Soldiers contra diplomats: Britain’s role in the Zimbabwe/Rhodesia ceasefire (1979–1980) reconsidered

Abstract

This article re-examines part of the literature on Britain’s role in the December 1979 to March 1980 Zimbabwe/Rhodesia ceasefire. The ceasefire ushered in an era of peace after a protracted internal war and it was an integral part of the transition from colonial white minority rule, towards black majority independence. Scholars present Britain’s success in brokering and monitoring the Zimbabwe/Rhodesia ceasefire as the result of its judicious and accordant management of the road to peace. However, this article argues that in fact deep internal divisions plagued the British managers of the ceasefire. Internal divisions centred on authority struggles between diplomats and military actors, conflicting personalities, discordant approaches to and goals in the ceasefire, and inter-institutional rivalry between the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence. The article concludes that Britain only managed the ceasefire effectively because its military’s independence, political nous, and competence ultimately prevailed over the injudicious views and machinations of diplomats.     

Reward,punishment or inducement? US economic and military aid, 1946–1996

If the US has wielded power as global hegemon, then there should be evidence of a linkage between American resources and the ability to influence behavior. However, there is widespread disagreement on how this power is manifested (see Krause, ). Methodological and epistemological issues have hampered empirical studies of US hegemonic behavior. For example, does the US reward past behavior or does it offer inducements for future behavior? We document and discuss these issues in terms of the aid–foreign policy compliance nexus. The empirical portion of our paper tests whether US military and non‐military aid are correlated with foreign policy similarity. The main merits of our study are that: (1) we test a new measure of foreign policy similarity developed by Signorino and Ritter () and compiled by Gartzke et al. (); (2) we relax the causality issue and test using vector autoregression (VAR) for 76 developing countries; and (3) our time horizon is a minimum of 30 years for each country. Our central finding is that aid is most often used as a reward. More specifically, foreign policy similarity leads to greater economic aid for most African countries, foreign policy similarity leads to greater military aid for a majority of Latin American states, and there are no overarching patterns for Asia and the Middle East. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of the bargaining and structural approaches to statecraft.     

探析美国新军事战略

奥巴马政府2011年以来发布的一系列军事文件,标志着美国新军事战略的形成。文章依据这些文件,结合三年来美军在世界范围内尤其是亚太地区的实际动向,从战略威胁判断、战略指导方针、战略部署调整、作战指导思想和军事力量建设五个方面对新军事战略的内容及实施情况进行了分析。     

采取仿真模拟技术预设战争实现训练与实战接轨

文章研究信息化条件下局部战争战法。利用模拟作战实验室实践检验、论证完善战争设计理论,普及电脑游戏开发战争想象力,借虚拟数学方式预测战争结果。强化“战争设计”对训练的牵引作用,落实训战一致。强调加强军事理论研究的针对性、前瞻性．综合考虑武器装备、战争战例、军事训练水平、人员素质、战役战术等因素,对未来可能发生的战争进行准确预测。     

武警院校军事学研究生教学管理与保障存在问题及对策

武警院校军事学研究生教学管理与保障存在着课程体系不够科学、教学运行管理不严密、教学保障不到位及教学质量评价体系不完善等问题。应采取有效措施修订现行课程体系,建立和完善研究生教学质量评价体系,改善教学条件,形成教学管理合力育才的良好机制。     

Burden Sharing in CSDP Military Operations

Abstract

Military burden sharing has been a subject of repeated debates in NATO and the UN. Despite more modest goals, the European Union’s (EU) Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) has experienced no fewer difficulties in garnering men, money, and materiel. While this may not come as a surprise, the fact that some EU member states have carried disproportionate shares of the burden of CSDP operations is a puzzle that remains unaccounted for. We address this gap by analyzing determinants of contribution levels to CSDP operations. In employing an innovative multi-method design that combines insights from collection action theory with those from integrated theories of military burden sharing, our results indicate that EU countries tend to contribute in positive disproportion with their capabilities when they have a strong peacekeeping tradition and elections are distant. In contrast, they undercontribute when small trade volumes with the area of operations combine with a weak peacekeeping tradition.     

军事办公建筑被动式节能设计策略

军事办公建筑的节能设计与使用,对推动节能减排、促进军营建设具有重要意义。通过对被动式节能设计策略的研究,从建筑设计的视角,以军事办公建筑设计为突破口,分析能耗现状,明确设计目标和思路,从空间设计布局、围护结构热工性能、遮阳系统设置、自然通风与自然采光等方面,探讨被动式节能设计策略在军事办公建筑设计中的应用。结合特定环境,寻求贯穿节能设计始终的适宜技术,充分发挥被动式节能技术集成的优势。通过多项节能技术的协同作用,可以强化和扩大节能措施带来的节能效应,在降低能耗的同时创造出健康、舒适、高效的办公环境。     

基于概念知识树的军事想定描述方法

为了增强军事想定描述规范的知识性,在研究概念知识树的基础上提出了一种基于概念知识树的军事想定描述方法.首先,以军事想定描述需求为依据,使用概念知识树对军事想定的元素进行描述和组织,建立军事想定的知识表达模型;然后利用军事想定定义语言(military scenario definition language,MSDL)框架和5Ws对军事想定进行系统性组织,形成符合军情的想定描述规范.在多兵种联合仿真实验中应用了该描述方法,实现了想定在不同兵种之间的共享,证明了该描述方法的可用性和有效性.     

基于模糊语言对军事物流效益评估的多属性决策

军事物流是影响军事行动成败的重要因素,军事物流的效益与部队战斗力的形成与再生密切相关．为了更好的对军事物流效益进行评估,对于评估指标属性值,利用三角模糊数进行定量表示,结合离差最大化原理对三角模糊属性值的主客观权重进行修正．接着,利用多属性决策中的TOPSIS方法对军事物流效益进行评估．最后,结合实例说明该方法综合考虑主客观因素,有助于进行军事物流方案的选择,有效降低指挥员决策的主观随意性．