The Korean War: A 50‐year critical historiography

Scholarly research and publication in many countries has made the Korean War not only remembered, but also better understood. Material from Russia and China have been especially helpful in adding nuance and detail to now‐dated writing about the war's causes. Much more work needs to be done on Korean politics and the 1952–53 period, but in all the scholarship simply confirms the shared responsibility of all the belligerents ‐ including the Koreans ‐ in starting and continuing the war.     

Recasting Afghan strategy

The following article aims to examine current counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy in Afghanistan to posit an untried theoretical concept of operations for the war being waged there. By doing so it shall argue that Coalition and NATO forces operating there may be required to fundamentally recast Afghan war-policy if a resurgent Taliban and Al-Qa'eda are to be countered in both the military and political spheres of present day Afghanistan. By way of strategy this article shall posit that a more optimal strategy in Afghanistan, in light of the campaign's apparent difficulties, might be to seed local security apparatuses, designated herein as ‘Rural Paramilitary Forces’.     

An optimum multiechelon repair policy and stockage model

Currently, sophisticated multiechelon models compute stockage quantities for spares and repair parts that will minimize total inventory investment while achieving a target level of weapon system operational availability. The maintenance policies to be followed are input to the stockage models. The Optimum Allocation of Test Equipment/Manpower Evaluated Against Logistics (OATMEAL) model will determine optimum maintenance as well as stockage policies for a weapon system. Specifically, it will determine at which echelon each maintenance function should be performed, including an option for component or module throwaway. Test equipment requirements to handle work load at each echelon are simultaneously optimized. Mixed-integer programming (MIP) combined with a Lagrangian approach are used to do the constrained cost minimization, that is, to minimize all costs dependent on maintenance and stockage policies while achieving a target weapons system operational availability. Real-life test cases are included.     

The RAF staff college and the evolution of British strategic bombing policy, 1922–1929

This article borrows from the work of Clausewitz to posit two general approaches to the pursuit of limitation in war, one being political and the other technical. The political approach seeks to control escalation via consensual arrangements with the adversary, while the technical approach seeks to forestall escalation by peremptorily destroying the enemy's military capability. It is argued that the 'Revolution in Military Affairs' (RMA) instantiates the second, technical, approach to war limitation. By exploiting advanced technology, the US armed forces hope to limit the costs of war by defeating their adversaries in a rapid, decisive manner. The problems associated with this approach are discussed in relation to the nature of the conflicts that the US is likely to face in the foreseeable future. The article concludes by suggesting that such conflicts will require that more attention be paid to the political sources of limitation in war.