The Demand for Military Expenditure in Europe: The Role of Fiscal Space in the Context of a Resurgent Russia

A variant of established work on the demand for military expenditure is developed based on a practical concept of fiscal space from the perspective of short-term government choices concerning public expenditures. A new indicator, referred to as fiscal capacity, is defined and used as a candidate explanatory variable in an empirical model of European defence spending over the 2007–2016 period. Fiscal capacity is found to outperform simpler measurements of economic conditions, notably GDP growth forecasts, in explaining changes in defence spending efforts as a share of GDP. Regarding security environment variables, the results suggest that Russia has recently come to be seen as a potential military threat by European nations, leading to defence spending increases, the more so the shorter the distance to stationed or deployed Russian forces, and particularly so by those European nations that have a land border with Russia. A prospective exercise is then carried out in order to assess the capacity of EU member states that are also members of NATO to reach NATO’s 2% goal for defence spending over a mid-term horizon.     

Varieties of defection strategies from multinational military coalitions: Insights from operation Iraqi freedom

How do states defect from multinational military coalitions? The question deserves considerable academic scrutiny, as states increasingly rely on coalitions to prosecute military missions. Yet to the extent that coalition defection has been explored, the extant literature tends to see defection as a binary undertaking – states are either in or out. In practice, however, defection is an act of risk minimization in a manner that forces other coalition partners to fill resulting operational gaps. A coalition can therefore appear stable due to a constant number of flags associated with the mission, but in practice be much less coherent and capable. After defining defection as a non-routine abrogation of operational responsibility at other coalition partners’ expense, significantly prior to mission conclusion, this article explores several states’ participation in Operation Iraqi Freedom and the various manners by which they defected from that coalition. It concludes with implications for future scholarship.     

From the sociology of the (military) profession to the sociology of (security) expertise: the case of European national defence universities

Few would disagree that European militaries have experienced dramatic changes since the end of the Cold War. Much of the discussion on these changes to date has referred to the concept of professionalism. However, this approach became outdated as professions in post-industrialist societies entered a state of crisis as a result of growing competition from a variety of competitors. The present study adapts a new framework from the sociology of knowledge literature – sociology of expertise – into one, sociology of security expertise, which is suitable for study of contemporary armed forces. Its utility is demonstrated through analysis of five European professional military education institutions. The analysis shows that European military organisations are transiting, albeit in various degrees, from one form of social organisation of military knowledge production – associated with the military education model common to traditional military colleges – toward another, which is related to the military education model of national defence universities. Hence it is highly probable that European military organisations lose, either voluntary or unintentionally, their professional character and can no longer be unquestionably assumed to be military professions. Hence, they should be analysed hereafter using the sociology of security expertise framework.     

Data-driven research in retail operations—A review

We review the operations research/management science literature on data-driven methods in retail operations. This line of work has grown rapidly in recent years, thanks to the availability of high-quality data, improvements in computing hardware, and parallel developments in machine learning methodologies. We survey state-of-the-art studies in three core aspects of retail operations—assortment optimization, order fulfillment, and inventory management. We then conclude the paper by pointing out some interesting future research possibilities for our community.     

The Regional Economic Effects of Military Base Realignments and Closures

This paper empirically investigates the impact of military base realignments and closures on regional economic activity in light of the 2005 round of Base Realignment and Closure actions. Baseline regressions with county-level data show employment multipliers comparable to those generated from conventional input–output models. However, controlling for possible endogeneity and other regional-specific factors, regressions indicate more tenuous results for spillover effects from the military to the private sector. Only the contractor type of base employment generated economically and statistically meaningful impacts on local employment. In addition, there is strong evidence of asymmetric effects between military buildups and drawdowns.     

美国网络安全人才培养机制

加强网络安全人才队伍建设已经成为世界主要国家抢占网络空间制高点的战略举措。近年来的研究表明,美国通过发布专门的网络安全人才培养国家战略,设立专门的网络安全人才培养卓越中心,开发专门的网络安全人才培养在线资源,形成了一套较为成熟的惠及全民的网安全人才培养机制。     

美国“国家实验室”的属性辨识

美国国家实验室是美国国家创新的核心力量。常规英文搜索引擎通常检索不到"美国‘国家实验室’清单",目前国内已有文献大都将"联邦资助的研究与发展中心"等同于"国家实验室"。本文通过对"联邦资助的研究与发展中心"的深入比对分析,对美国"国家实验室"的类型进行了定量辨识,认为只有该国能源部"国家实验室"系列、国防部主管的Lincoln Laboratory、Aerospace Federally Funded Research and Development Center、National Defense Research Institute和美国国家航天局主管的Jet Propulsion Laboratory等与国内对"国家实验室"的共识基本一致。     

我国科研诚信与作风建设

针对2017年撤稿事件所反映的我国科研诚信方面存在的问题,围绕选题申报、资源配置、数据管理、文献引用、成果管理、同行评议等科研环节,提出改进科研诚信和作风建设方面的思考和建议。     

提高军队院校科研单位财务保障能力的探讨

针对军对院校科研单位财务管理的特点,分析了日常工作中存在的问题,并从加强制度管理和加强财务分析方面,探讨了提高财务保障能力的措施。     

建构主义教学论与教学模式改革

建构主义学习观强调学习的建构性、社会性和情境性 ,对促进教学方法的变革将有重要意义。文章运用建构教学观辨证分析了传统教学模式 ,综合现代以知识为中心、以学生为中心和行为主义理论等现代教育思想 ,分析了传授———建构教学法、合作、探究学习方法。