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’?     

Many‐server loss models with non‐poisson time‐varying arrivals

This article proposes an approximation for the blocking probability in a many‐server loss model with a non‐Poisson time‐varying arrival process and flexible staffing (number of servers) and shows that it can be used to set staffing levels to stabilize the time‐varying blocking probability at a target level. Because the blocking probabilities necessarily change dramatically after each staffing change, we randomize the time of each staffing change about the planned time. We apply simulation to show that (i) the blocking probabilities cannot be stabilized without some form of randomization, (ii) the new staffing algorithm with randomiation can stabilize blocking probabilities at target levels and (iii) the required staffing can be quite different when the Poisson assumption is dropped. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 64: 177–202, 2017     

浅析消防业务信息系统的管理运维

消防业务信息系统日常运维任务是确保实时数据的可用性和完整性,信息能够得到及时处理应用,保障信息系统的正常运行及维护系统资源的安全.加强消防业务系统日常运维的管理标准,规范运维工作的方法,可以减少系统运维中不确定性因素,是提高消防业务工作质量和水平的重要保障.     

Axis2与NET平台间Web服务安全交互研究与实现

Web服务基于一系列开放的标准技术,具有松散耦合、语言中立、平台无关、互操作性的优点。近年来,在武警部队信息化建设中,很多平台都构建了Web服务。但由于Web服务的各个平台对WS—Security规范的支持不统一,这就为全部队涉及不同业务部门的异构平台web服务的安全交互带来了问题。通过分析NET和Axis2Web服务平台对WS—Security规范的支持,提出一个方案来解决多个异构Web服务平台之间的安全交互问题,最后通过实验证明了该方案的可行性。     

执勤案例库在武警勤务教学中的运用

案例教学在国外较为流行,哈佛大学商学院、法学院等一些高级专业课程已经取得较大成功。我国高等院校已经基本普及,军队院校案例教学也取得一定成果。执勤案例库可以有效提高学员对勤务理论知识的理解和掌握;运用案例库进行案例教学能增强教学针对性、提升实战能力;执勤案例库可以培养学员分析判断、综合处理复杂问题的能力。所以,必须重视武警执勤案例库建设,并充分运用案例库进行教学。     

火箭弹卷弧尾翼的轻量化研究

针对火箭弹卷弧尾翼在特定气动载荷下的轻量化问题,基于结构动力学理论,依托ABAQUS非线性有限元软件,建立了火箭弹卷弧尾翼的有限元模型。通过对比碳纤维复合材料(CFRP)和合金钢材料的卷弧尾翼的有限元分析,得出了碳纤维复合材料在满足强度和刚度的要求下,使卷弧尾翼减重达80%。该方法为火箭弹卷弧尾翼的轻量化设计提供了一种参考和借鉴。     

具有时变时间延迟的混沌保密通信同步方法研究

针对固定时间延迟及时变时间延迟系统,提出了同步控制方案,在实现同步后能有效解决传输时延对保密通信的影响.利用线性矩阵不等式方法设计了同步控制器,应用Lyapunov方法分析了同步误差的收敛性,并运用Schur补引理证明了全局渐近稳定点的存在.     

Military expenditure,economic growth and structural instability: a case study of South Africa

This paper contributes to the growing literature on the milex-growth nexus, by providing a case study of South Africa and considering the possibility of structural breaks by applying newly developed econometric methods. Using full sample bootstrap Granger non-causality tests, no Granger causal link is found between military expenditure and GDP for 1951–2010, but parameter instability tests show the estimated VARs to be unstable. Using a bootstrap rolling window estimation procedure, however, finds evidence of bidirectional Granger causality in various subsamples. This implies standard Granger non-causality tests, which neither account for structural breaks nor time variation may be invalid.