Military Innovation and Tactical Adaptation in the Israel–Hizballah Conflict: The Institutionalization of Lesson-Learning in the IDF

This article highlights a pattern of military adaptation and tactical problem-solving utilized by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while engaged in protracted conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hizballah. It discusses the IDF’s recent attempts to institutionalize their historically intuitive process of ad-hoc learning by developing a formal tactical-level mechanism for ‘knowledge management’. The diffusion of this battlefield lesson-learning system that originated at lower-levels of the organization is examined, as well as its implementation and effectiveness during the 2006 Lebanon War. A nuanced analysis of IDF adaptation illustrates the dynamic interplay between both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ processes of military innovation.     

美军在信息安全视野下利用社交媒体政策研究

近年来,美军逐步调整社交媒体政策,重视发挥其在公共事务、家庭服务以及塑造军队形象中的独特功能。从信息安全的角度出发,在分析美军社交媒体政策发展变化及其内在动因的基础上,总结出美军运用社交媒体所采取的信息安全措施。     

基于双向启发式属性约简的战术决策建模研究

从预警机指挥引导的多机协同空战原则分析出发,针对超视距协同空战决策过程中的不确定性和不完备性问题,提出了一种不完备信息系统中的基于双向启发式属性约简的战术粗决策建模方法。首先考虑粗糙集决策过程中条件属性发生缺失或不确定的情况,根据扩展不完备信息概念建立了不完备决策信息系统的最优完备选择;其次基于分辨矩阵的属性约简算法,以属性频度的大小作为启发信息进行决策信息系统约简的双向选择,得出决策信息系统的最佳约简集合;然后依据使决策最有可能发生的原则,给出决策信息系统的最优选择,以该最优选择为代表提取出决策规则;最后根据软、硬杀伤结合使用的CGF实体超视距协同空战作战想定,建立了CGF实体综合战术决策模型,并通过作战决策实例对该方法的正确性和有效性进行了验证。结果表明：该方法能在作战态势信息不完备的情况下正确给出CGF实体综合战术行为。     

Information Is Not a Weapons System

ABSTRACT

While many militaries have tried to capitalize on the potential of information operations in internal war, few have succeeded. I argue that military information campaigns fall short of expectations for two reasons. First, the theory of influence militaries generally embrace – communications as a non-lethal weapons system – is largely invalid. While treating information as a weapons system makes it easier to integrate it into the existing military planning system, this overstates the independent effects of communications on behavior and understates the importance of interactive effects of what commercial marketing theory refers to as the “marketing mix” – product, price, promotion, and placement. It would be more appropriate to treat military information operations as a form of marketing: a composite effort to induce a specific behavior in a target audience by applying a combination of material and ideational instruments. The marketing model suggests that the efficacy of information operations will depend not simply on the message and its delivery (promotion) but on the behavior the sender seeks to induce (the product), the costs of that behavior (the price), and the opportunities available for such behavior (the placement).     

The Rise of Special Operations Forces: Generalized Specialization,Boundary Spanning and Military Autonomy

The special operations forces (SOF) of the industrial democracies have suddenly and rapidly grown in numbers and resources during the past decades. Most explanations for this growth focus on factors external to the armed forces. We argue that the enlargement of SOF is also the result of internal organizational dynamics. First, we compare SOF to other units and military appendages that have grown over the past 30 years in order to delineate what is unique to their development and the special adaptive potential they bring to the armed forces: generalized specialization, boundary spanning roles, and enlargement of military autonomy. Second, we analyze the actions of internal military entrepreneurs and their organizational mentors to show how they use this adaptive potential to “sell” the use of SOF to key policy-makers and decision-makers.     

试论联合国维和行动的法律性质

联合国维持和平行动的法律性质在国际法学界一直存在争议。在维和行动与其他国际军事或准军事行动的辨析中我们可以看到维和行动自身所独具的法律特征。维和行动的法律依据尽管未有定论,但依据其实践与发展的现实状况,我们可以将它的法律性质概括为:联合国属准军事行动性质,国际法约定的默示授权性质,维护国家间独立平等的工具性质等。     

French Exception or Western Variation? A Historical Look at the French Irregular Way of War

ABSTRACT

This article aims at challenging the notion of a French exception in the realm of irregular warfare, suggesting that it rather amounts to a western variation. Born out of a transatlantic community under British influence, the French irregular experience carried on through the early Cold War challenges, strengthening France’s ties with its Western allies. France’s subsequent involvement in post-colonial counter-insurgencies did contribute to generating some specific strategic features, although never totally disconnected from international circulation. Finally, the post-Cold War order significantly drove French irregular warfare back into its Western fold through the adoption of US- and NATO-sponsored concepts and doctrines, thus enhancing interoperability and some degree of standardisation.     

联合国维和警察防暴队甄选考试改革对维和培训的影响及对策

2012年9月颁布的《联合国维和警察防暴队行动能力评估标准作业程序》对联合国防暴队甄选及行动能力评估的组织、实施程序、考查标准等方面都进行了较大的调整。从联合国维和警察防暴队甄选标准作业程序的改革入手,以考试为突破口和着眼点,研究程序的改革对维和警察防暴队培训的影响,制定应对策略,以时维和培训工作具有指导作用和借鉴意义。     

The prospects of combined action: Lessons from Vietnam

Military commanders, policymakers, and analysts have recently embraced the concept of combined action as a powerful tool to improve the effectiveness of Afghan security forces in the fight against the Taliban. In doing so, they explicitly draw inspiration from the Combined Action Program employed by US Marines during the Vietnam War. This program is widely considered to have greatly improved the effectiveness of South Vietnamese government forces and contributed to increased population security in its area of operations and is considered a model worthy of emulation. This study finds that the success of the Vietnam-era Combined Action Program was more qualified than contemporary proponents argue. It argues that successes were tempered, and conditioned, by the choice of junior commanders, the level of operational control enjoyed by the US Marines, and the way the local forces were recruited and deployed. These conditions offer valuable lessons for those seeking to employ combined action not only in present-day Afghanistan, but also in future counterinsurgency campaigns.