The United States' retreat from the Middle East and pivot to the Far East is likely to intensify

A combination of threat analysis and “subterranean forces” (such as proclivities to fight conventional wars as compared to asymmetric ones) leads the USA to prefer focusing on the threats from China rather than those emanating from the Middle East.     

The Joint Chiefs of Staff,the atom bomb,the American Military Mind and the end of the Second World War

ABSTRACT

The decision by the US government to drop the atomic bombs on Japan is one of the most heavily debated questions in history. This article examines one element of that debate, in many ways the most surprising. That was the different views of the top of the military hierarchy in the USA, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The JCS was on the whole more sceptical about using atomic weaponry than the USA’s civilian leadership, for ethical and strategic reasons. As such they were willing to consider very different ways of ending the war.     

苏共思想教育工作失策对我军的启示

苏联剧变,有其多方面的原因。就意识形态来说,苏共思想教育工作的失策,导致全社会尤其是青年一代从意识形态迷茫,滑落到理想信念崩溃,无疑是政变的思想根源。分析苏共思想教育工作的经验教训,以便创新和改进我军思想政治教育的内容、形式和手段,促进思想政治教育工作的有效开展。     

Attrition models of the Ardennes campaign

This paper revisits the modeling by Bracken [3] of the Ardennes campaign of World War II using the Lanchester equations. It revises and extends that analysis in a number of ways: (1) It more accurately fits the model parameters using linear regression; (2) it considers the data from the entire campaign; and (3) it adds in air sortie data. In contrast to previous results, it concludes by showing that neither the Lanchester linear or Lanchester square laws fit the data. A new form of the Lanchester equations emerges with a physical interpretation. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 45: 1–22, 1998     

试论孙子兵法对消防工作的指导

近年来,全国各级公安消防部门为有效防控重特大火灾事故、确保火灾形势稳定,发起了治理火灾隐患的战役。打好战役,必须讲方法、讲韬略。《孙子兵法》是一部伟大的军事著作,共分13篇,在其中选取部分精辟的观点,试述其对加强和改进消防工作的指导作用。     

启蒙·救亡·重建——抗日战争时期党的文化选择的三重功效

抗日战争时期中国共产党的文化选择具有三重功效：对广大民众、尤其是农民的现代启蒙;在民族危难关头的一场民族救亡总动员;指明了中国未来文化的重建方向。     

浅谈《孙子兵法》与竞争智慧

孙子有备无患的军事思想,早已成为现代竞争领域的指导原则之一。每个人都有非常强烈的成功欲望,这样的人生,是一个永不停息的决策过程。从事什么样的工作,怎样做才能使自己在竞争中立于不败之地。《孙子兵法》告诉我们：人生竞争有策略。     

伊拉克战争对国际政治格局的影响

美国凭借其强大的势力肆意出兵攻打伊拉克。这一结果虽不能使国际政治格局发生重大变化 ,世界多极化的趋势不能改变 ,但它进一步强化了美国的单边主义思想 ,使世界多极化的进程受到严峻挑战 ,同时也将改变中东地区的力量对比 ,重塑中东地区的政治格局 ,也使联合国的权威和地位受到了严重的挑战。     

MAD,not Marx: Khrushchev and the nuclear revolution

The revival of nuclear strategy in US policy and scholarship has been strengthened by arguments that the ‘nuclear revolution’ – the assumption that thermonuclear bombs and missiles had made major war too dangerous to wage – does not affect international behaviour as much as nuclear revolution advocates claim. This article shows that the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev indeed regarded nuclear war as too dangerous to wage, a decision which manifested itself not so much in foreign policy or military doctrine but in his determination to avoid war when the possibility arose. We argue that Khrushchev’s experience provides us with a more useful way to characterise the nuclear revolution and suggest some implications of this argument for contemporary debates about nuclear weaponry.     

The Illusion of Afghanistan’s Electoral Representative Democracy: The Cases of Afghan Presidential and National Legislative Elections

This article is the latest in a series of published articles systematically examining Afghan Presidential and legislative elections. Structural problems including fraud, ethno-linguistic block voting, and the Single Non-Transferable Vote have had significant impacts on the development of Afghan democratic elections. The challenge now facing the current Afghan government and future elections is the daunting task of uniting the Afghan people while not repeating the electoral mistakes of the past. The tricky balancing act of fostering an overarching national identity without being perceived as privileging particular identities requires strong leadership and a willingness to challenge traditional ethnic, linguistic, and religious norms when need be. Karzai and Ghani Administrations have seriously failed relative to this dynamic.