The underlying causes of military outsourcing in the USA and UK: bridging the persistent gap between ends,ways and means since the beginning of the Cold War

This article reappraises the two most-studied country cases of military outsourcing: the USA and the UK. It argues that the contemporary wave of military contracting stretches back to the beginning of the cold war and not only to the demobilisation of armies in the 1990s or the neoliberal reforms introduced since the 1980s. It traces the political, technological and ideational developments that laid the groundwork for these reforms and practices since the early cold war and account for its endurance today. Importantly, it argues that a persistent gap between strategic objectives and resources, i.e. the challenge to reconcile ends and means, is an underlying driver of military contracting in both countries. Contemporary contracting is thus most closely tied to military support functions in support of wider foreign and defence political objectives. Security services in either state may not have been outsourced so swiftly, if at all, without decades of experience in outsourcing military logistics functions and the resultant vehicles, processes and familiarities with public-private partnerships. The article thus provides a wider and deeper understanding of the drivers of contractualisation, thereby improving our understanding of both its historical trajectory and the determinants of its present and potential futures.     

Let’s make a (nuclear) deal: Bargaining,credibility, and the third offset strategy

An institutional perspective on nuclear deterrence cooperation within alliances has the potential to fundamentally reorient how we think about analyzing nuclear and deterrence decision-making between nuclear patrons and non-nuclear clients. It comes at a time when the presidency of Donald Trump is sure to test many of the core claims and assumptions in security studies, especially relating to bargaining and credibility within alliances. This article surveys questions that will be core to the research agenda involving alliance institutions and nuclear weapons during the Trump presidency and beyond.     

考虑逃逸复飞队列饱和度的舰载机回收策略

从舰载机回收问题的应用实际出发,考虑待回收舰载机战损、飞行员受伤等有别于民机的独特性因素,基于舰载机典型回收模式提出一种考虑逃逸复飞队列饱和度的回收策略。在减轻着舰指挥官和通信系统工作负担、降低舰载机飞行员操作强度、提升舰载机飞行安全性的基础上,考虑到舰载机回收是一个概率事件,通过概率分析动态设计专用回收点,解决了逃逸复飞队列与正常待机队列中舰载机抢夺回收点资源的问题,为舰载机回收提供了一个新的解决方案。     

Price and capacity decisions of service systems with boundedly rational customers

We consider price and capacity decisions for a profit‐maximizing service provider in a single server queueing system, in which customers are boundedly rational and decide whether to join the service according to a multinomial logit model. We find two potential price‐capacity pair solutions for the first‐order condition of the profit‐maximizing problem. Profit is maximized at the solution with a larger capacity, but minimized at the smaller one. We then consider a dynamically adjusting capacity system to mimic a real‐life situation and find that the maximum can be reached only when the initial service rate is larger than a certain threshold; otherwise, the system capacity and demand shrink to zero. We also find that a higher level of customers’ bounded rationality does not necessarily benefit a firm, nor does it necessarily allow service to be sustained. We extend our analysis to a setting in which customers’ bounded rationality level is related to historical demand and find that such a setting makes service easier to sustain. Finally we find that bounded rationality always harms social welfare.     

舰载反潜直升机吊放声纳区域反潜策略建模

为提高舰载反潜直升机吊放声纳区域反潜搜索作战效能,对舰载反潜直升机吊放声纳区域反潜搜索策略问题进行了建模。根据潜艇目标位置信息的不确定性,研究了潜艇目标位置信息的概率分布函数,采用Markov状态转移概率矩阵描述了潜艇目标位置信息变化的方法。其次,给出了基于贝叶斯理论的潜艇目标信息概率分布函数更新公式。再次,推导了舰载反潜直升机吊放声纳区域反潜最优策略,给出了舰载直升机吊放声纳区域反潜搜索算法。最后给出了典型案例,验证了反潜搜索策略的有效性。研究成果可为舰载反潜直升机吊放声纳区域反潜提供决策依据。     

一例多元案例教学法在程序设计课程教学中的应用

通过探讨一例多元案例教学法的教学理念、设计策略、实施方法和过程,解决程序设计课程教学不能点、线、面融合,缺少培养学员设计综合应用程序能力的方法和手段,学员学习目标不明确、缺乏学习兴趣等问题,以有效提高教学效果和质量.     

大型商业性建筑安全疏散策略研究

近年来,大型商业性建筑火灾事故时有发生,造成了重大损失,火灾发生时如何提高人员的疏散效率是降低伤亡率的要素.通过对大型商业性建筑火灾危险性和疏散中存在的问题进行分析,结合实际从设置消防救援窗,严格划分防火分区,合理设置疏散楼梯和安全出口,制定安全疏散预案,加强消防安全培训,充分利用声光报警等方面论述了优化大型商业性建筑人员疏散效率的策略.     

SHOULD MILITARY UNIFORMS CARRY THE UNION LABEL?

It is widely believed that the unionization of military labor leads to reduced discipline and lower combat capability. Case studies of the performance of existing military unions, however, generally suggest that unionization has a benign impact on the performance of the armed forces. In this paper, we offer a theoretical economic analysis of the likely impact of military unionization on volunteer militaries. Our analysis suggests that military unionization will unambiguously lead to larger, but less disciplined, armed forces, leaving the overall impact of unionization on defense capability ambiguous. Military unionization, however, will clearly enhance social welfare.     

Russian Reactions to Reagan's ‘Maritime Strategy’

The US Navy's audacious Maritime Strategy of the 1980s is often credited with acting as a key catalyst to the demise of the USSR. In assessing the role of strategic missile submarine “bastions” in the country's overall military strategy, the authors are skeptical of the above thesis, explaining that Moscow actually viewed deployments of Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles on to US submarines (versus direct threats against the Soviet Navy itself) as the most alarming threat. The authors concede that the arms race played a role in the collapse of the USSR, but deny a direct connection with Soviet naval development citing the relatively minor naval proportion of overall defense spending. For the difficulties facing the fleet at the end of the Cold War, they instead blame deep systemic problems internal to the Soviet Navy.     

‘Clean’ bombs: Nuclear technology and nuclear strategy in the 1950s

The idea of ‘clean’ bombs, nuclear weapons with a reduced amount of radioactive fallout resulting from their fission part, has met much ridicule since its public inauguration in 1956. Many scholars have regarded the bombs as a propaganda tool, stopping short of analyzing their role in the transformative phase of US nuclear strategy in the 1950s. This paper reexamines the clean bomb episode through 1958, shedding light upon the dynamic relationship between the development of nuclear weapons technology and the evolution of nuclear strategy from massive retaliation to flexible response. It also discusses the mechanism and momentum of nuclear weapons technology innovation until the US suspended nuclear testing in late 1958.