Adam smith: A defence economist

For Smith, “defence” is presented as one of the three big areas requiring the “expenses of the sovereign or Commonwealth”, and therefore justifying state intervention in the economy, beside “justice” and “public works and public institutions”. Against the mercantilist thought, Smith considers that the process of liberalization is a condition of disarmament and peace. It supposes mainly the decolonization, the reduction of defence burden, the eradication of slavery, the denunciation of the mercantilist policy, and the international respect of free trade. Development is both a consequence of liberalization and the main cause of peace.     

PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE MORAL DILEMMA IN THE DEFENSE AGAINST TERROR

The economic theory of defense has traditionally described public safety as achieved through investments that deter adversaries. Deterrence is, however, ineffective and pre‐emptive defense is required when a population of intended victims confronts supreme‐value suicide terror. A moral dilemma then arises, since pre‐emption may impose collective punishment, while in the absence of pre‐emption the population of intended victims is exposed to acts of terror. We consider how a population of intended terror victims confronts the moral dilemma, and compare the threatened population's response with the public‐safety recommendations of external judges who are not personally affected by the threat of terror.     

Minimizing Public Sector Corruption: The Economics of Crime,Identity Economics,and Money Laundering

Abstract

This paper offers a simple strategic framework to help governments identify various policy mechanisms to minimize public sector corruption. The paper offers a formal model that blends the economics of crime with identity economics and money laundering. It presents a partial equilibrium framework that focuses on a representative public official engaged in a mix of legal and illegal effort. The model introduces various levers a government might use to impact the costs and benefits of illegal effort. The ultimate goal is to help turn volatile vicious cycles of political instability, into steady virtuous cycles of stability, growth, and sustainable development.     

Influence without power? Reframing British concepts of military intervention after 10 years of counterinsurgency

British attitudes towards military intervention following the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have undergone what appears to be considerable change. Parliament has voted against the use of Britain's armed forces in Syria and the public are unenthused by overseas engagement. Conscious of the costs and the challenges posed by the use of British military power the government has been busy revamping the way it approaches crises overseas. The result is a set of policies that apparently heralds a new direction in foreign policy. This new direction is encapsulated in the Building Stability Overseas Strategy (BSOS) and the more recent International Defence Engagement Strategy (IDES). Both BSOS and IDES set out the basis for avoiding major deployments to overseas conflict and instead refocuses effort on defence diplomacy, working with and through overseas governments and partners, early warning, pre-conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction. Developing a number of themes that reach from across the Cold War to more contemporary discussions of British strategy, the goal of this special edition is to take into account a number of perspectives that place BSOS and IDES in their historical and strategic context. These papers suggest that using defence diplomacy is and will remain an extremely imprecise lever that needs to be carefully managed if it is to remain a democratically accountable tool of foreign policy.     

舰艇编队区域防空探索性建模与分析

舰艇编队的区域防空作战是一个复杂问题.具有体系特性的战略层规划一直是其中的重点和难点.探索性分析正是适宜解决这一难题的方法论,它可以通过高层次模型的定量探索,在深入细节之前对问题有个广度的了解.依照探索性分析的思想,从宏观层次描述舰艇编队区域防空问题;基于所设计的时间片影响图分析建模软件工具EASim,建立了该问题的高...     

On optimal system designs in reliability‐economics frameworks

Reliability Economics is a field that can be defined as the collection of all problems in which there is tension between the performance of systems of interest and their cost. Given such a problem, the aim is to resolve the tension through an optimization process that identifies the system which maximizes some appropriate criterion function (e.g. expected lifetime per unit cost). In this paper, we focus on coherent systems of n independent and identically distributed (iid) components and mixtures thereof, and characterize both a system's performance and cost as functions of the system's signature vector (Samaniego, IEEE Trans Reliabil (1985) 69–72). For a given family of criterion functions, a variety of optimality results are obtained for systems of arbitrary order n. Approximations are developed and justified when the underlying component distribution is unknown. Assuming the availability of an auxiliary sample of N component failure times, the asymptotic theory of L‐estimators is adapted for the purpose of establishing the consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators of the expected ordered failure times of the n components of the systems under study. These results lead to the identification of ε‐optimal systems relative to the chosen criterion function. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

MILITARY EXPENDITURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: A DYNAMIC PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

Defence expenditures have both costs and benefits to the economy. The costs of defence expenditures are mainly emphasized as opportunity costs. On the other hand, defence spending may have growth‐promoting potential benefits: a rise in defence spending may result in a higher aggregate demand, production and employment. This paper examines empirically the effects of military expenditures on economic growth for Middle Eastern countries and Turkey, for the time‐period 1989–1999. The relationship between military expenditure and economic growth is investigated by using cross‐section and dynamic panel estimation techniques. Empirical analysis indicates that military expenditure enhances economic growth in the Middle Eastern countries and Turkey as a whole.     

反舰导弹发展趋势分析及其末端防御

分析了现代反舰导弹的特点(包括超声速反舰导弹的弱点)及未来发展趋势,论述了当前国外反导防御的手段及新思想,指出末端防御的重要性。主要讨论了目前防空反导系统存在的困难及火控系统存在的局限性,总结了反舰导弹末端具有的弱点(红外特征明显、速度过大不易机动等),从系统的角度论述了末端拦截反舰导弹的可行性及需研究的新技术。     

编队舰空导弹对空拦截综合模型研究

以水面舰艇编队防空为背景,用数学分析法和计算机模拟法对编队防空中预警直升机的配置和探测模型、舰载雷达的探测模型、编队对空导弹的抗击方法、编队对目标的射击能力、转火能力、杀伤概率等问题进行了研究,建立了火力方程等有关数学模型,为定量分析和优化编队对目标的作战能力提供了依据。     

防空作战指挥信息化研究

防空信息化建设与作战,是整个建设信息化军队、打赢信息化战争、机械化与信息化复合跨越式发展进程中的重要组成部分,而防空作战指挥信息化又是防空信息化的重要内容.从防空作战指挥信息化的时代需求、主要特征、发展重点三个方面作以探讨,为防空信息化建设与发展提供思路和借鉴.