Contracting Out Security

Private security companies (PSCs) currently receive a great deal of attention in the news media, in sensationalist reporting, and increasingly in scholarly books and articles. While the scholarly books and articles make significant contributions to our understanding of this global phenomenon, there are several impediments to analysis that must be recognized and overcome if analysis is to be improved. Three of these impediments are reviewed in this article. The author suggests that US government material is currently available to minimize impediments and offers a framework to make analytical sense of it. Since contracting out is based on contracts, and unless the complexities of awarding and managing contracts are understood, recommendations made to reform the process of contracting out security are unrealistic.     

A lost work of El Lobo: Lieutenant-Colonel Charles T.R. Bohannan's unpublished study of guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency in the Philippines, 1899–1955

Charles Ted Rutledge Bohannan (1914–1982) became an integral agent of US counterinsurgency operations during the early Cold War, contributing to both the success of the COIN effort to defeat the communist Huk insurgents in the Philippines and the stalled COIN efforts in Vietnam. In the early 1960s, he wrote a short and compact analysis of the US and Filipino experience of guerrilla warfare, from the Philippine–American war until the defeat of the Huk Rebellion. It was never published. Reprinted here, Bohannan's analysis of lessons learned makes a substantial contribution to the history of American ideas of unconventional warfare by an expert who contributed these lessons to the successful defeat of an insurgency in South East Asia.     

THE AU MISSION IN BURUNDI

Abstract

Even though the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA) managed to take firm control of the state as the war ended in 2002, this article contends that its hegemony is not absolute. At the fringes of the state administration, emerging regional elites have established associations that seek to provide a remedy against the centralised system, which essentially deprives regions of political influence and sufficient economic resources. As in many other countries on the African continent, political identities that were legally enforced and institutionally reproduced in colonial times have hardly been transcended in the post-colonial period. Even if the associations' influence today does not yet reach further than bringing some insecurity to an otherwise secure polity dominated by the MPLA, the associations could play a role in reinforcing strong regional solidarity and give political expression to feelings of exclusion. Such sentiments could in turn lead to an increase of exclusivity ideas about citizenship, or even xenophobic violence. Much will depend on the strategies of the MPLA, and to what extent it will accommodate these emergent forces in the post-war era, not the least through the current sub-national state reforms.     

Allies with Benefits: US Effect on European Demand for Military Expenditures

This paper examines the security relationship between the US and Europe, focusing on potential spillin effects of US military expenditures on European demand for military expenditures during the early twenty-first century. The goal is to test whether or not European states view US expenditures as a complement or as a substitute to their own military expenditures. Past work in this area has found mixed results concerning the effect of US military expenditures, but focus strictly on the spillins within a formal alliance, specifically NATO, and use a time series dominated by Cold War dynamics. This study differentiates itself by accounting for both US total military expenditures and its regional expenditures through incorporation of US military base and personnel deployments across Europe. Additionally, this paper uses government revenue in its estimation to mitigate potential endogeneity. Findings using Arellano–Bond dynamic panel analysis suggest that there is a strong probability of substitution among European states.     

GNSS多系统联合的探月飞行器轨道定位分析*

为适应深空探测的应用需求,全球卫星导航系统对深空飞行器定位的可行性问题备受关注。针对探月飞行器月球公转轨道上的GNSS定位问题,以高轨道飞行器GNSS定位的研究为基础,采用多系统联合定位的方法进行仿真。分析了载波功率与噪声功率密度比为15dB-Hz的弱信号捕获门限下,各系统联合定位时波束主瓣和旁瓣的可用性,同时对各系统联合情况下的精度因子值进行分析。仿真结果表明：当接收到的卫星天线辐射的主瓣和旁瓣信号均高于载噪比门限时,全球卫星导航系统的三系统或四系统的联合能满足实时定位条件;而旁瓣损耗不加以补偿时,接收信号载噪比低于门限并导致任意联合方式均无法完成定位。各系统联合的精度因子分析表明：单系统或双系统联合的几何精度因子变化剧烈,四系统联合相比三系统联合的几何精度因子下降16.93%;三系统联合定位方案中,美国全球定位系统、中国的北斗卫星导航定位系统与欧洲的伽利略卫星导航定位系统联合方案的几何精度因子值变化最平稳,为最佳选择。理论分析和仿真结果为探月飞行器定位技术研究和星载多系统接收机设计提供参考。     

The Nepalese Army: From counterinsurgency to peacekeeping?

