Vicarious warfare: The counterproductive consequences of modern American military practice

This article examines contemporary modes of American warfare. It posits the concept of “vicarious warfare” as a means of capturing prominent patterns in warfighting approaches. Although rooted in long-standing traditions of military practice, vicarious warfare is sufficiently novel as to be identifiable as a distinct phenomenon. The precise manifestation or combination of vicarious methods vary according to the specific circumstances and political contexts prevailing in different theaters. However, America’s general preference is to fight its wars by delegating tasks to proxies and limiting exposure of its own military to danger. Where U.S. forces are employed directly, this takes place largely in the shadows. Such approaches have clear attractions, offer undoubted tactical advantages, and permit successive administrations to maintain a persistent tempo of operations that evades rigorous democratic scrutiny. Yet, prominent cases and numerous studies suggest that vicarious warfare has a high potential to generate counterproductive effects and significant strategic harm.     

Hybrid War and Its Countermeasures: A Critique of the Literature

This article examines critically the literature of hybrid war and evaluates the countermeasures often proposed. It explains the concept of hybrid warfare and its varied interpretations, illustrating how it is a manifestation of current anxieties in armed conflict. The selection of the literature is based on works that are referenced, that offer a scientific approach, and which review either the phenomenon of hybrid warfare or its countermeasures empirically. Unscientific works have been omitted. The analysis of the literature presented here shows that the antidotes to ‘hybridity’ lie not in the operational or tactical sphere but in strategic and political domains.     

The campaign of the lost footsteps: the pacification of Burma, 1885-95

ABSTRACT

What Rudyard Kipling called the ‘campaign of lost footsteps’ was the longest campaign fought by the Victorian army. The conquest of Upper Burma, an area of 140,000 sq. miles with a population of four million, took only three weeks in November 1885 and was accomplished with minimum cost. However, the removal and deportation of the Burmese King and dismantling of all traditional authority dismantled led to growing resistance to British rule leading to an increasingly difficult guerrilla war. Though the Burmese guerrillas were characterised by the British as mere bandits or dacoits, many were former soldiers along with Buddhist monks. The extremely difficult nature of campaigning in the terrain and climate of Burma was not sufficiently appreciated by the War Office, who viewed the conflict as a ‘subaltern’s war’ and ‘police’ work. Intended regime change was also not accompanied by any consideration of the likely implications. Prolonged insurgency necessitated deploying a force far larger than originally intended; though order was finally secured by 1895, the campaign proved destructive of Burmese society while British recruitment of hill tribes into the police and armed forces sowed the seeds for future divisions.     

The Damoclean sword of offensive cyber: Policy uncertainty and collective insecurity

Cyberspace is a new domain of operation, with its own characteristics. Cyber weapons differ qualitatively from kinetic ones: They generate effects by non-kinetic means through information, technology, and networks. Their properties, opportunities, and constraints are comparable to the qualitative difference between conventional and nuclear weapons. New weapons and their target sets in a new domain raise a series of unresolved policy challenges at the domestic, bilateral, and international levels about deterrence, attribution, and response. They also introduce new risks: uncertainty about unintended consequences, expectations of efficacy, and uncertainty about both the target’s and the international community’s response. Cyber operations offer considerable benefits for states to achieve strategic objectives both covertly and overtly. However, without a strategic framework to contain and possibly deter their use, make state and non-state behavior more predictable in the absence of reciprocal norms, and limit their impact, an environment where states face persistent attacks that nonetheless fall below the threshold of armed conflict presents a policy dilemma that reinforces collective insecurity.     

Late Medieval Lance Use: Mounted Combat and Martial Arts in Western Europe from the 14th to the 16th Century

Despite the lance’s status and the amount of attention the couched lance has received in historiography, study of its martial art has been neglected. The various lance types and techniques used by western European cavalry have only recently begun to receive scholarly attention. Additionally, Medieval European lance use has too often been studied in isolation, without an adequate understanding of the idiosyncratic and asymmetrical dynamics of mounted combat. Although the charge with the couched lance was a valid tactic, it was only one of many. Light and heavy lances were used in one hand or two to trip, block, unhorse, and wrestle. These techniques were governed by the harsh laws of distance, speed, impact, iron, and asymmetry. By utilizing the surviving Fechtbücher and several Peninsular and Near Eastern sources, a brief foray into the diverse techniques of lance use and their purposes has been attempted here.     

基于影响图方法的信息战模型

基于信息战内涵,分析了信息因素和兵力因素在信息战过程中相互作用的关系,根据影响图建模理论,建立了信息战模型,得到了兵力与信息耦合作用的微分方程,说明了制信息权在信息战中的决定性作用,为定量研究信息战的兵力和信息要素提供了理论依据。最后通过对模型的分析和简化,导出了我们熟悉的情报战模型和兰彻斯特方程第二线性律,体现了模型的合理性,但是在实际应用时仍需结合具体问题对模型进一步规范和完善,才能得出科学合理而有价值的结论。     

新型逻辑器件与数字电子产品的系统集成研究

提出了一种实现电子产品系统集成和小型化的设计思想 ,探讨了采用FPGA (FieldPro grammableGateArray) ,SOC(System On a Chip) ,IP(IntellectualProperty)等新型逻辑器件以及EDA(ElectronicDesignAutomation)手段的设计方法 ,实现软硬件协同仿真、验证和电子虚拟样机以及设计重用的设计理念 ,为 2 1世纪智能电子产品的系统集成开辟了一条先进的技术途径。     

反舰导弹电子对抗仿真问题的研究

为观察、评估和研究针对反舰导弹末制导雷达的电子干扰的效果,研制了一个反舰导弹电子对抗仿真系统。文中给出了该仿真系统的模型框架,从仿真可信度的角度对其中的末制导雷达仿真模型作了进一步的说明,并介绍了该仿真系统在针对反舰导弹末制导雷达的电子干扰技术研究方面的应用。     

大学校园文化环境对外语口语教学的促进作用

我国大学生外语普遍存在笔试能力强、口语交际能力差的问题。大学校园文化环境对外语口语教学具有促进作用。精心设计的大学校园文化环境可以创造良好的外语学习氛围，可以熏陶、激励、保障和引导学生的外语学习积极性，在长期的口语实践中提高交际能力，弥补外语学习氛围的不足，促进外语口语教学。     

基于SD的信息化防御作战中兰彻斯特方程

在对信息化条件下的防御作战进程分析的基础上,增加信息因素和兵力补充速度对经典的兰彻斯特方程进行改进。通过引入系统动力学方法,构建了信息化条件下的防御作战进程的系统动力学模型,利用系统动力学方法来对改进的兰彻斯特方程进行求解。仿真结果证明了系统动力学在解决复杂兰彻斯特方程中的优越性。