Building peace from the margins in Somalia: The case for political settlement with Al-Shabaab

The prevailing discourse in Mogadishu among the federal government of Somalia and the international community is that Al-Shabaab is no longer relevant in contemporary Somali political landscape. In the language of the government, Al-Shabaab is like a lost crocodile thrown out from the river. In the lexicon of the international community, Al-Shabaab is gradually receding. In fact, Al-Shabaab is actually puissant and potent in terms of social, political and military capabilities; not just in Somalia, but also in the wider East Africa region. Why is Al-Shabaab resilient and resistant? Why is it even more effective than the federal government? To answer these questions, this article reveals how Al-Shabaab is increasingly more legitimate than the federal government. In conclusion, the article proposes that negotiated settlement with the insurgency movement could lead to peace in war-torn southern Somalia.     

论翻译中的文化依附

文化依附问题在翻译中至关重要。本文用若干有说服力的译例从文化偶合、文化并行、文化冲突、文化空缺四个方面介绍分析了在翻译过程中如何处理文化依附矛盾的问题。     

浅析英国英语与美国英语之差异

英美两国通用一种语言,但由于地域不同,在其发展过程中,在拼写发音用词及语法方面存在着一些差异,而不少学生只知其一却不知其二.为了更好地学习语言,进行语言交流,本文详细讨论了英国英语与美国英语之间在拼写发音用词及语法方面存在的差异.     

Epidemics,national security,and US immigration policy

What are relationships between epidemics, national security, and US immigration policy? This question is important because it sheds light on transnational or nontraditional security areas, American immigration policy, and a pressing issue for US leaders who have recently faced epidemics such as the West Africa Ebola outbreak that began in 2013. This article answers it and lays ground in the area by reviewing epidemics in world history, using International Relations and Security Studies works to specify dangers of contagions for states, and identifying three general immigration measures that American leaders have utilized from the seventeenth century to the present day to protect against contagions, which are (1) policies restricting entrance of foreigners thought to carry specified diseases, (2) the isolation or quarantining of immigrants with contagious disease, and (3) delegating the President with authority to stop immigration in the event of an epidemic abroad. This study has implications for research and contemporary US immigration policy.     

“It would be impossible to estimate the value of these works...” Mass Production at Springfield Armory during the American Civil War

The U.S. Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts, rarely appears in Civil War histories except perhaps as an unexplained statistical wonder. By late 1863, the Armory was the largest single supplier of rifles to Union forces. Springfield Armory workers out-produced over thirty American contractors, making more Army rifles at less cost while providing contractors with gauges, inspectors, and models, even though there were significant wartime private-sector mechanical innovations. This article identifies and explains the factors in the Armory’s success, provides context on contemporary American arms production and rifle models, and argues that the Armory’s methods and performance were among the first if not the first example of mass production in American small arms manufacture. The relative brevity of the Civil War episode, and the fact that it was not repeated in any comparable way at the Armory until World War II, has obscured its significance in American manufacturing history.     

基于蒙特卡洛法的无人机飞行冲突解脱安全评估

冲突解脱技术是无人机与有人机共域飞行的前提保障。针对目前缺少对冲突解脱技术安全评估的方法,提出运用蒙特卡洛法对飞行冲突进行仿真模拟,得出冲突解脱算法的安全效率。提出基于改进蚁群算法的冲突解脱技术,实现无人机的飞行冲突解脱;利用蒙特卡洛法,对飞行冲突过程进行大规模仿真,计算冲突解脱效率,与基本蚁群算法进行对比,并从安全角度对结果进行分析。提出的思路可为未来无人机空域运行安全评估体系的构建提供一种理论参考。     

Walking a tightrope: the International Criminal Court and conflict prevention in Africa

Many African countries gained political independence in the 1960s. This era of independence came with promises and great expectations of economic, political and social development. Fifty years later, it is certain that the promises and expectations of independence have not been easily realised. Perennial violent conflicts have continued to ravage many countries in Africa, causing the catastrophic breakdown of law and order. Therefore, one of the major issues in conflict resolution discourse in Africa is how to develop functional mechanisms for the prevention of violent conflicts. This article examines the capacity of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to act as a mechanism for conflict prevention in Africa. Notwithstanding the doubts and uncertainties associated with the impact of law on conflict transformation, this article argues in the main that the ICC contributes to conflict prevention in Africa by expressing global norms of international law, challenging the culture of impunity in some countries, contributing to general deterrence, speedily intervening in some violent conflicts, and contributing to building some records of atrocities by identifying who did what.     

提高武警边防部队处置突发事件绩效的几点思考

当前,武警边防部队处置突发事件工作存在诸多问题。处置手段相对单一,针对性不强。武警边防部队应从适应信息化条件下处突工作实际需要出发,不断加强专业研究,强化处突决策及实战能力;创建多途径研究、训练模式,努力提高研练绩效,从而实现部队处突能力质的飞跃。     

边疆多民族地区大学生主流文化认同的调查与分析——以新疆高校为例

公本文从社会主义核心价值体系认同、执政党认同、理论认同、民族认同四个维度对大学生主流文化认同进行调查分析,结果显示,大学生主流文化认同总体是积极向上的,但也存在不平衡性和差异,主流文化认同面临严峻挑战。加强对大学生群体主流文化认同教育,引导大学生树立正确的国家观、民族观、文化观,对边疆多民族地区未来发展和国家安全十分重要。     

The African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis: conceptual breakthrough or anti-imperialist phantom?

The creation of an African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis (ACIRC) is a sign of Africa's willingness to take its destiny into its own hands. Presented as a reaction to the slowness of the development of the African Standby Force (ASF), it is also a response to some of the ASF's conceptual weaknesses. This decision reflects a wish to establish an instrument better equipped to deal with the challenges Africa is facing. Departing from the (sub)regional logic of the ASF results from a desire to take into account the transnational nature of threats, while its enlarged mandate is meant to offer Africa the capacity to intervene in all kinds of conflicts, including by undertaking peace enforcement activities. But the obstacles on the road towards the actual creation and mobilisation of this capacity should not be underestimated. These include material difficulties, but also political tensions, between ‘small’ and ‘big’ states as well as between the African Union and subregional organisations. The risk then is high that the ACIRC, whose announcement came as a reaction to France's intervention in Mali, ends up joining the ranks of the many ‘anti-imperialist’ phantoms haunting the history of the Organization of African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU). Confronted by events considered ‘neocolonial’ initiatives, African actors have indeed traditionally reacted by launching grand projects that never got off the ground. However, by actually establishing this new instrument, they may also demonstrate that times have definitively changed.