an empirical study of returnee households in the Nuba Mountains

We use a unique data-set gathered during a short-lived interwar period in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan to compare characteristics of the households returning after the conflict with those that stayed in their communities of origin. We found that returning households seemed to face worse economic conditions, particularly in the case of female-headed returnee households. Nevertheless, our results show that returnees tend to perform better on different health indicators. Using a detailed set of variables about hygiene and sanitary habits, we explore the hypothesis that the latter result may be related to changes in attitudes given the distinct experiences during displacement. We show that returnees are indeed more likely to adopt these measures.     

Insights from a Database of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Militants

This article uses a novel database of 1,625 posthumously published biographies of members of two Islamist militant organizations (Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM)), all of whom were killed in the course of carrying out militant attacks. In general, each biography provides data on the militant’s birthplace, education, recruitment, and training. The number of observations in this database is a full order of magnitude larger than those of previous databases assembled from militant biographies. While the sample of militants in this database is the product of multiple selection effects, analysis of the database undermines many common myths about Pakistani militants and casts doubt on current policy approaches to mitigating Islamist militancy in Pakistan.     

“又＋动1＋又＋动2”格式之考察

本文对收集到的＂又＋动1＋又＋动2＂格式的语料进行了定量、定性分析,从它的构成形式、语义特点、位序特点、语法功能四个方面概括了这一格式的特点,并比较分析了这一格式与＂又＋形1＋又＋形2＂格式的相同点和不同点,以及与其它并列格式的区别。以期对＂又A又B＂格式的特点有个更全面、准确地把握。     

摩擦电喷镀摩擦机理及复合镀层工艺的研究

摩擦电喷镀是一项新发明的金属表面高速电沉积技术,具有高速、优质、低耗等特点.本文利用扫描电镜、X射线衍射、X射线应力测试仪等物理测试手段,首次研究了摩擦对镍镀层组织、结构和力学性能的作用机理.此外,通过对摩擦电喷镀Ni基Al_2O_3复合镀层测试,分析了工艺因素及其对镀层质量的影响,并给出了有参考价值的优化工艺参数.     

谈消防产品监督管理中的问题与对策

从分析当前消防产品质量现状以及在消防产品监督管理中存在的问题及难点入手,探索加强和改进消防产品质量监督管理工作的措施,提出了健全执法运行机制,建立相关政府部门联动长效机制,加强宣传、提高产品信息透明度等消防产品质量监督管理新模式的设想。     

海峡两岸人员往来管理之比较

由于历史原因,海峡两岸虽在同一国境内,却赋予了应属国内人口流动的人员往来以“出入境”的含义,并实行各具特色、各有所长的出入境管理制度。对海峡两岸人员往来的管理进行比较,在理论与实践上有其现实意义。     

省部共建高校的服务定位：打造区域经济社会发展的核心动力源

省部共建高校是我国高等教育的重要组成部分,其服务应立足区域经济建设和社会发展的需要,一方面推进区域自主创新,另一方面实现学校自身又好又快的发展。该文从人才培养、科技创新、社会服务、文化辐射四方面分析了省部共建高校的服务定位,提出力争将其建设成为推动区域经济社会发展的核心动力源,成为地方高校发展的示范集群。     

整合优化“专业方向课”内容结构的思考——以《武警基层管理》课为例

整合优化“专业方向课”内容结构,既是提高教学质量的重点,又是难点。以《武警基层管理》课为例,从教学组织实施者的角度,重点阐述了以强化基础性、突出综合性、注重实践性和增强发展性为目标,积极整合优化“专业方向课”的内容结构。     

高校资源环境类专业开设资源与环境法课程的意义

资源与环境法是高校法学类的核心课程,目前,该课程已经逐渐在资源环境类专业中不同程度的开设。高校资源环境类专业开设资源与环境法课程是非常必要而且很有意义的,（1）文章从开设资源与环境法课程有助于强化学生的环境法制教育;（2）开设资源与环境法课程有助于完善资源环境类专业的学科体系;（3）开设资源与环境法课程有利于大学生参与保护环境的实践活动;（4）开设资源与环境法课程有助于学生了解常识;（5）资源环境法课程的开设有利于丰富教学授课形式等5个方面论证了其意义性。     

高校网络思想政治教育的影响与发展对策

由于人们对信息敏感性的增强,高校的思想政治教育面临着更加严峻的挑战。如何使高校思想政治教育的主渠道畅通、主阵地巩固,这是一个亟待研究和解决的重大课题。从网络思想政治教育的概念界定、高校网络思想政治教育的影响以及方法和途径进行论述,以期加强和改进高校的思想政治教育。     

IMGS方法与TOR方法之间的比较性定理

给出了一种IMGS方法,在理论上证明了当系数矩阵为不可约的M－矩阵时IMGS方法收敛,且其收敛速度快于基本的TOR迭代法。最后用数值例子验证了所得到的主要结论。     

编辑与选题策划

选题策划作为出版工作的基础,对编辑素质和编辑工作,包括专业知识造诣、准确的市场定位、计算机运用、成本核算、市场策划在内的整个出版过程的策划等多方面的能力素质都有很高的要求。一名出色的编辑应该在进行选题策划时科学地把握相关的原则和要求,不断提高自身素质,不断为选题策划引入新思想、新方法。     

加强高校青年教师思想政治工作的思考

高校青年教师已成为高校教学科研的骨干力量,加强高校青年教师思想政治工作是高校当前一项紧迫而重要的战略任务。本文通过对高校青年教师的思想现状和存在问题原因分析,提出加强高校青年教师思想政治工作的对策。     

新疆泽普县农村中小学布局调整评价分析及建议

新疆泽普县农村中小学布局调整按照＂县办中学、乡办小学,中心村办幼儿园＂的总体要求,初步实现了学校规模办学及城乡教育一体化。本文对新疆泽普县农村中小学布局调整的整体状况进行了实地调研,并在此基础上对布局调整后取得的成效及存在的问题进行了具体的评价分析,提出了改进新疆泽普县农村中小学布局调整的建议。