Towards a Humanitarian Military Ethics: Moral Autonomy,Integrity and Obligations in the British and German Armed Forces

Humanitarian operations may pose challenges to which armed forces prepared for warfighting seem rather ill-equipped. It is the aim of this article to examine in what way military ethics should be adapted to humanitarian tasks. Two ideal types of military ethics are defined here: warfighting and humanitarian. The warfighting ethic is supposed to maximise the utility of the military in war and combat and to that end utilises the virtues of loyalty and honour. In contrast, humanitarian obligations require to a larger extent the development of personal integrity and an ability to follow one’s own conscience. The adaptation of military ethics is demonstrated in the case studies of the UK armed forces and the German Bundeswehr. Whereas the moral code of the UK armed forces remains anchored in the principles of the warfighting ethic, the case of the Bundeswehr presents a military ethic closely approximating the humanitarian ideal type.     

小型旋翼无人机在未来城市军事行动应用中潜力评估

随着全球范围的城市化进程不断推进,未来军事斗争向城市环境中发展是必然趋势。在城市作战需求分析的基础上,剖析了传统装备的"城市病",阐述了小型旋翼无人机在城市军事行动中的应用潜能。研究表明,针对现有装备在城市作战中显示出的若干短板,发展基于小型旋翼无人机打造侦察平台与精确打击平台将是一个较好的解决方案。而运用军民融合的发展模式挖掘小型旋翼无人机军用潜力,在提升军队作战能力,降低成本均具有积极意义。     

Defense–Growth Causality: Considerations of Regime-Switching and Time- and Country-Varying Effects

This paper develops a panel smooth transition vector autoregressive model to investigate the economic growth–defense causality. This model simultaneously resolves the estimation problems of endogeneity, heterogeneity, and nonlinearity. Empirical results support that the causality is bidirectional, nonlinear, time- and country-varying. Economic growth has a negative impact on military spending and vice versa. The larger the HDI, the smaller the negative causality. Evidently, the increase in the level of country development can reduce the negative impact of military outlays on economic growth. Reducing the ratio of military spending to GDP is beneficial for countries with low HDI scores; however, moderately increasing the share of military expenditure is favorable for countries with extremely high HDI scores. Policy authority needs to set optimal education, health, and economic development shares of GDP for purchasing a maximum economic growth rate.     

Noncognitive skills and job match: evidence from military applicants

The study examines the effect of noncognitive skills on early career choices among young job seekers. Specifically, we analyze the influence of personality traits on the decision by military applicants either to choose the military or a civilian career option. We use a unique micro-level data-set of applicants to the US Navy and exploit the fact that many individuals who initially apply for military jobs eventually choose civilian careers instead. In this institutional setting, job candidates use new information to update their beliefs about the military job match. Personality traits are viewed as productive abilities that influence applicants’ expectations about the economic return to the job and occupational training offered by the Navy. The study finds that many of the 15 lower order personality facets associated with the Big Five traits are predictive of applicants’ job choices and provides suggestive evidence of a link between personality traits, job match expectations, and career choice.     

基于TRL的技术成熟度模型及评估研究

研究以色列区域导弹防御系统的发展动因、进展、影响与趋势,重点分析了以色列近程、中程、远程导弹防御系统的技术和能力,探讨了以色列区域导弹防御系统的影响及发展趋势。     

网络公开军事情报工作探析

随着信息技术的迅猛发展,互联网已深刻融入人们生产生活全过程,这使得网络中留下了各组织、机构和人员活动的海量信息痕迹。借助云计算、大数据等网络信息技术,这些信息痕迹已逐渐成为各国军事情报部门重要的情报来源,围绕网络空间展开的军事情报与反情报斗争日益激烈,需要引起高度重视。     

‘Legitimacy is the Main Objective’: Legitimation in Population-Centric Counterinsurgency

Abstract

This article seeks to contribute to the understanding of the role of legitimacy and different forms of legitimation in population-centric counterinsurgency. An analysis of the logic underlying this counterinsurgency concept sheds a light on the former as it identifies legitimacy as the crucial mechanism through which a collaboration strategy seeks to obtain control over the local population. An exploration of Weber’s primary types of legitimate authorities provides the insight that counterinsurgents might operationalize legitimation through either rational-legal ways or by co-opting local power-holders who hold a position as traditional or charismatic leaders. The exact choice of strategy depends on the pattern of legitimacy in the target society and therefore so-called cultural legitimation is pivotal.     

Bangladesh: The Changing Dynamics of Violent Extremism and the Response of the State

Bangladesh is currently facing an incremental growth of radicalization. This radicalization can be traced back to the country’s early post-Independence years. Over time, political violence, ideological clashes between secular and right-wing ideologies, and weak governance have created conditions for the growth of radical Islam. The public rhetoric on corruption, weakening of democratic institutions, inadequate law enforcement agencies, fragile justice delivery system, fledgling educational and social institutions and growing unemployment provides further space for alternative narratives by extremist ideologues. Home-grown extremist outfits have received ideological and tactical supports from transnational terrorist network such as Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), but only in a limited manner. The supply and demand side of radicalization in Bangladesh has not yet been addressed by actors such as the government, private sector, civil society and media. The failures in multiple sectors in the state governance have led to a situation where IS and AQIS now see Bangladesh as a potential ground for exerting their supremacy as flag bearers of radical forms of Islam.     

基于能力的武器装备组合规划模型与算法*

针对武器装备组合规划中存在的选择难、规划难问题,在给定能力需求的条件下,从分析装备的组合变更对整体体系的影响出发,考虑了总的经费预算、年度费用分配、装备规划周期等约束,以能力差距和发展风险最小为准则,构建了双目标优化模型,并设计了基于差分进化和NSGA-II的求解算法,获得模型的Pareto解;最后通过TOPSIS方法从所求Pareto解中求得令决策者满意的折中解。通过一个具体示例,验证了本文所提模型和算法的有效性,能够为武器装备组合规划提供辅助决策。