An informal framework to aid the analysis and design of military posture

The design of military posture is an exercise in confronting potential enemies’ capabilities within the context of geographic, technological, temporal, political and economic constraints. No formal model is capable of encapsulating the essentials of so complex an environment for closed or simulated analysis, but it is useful to have an informal framework within which to reason interactively within these dimensions.

This paper presents such a scaffolding, patterned on the notion of a military posture as the output of an economic process whose structure reflects important determinants of the characteristics and extents of weaponry and expenditures that are appropriate to the environment within the feasibility set determined by the constraints. The analysis remains at an abstract level, but it does highlight the important shifts toward preparation for littoral warfare, greater reliance on reserve rather than active forces, and necessary changes in missions among military departments.     

Claude Blair 1922–2010

Abstract

The historic displays at the Tower Armouries underwent two significant rearrangements during the nineteenth century. Undertaken by two noted antiquarian scholars, Dr Samuel Meyrick in 1826 and James Robertson Planché in 1868, the underlying circumstances that led up to these developments have not been fully considered; neither has the role played by the Storekeeper’s Department at the Tower in this process. Yet at precisely the same time as these changes were being made the Storekeeper’s Department was becoming more expert in its own collections, acquiring new objects, conducting research, and playing an active part in the scholarly and museological developments of Victorian Britain.     

From Civil War Victor to Cold War Guard: Positional Warfare in Korea and the Transformation of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, 1951–1953

This article analyses the impact of the Korean War on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), particularly the period of positional warfare from 1951 to 1953. In the war of movement between October 1950 and June 1951, the PLA relied on its civil war era weapons and experience, including the doctrine of ‘battle of annihilation’. Operations in early 1951 suggested that the civil war legacies of the PLA no longer applied to the realities of combat in Korea. Based on both Soviet aid and domestic mobilisation, the PLA managed to build the material foundation for positional warfare and rapidly improved its logistics. Operationally, on the defensive, the PLA developed combined operations integrating infantry, artillery, and armoured forces. The PLA learned the lessons of the Korean War and strengthened its ties with the Soviet armed forces in order to modernise itself. The Korean War thus transformed the PLA from Civil War victor to Cold War guard.     

Shifting power,preventive logic,and the response of the target: Germany,Russia, and the First World War

If a declining state has incentives for preventive war, the rising state should have incentives to delay a confrontation until it is stronger. We develop the theoretical paradox and examine the July 1914 crisis. Why did Russia, rising relative to Germany, not adopt a buying-time strategy? We argue that although most Russian leaders hoped to avoid a confrontation, they feared that the failure to support Serbia would lead to a loss of Russian credibility and a significant setback to Russia’s position in the Balkans, one that could not easily be reversed, even with Russia’s expected increase in relative military power.     

“三个代表”重要思想与社会主义文化建设

党的十六大报告把发展社会主义文化,建设社会主义精神文明,确定为全面建设小康社会的一个重要目标,体现了我们党对文化建设的高度重视。要深刻认识文化建设的战略意义。牢牢把握先进文化的前进方向,用“三个代表”重要思想统领社会主义文化建设。     

意识形态与政治性话语诉求的认识性装置——对1960年代历史小说的知识考古学分析

本文通过对1960年代历史小说语境化＂重返＂式的解读,运用＂知识考古学＂的研究方法,分析1960年代的历史小说表达了作家们在向历史诉求的过程中与小说中的历史人物彼此生死相知,以及他们对现实的介入性言说,而这种面向历史的精神旨归和介入现实的话语呈现,又隐约地透露出作家在现实规训下的复杂心态,1960年代的历史小说也成了意识形态与政治话语诉求的认识性装置,从一个侧面显示了权力、制度、意识形态等对文学与人的规训以及这种规训的隐秘成规。     

也谈期刊编辑选题策划

期刊编辑选题策划是编辑在信息传播过程中所从事的决策与设计性工作 ,它具有显著的特征 ,应遵循内在的原则。     

现代反恐怖作战反游击战理论初探

世纪之交 ,美俄等军队进行的几场反恐怖战争 ,其对手在处于劣势时 ,通常以游击战术与之对抗。因此 ,美俄军队在反恐怖作战中 ,也运用反游击战手段反制恐怖武装 ,其高技术条件下的反游击战战略战术对取得战争胜利起到了至关重要的作用。     

‘Mowing the Grass’: Israel’sStrategy for Protracted Intractable Conflict

‘Mowing the Grass’, Israel’s strategy in the twenty-first century against hostile non-state groups, reflects the assumption that Israel finds itself in a protracted intractable conflict. The use of force in such a conflict is not intended to attain impossible political goals, but a strategy of attrition designed primarily to debilitate the enemy capabilities. Only after showing much restraint in its military responses does Israel act forcefully to destroy the capabilities of its foes, hoping that occasional large-scale operations also have a temporary deterrent effect in order to create periods of quiet along its borders. The Israeli approach is substantively different from the current Western strategic thinking on dealing with non-state military challenges.     

Building A New Luftwaffe: The United States Air Force and Bundeswehr Planning for Rearmament, 1950–60

Rearming Germany was a long and complicated process. It was especially difficult to create a new German air force. The army generals who dominated the Bundeswehr cadre did not even want an air force but rather a small arm air corps. Moreover, Adenauer's defense staff failed to adequately budget or plan for a new air force. As rearmament began, US Air Force leaders, working closely with the small Luftwaffe staff in West Germany's shadow Defense Ministry, basically took charge of the process to ensure that the Germans built a new Luftwaffe on the American model – a large, multipurpose force organized as an independent service and fully integrated into NATO. The first Bundesluftwaffe commanders allied themselves to the Americans, often in opposition to their army comrades, to overcome the political problems caused by Adenauer's poor defense planning and create a modern air force on American lines.