A survey of performance issues in defence innovation

This article reviews innovation processes in defence. It analyses the way and the context under which these processes are carried out. The article covers the features of defence goods with impact on innovation, the development of a new good, the institutional arrangements that support these processes and the effect of innovation on industrial market. The analysis helps to identify the causes of facts observed in practice, such as poor performance in terms of product quality, cost or delivery time, as well as to assess potential remedies. Some policy implications, which can be derived from this analysis, are finally outlined.     

Military Spending and Economic Growth: The Case of Iran

Over the last decade, the Iranian Government budget on military has been higher than the average of the world. The current increasing international sanctions aim to reduce the military capabilities and capacities of the Iranian Government. We analyze the response of the Iranian economy to shocks in its military budget from 1959 to 2007, using impulse response functions and variance decomposition analysis. The Granger causality results show that there is unidirectional causality from the military spending growth rate to the economic growth rate. The response of income growth to increasing shocks in the military budget is positive and statistically significant.     

Individual preferences and the demand for military expenditure*

Whose preferences determine the tradeoff between security and civilian output in deciding upon budget allocations to defence? This paper considers the role that consumer preferences might play in influencing military spending. We propose normative criteria to judge the economic or political efficiency of defence provision at a given time, and test them using Australian survey‐based micro‐data. Our results suggest that the political system has not delivered a simple social‐choice translation of individual preferences into collective outcomes, nor has it delivered results consistent with simple majority‐voting median preferences.     

Through the Looking Glass: The Soviet Military-Technical Revolution and the American Revolution in Military Affairs

The roots of the information technology Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) can be traced to the mid-1970s, when the West capitalized on scientific-technological developments to neutralize the threat posed by Soviet second echelons. However, the cultivation of the technological seeds of the American RMA preceded the maturation of the conceptual ones. Although it was the US that was laying the technological groundwork for the RMA, Soviet, rather than the American military theorists, were the first to argue that the new range of technological innovations constituted a fundamental discontinuity in the nature of war, which they dubbed the ‘Military-Technical Revolution’ (MTR). About a decade later, this fundamental Soviet approach to the transformations in military affairs was analyzed, adapted and adopted by the US, and designated the RMA. This article deals with the intellectual history of the Soviet MTR and the American RMA.     

空间天气对国家安全的影响研究

随着科技的发展和进步,世界各国越来越认识到空间天气的重要性,并对空间天气效应展开深入的理论和实践探索。我国也加快空间天气领域的研究进程,并取得了一定成就。本文系统介绍了空间天气的定义与发展历程,运用总体国家安全观的方法,从国土安全、军事安全、经济安全与核安全等角度分析了灾害性空间天气对国家安全的影响。在对国内外空间天气研究现状和发展趋势分析的基础上,针对灾害性空间天气的国家安全影响提出了政策性建议。     

从美国无人机的发展来看无人机在未来战争中的应用前景

从军事需求和技术推动出发,全面论述了美国无人机的发展情况,并对实战使用情况、新的无人机系列以及无人机在战争中应用的广泛前景作了分析。     

Intellectual spring cleaning: it’s time for a military “Do Not Read” list; and some sources that should be on that list

Military reading lists, intended to promote professional reading and in turn enhance education and develop critical thinking skills and sound judgement, recommend key texts to military personnel. This is a noble intent but the lists themselves, while generally good, are not flawless. Critiques of military reading lists often focus on what sources they are missing. This article offers its own critique but from a different perspective. It does so by analysing why some sources, which have become outdated, are based on faulty or incomplete research, have been thoroughly disproven, or some combination of the above, nevertheless linger on military reading lists. It then offers a short list of such sources, which it recommends be either removed from existing reading lists or accompanied by other sources that place the original source in appropriate historical context. Where applicable, it also recommends alternative sources that provide insights into the same subject matter. In so doing, this article is intended generate debate and to assist militaries to achieve a better balance between evaluation, induction and retention of valid knowledge on one hand, and rejection of outdated or flawed knowledge on the other.     

War and rumours of war,do improvements in space technologies bring space conflict closer?

Combat in near-Earth orbit is emerging as a more realistic possibility. The argument here is that changes in space technologies combined with a sea change in political rhetoric is bringing the possibility of military conflict in space technologies. This movement reflects a generational shift as the original decisions regarding military conflict in space are now being reassessed by a generation who did not experience World War II or the Cold War. For these, the sanctuary approach to space activities is not as persuasive and new enhanced space technologies bring the possibility of victory or at least survival possible during a conflict in space.     

气象卫星的军事应用

为了研究全球气象卫星在军事领域的应用情况,通过对相关国家气象卫星的种类以及军事应用的特点、简要发展史、现状,以及在现代战争中的应用等情况进行了阐述,并重点介绍了气象卫星在伊拉克战争中的应用,结果表明气象卫星作为信息化军队的重要资源之一,对国防建设,尤其是对现代高技术条件下的局部战争具有深远的影响。     

军事通信卫星及其下行链路性能研究

随着航天技术、数字通信技术、信息安全技术等的发展,一些军事大国恣意进行空间“武器化”,掌握“制天权”,对他国的安全构成严重的威胁。介绍了军事通信卫星及其优缺点,以及在现代战争中的应用,并对军事通信卫星的下行链路进行有效干扰的一些性能数据进行了分析和计算机仿真。