Reconsidering minimum deterrence in South Asia: Indian responses to Pakistan’s tactical nuclear weapons

India’s nuclear doctrine and posture has traditionally been shaped by minimum deterrence logic. This logic includes assumptions that possession of only a small retaliatory nuclear force generates sufficient deterrent effect against adversaries, and accordingly that development of limited nuclear warfighting concepts and platforms are unnecessary for national security. The recent emergence of Pakistan’s Nasr tactical nuclear missile platform has generated pressures on Indian minimum deterrence. This article analyzes Indian official and strategic elite responses to the Nasr challenge, including policy recommendations and attendant implications. It argues that India should continue to adhere to minimum deterrence, which serves as the most appropriate concept for Indian nuclear policy and best supports broader foreign and security policy objectives. However, the form through which Indian minimum deterrence is delivered must be rethought in light of this new stage of regional nuclear competition.     

电传动装甲车辆负载功率预测实时能量管理策略

针对电传动装甲车辆负载功率预测功能缺失导致控制作用滞后的问题,提出一种具有较高负载功率预测精度的实时能量管理策略。在分析整车结构的基础上,采用理论分析和数据拟合方法,建立各动力源数学模型。将差分自回归移动平均模型和自适应马尔可夫链两种预测方法相结合,设计非平稳趋势性负载功率组合预测方法。在非线性模型预测控制框架下,构建多目标优化函数,采用序列二次规划法在有限时域内实时求解最优控制指令,优化多动力源协调控制过程。依托硬件在环仿真平台进行多路面行驶实验,对比有无功率预测的能量管理控制效果。结果表明,改进的实时能量管理策略对未来负载功率具有较好的预见性,能够显著优化多动力源协调控制过程,提升车辆燃油经济性,稳定母线电压和电池荷电状态,对传统模型预测控制下的工程应用场景具有一定借鉴意义。     

分布式储能技术的探索与实践

文章阐述了分布式储能技术的重要意义,介绍了分布式储能技术在经济社会可持续发展重要领域——能源互联网发展中的重要地位,并对分布式储能的技术形态与载体进行了分析,最后以信息网络重要组成部分——数据中心为应用场景,对分布式储能技术的实践进行了探讨。     

未来能量互联的关键设备——固态变压器

固态变压器作为能源互联网中实现能量转换和控制的关键设备,有很多方面需要进行深入研究,文章结合固态变压器的自身特点,对其主要发展的核心技术,包括基于SiC新型宽禁带材料的研制、基于SiC的固态功率器件和固态变压器设计与实现、固态变压器的先进控制策略研究等进行了详细阐述。     

Serious Rules for Nuclear Power Without Proliferation

The authors propose five principles for addressing the major deficiencies of the current treaty-based approach to nonproliferation. These involve: effectively closing the door to withdrawals from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT); defining which nuclear technologies fall within the NPT's “inalienable right” provision, so as to maintain a reasonable safety margin against possible military application; expansion of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections to include greater readiness to use its “special” inspection authority; creation of an NPT enforcement regime, to include a secretariat; and universalizing the NPT so as to apply to all states, while creating a path for current non-parties to come into compliance. There is no illusion here about the prospects for the adoption of this approach. At a minimum, the world needs to be frank about the gap between nuclear programs and current nonproliferation protection. Encouragement of greater use of nuclear power should be predicated on closing that gap.     

Landau相变中的自由能

Landau用序参量的幂级数展开来表示相变温度附近的自由能,强调对称性与序参量在相变中的作用.正确书写自由能形式,可以计算可能相的温度曲线,得到关于序参量的方程,从而推知系统的结构.     

Regional integration and nuclear energy in Africa

African states are hampered by unreliable electric energy that has not complemented economic development efforts. Recently, several African states announced plans to pursue nuclear energy in the future. However, several challenges remain for these states, notably insecurity and financial deficiencies. This paper proposes the use of regional integration arrangements to address these challenges faced by African states, as a way of complementing other efforts enabling African states to obtain nuclear energy. The existence of these arrangements and their institutional mechanisms can enable African states to enhance security and cost-effectively develop nuclear power infrastructure.     

NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH

The funding of international nuclear risk mitigation is ad hoc, voluntary, and unpredictable, offering no transparent explanation of who is financially responsible for the task or why. Among many non-nuclear-armed states, this exacerbates a sense of injustice surrounding what they see as a discriminatory nuclear regime. The resulting erosion of the regime's legitimacy undermines support for efforts to prevent nuclear weapons dissemination and terrorism. This article proposes a transparent, equitable “nuclear-user-pays” system as a logical means of reversing this trend. This system envisions states contributing financially to international efforts to mitigate nuclear risks at a level relative to the degree of nuclear risks created by each state. “National nuclear risk factors” would be calculated by tabulating the risks associated with each state's civilian and military nuclear activities, as well as advanced dual-use and nuclear-capable missile activities, multiplying the severity of each risk by the probability of it occurring, and combining these results. A nuclear-user-pays model would create financial incentives for national and corporate nuclear risk mitigation, boost legitimacy and support for nuclear control efforts among non-nuclear-armed states, assist in preventing nuclear weapons dissemination and terrorism, and advance nuclear disarmament by helping progressively devalue nuclear weapons.     

SPARRING ON THE SUBCONTINENT

South Asian Security and International Nuclear Order: Creating a Robust Indo-Pakistani Nuclear Arms Control Regime, by Mario Esteban Carranza. Ashgate, 2009. 208 pages, $99.95.     

ATOMS FOR PEACE

Atomic Assistance: How “Atoms for Peace” Programs Cause Nuclear Insecurity, by Matthew Fuhrmann, Cornell University Press, 2012, 344 pages, $29.95.