‘Taylor must go’ – the strategy of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy

In 1999, rebels rose to oppose the newly elected former warlord Charles Taylor in Liberia. Motivated by a variety of reasons, the minimal common denominator of these rebels, who assumed the name Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), was that Charles Taylor must leave the country. The decentralized nature of LURD though stands out in their struggle, as they don't fit the unitary actor assumed by literature on strategy, nor the alternative conception of decentralized forces fighting for purely local reasons. Understanding such aberrations as LURD is the first step to finding strategies that can incorporate and manage them.     

一种基于节点资源利用率的无标度网络路由策略

本文研究了节点负载处理能力异质条件下的无标度网络交通动力学过程,提出了一种基于节点资源利用率的全局动态路由策略。该策略利用网络中节点资源利用率构建了一种全局代价函数,选择使该代价函数最小的路径来传输负载。实验结果表明该路由策略在略微增加平均路径长度的情况下成倍地提高了网络负载传输能力,与有效路由策略的比较进一步验证了该策略的有效性。     

On the effectiveness of top‐down strategy for forecasting autoregressive demands

We investigate the relative effectiveness of top‐down versus bottom‐up strategies for forecasting the demand of an item that belongs to a product family. The demand for each item in the family is assumed to follow a first‐order univariate autoregressive process. Under the top‐down strategy, the aggregate demand is forecasted by using the historical data of the family demand. The demand forecast for the items is then derived by proportional allocation of the aggregate forecast. Under the bottom‐up strategy, the demand forecast for each item is directly obtained by using the historical demand data of the particular item. In both strategies, the forecasting technique used is exponential smoothing. We analytically evaluate the condition under which one forecasting strategy is preferred over the other when the lag‐1 autocorrelation of the demand time series for all the items is identical. We show that when the lag‐1 autocorrelation is smaller than or equal to 1/3, the maximum difference in the performance of the two forecasting strategies is only 1%. However, if the lag‐1 autocorrelation of the demand for at least one of the items is greater than 1/3, then the bottom‐up strategy consistently outperforms the top‐down strategy, irrespective of the items' proportion in the family and the coefficient of correlation between the item demands. A simulation study reveals that the analytical findings hold even when the lag‐1 autocorrelation of the demand processes is not identical. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007.     

On the first come–first served rule in multi‐echelon inventory control

A two‐echelon distribution inventory system with a central warehouse and a number of retailers is considered. The retailers face stochastic demand and replenish from the warehouse, which, in turn, replenishes from an outside supplier. The system is reviewed continuously and demands that cannot be met directly are backordered. Standard holding and backorder costs are considered. In the literature on multi‐echelon inventory control it is standard to assume that backorders at the warehouse are served according to a first come–first served policy (FCFS). This allocation rule simplifies the analysis but is normally not optimal. It is shown that the FCFS rule can, in the worst case, lead to an asymptotically unbounded relative cost increase as the number of retailers approaches infinity. We also provide a new heuristic that will always give a reduction of the expected costs. A numerical study indicates that the average cost reduction when using the heuristic is about two percent. The suggested heuristic is also compared with two existing heuristics. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

战时弹药供应协同调运模型研究

弹药协同调运是战时弹药保障工作中的重要环节,其协同调运的合理性将直接影响到弹药保障工作的顺利进行.针对弹药的调运问题,从战时技术实施与应用角度研究弹药的调运问题,以到达需求点的运输时间、弹药输送车数量以及弹药损失量为优化目标,建立一种多目标决策模型,为缩短运输时间、减少弹药输送车数量、提高安全到达需求点的弹药量提供一种实用的方法.     

美国2014年《四年防务评估报告》特点

2014年3月4日,美国国防部向国会提交了2014年版《四年防务评估报告》和《2015财年国防预算报告》。《四年防务评估报告》更新了再平衡战略,为美军建设提出了优先发展方向,要求美军联合部队向“更小型化”转型,以满足未来军事行动需求。     

Conceptual failure,the Taliban's parallel hierarchies,and America's strategic defeat in Afghanistan

ISAF exists to protect the Afghan constitutional model. This strategic objective will be defeated because the GIRoA model has a conceptual flaw that renders it incapable of delivering governance at the local level (Tier IV). This fatal flaw has enabled the Taliban, by developing parallel hierarchies, to displace GIRoA and establish itself in southern locales as the political authority. The Taliban are fighting a revolutionary war, a Maoist displacement strategy that uses guerrilla tactics to advance a political program. Petraeus and McChrystal failed to recognize the character of war, and believed the Taliban are pursuing an exhaustion strategy. They failed to devise a counter-RW strategy. The ‘Surge’ was doomed ab initio.     

武器装备发展战略研究中的体系能力评估分析

随着武器装备发展战略研究的科学化决策需求越来越高,对体系能力评估的要求也变得愈发迫切,但这也是目前的一个技术难点。首先分析了发展战略研究中,可能遇到的体系能力评估问题种类及其特点。然后,针对每类问题,重点分析了各自的要求,给出了在评估分析建模方法选择上的建议。     

莫言诺奖演讲词“故事化”策略浅析

莫言诺奖演讲词《讲故事的人》最显著的特色之一是从自身的生命感悟、创作经历和审美体验出发,慧眼独具地选取了“故事化”策略。这分别在结构、情感、象征及语言等维度上得以成功体现,从而使该演讲构思巧妙,情深意浓,蕴含深湛,耐人寻味,极具诗意风格,给人以莫大的心灵震撼与深层共鸣。该演讲是了解莫言最直接最鲜活之源。研究它,不仅可透见莫言的演讲特色,还可清楚把握其对自己创作的精彩总结与精神世界的自我剖析,尤其是从“故事化”策略的成功运用中挖掘到其心灵世界、创作历程与精神个性的方方面面。