美国退出《中导条约》与俄美关系发展走向

2018年10月，美国宣布单方面退出《中导条约》。《中导条约》是美苏两国在冷战后期达成的，并得到了切实执行的条约，对于维护冷战后全球战略平衡发挥了至关重要的作用。冷战后，俄美曾经企图将《中导条约》多边化，构建俄美新型战略关系，但最终反目成仇，使得俄美关系严重倒退，并迈入新的相互战略遏制的时代。     

Fighter aircraft acquisition in Croatia: failure of policy delivery

The possibility for Croatia to obtain new fighter aircraft is not new, as this option has been publicly debated for at least a decade. A sudden decision to advance the acquisition of a limited number of fighter aircraft was made in 2017 with an international tendering process concluding in early 2018. Through open source material, this paper will look at this procurement process by examining the relationship between policy and strategic thinking on the one side, and policy delivery on the other, and evaluate why the tendering process failed in achieving envisaged results. The paper concludes that the problems facing the Croatian aircraft acquisition process stem from at least two interrelated factors: firstly, at the operational level, the failure of the procurement was the direct result of mismanaged tendering procedures linked to the wider public administration reform process; and secondly, at the strategic level, inherently complex civil-military relations and related cultural aspects which have not been adequately addressed over the past decades. The result was a failure to deliver on government policy, something which this paper argues will need to be addressed over the medium to long term.     

装备技术人才军民融合定制化培训模式

本文依托军民融合国家战略基础，对比国内外发展现状，分析现行培训形式的不足之处，梳理军民融合式培训需求，将军民融合理念贯穿人才培训全过程。针对军事体制调整后的专业技师和工程师等专业技术骨干，形成一套培训要求“专业化”对接、培训师资“军学研”共建、培训内容“菜单式”定制、培训样式“多手段”并举以及培训效果“递进式”发挥的装备技术人才军民融合定制化培训模式，并且有针对性地提出军民融合基地化培训的建设框架，从培训管理、培训实施等方面提出方法，为部队拓宽专业技术人才培训通道，实现被动式培训向主动式培训转变，提高装备实战化保障能力提供借鉴和指导。     

From the sociology of the (military) profession to the sociology of (security) expertise: the case of European national defence universities

Few would disagree that European militaries have experienced dramatic changes since the end of the Cold War. Much of the discussion on these changes to date has referred to the concept of professionalism. However, this approach became outdated as professions in post-industrialist societies entered a state of crisis as a result of growing competition from a variety of competitors. The present study adapts a new framework from the sociology of knowledge literature – sociology of expertise – into one, sociology of security expertise, which is suitable for study of contemporary armed forces. Its utility is demonstrated through analysis of five European professional military education institutions. The analysis shows that European military organisations are transiting, albeit in various degrees, from one form of social organisation of military knowledge production – associated with the military education model common to traditional military colleges – toward another, which is related to the military education model of national defence universities. Hence it is highly probable that European military organisations lose, either voluntary or unintentionally, their professional character and can no longer be unquestionably assumed to be military professions. Hence, they should be analysed hereafter using the sociology of security expertise framework.     

军民融合创新示范区产业集聚问题与对策

军民融合创新示范区是军民融合产业发展的重要载体,推动军民融合创新示范区产业集聚发展是军民融合深度发展的必然要求,也是建设现代产业体系的重要抓手。本文通过总结梳理军民融合产业集聚发展的历史演变,分析当前军民融合创新示范区产业集聚现状及发展中存在的主要问题,并提出加强产业集聚发展的对策建议。     

India–Africa defence cooperation against the backdrop of the ‘Make in India’ initiative

Although India is a major importer of defence equipment, it has also been manufacturing defence equipment for some of its needs. The Government of India’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ initiative for the defence sector aims to achieve self reliance in defence equipment production. This essay explores the opportunities for bilateral arms trade between India and Africa, as a new facet of India-Africa defence cooperation. It covers India’s arms export policy, policy reforms in India’s defence sector, and the opportunities for Indian and African defence markets.     

Rethinking strategic culture: A computational (social science) discursive-institutionalist approach

ABSTRACT

The strategic culture approach has been suffering from a prolonged theoretical stalemate, despite a surge in case studies, which culminated in the Johnston-Gray debate and subsequent schism. The present paper outlines a new approach designed to overcome this deadlock, and consists of three arguments. First, the three previous generations of strategic culture studies have failed to explain how strategic culture influences behaviour. Second, aligning strategic culture theory-building with discursive institutionalism offers a way to overcome this fundamental fallacy. Third, a research programme for strategic culture should draw on computational social science to enable it to present and test middle-range theories.     

Surrogate warfare: the art of war in the 21st century?

Airpower, drones and cyber-weapons are employed by states in conjunction with local armed non-state actors in an effort to coercively intervene in the crises of the twenty-first century. While the externalization of the burden of warfare is a return to pre-modern war, it is the change in the underlying socio-political relations between the state and its military agent that is a novel phenomenon in surrogate warfare. This article demonstrates that in a post-Westphalian era characterized by non-state violence, globalized conflicts, a prioritization of risk management in a mediatized environment, the state has to explore new ways to remain relevant as the primary communal security provider. Thereby, the organization of violence has departed from the employment of the state’s soldier as the primary bearer of the burden of warfare to a mode of war where technological and human surrogates enable the state to manage the risks of post-modern conflict remotely. In this article, we conceptually explore surrogate warfare as a socio-political phenomenon within the context of globalized, privatized, securitized and mediatized war.     

Anarchy’s anatomy: Two-tiered security systems and Libya’s civil wars

ABSTRACT

No issue deserves more scrutiny than the mechanisms whereby popular unrest unleashes civil wars. We argue that one institution – two-tiered security systems – is particularly pernicious in terms of the accompanying civil war risk. These systems’ defining characteristic is the juxtaposition of small communally stacked units that protect regimes from internal adversaries with larger regular armed forces that deter external opponents. These systems aggravate civil war risks because stacked security units lack the size to repress widespread dissent, but inhibit rapid regime change through coup d’état. Regular militaries, meanwhile, fracture when ordered to employ force against populations from which they were recruited.     

外军装备采购引入中介机构的经验启示

外军一直非常重视其武器装备采购引入中介机构工作的改革,构建军民融合面向市场的中介组织,通过发挥桥梁纽带作用,搭建军地交流平台,积极开展"民技军用",加快武器装备技术创新,形成了管理体制完善、中介服务范围广泛和军民深度融合等特点。军队装备采购工作引入中介机构目前处于尝试、探索起步阶段,取得了一些进展,但依然存在较多矛盾问题。外军这些独特的经验和做法,为军队装备采购引入中介机构工作提供了重要的借鉴。