Playing dirty to survive: the vulnerability of civilian targets within U.S. military aid recipient states

ABSTRACT

U.S. military aid provides recipient governments the fighting capability they require to undermine domestic militant groups, which can undermine groups’ leadership structures and trigger group splintering. In this environment, brutal attacks against non-combatants become an effective mechanism for targeted groups to signal their resolve and outbid competitors. A large-n analysis of U.S. military aid between 1989 -2011 links higher levels of military aid with higher levels of rebel-perpetrated civilian killings, and deaths due to explosive attacks on non-combatant targets. A closer examination of the case of Pakistan sheds further light on the underlying causal mechanisms.     

US warfare in Somalia and the trade-off between casualty-aversion and civilian protection

This article examines the ways in which the two normative concerns of casualty-aversion and civilian protection influenced US military strategy in the particular context of the asymmetric conflict in Somalia in the early 1990s. The article critically evaluates US military operations through the prism of international humanitarian law and examines whether American forces started prioritizing casualty-aversion over the safeguarding of Somali civilians. Finally, by drawing on emerging moral guidelines (such as Michael Walzer's idea of ‘due care’), the article examines whether lower numbers of Somali civilian deaths could have been achieved if marginal increases to the risks faced by US soldiers had been accepted.     

The 1983 Nuclear Crisis – Lessons for Deterrence Theory and Practice

This article distills insights for the scholarship of deterrence by examining the 1983 nuclear crisis – the moment of maximum danger of the late Cold War. Important contributions notwithstanding, our understanding of this episode still has caveats, and a significant pool of theoretical lessons for strategic studies remain to be learned. Utilizing newly available sources, this article suggests an alternative interpretation of Soviet and US conduct. It argues that the then US deterrence strategy almost produced Soviet nuclear overreaction by nearly turning a NATO exercise into a prelude to a preventive Soviet attack. Building on historical findings, this article offers insights about a mechanism for deterrence effectiveness evaluation, recommends establishing a structure responsible for this endeavor, and introduces a new theoretical term to the strategic studies lexicon – a ‘culminating point of deterrence’.     

New Sources on the Role of Soviet Submarines in the Cuban Missile Crisis

Drawing on evidence collected from eyewitness interviews, new Russian secondary sources, as well as recently declassified documents from both sides, the author significantly widens the academic understanding of the maritime dimension of this gravest crisis of the Cold War. Most significant is her conclusion that Soviet commanders were led by complex and challenging tactical circumstances, including unreliable communications and malfunctioning equipment, which might have prompted them to contemplate a resort to tactical nuclear weapons on more than one occasion. Almost as disturbing is the revelation that US forces were not aware of this particular threat. This research reveals how a chain of inadvertent developments at sea could have precipitated global nuclear war, underlining the extreme danger of the crisis.     

有人机/无人机协同空地攻击效能评估的综合指数模型

研究了未来有人机/无人机协同空地攻击的典型作战模式,然后根据混合编队的作战过程和特点,提出了一种建立有人机/无人机协同空地攻击效能评估的综合指数模型;同时确定了综合指数模型中各分系统和分项能力的评估模型。最后以6种有人机和6种无人机的协同空地攻击效能评估为例计算并检验了模型的可用性。     

模块化设计思想在战时民船征用改造成维修保障船中的应用

对模块化设计思想在战时民船征用改造成维修保障船中的应用作了有益探讨,对战时民船征用改造成维修保障船的必要性进行了论证。并以集装箱船为例,充分论证了在战时应用模块化设计思想把民船改造成维修保障船的优势所在,进而对改装初步方案进行了论证设计。对战时开展民船征用改造成维修保障船工作,及拓展战时装备保障思路,有一定的参考价值。     

钠冷快速中子增殖反应堆钠火研究综述

核电站是利用原子核裂变反应放出能量发电的装置,其核心是核反应堆。介绍了核电研究背景和钠冷快速中子增殖反应堆,指出钠冷快堆核电站的主要消防安全隐患是钠循环工艺的泄漏火灾,对国内外钠火研究现状进行了详细介绍,提出了钠火研究的主要内容及关键技术。     

Minimum deterrence and missile defenses: what's new,what's true,what's arguable

Minimum deterrence is a compromise, or halfway house, between nuclear abolition or nearly zero and assured destruction, the dominant paradigm for strategic nuclear arms control during and after the cold war. Minimum deterrence as applied to the current relationship between the United States and Russia would require downsizing the numbers of operationally deployed long-range nuclear weapons to 1000, or fewer, on each side. More drastic bilateral Russian–American reductions would require the cooperation of other nuclear weapons states in making proportional reductions in their own arsenals. In addition, US plans for European-based and global missile defenses cause considerable angst in Russia and threaten to derail the Obama “reset” in Russian–American relations, despite the uncertainties about current and plausible future performances of missile defense technologies.     

Iran's nuclear programme: civil and/or military goals?

The ultimate goal of Iran's nuclear programme remains uncertain. While the nuclear reactor of Bushehr has finally been connected to the power grid, the nuclear fuel enrichment activities and their location cause concern to the international community. Thirty years of nuclear investments demonstrate a negative cost–benefit analysis: technical constraints and economic and infrastructural requirements constitute a burden on the implementation of a nuclear programme. This article analyses the economic, legal, technical and political aspects of the Iranian programme in order to uncover its civil and/or military finality.     

舰机协同作战理论的两栖作战火力协同

为了提高航母编队的防空作战效能,必须对火力协同进行优化。提出一种舰艇与舰载机火力协同的方法,该方法在分析舰机协同防空作战火力协同体系的基础上,引入了舰机火力协同防空的概念,描述了舰机火力协同的对象、目标,分析了航母编队防空作战的三道防空警戒幕。通过对预警机引导巡逻机攻击过程的描述,建立舰载机的目标分配模型。在对内层防御区威胁度判断模型进行描述的基础上,建立舰艇的目标分配模型。最后的分析结果表明了该方法的可行性和有效性。