India's counter-insurgency experience: the ‘trust and nurture’ strategy

The Indian Army, a force trained primarily for conventional warfare, has been engaged in internal counter-insurgency operations since the 1950s. Despite such a long innings on a counter-insurgency mode, little attention has been accorded within military circles to doctrinal innovation for waging sub-conventional warfare in India's democratic political context. At best, the Army continues to view counter-insurgency duty as secondary to its primary duty of defending India from external conventional threats. By conceptualizing a counter-insurgency strategy of ‘trust and nurture’, this article aims to fill this critical doctrinal gap in India's military policy. The author argues that a counter-insurgency strategy of ‘trust and nurture’ based on democratic political culture, measured military methods, special counter-insurgency forces, local social and cultural awareness and an integrative nation-building approach will result in positive handling of India's internal security problems. The author utilizes India's counter-insurgency experiences in Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, and Operation ‘Sadhbhavana’ in Jammu and Kashmir as illustrative empirical indicants in order to validate the ‘trust and nurture’ strategy.     

Why did Sudan Lose a small war in Southern Sudan?

ABSTRACT

When on the wrong end of an asymmetry in the projection of hard power, weaker sides countenance the grim arithmetic of avoiding direct and massed confrontations. Invariably, insurgents have over the ages tended to employ indirect tactical methods to render their stronger opponents ineffective. Ultimately – interest asymmetry, regime type, asymmetries of strategy, and external intervention – combine in a complex interplay and pattern, to militate against a strong side. In Sudan, these factors interacted throughout the civil wars to produce regional autonomy and finally an independent South Sudan in 2011. Similar strategic logic had confronted many large African states battling insurgencies in Ethiopia, Angola, Nigeria, Zaire, and apartheid-era South Africa. Oftentimes, weakening public resolve has caused these governments to accommodate, capitulate or withdraw even if they try not to blink. Notwithstanding the regime type, it can be concluded that the majority of strong actors are prone to fail in a protracted, asymmetric conflict. Hence, the notion of linking victory in counterinsurgency to the degree of openness (democratic polyarchies); or closeness (totalitarianism) – is still valid but highly contestable in the case of Africa’s large dysfunctional states.     

刍议抛锚式教学策略在教育学课程教学中的应用

抛锚式教学把学生设于真实的情境中,让学生达到认知冲突,让学生自己去分析问题、学习解决该问题所需的知识,逐步地解决问题。作为教师职前教育的一门重要的基础课程教育学,其教学效果一直不尽如人意。而抛锚式教学法为教育学的教学模式改啦提供了一种新的思路。     

混合不确定条件下的飞行器级间分离可靠性分析

为量化飞行器级间分离过程随机不确定性和认知不确定性的综合影响,结合概率和区间理论混合模型特点,提出了一种基于随机和区间理论混合模型的飞行器级间分离可靠性分析方法。面向高超声速飞行器分离任务需求,建立分离动力学仿真模型,针对级间分离结构的几何特点,设计了一种快速碰撞检测方法,进而构建了分离任务的可靠性分析混合模型。通 过将该模型转化为随机可靠性分析的无约束优化问题,考虑分离过程中复杂外力及力矩导致功能函数高度非线性的特点,利用高效全局优化和主动学习Kriging方法实现无约束优化问题高效求解。结合实例表明,该方法能够准确描述混合不确定性因素对飞行器分离过程的影响,给出了飞行器分离任务可靠性区间,可为飞行器分离方案的精细化设计提供决策支持。     

Market entry strategy in the presence of market spillovers and efficiency differentiation

