Colonizing military history: A millennial view on the economics of war

We briefly illustrate the application of fundamental principles of economics to three episodes of military history for the second millennium AD. The periods, principles, and cases examined are, first, the European Middle Ages (1000-1300; opportunity cost; siege warfare); second, the Enlightenment and the Age of Battle (1618-1814; expected marginal costs/benefits; the decision to engage in battle); and third, the Cold War (1945-1989; substitution; France's nuclear force de frappe).     

Resourcing for defense: Solving the roles and missions puzzle

One of the most important issues facing the post‐Cold War U.S. defense establishment concerns the future allocation of combat tasks and responsibilities among different branches of the armed forces. The challenge is to reduce unnecessary redundancy across roles and missions when resources are highly constrained, without compromising military effectiveness. Defining the policy problem as one of resource allocation rather than operational effectiveness, we develop a methodology for allocating roles and missions. Our methodology focuses at the highest level of force aggregation and uses a mathematical programming model to produce cross‐service cross‐mission trade‐offs that will yield the best total force combat and non‐combat potential within resource consumption constraints.     

Smart Power and Military Force: An Introduction

Abstract

Smart power is comprised of two elements: the quest for building society among states and between states and non-state actors; as well as the desire for cleaner forms of power projection. This special issue explores how states continue to fumble over achieving the optimum mix of hard and soft power across several country cases and themed articles. This set of contributions suggests that smart power is not unlike a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ analogy: multifunctional and challenging to choose the right combination of ideational and material tools.     

武警院校教育规模化、内涵式发展及其实现途径

将武警院校教育的发展方式作为研究的切入点,在分析过往武警院校教育发展方式所造成的诸如院校数量多、规模小、条块分割、结构不合理、办学效益不高等问题及其原因的基础上,提出了武警院校教育应走规模化、内涵式发展道路的思路,以及武警院校教育实现规模化、内涵式发展方式的具体途径和方法,并对此从理论与实践两个方面进行了论证。     

Force chains based mesoscale simulation on the dynamic response of Al-PTFE granular composites

Force chains based mesoscale simulation is conducted to investigate the response behavior of aluminum-polytetrafluoroethylene (Al-PTFE) granular composites under a low-velocity impact. A two-dimensional model followed the randomly normal distribution of real Al particles size is developed. The dynamic compressive process of Al-PTFE composites with varied Al mass fraction is simulated and validated against the experiments. The results indicate that, force chains behavior governed by the number and the size of agglomerated Al particles, significantly affects the impact response of the material. The failure mode of the material evolves from shear failure of matrix to debonding failure of particles with increasing density. A high crack area of the material is critical mechanism to arouse the initiation re-action. The damage maintained by force chains during large plastic strain builds up more local stresses concentration to enhance a possible reaction performance. In addition, simulation is performed with identical mass fraction but various Al size distribution to explore the effects of size centralization and dispersion on the mechanical properties of materials. It is found that smaller sized Al particle of com-posites are more preferred than its bulky material in ultimate strength. Increasing dispersed degree is facilitated to create stable force chains in samples with comparable particle number. The simulation studies provide further insights into the plastic deformation, failure mechanism, and possible energy release capacity for Al-PTFE composites, which is helpful for further design and application of reactive materials.     

改进型JDL模型在武警部队院校信息化建设中的构建

在武警部队院校的网络信息化水平迅速发展的今天,由于各功能模块缺少统一的接口规范和能够协调各部门信息共享的机制,使得建成的各个功能模块之间无法共享信息,造成了数据库中信息的大量冗余和重复。结合数据融合技术的基本原理、发展现状和应用前景,对数据融合技术进行了介绍;针对武警院校信息融合的需求,提出了改进型JDL模型,分析了武警院校信息融合网络的服务架构层次,对信息融合网络中的核心问题信息共享、接口规范、数据融合进行了研究;利用模块化设计的思路,对原型系统进行了分析,对实验数据进行了重组,并提出了数据优化方案。     

‘God willing,I will be back’: Gauging the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's capacity to deter economic crimes in Liberia

Recently, in July 2012, the high-profile and bitterly fought nine-month race for the post of Chair of the African Union (AU) Commission, between Dr Jean Ping of Gabon, and his main challenger, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, culminated in the latter's victory. Her victory came after the deadlock at the Eighteenth AU Summit in January 2012. Borne out of the considered need for a quick fix through reliance on a vote of expediency, the election of Dr Dlamini-Zuma represented a political resolution to the crisis that arose due to the earlier ongoing electoral deadlock. Far from being a competitive election by design, the 2012 AU Commission election by default became transformed into an intensely fought campaign that put the AU in the limelight. This article briefly introduces the electoral process, explains in detail the voting behaviour of AU member states, and offers five specific reasons for the victory of Dr Dlamini-Zuma. On the surface the election looks very competitive, but the article explains why this is not the case. To create greater competition for these posts, the AU needs to overhaul the nomination process and the voting procedure. In this regard, the article proffers detailed analysis and proposes a radical revision of the existing criteria for the nomination. The article also proposes specific recommendations for the amendment of the rules of procedure of the AU Assembly to allow for a qualified majority as a deadlock breaker in the fifth round. It also assesses whether the integrity of the AU Commission election was damaged during the campaigning and voting process. In this regard, it recommends the development of a code of conduct for future elections at the AU.     

Country survey XII: South Africa

This article examines the relationship between defence expenditure and economic performance in South Africa, both prior to and after that country's first fully democratic election in 1994. Prior to 1994 defence expenditure decisions were largely dominated by non‐economic factors; since then defence spending has declined in reaction to, inter alia, the need to address a number of socio‐economic inequities.

After 1975 in particular, military industrialisation in South Africa placed a disproportionately high burden on the country's industrial resources and natural economic and technical capabilities. However, although this suggests that the opportunity cost of domestic arms production has been fairly high, the country's poor economic and development performance since the mid‐1970s is a function of underlying structural deficiencies and institutional constraints rather than the consequence of inordinately high defence spending levels.     

新形势下加强和改进武警审计工作的思考

武警审计是政府审计体系的重要组成部分,在监督经费运行、规范军事经济秩序方面发挥着重要作用,但随着军事经济改革的不断深入、国家审计制度的不断创新,武警审计在审计理念、审计目标、审计手段等方面存在一定问题。从提高审计意识、调整审计体制、适应审计发展趋势三个方面探讨了解决上述问题的对策。     

革命歌曲在建设现代化武警中的作用

革命歌曲具有催人奋进的独特精神力量,是革命军人战斗力的“力量倍增器”。在建设现代化武警过程中,革命歌曲可以发挥理想导引功能、信念塑造功能、团结凝聚功能、精神激励功能、情操陶冶功能。