Mailed Fists and Velvet Gloves: The Relevance of Smart Power to Singapore’s Evolving Defence and Foreign Policy

Abstract

This paper critically assesses the conceptual utility of smart power to Singapore’s evolving defence and foreign policy and behaviour. First, as a political concept adopted by the United States for its post-Afghanistan strategy, smart power does not travel easily. With qualifications, however, the notion is relevant to Singapore’s policy pragmatism and its emphasis on deterrence and diplomacy. Second, Singapore’s willingness to employ its military assets in disaster relief and peacekeeping arguably hews most closely to smart power’s mix of hard and soft approaches. Third, Singapore’s contributions to global governance, albeit limited, imply a rethinking among its leaders on the place of values in its policy.     

节点缓存受限场景下车载自组织网络拥堵特性研究

车载自组织网络作为一种新型的移动自组织网络,是智能交通系统的关键组成部分.近年来,社会各界对车载自组织网络的拥堵性进行了广泛研究,但却忽略了车载自组织网络中移动节点缓存空间有限的现实问题.因此,针对节点缓存受限场景下车载自组织网络的拥堵性问题进行了研究,通过设计来优化网络中数据包的传递过程.仿真实验的结果表明,提出的多...     

The Crowe Memorandum,the Rebalance to Asia,and Sino-US Relations

Many contemporary academics and policy analysts have revisited the Anglo-German rivalry before 1914 to predict what may await China and the United States in the twenty-first century. However, few, if indeed any, have specified in what sense this comparison can be made. This paper attempts to fill this gap with a detailed analysis of the strategic parallels between the Anglo-German rivalry then and the China–US competition now through the lens of the Crowe Memorandum. The author argues that the basic parallel between the rise of Germany and the rise of China lies in the challenges they posed or pose to the dominant maritime power and system leader – Great Britain then and the United States today. This parallel also explains the similarity between the Triple Entente initiated by Great Britain prior to 1914 and the Rebalance to Asia launched by the United States in 2011. Furthermore, as in the case of the Anglo-German rivalry before 1914, the most crucial problem underlying the mounting China–US competition in recent years has been America’s deepening apprehension about the development of China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) and naval capabilities. This development, from the US perspective, is threatening to deprive the US of its most crucial instrument to influence the strategic equilibrium on the East Asian littorals. Based on the lessons of the Anglo-German rivalry prior to 1914, the essay also examines the potential for mitigating, if not eliminating, the mounting competition and misgivings between China and the United States.     

敷设气囊的充水圆柱壳的声辐射

为降低充水圆柱壳受内部点声源激励时的水下辐射噪声,在其外壳上敷设气囊,形成气囊圆柱壳。为指导气囊圆柱壳的设计,将充水裸圆柱壳和充水气囊圆柱壳分别简化为单、双层无限长隔板。比较隔板、气体与水的波阻抗,分析了气体声速与层厚对双层无限长隔板在平面声波入射时低频声辐射的影响机理。分析表明,声速小的气体和适当的气层厚度可以降低双层障板的辐射噪声。采用声无限元法计算了气囊圆柱壳的水下声辐射,结论与对隔板的机理分析吻合。优化设计出的充水CO2气囊圆柱壳的水下辐射声功率与远场辐射声压明显低于充水裸圆柱壳。     

War Size Distribution: Empirical Regularities Behind Conflicts

This paper analyses the statistical distribution of war sizes. Using a new methodology we find moderate support for a Pareto-type distribution (power law), considering data from different sources (COW and UCDP) and periods. A power law is a plausible model for the size distribution of a pool of all wars and a sample of wars in many years, although the log-normal distribution is a plausible alternative model that we cannot reject. The random growth of conflicts could generate both types of distribution. We study the growth rates of battle deaths and random growth cannot be rejected for most of the distribution, although the results also reveal a clear decreasing pattern; the growth of deaths declines faster if the number of initial deaths is greater.