War,vagueness and hybrid war

It has frequently been observed in the literature on hybrid wars that there is a grey zone between peace and war, and that hybrid wars are conflicts which are not clear cases of war. In this paper, I attempt to illuminate this grey zone and the concept and nature of war from the philosophical discussions of vagueness and institutional facts. Vague terms are characterized by the fact that there is no non-arbitrary boundary between entities which lie in their extension, and entities which do not lie in their extension. I apply a theory of vagueness to notions such as “war” and “peace” and go on to suggest that the exact boundary for what counts as a war or not is arbitrary. However, the context in which the conflict occurs determines a range of possible locations for this boundary. The most important contextual parameter is in this respect how the parties to the conflict themselves conceptualize the conflict. I suggest that this can in various ways help us understand grey-zone conflicts.     

Muslims,Islamists, and the Cold War

A new devil has emerged to challenge Western values and public virtue, and ever so conveniently, the devil masqueraded in religious garb. Terrorism has become synonymous with Islamic fundamentalism if not with Islam itself, and a new iron wall has descended on the world, as Churchill said, separating East from West, Christendom from Islam. This study examines the question why US policy makers feel a persistent urge to draw foreign policy in moralistic terms and religious metaphor, often to their own detriment.     

“捆绑”军火商 售台武器军火商在华利益分析

美国宣布对台军售计划后,我国迅速回击,外交部声明将对参与军售的美国公司实施制裁,这也是中美建交以来,中国首次因对台军售问题而对美国公司实施惩罚。此次对台军售的清单中,涉及波音公司、雷声公司、联合技术公司下属的西科斯基公司以及洛克希德·马丁公司。随着中美两国经贸、金融合作的日益紧密以及中国经济的飞速发展,美国的大型公司,包括上述军火公司,都越来越多地卷入了中国经济的浪潮中。正因为包括军火商在内的美国公司在中国的利益越来越多,在今天,中国的反击方式中也增加了对美公司制裁这一实质性手段。     

抗美援朝战争中毛泽东战争控制艺术探析

抗美援朝战争充分体现了毛泽东对战争控制的全局调控艺术、主动控制艺术和灵活控制艺术等。研究抗美援朝战争中毛泽东战争控制艺术,对于指导我军新时期军事斗争,具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Risk,War, and the Dangers of Soldier Identity

The profession of arms is distinct from other professions for many reasons. One reason which is not so obvious is that, unlike members of other professions, soldiers may go their entire careers preparing for a day that never arrives. All things considered, we should think this to be a very good thing. For soldiers, however, this can feel somewhat odd, since there is a natural desire to want to feel useful and to see one’s role and purpose find realization. Accordingly, the common soldier is forced to adopt a rather paradoxical mindset, one of longing for peace, and therefore for uselessness, while at the same time longing to be useful, which would entail that there be a war. This latter desire to be useful and to vindicate one’s identity as a soldier can sometimes take on an unhealthy life of its own. The pull of wanting too strongly to live up to a warrior identity, I argue, can sometimes skew a soldier’s ability to assess risk rationally. This article will therefore investigate how a soldier’s concept of self influences his or her overall capacity to evaluate risk in war and when such influence might become morally problematic.     

Mediation,Peacekeeping And Civil War Peace Agreements

The post-civil war agreement phase is vulnerable to credible commitment problems, a lack of government capacity to implement, and/or mutual vulnerability to retribution from violating the agreement. This study’s main contribution is to demonstrate the combined utility of mediation and UN peacekeeping. Mediation builds trust and confidence and works with the parties to design an efficacious agreement conducive to, among other features, tamping down post-agreement violence. Peacekeeping stems violence and facilitates the implementation of the agreement. Agreements that are mediated and followed by UN peacekeeping are expected to be more robust in terms of staving off violence. We report the effects of the mediation–peacekeeping interaction using a method correcting for a common misinterpretation of interaction terms. We test logit and hazard models using a sample of full and partial civil war peace agreements signed between 1975 and 2011. Controlling for agreement design, democracy, and income per capita, the results indicate mediation and its interaction with peacekeeping reduce the probability of renewed/continuing violence and have a positive impact on agreement duration. We also report brief case study evidence from the 1990s peace process in Guatemala.     

