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.     

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。     

军用卫星的发展趋势分析

给出了军用卫星未来的发展趋势 ,包括成像侦察卫星、预警卫星系统、通信卫星系统和导航卫星系统的发展趋势 ,指出了小卫星应用的发展方式 ,归纳了卫星组网的设计方法和应用现状 ,最后分析了小卫星编队飞行的应用特点。     

浅谈现代军事物流及其发展趋势

随着我国社会主义市场经济的蓬勃发展和世界新军事革命的兴起,我国军事物流日益引起人们的重视。同时,也面临着历史性的机遇和挑战。本文结合我国军事物流建设现状,就现代军事物流的科学内涵、地位作用、理想形态及发展趋势进行了论述,旨在为新时期军事物流的建设与发展提供理论依据。     

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。     

Think again – supplying war: reappraising military logistics and its centrality to strategy and war

This article argues that logistics constrains strategic opportunity while itself being heavily circumscribed by strategic and operational planning. With the academic literature all but ignoring the centrality of logistics to strategy and war, this article argues for a reappraisal of the critical role of military logistics, and posits that the study and conduct of war and strategy are incomplete at best or false at worst when they ignore this crucial component of the art of war. The article conceptualises the logistics–strategy nexus in a novel way, explores its contemporary manifestation in an age of uncertainty, and applies it to a detailed case study of UK operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.     

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。     

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.     

Military Expenditures and Natural Resources: Evidence from Rentier States in the Middle East and North Africa

It has been argued that the discovery of a new natural resource greatly increases the risk of conflict. This research aims to study the effect of natural resources on military spending, using the data from rentier states in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries from 1987 to 2012. In considering the ‘resource curse,’ the types of natural resources matter. Our empirical results demonstrate that the ‘resource curse’ arising from the abundance of certain natural resources, particularly oil and forest resources, leads to increases in military spending. In contrast, the rent from coal and natural gas has a negative impact on military spending, while the rent from minerals has no impact on military spending, controlling for GDP growth and per capita income.     

Soldiers as victims: behind military barracks in the post-colonial African army

This paper examines the ways in which the military infringes on the social and political rights of soldiers who joined the Zimbabwe National Army in post-independence Zimbabwe. Contrary to the scholarly and policy debates that present Zimbabwean soldiers as the silent prop behind President Robert Mugabe and the perpetrators of political violence, this paper argues that these soldiers have also been victimised in army barracks. The victimhood of soldiers has been explicit in the ways in which they are forced to execute their duties beyond their professional expectations. In substantiating this argument, the paper explores the unethical military training and the ways in which soldiers are disciplined and punished through Chapter 11:02 of the draconian Defence Act. The paper’s contribution stems from a ‘rights’ perspective that emphasises the right to freedom, justice and protection, which is usually quite silent in the military. But the question is how can soldiers’ concerns be translated into new practices without compromising so-called ‘state security’?