Poachers turned gamekeepers: A study of the guerrilla phenomenon in Spain, 1808–1840

This article modifies the associations made by historians and political scientists of Spanish guerrilla warfare with revolutionary insurgency. First, it explains how the guerrilla phenomenon moved from a Leftist to a reactionary symbol. Second, it compares the insurgency and counter-insurgency features of the Carlist War (1833–1840) with those of the better-known Peninsular War (1808–1814). Third, it shows how erstwhile guerrilla leaders during the Carlist War made their expertise available to the counter-insurgency, in a socio-economic as well as military setting. This article revises the social banditry paradigm in nineteenth-century Spain in the under-researched context of Europe bloodiest nineteenth-century civil war.     

基于马尔科夫决策的目标选择策略

目标选择是军事计划的关键要素之一。基于马尔科夫决策方法,解决具有复杂目标间关联的多阶段目标选择问题。使用与或树描述目标体系各层状态间的影响关联,并以目标体系整体失效为求解目的,建立了基于离散时间MDP的多阶段打击目标选择模型。在LRTDP算法基础上提出一种启发式方法,通过判断从当前目标体系状态到达体系失效状态的演化过程中的可能资源消耗和失败概率,来提供对当前状态的评估值,该方法能有效排除问题搜索空间中不能到达体系失效目的的中间状态,压缩了由于目标间复杂关联而增长的巨大状态空间。用实验验证了该方法有效性,实验结果表明,该方法直观实用,对目标间具有复杂关联关系的目标打击决策有一定参考价值。     

一种航天侦察任务的关联度分析与去冗余方法

针对航天侦察需求响应中可能存在的任务重复产生问题,综合考虑任务的需求来源、质量要求、时间偏好及空间范围,提出一种基于任务关联度的任务冗余分析方法。首先,对航天侦察的相关要素进行分析度量,给出了基于四类要素的任务关联度计算方法,然后提出了通过任务之间的关联度来降低可替代任务产生概率的具体算法,进一步考虑了准确优先、公平优先以及混合等不同情况下的冗余度计算方法,最后,给出一个应用示例,说明所述分析方法的有效性。研究结果表明,该方法具有良好通用性,可为航天侦察任务的预处理提供有效支持。     

The political economy of drones

This paper provides a political economy analysis of the evolution of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or ‘drones’ in the USA. Focus is placed on the interplay between the polity and private economic influences, and their impact on the trajectory of political, economic, and military outcomes. We identify the initial formation of the drone industry, trace how the initial relationships between the military and the private sector expanded over time, and discuss present relationships. Understanding the historical evolution of UAV technology, as well as the major players in the industry today, is important for ongoing policy debates regarding the use of drones both domestically and internationally.     

TERRORISM: FACTS FROM FIGURES 1

If international terrorism is on a rising trend, an important source of confirmation or refutation of this is time‐series data on terrorist activity. Using chiefly data collected by the RAND/MIPT consortium we show using basic statistical analysis that in the period 1968–2005 the yearly number of all international terrorist incidents shows no trend over time, but fluctuates year on year in a random manner. On the other hand some indicators do show a definite trend over time, principally the steady rise in the number of incidents that are death‐dealing in nature. A further conclusion is drawn, showing that the proportion of these incidents leading to deaths above a given level is virtually fixed.     

Colonizing military history: A millennial view on the economics of war

We briefly illustrate the application of fundamental principles of economics to three episodes of military history for the second millennium AD. The periods, principles, and cases examined are, first, the European Middle Ages (1000-1300; opportunity cost; siege warfare); second, the Enlightenment and the Age of Battle (1618-1814; expected marginal costs/benefits; the decision to engage in battle); and third, the Cold War (1945-1989; substitution; France's nuclear force de frappe).     

联合作战目标武器弹药匹配模型

本文分析了联合作战目标—弹药匹配问题,从作战目的复杂性、武器弹药多样性、毁伤要求易变性、作战过程协同性四个方面提出了对联合作战目标—弹药匹配模型的军事需求,基于规划理论对问题进行描述并给出基本的数学模型,结合需求,对规划的目标和约束进一步细致的分析,对模型进行扩展,使其能体现联合作战的特点,方便了在不同军事上下文中有针对性地进行使用。     

Lost through non-translation: bringing Clausewitz's writings on ‘new wars’ back in

While Carl von Clausewitz has generally been respected as one of the most profound philosophers of war, his expertise has been regarded as somewhat limited if not even irrelevant to the so-called ‘new wars’ of the post-Cold War world. Many scholars in international relations have claimed that ‘new wars’ are essentially ‘post-Clausewitzian’ and ‘post-trinitarian’ in nature, meaning that they are no longer fathomable through a Clausewitzian framework. However Clausewitz's earlier writings were nearly exclusively dedicated to guerrilla warfare, or what he called ‘small wars’. These writings have been largely overlooked by many analysts of contemporary conflicts. By drawing on his rare and untranslated writings, the article uncovers a critical part of Clausewitz's expertise in asymmetric warfare and shows that, far from being irrelevant in an age where interstate warfare is increasingly being replaced by conflicts between states and semi-/non-state actors, Clausewitz's philosophical writings actually shed new light into the particular interactive dynamics generated during wars waged under conditions of asymmetry.     

带点缺陷的一维亥姆霍兹共振腔声子晶体中缺陷模式

在基于亥姆霍兹共振腔的一维声子晶体中引入点缺陷会在原有局域共振型声禁带内产生缺陷模式。采用传递矩阵法和有限元法分析了缺陷模式随缺陷单元几何尺寸变化关系和声子晶体中声场分布情况。结果表明,随着缺陷单元与完美单元之间耦合程度的增强,缺陷模式从局域共振型禁带中完美单元共振频率处向禁带边缘移动。同时,缺陷模式的存在使得结构中出现了能量局域化的现象。本工作对设计新型声滤波器、能量集中装置具有一定的理论意义。     

Institutional Analysis and Irregular Warfare: A Case Study of the French Army in Algeria 1954–1960

This article proposes a case study to illustrate the usefulness of sociological institutional analysis as a method to uncover ‘blue force’ challenges to deal with irregular warfare. The French Army's adaptation to revolutionary warfare in Algeria, starting in 1954, is used to illustrate both the application of the methodology and how institutional forces can hinder as well as overwhelm transformation for irregular warfare. The analysis emphasizes three key dimensions of the French Army's institutional adaptation: the regulative, normative and cognitive. These empirical elements are used to show how they interacted and influenced the institutional implementation of the French COIN structures.