Can peacekeeping participation help reform military institutions in democratizing states? Drawing on evidence from Nepal – one of the world's largest troop contributors to UN peacekeeping operations – this essay illustrates that participation in peace missions can sometimes undermine security sector reform and deteriorate civil–military relations. Furthermore, this analysis shows that peacekeeping participation will not necessarily reorient troops away from their conventional internal roles (such as counterinsurgency) or improve civilian control over the armed forces. Hence, civilians can lose control over soldiers just as frequently when they are deployed overseas as when they are at home.     

Influence of yttrium on microstructure and properties of Ni–Al alloy coatings prepared by laser cladding

Ni–Al alloy coatings with different Y additions are prepared on 45^# medium steel by laser cladding. The influence of Y contents on the microstructure and properties of Ni–Al alloy coatings is investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalyzer, Vickers hardness tester, friction wear testing machine, and thermal analyzer. The results show that the cladding layers are mainly composed of NiAl dendrites, and the dendrites are gradually refined with the increase in Y additions. The purification effect of Y can effectively prevent Al₂O₃ oxide from forming. However, when the atomic percent of Y addition exceeds 1.5%, the extra Y addition will react with O to form Y₂O₃ oxide, even to form Al₅Y₃O₁₂ oxide, depending on the amount of Y added. The Y addition in a range of 1.5–3.5 at.% reduces the hardness and anti-attrition of cladding layer, but improves obviously its wear and oxidation resistances.     

Influence of high frequency pulse on electrode wear in micro-EDM

An electromagnetic coupling mathematical model is established by finite element method and is verified by the contrastive experiments of copper matrix Ni–TiN cylindrical coating electrode, copper electrode and Cu50W electrode. The wear mechanism of Ni–TiN/Cu composite electrode in the case of high-frequency pulse current is studied, and the influence of the fluctuation frequency of discharge current on electrode wear in micro-EDM is found out. Compared with the electrode made from homogeneous material, the high frequency electromagnetic properties of Ni–TiN composite layer can be used effectively to inhibit the effect of high frequency pulse on the electrode and improve the distribution trend of current density.     

Measuring Military Professionalism in Partner Nations: Guidance for Security Assistance Officials

The U.S. spends billions of dollars in its security cooperation program to develop “professional, accountable, and capable security forces” in other nations, part of a grand strategy to improve global stability and counter violent extremism. Despite its great investment in professionalizing foreign militaries, however, the U.S. has no functional definition of military professionalism – a term that until now has been considered too vague and multi-faceted to operationalize. In this article, the author seeks to remedy this oversight, drawing from twenty years of security cooperation fieldwork in Latin America and Africa, as well as a vigorous literature review, to define four important components of military professionalism: (1) formal military education and vocational training, (2) military subordination to elected civilian officials, (3) knowledge and practice of the law of armed conflict and human rights law, and (4) a clearly established program of professional military ethics. This article provides guidelines for U.S. and European officials who work with partner nations to develop more professional military forces and, in particular, for officials managing security assistance programs with developing countries.     

基于IDEF0的装备维修保障系统功能模型的建立

在研究现有的各种功能分析方法的基础上,选用IDEF0方法对装备维修保障系统进行功能建模。首先建立了装备维修保障系统的纵向功能结构树,用于描述功能层次关系;然后建立了装备维修保障系统的横向关系模型,用于描述处于同一层次的各功能块之间的相互关联。