从速度、精度和跨度看信息化战争

随着科学技术的发展,军事战争形态已从传统的战争形态进入信息化战争形态,结合信息化战争的特点,重点研究了速度、精度和跨度在信息化战争中的主要体现,并给出了在信息化战争中加快速度、提高精度和扩大跨度需要解决的问题。     

中国抗战与世界反法西斯战争

<正>编者的话:日本发动全面侵华战争后,中国人民举国一致进行抗日战争,开辟了世界上第一个大规模反法西斯战场。至欧洲战事爆发前,中国战场牵制侵华日军百余万人,鼓舞和支援了世界各国人民的反法西斯斗争。本期的三位专家,从不同视角对中国抗战在整个世界反法西斯战争的地位和作用,进行了新颖而深入的阐释,有助于我们进一步认识中国抗战对世界和平与人类发展的伟大历史贡献。     

Productive War: A Re-Conceptualisation of War

Conventional wisdom on the phenomenon of war is criticised for providing little relevant guidance to deal with the security challenges of our era. One reason is that this attitude uncritically assumes power as synonymous with force. In response, ‘productive war’ is here proposed as a re-conceptualisation of war based on Michel Foucault's alternative understanding of power. Productive war appreciates the role of violence but subordinates it to non-kinetic dynamics influencing the dimension of meaning in international security. This theoretical perspective provides a conceptual framework to deal with the dynamics of political mobilisation essential to create public support for nation-building abroad and for visions of world order.     

未来战争中美国战争动员的发展趋势

20世纪90年代以来爆发的几场高技术局部战争突出反映了机械化战争形态向信息化战争形态的巨大转变。纵观美军作战全过程,可以看出美国的战争动员活动呈现出了许多新的变化和特点。根据未来战争的发展趋向,美军未来的战争动员发展趋势集中表现为手段网络化、目标精确化、方式一体化、范围国际化以及领域宽泛化。     

美国在侵朝战争中不敢将战争扩大到中国境内的历史原因

美国当局在侵朝战争期间,曾精心策划将战争扩大到中国境内的计划,做好了实施这一计划的军事准备。但随着战争的发展,美国决策者除屡次声称要扩大战争外,并没有冒险实施这一计划,却最终形成了在朝鲜打有限战争的政策。美国在侵朝战争中为什么没有将战争扩大到中国境内？本文试图对这一问题的原因进行深入的分析和研究,旨在为未来反侵略战争提供有益的历史借鉴。一第二次世界大战结束后,美国和苏联的战略利益出现严重对立,两国关系急剧恶化。到朝鲜内战爆发前夕,美、苏不仅在欧洲而且在亚洲也处于激烈的对抗状态。美国决策者认为：“…     

战争工程:信息时代的战争方法学

战争工程是随着信息时代的进步而产生与发展起来的必然产物 ,反过来它将成为促进信息化战争和武器装备发展的新的动力。这种建立在系统理论基础之上 ,利用现代信息技术 ,以综合集成和战争模拟为主要方法和手段的战争工程思想 ,应该成为信息时代的战争方法学。本文给出了战争工程的定义 ,研究了战争工程产生的原因 ,描述了主要的特征和内容 ,并提出了需要注意的几个问题。     

U.S. Military Aid to Taiwan during the Korean War

1950年朝鲜战争爆发,美国基于国家利益,开始改变对台政策,重启对台军事援助。美国对台军事援助的内容包括大量武器装备、巨额军费以及派遣军事顾问团。其特点是以加强台湾防御力量为主,力求维持两岸军事平衡;军事援助与经济援助并行,经济援助配合军事援助;政治上的象征意义大于军事上的实际意义等。美国对台军事援助提升了美台军事关系,重新武装了国民党军队,迫使中关关系走向对抗,导致台湾海峡两岸长期对峙。