Revisiting the rise and fall of the Somali Armed Forces, 1960–2012

The history of the Somali Armed Forces, principally the army, forms an important part of studying the Somali civil war. Two key themes are evident from 1960: the pursuit of an irredentist agenda beyond reasonable limits, which led to the downfall of Siad Barre’s regime, and the clan divisions and agendas that Barre used to shore up his rule in the 1980s and that have bedeviled the rebirth of the Somali Army in the twenty-first century. With the twentieth-century context covered, and in some places reinterpreted, this article then focuses on the uncertain rebirth of the Somali Armed Forces since 2008, using a host of primary and United Nations official sources. Assistance efforts have been focused on Mogadishu, but limited success has been made in forming truly national armed forces. Future prospects are uncertain, but there are some signs of hope.     

陆军部队未来夜战场管理面临的挑战

陆军部队夜战场管理今非昔比,前瞻陆军部队未来夜战场管理面临的挑战,是实现习主席"努力建设一支强大的现代化新型陆军"指示的具体举措,是实现管理服务作战的必然之举。本文从"夜战由单一军种向多军种联合作战转变,传统的以陆军为主的夜战场管理难以适应管理联合化发展趋势;传统的以陆战场为主的夜战场管理难以适应管理多维化发展趋势、夜战由慢节奏向快节奏转变;传统的以人力为主的粗放式夜战场管理难以适应管理快捷、精确化发展趋势;夜战由充满迷雾向空前透明转变,传统的以天然夜幕掩护为主的夜战场管理难以适应管理技战术一体化发展趋势等四个方面,预测了陆军部队未来夜战场管理面临的挑战。     

贯彻科技兴军战略,提高军事职业教育质量水平

发展军事职业教育是健全新型军事人才培养体系的重大举措。贯彻科技兴军战略,必须深刻认识提高军事职业教育质量水平的重大意义,清晰把握提高军事职业教育质量水平的内在要求,切实找准提高军事职业教育质量水平的重要抓手。     

资源约束条件下的空中兵力编组

通过对空中兵力的合理编组,实现作战资源的优化配置是提升兵力作战效能的有效途径。针对现代空战编队对抗过程的特点,从战术企图和信息优势角度提出了编队目标威胁评估方法。以编队目标为研究对象从宏观上调配己方作战资源,提出了作战资源成本和兵力调度成本2种兵力编组成本,在此基础上建立了资源约束条件下的兵力编组优化模型,并采用改进PSO算法对模型进行求解。作战想定仿真结果表明兵力编组模型能够有效解决空战兵力分配问题。     

基于蚁群算法的防空兵兵力机动线路优化

根据防空兵对机动线路的要求以及战时的安全性特点,得出影响防空兵兵力机动线路选择的因素,引入里程指数的概念,将线路的长度进行修正赋权,给出兵力机动线路的等效线路长度。把这一等效线路长度结合到蚁群算法中,能够较好地模拟现代战场的复杂环境对防空兵兵力机动路线的影响,并能科学、合理地选择路线,为指挥员的决策提供帮助。     

战术移动Ad Hoc网络下的分布式位置辅助功率控制算法

针对战术移动自组(AdHoc)网络提出一种分布式位置辅助的功率控制算法(LAPCA),它通过位置预测来推算节点的邻节点数目,进而调整信号发射功率,以保持最佳的网络连通性,由此提高整个网络的有效流量。该算法作为一个独立模块可以方便地与已有的移动自组网络路由协议相结合。采用较为适合战术环境的参考点群组移动(RPGM)模型来产生网络仿真场景,从仿真实验结果来看,几乎在所有的RPGM场景下采用该算法后的网络有效流量相对于纯粹的AODV路由协议都得到了提高。     

美军作战概念开发特点及启示

创新军事思想、开发作战概念是推进军事转型和部队建设的关键抓手。美军秉承“创新提炼—集智研讨—实验验证”的作战概念开发机制,采取聚焦联合作战概念开发,以作战能力需求为牵引,通过突破前沿技术和研发关键装备,以法规制度和标准规范为强制约束的做法对于军队转型建设具有重要启示。本文提出,应着眼于军队的使命任务,强化军队作战概念设计,创新作战概念研究方式,形成“聚焦使命任务—研讨演示概念—体系设计概念—检验优化概念—形成概念产品—指导建设实践”的作战概念开发途径,支撑作战概念创新和前瞻性探索研究,并加强体制机制和标准规范建设,通过对作战概念开发的整体设计和约束规范,提升前瞻作战概念对作战实践的创新引领作用,加速推进军队转型建设。     

EU armed forces and social media: convergence or divergence?

This article explores how armed forces in EU member states work with and view social media in national and international settings, and what the patterns of convergence/divergence are on these issues. To that end, a questionnaire targeted at EU armed forces was constructed. An index of qualitative variation was calculated to explore the relative convergence among respondents (n = 25) on issues of risks and opportunities with using social media nationally and internationally. Consistent with previous research on European armed forces, we found higher levels of divergence than convergence. Contrary to our expectations that similar challenges, joint international standards, and membership in international organizations would foster convergence with regard to social media use in areas of deployment, we found that convergence appeared foremost pertaining to the domestic level. Policy divergence was strongest in areas of deployment.     

Explaining the security paradigm shift: strategic culture,epistemic communities,and Israel’s changing national security policy

The paper’s main argument is that Israel’s security policy, which traditionally focused on defending its territorial integrity against regular Arab armed forces, was, by the 2010s, transformed into one that focuses on facing a variety of state- and non-state-based threats. Neo-realist explanations could neither account for the contested nature of the security debate during this period, nor the inconsistent evolution of the policy. The present study aims to solve this conundrum by introducing an alternative approach known as 4th generation strategic culture research. The paper is comprised of four parts. First, the origins and evolution of strategic culture are reviewed, with emphasis placed on the commonly accepted weaknesses that, to date, have prevented it from being used as a testable theoretical concept, and subsequently as an explanatory factor for security policy changes. The second part presents the “modernist constructivism” approach that bridges the gap between traditional constructivism and hypothesis-driven research design. Next, the paper introduces the emerging fourth generation in strategic culture literature, followed by a conceptual framework designed to resolve the inherent weaknesses of the more traditional approaches. Finally, this conceptual framework is applied to analyse the transformation of Israel’s security policy between 1982 and 2014.     

军队领导干部要强化问题意识

领导干部要有强烈的问题意识,是习主席在全面深化改革中提出的新要求。领导干部作为军队改革的推动者、组织者、实施者,所处地位十分重要,其问题意识的强弱直接影响改革成效。把握问题意识的科学内涵,就是要用系统论的观点,从正确地对待问题、敏锐地发现问题、辩证地分析问题和科学地解决问题四个方面加以理解。军队领导干部增强问题意识,应做到坚定理想信念,服从服务大局,破解单位建设难题,密切联系群众。