Special Section: Nuclear Stability In South Asia

The question of nuclear stability in South Asia is a subject of both academic and policy significance. It is the only region in the world that has three, contiguous nuclear-armed states: India, the People's Republic of China, and Pakistan. It is also freighted with unresolved border disputes. To compound matters, all three states are now modernizing their nuclear forces and have expressed scant interest in any form of regional arms control. These issues and developments constitute the basis of this special section, which explores the problems and prospects of nuclear crisis stability in the region.     

Strategic “defensivism” and post-reset blues: US–Russian nuclear arms reductions,missile defenses and minimum deterrence

US nuclear deterrence and arms control policy may be moving, by design and by inadvertence, toward a posture of strategic “defensivism”. Strategic “defensivism” emphasizes the overlapping and reinforcing impact of: (1) reductions in US, Russian and possibly other strategic nuclear forces, possibly down to the level of “minimum deterrence,” (2) deployment of improved strategic and/or theater antimissile defenses for the US, NATO allies and other partners; and (3) additional reliance on conventional military forces for some missions hitherto preferentially assigned to nuclear weapons. This article deals with the first two of these aspects only: the interaction between missile defenses and offensive force reductions in US–Russian strategy and policy. The findings are that stable deterrence as between the USA and Russia is possible at lower than New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty levels, but reductions below 1000 deployed long-range weapons for each state, toward a true minimum deterrent posture, will require multilateral as opposed to bilateral coordination of arms limitations. Missile defenses might provide some denial capability against light attacks by states with small arsenals, but they still fall short of meaningful damage limitation as between powers capable of massive nuclear strikes.     

Optimal pricing and inventory control policy in periodic‐review systems with fixed ordering cost and lost sales

This paper studies a periodic‐review pricing and inventory control problem for a retailer, which faces stochastic price‐sensitive demand, under quite general modeling assumptions. Any unsatisfied demand is lost, and any leftover inventory at the end of the finite selling horizon has a salvage value. The cost component for the retailer includes holding, shortage, and both variable and fixed ordering costs. The retailer's objective is to maximize its discounted expected profit over the selling horizon by dynamically deciding on the optimal pricing and replenishment policy for each period. We show that, under a mild assumption on the additive demand function, at the beginning of each period an (s,S) policy is optimal for replenishment, and the value of the optimal price depends on the inventory level after the replenishment decision has been done. Our numerical study also suggests that for a sufficiently long selling horizon, the optimal policy is almost stationary. Furthermore, the fixed ordering cost (K) plays a significant role in our modeling framework. Specifically, any increase in K results in lower s and higher S. On the other hand, the profit impact of dynamically changing the retail price, contrasted with a single fixed price throughout the selling horizon, also increases with K. We demonstrate that using the optimal policy values from a model with backordering of unmet demands as approximations in our model might result in significant profit penalty. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

试论武器装备的效费比分析

本文运用价值工程(VE)方法分析武器装备,并称效费比为价值。按照美国人杜佩(Dupuy)的办法把武器装备的效能化为“战斗效能值”,又计算出武器装备的全寿命费用,然后二者加以对比,提出了选择武器系统的定量方法。     

Small world,big guns: globalization,interstate security networks and conventional weapons imports

With the burgeoning influence of emerging markets in Asia, a tectonic shift is taking place in the global security landscape. Asian states are concomitantly arming as their economic clout grows. In light of these developments, security analysts would benefit from a formal means of placing these arms acquisitions in a structural context. Are arms acquisitions on par with the expectations of Asian states, given their structural dispositions, or are recent acquisitions beyond anticipated levels? By using a dynamic panel regression of 187 states from 1950 to 2011, this research predicts arms import volume using the degree of interstate arms linkages, the size of a state's military, and its level of economic development. The technique offers analysts a formal means of distinguishing orthodox behavior in importing conventional weapons from extraneous security motivations. The article concludes by generating near-term forecasts of Asian arms imports and discussing the implications of the technique.     

人工智能在军备控制领域的争议与挑战

随着人工智能技术的发展,当前国际社会对管控以“杀手机器人”为代表的致命性自主武器系统的呼声日益强烈,对于这类武器系统可能在未来引发伦理和安全危机的担忧逐渐增多。针对致命性自主武器,最严格的观点是全面禁止其研发和使用,以防止“杀手机器人”的出现;较宽松的观点是限制其使用、转让、扩散和购买;介于两者之间的观点是暂停其研发或使用,待相关管控规则形成后,再开展相关活动。本文认为,目前,国际社会就这一军控问题达成共识依然任重道远。根据现实情况,我国不宜过早寻求限制相关技术的研发工作,而应力求先确立管控致命性自主武器部署、使用、流通等方面的规则。     

致命性自主武器系统军备控制态势分析

致命性自主武器系统是指不需要人类操作员干涉,能够自主选择目标并进行攻击的一类武器系统,"平台无人、自主运行、致命攻击"是其主要特征。随着人工智能技术的快速发展,完全自主的致命性武器系统日益受到国际社会的关注,并开始成为国际军备控制问题的焦点。本文主要从技术的视角探讨致命性自主武器系统的军备控制问题。首先,介绍致命性自主武器系统的定义、发展动因以及军控问题的由来;其次,针对国际人道法提出的区分原则、比例原则、预防原则,分析当前自主武器系统在自主目标识别、确认和攻击环节存在的技术问题;最后,分析美国、俄罗斯、欧盟等世界主要国家和地区的军控态度,并探讨我国自主武器系统发展的策略建议。     

The Un-Holy Russo-Chinese alliance

ABSTRACT

This essay argues that a Sino-Russian alliance has come into being over many years of the two states’ evolutionary policies. Although Vladimir Putin has emphasised that this is a multi-faceted relationship, this essay focuses exclusively on its military dimension. It comprises extensive inter-ministerial and inter-governmental cooperation, arms sales, joint exercises, and shared political orientation. While it may not be a formal alliance like NATO research, e.g. by Alexander Korolev, indicates that in general experts argue that what they have achieved is even better than an alliance.