Arming China: Major powers’ arms transfers to the People’s Republic of China

The rise of China has been fuelled by a massive military modernisation programme relying, in large part, on the acquisition of foreign military equipment. The question of how the world’s major powers define their arms transfer policies towards China is therefore crucially important. This article makes two original contributions. First, drawing on neoclassical realism, it proposes an explanatory framework integrating international and domestic factors to explain variations in major powers’ arms transfers. Second, based on a large body of elite interviews and diplomatic cables, it offers the first comprehensive comparison of American, British, French and Russian arms transfer policies towards China since the end of the Cold War.     

关于军民融合大交通体系建设的几点思考

党的十九大报告把军民融合发展战略作为七大国家战略之一,明确提出要"更加注重军民融合"。必须将交通领域军民融合视作整个军民融合深度发展的重要突破口,建设军民融合大交通体系。提出以新形势下军事战略方针为统揽,以军民深度融合为途径,聚焦保障军队打赢,大力推进民用交通设施工具贯彻要求;依托国家路网基础,大力推进军地交通运输网络统筹纳入;强化应战应急一体,大力推进各种交通力量建设互补衔接;着眼战略投送能力,大力推进军民交通物流体系有机结合。     

Think again – supplying war: reappraising military logistics and its centrality to strategy and war

This article argues that logistics constrains strategic opportunity while itself being heavily circumscribed by strategic and operational planning. With the academic literature all but ignoring the centrality of logistics to strategy and war, this article argues for a reappraisal of the critical role of military logistics, and posits that the study and conduct of war and strategy are incomplete at best or false at worst when they ignore this crucial component of the art of war. The article conceptualises the logistics–strategy nexus in a novel way, explores its contemporary manifestation in an age of uncertainty, and applies it to a detailed case study of UK operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.     

增材制造技术在军事物流中的应用研究

增材制造技术是一种新型的制造技术,现已被应用到了航空航天、汽车工业和军事等诸多行业领域.作为军事领域的重要组成部分,军事物流与增材制造技术通过军用物资这一共同的作用对象为纽带存在着天然的联系.遗憾的是,目前增材制造技术在军事领域的应用范围还比较局限,有关军事物流的应用更是少见.为有效推动增材制造技术在军事物流中的应用实...     

狭义的坦克远程火力军事需求分析

坦克作为一种近距离格斗兵器来使用的科学性、合理性勿庸质疑,传统的使用方式却导致发展坦克的远程火力成为一个备受争议的话题.立足于信息化作战的背景及我军的现实,着眼于陆军武器系统未来发展的趋势,分析了未来陆军可能的作战模式及其火力体系,从军事、经济、技术的角度分析了我军装甲机械化部队发展坦克远程火力的必要性,并在此基础上分析了坦克远程火力的作用距离、使用的原则与使用的时机,最后对武器装备的"非对称"发展模式提出了初步的看法.     

基于数据库的MO图层控制机制

MapObjects中对图层的控制方法是预先将图层的控制信息写在程序里,在程序运行时对图层进行约束。这种通过编写程序进行控制的方法不但比较麻烦,而且当图层的控制方式发生变化时,维护困难。提出基于数据库的图层管理和控制机制,先将图层的控制信息放在数据表里,系统运行时动态读取图层的控制信息,实现对图层进行方便、直观地约束。     

论军事建筑的审美倾向

随着社会的进步和文明程度的提高,军营文化与部队精神文明不断向前发展,其中,军事建筑的审美标准和文化特质有了新的内涵。从建筑美学的角度探讨了当前军事建筑的审美倾向,并通过实例分析提出了军事建筑的创作与批评应当坚持“以人为本”的原则,对当前部队营区营房的建设具有一定的指导意义。     

A model of supply-chain decisions for resource sharing with an application to ventilator allocation to combat COVID-19

We present a stochastic optimization model for allocating and sharing a critical resource in the case of a pandemic. The demand for different entities peaks at different times, and an initial inventory for a central agency are to be allocated. The entities (states) may share the critical resource with a different state under a risk-averse condition. The model is applied to study the allocation of ventilator inventory in the COVID-19 pandemic by FEMA to different U.S. states. Findings suggest that if less than 60% of the ventilator inventory is available for non-COVID-19 patients, FEMA's stockpile of 20 000 ventilators (as of March 23, 2020) would be nearly adequate to meet the projected needs in slightly above average demand scenarios. However, when more than 75% of the available ventilator inventory must be reserved for non-COVID-19 patients, various degrees of shortfall are expected. In a severe case, where the demand is concentrated in the top-most quartile of the forecast confidence interval and states are not willing to share their stockpile of ventilators, the total shortfall over the planning horizon (until May 31, 2020) is about 232 000 ventilator days, with a peak shortfall of 17 200 ventilators on April 19, 2020. Results are also reported for a worst-case where the demand is at the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval. An important finding of this study is that a central agency (FEMA) can act as a coordinator for sharing critical resources that are in short supply over time to add efficiency in the system. Moreover, through properly managing risk-aversion of different entities (states) additional efficiency can be gained. An additional implication is that ramping up production early in the planning cycle allows to reduce shortfall significantly. An optimal timing of this production ramp-up consideration can be based on a cost-benefit analysis.     

Retailer's rationale to refuse consumer returns in supply chains

While accepting consumer returns has long been proposed as a solution to resolve the consumer valuation uncertainty problem, there are still a sizable portion of retailers who insist on a “no return” policy. In this article, we offer an economic rationale for these seemingly unreasonable strategies in a supply chain context. We demonstrate when and why the retailer may benefit from refusing consumer returns, even though offering consumer returns allows the supply chain to implement the expostmarket segmentation. Granting the retailer the right to refuse consumer returns may sometimes improve supply chain efficiency: it eliminates the manufacturer's attempt to induce inefficient consumer returns and bring the equilibrium back to that in the vertically integrated benchmark. We also find that the refund and the retail price can move in the opposite directions when product reliability varies, and consumer returns have a nontrivial impact on the quality choice. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 686–701, 2015     

Environmental regulation in project‐based industries

We study the environmental regulation of industrial activities that are organized as projects. Applications arise in construction, ship and aircraft building, and film making, among other industries. Relative to manufacturing, environmental regulation is different in project‐based industries, due to the uniqueness and geographical diversity of projects, and a lack of product takeback programs. Because the amount of waste and pollution generated by project companies can be large, regulators need environmental policies to ensure reduction of waste and pollution. We consider a regulator who attempts to maximize social welfare. We model this problem as a bilevel nonlinear program. The upper level regulator specifies waste reduction targets, which the lower level project companies meet using waste stream reduction and remediation of pollution, while attempting to control their project costs. We find that high waste diversion targets lead to outcomes with little pollution, but excessive project costs and only modest waste stream reduction. Projects that have lower task precedence density, or that have pollutants with different environmental impacts, show larger increases in project cost and time resulting from regulation. We describe a subsidy for waste stream reduction that coordinates the system, and we estimate the value of coordination. We also describe a bonus that encourages truthful reporting by project companies, and evaluate the relative cost and effectiveness of the subsidy and the bonus. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 228–247, 2015