Deterrence Beyond Downunder: Australia and US Security Guarantees since 1955

ABSTRACT

From 1944 to 1973 Australia attempted to acquire atomic weaponry. This ambition was driven by the desire to contribute to defending British interests in Asia, fears of invasion by China, Indonesia, and Japan, great-power war, and the belief that nuclear weapons were merely bigger and better conventional weapons, that they would proliferate, and that US security assurances lacked credibility. Although the pursuit of the bomb was eventually abandoned, this was not the result of US assurances. Rather, geopolitical changes in Australia’s environment meant that a major attack on the continent was unlikely to occur outside the context of a confrontation between the US, China, and the Soviet Union. This article argues that Australia may soon have to rethink its policies towards US extended deterrence and instead focus on developing its own deterrent.     

Democratic control of Romanian intelligence after three decades: quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

ABSTRACT

Romania faced one of the most dramatic transitions from authoritarian communism to become a democracy and a member of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU). The backbone of building a democratic society has been civilian control of the military. This article briefly describes the norms and institutions of democratic control of the intelligence services in Romania and assesses how the mechanisms of democratic control have worked in practice after almost three decades of reform. We argue that many of the post-1989 reforms have been only superficial implemented and monitored, particularly after Romania joined NATO and the EU. The article concludes that the democratic control of intelligence in Romania is an unfinished business. There are structural shortcomings embedded in the process of democracy consolidation that need to be addressed.     

辐射传热时活塞式气缸中加热气体的最大膨胀功

对热辐射传热定律q∝Δ(T4)下,给定初态内能、体积,末态体积以及过程时间时,加热气体膨胀的最优构型进行了研究,利用最优控制理论得出最大膨胀功输出时膨胀的最优构型由两个瞬时绝热分支和一个E-L分支组成的结论.给出了各分支之间转换点参数的求解方法及最优构型的数值算例,最后将线性唯象传热定律、牛顿传热定律、平方传热定律、立方传热定律和辐射传热定律下加热气体膨胀的最优构型进行了比较.结果显示,随着传热指数的增加,理想气体的内能呈现出明显的整体增加趋势,而体积则呈现出明显的整体减小趋势.     

多输出性能下的重要性测度指标及其求解方法

针对基于马氏距离的重要性测度存在的问题,提出了基于谱分解加权摩尔彭罗斯马氏距离的重要性测度指标,通过构造多输出协方差阵的广义逆矩阵以及谱分解的策略,有效解决了协方差阵求逆奇异情况以及由于未能充分考虑多输出之间的相互关系而导致的错误识别重要变量的问题,克服了基于马氏距离指标的局限性。数值算例与工程算例结果表明:所提重要性测度可以更加准确地获得输入变量对结构系统多输出性能随机取值特征贡献的排序,从而为可靠性设计提供充分的信息。     

Operational idealism: doctrine development of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army under Soviet threat, 1969–1989

This article analyses the doctrine development of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) coping with the Soviet military threat between 1969 and 1989. In the 1970s, the PLA applied a doctrine of ‘active defence and luring the enemy into depth’ based on its traditional operational art. In 1980, the PLA decided to focus its doctrine on positional defence. In 1986, the PLA introduced ‘integrated operations and prioritised strike’, a generalised doctrine that originated from its war history. Many organisational and intellectual challenges in peacetime doctrine development contributed to the PLA’s operational idealism, including its aging leadership, command structure, attitude towards its previous experience, limited analysis of contemporary military developments, and failure in test and validation of doctrines. In the post-Cold War decade, many of these challenges persisted in spite of military modernization efforts. The ongoing military reform has to address these challenges and improve the PLA doctrine development in peacetime.     

Too much Western bias? The need for a more culturally adaptable approach to post-conflict security sector reform

The existing guidelines for security sector reform (SSR) tend to draw on theoretical work in the field of civil–military relations, which in turn has been derived from Western, liberal democratic models of governance. Although guidelines strongly advise that local culture and context need to be considered when drawing up objectives for post-conflict SSR programmes, this is not often reflected in practice. This article considers some of the reasons for this, citing both in-country challenges and donor-related issues, and suggests that one of the biggest problems is a lack of alternative, non-orthodox models of civil–military relations to draw upon. It is further suggested that elements of suitable alternative models may be found in states which possess political structures not entirely dissimilar to the Western, liberal democratic ideal, but which can offer different perspectives. Detailed research of these structures should produce a pool of sub-models which could then be employed to create bespoke, culturally appropriate objectives for use in post-conflict SSR programmes.     

PC机并行口的扩展

本文介绍一种经济实用的并行口扩展板电路。实践证明,该电路工作性能稳定,操作方便可靠,适用于PC/XT,PC/AT机的I/O扩展。     

PID在柴油发电机组输出稳定性控制中的应用研究

针对目前移动式柴油发电机组机械式调速器响应速度慢、精度差以及负载变化较大时发电机组输出电压和频率波动较大的问题，研究了PID在柴油发电机组稳定性控制中的应用，进行了电子调速器电路的研究与设计。对75kW柴油发电机组进行了空载、半载及满载实验，实验结果验证了设计电路和控制方法的正确性。该电子调速器采用PID方法对发动机转速进行控制，达到了改善柴油发电机组输出稳定性的目的，并且具有响应速度快和准确度高的特点。     

比较文学本科教学的实践和探索

比较文学作为中文系的主干课,教学中一直存在着困惑,这种状况来源于课程性质、教学目的等问题的存疑和争论。本科阶段是比较文学教学的基础阶段,教师应该淡化理论性,转而加强方法论的学科定位。在学习中应采用教师讲解与学生讨论相结合的方式,才能使学生对比较文学课程建立良好的感性认识。     

Nuclear weapons,existential threats,and the stability–instability paradox

Recent scholarship has largely ignored systematic differences in the existential threats that nuclear-weapon possessors pose to other states. This study theorizes that the capacity to pose existential threats shapes nuclear-armed states’ willingness to use military force against one another. We explore three hypotheses regarding how nuclear-based existential threats can deter conflict or encourage it, including under the conditions proposed by the stability–instability paradox. We rely on a statistical analysis of nuclear-armed dyads from 1950 to 2001 and employ the Nuclear Annihilation Threat (NAT) Index to capture variation in the existential threats nuclear-armed states pose to one another. We find that being able to pose an existential threat to another state emboldens potential initiators to use military force but does not deter attacks. The emboldening effects are particularly strong under the hypothesized conditions of the stability–instability paradox. Our study provides unique contributions to ongoing debates over the political effects of nuclear weapons.