Firms form various alliances or use brand extensions to enter new markets in order to improve their operational efficiency and create a positive spillover. However, they do not always know the implications of these strategies for market entry and multimarket competition because the sale of products in one market can have negative spillover effects on product sales in other markets. We present an analytical framework to examine whether and how (i.e., by choosing alliance entry or independent entry) competing firms should enter a market in a situation where market spillovers occur when a firm enters a spillover-producing market to sell products that may increase or decrease the consumers' willingness to pay for products in the primary market. Our analysis shows that the operational efficiency (or quality differentiation ability) of firms in a spillover-producing market varies, and hence, the impact of market spillovers differs for firms. We identify the key factors, such as bargaining power, brand value difference in the primary market, and the extent of efficiencies and spillovers, that determine the firms benefitting from the different entry strategies. Specifically, we show that firms would be more willing to choose an alliance strategy to enter a spillover-producing market if the negative spillover is small and alliance efficiency is high. In contrast, if an alliance entry is not favored, the firms' relative operational efficiency is crucial for them to decide whether to enter the market independently under moderate spillover conditions. Finally, we show the implications of market entry strategies for managers.     

Strategy selection: an info-gap methodology

The evaluation and selection of military strategy requires consideration of myriad factors – social, historical, political, geographical and technological – together with vast uncertainties encompassing all these domains. Info-gap decision theory is a conceptual framework that can support these deliberations and that has substantive implications for the formulation, evaluation and selection of strategic goals and of the means to attain them. In particular, while the analyst may desire to reliably achieve the best possible outcome, info-gap theory provides a critique of, and alternative to, the paradigm of optimizing the outcome of a decision. In selecting between strategy alternatives, the analyst must sometimes choose between one alternative that is purportedly better than another, but also more uncertain. Such a choice is a dilemma whose resolution requires the analyst to balance between the different predicted qualities of each alternative and their different vulnerabilities to uncertainty. The dilemma can be managed with the info-gap methodology of robustly satisfying critical requirements.     

全球治理视角下奥巴马政府太空战略解读

作为重要的全球公域范围与全球治理对象之一,太空既面临着日益严峻的资源、环境与安全问题,又不断彰显着其极具地缘政治意义的战略地位,攸关国家利益与安全。自进入太空时代以来,争夺和维持太空领域的领先地位一直是美国不懈追求的目标。美国的经济、军事等国家实力越来越依赖太空,同时其太空资产的脆弱性也愈发凸显。面对新的国际国内形势与外空态势的复合挑战,奥巴马政府适时调整了美国的太空战略。文章以全球公域和全球治理为切入视角,在分析太空领域全球治理现状的基础上,从太空活动行为准则的制定、太空国际合作的深入、太空军备竞赛的规制三个层面解读奥巴马政府的新版太空战略,并探讨其深层次的动因与影响,进而为中国参与太空领域的全球治理提供有益的理论支撑与现实参考。     

山水自在 筑鉴非凡——重庆商务职业学院新校区规划设计

介绍了重庆商务职业学院新校区的校园规划策略。基于生态保护进行校园规划,通过建筑布局与地形环境的协调共生形成山水校园,结合历史人文营造个性化校园空间。同时,从生态保护、规划分区、建筑布局、景观空间等方面探讨文化内涵与个性校园的规划设计策略,得出自然山水形成了丰富的地域景观,并由此创造出具有个性的地区文化的结论。旨在为山地校园建设起到借鉴作用。     

分析电路的改进节点法

本文针对含有理想电压源支路的电路,提出了改进节点法,其解变量为电路真正的独立节点电压(N-M-1),较之混合法(N+M-1)少(因其求解变量为节点电压和理想电压源支路的电流,其中 N 为节点数目,M 为独立电压源支路数)。文中还举例说明了这种方法的应用,并验证了它的正确性.     

无刷双馈电机原理及控制策略

详细分析了无刷双馈发电机的基本原理,基于不同的参考坐标系(转子轴dq0坐标系和同步坐标系),建立了无刷双馈发电机不同的数学模型.依据建立的数学模型,介绍了无刷双馈发电机的几种控制策略(标量控制、磁场定向控制、直接转矩控制、智能控制方法),并指出其优缺点.最后,指出了无刷双馈发电机运行控制中存在的难点和进一步研究的方向.