Analyzing Taliban taranas (chants): an effective Afghan propaganda artifact

This article describes and analyzes a little understood Afghan Taliban propaganda tool: chants or taranas . These melodic refrains effectively use historical narratives, symbology, and iconic portraits. The chants are engendered in emotions of sorrow, pride, desperation, hope, and complaints to mobilize and convince the Afghan population of the Taliban's worldview. The chants represent culturally relevant and simple messages that are communicated in a narrative and poetic form that is familiar to and resonates with the local people. They are virtually impossible for the United States and NATO to counter because of Western sensitivities concerning religious themes that dominate the Taliban narrative space, not to mention the lack of Western linguistic capabilities, including the understanding and mastering the poetic nature of local dialects.     

Reopen a joint school of military government and administration?

Today there are many calls for other elements of the government to do more to ‘do their part’, assist the military to restore order and stability and ‘win the peace’ in Iraq and Afghanistan, and prepare for similar roles in future conflicts. The authors here instead briefly review the history of US armed forces’ involvement in military governance operations from the Mexican War through World War II, and recommend the re-establishment of a School of Military Government similar to that created during the latter conflict.     

When the Going Gets Tough… Monitoring Missions and a Changing Conflict Environment in Sri Lanka, 2002–2008

This article analyzes how the conflict environment in which a civilian monitoring mission is deployed influences the monitors' assessment of the operation. It draws on unique empirical material from the experience of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), deployed to oversee a ceasefire agreement in Sri Lanka 2002–2008. With material from a survey and in-depth interviews, experiences of the monitors are analyzed and changes over time are traced in relation to the monitors' assessment of the mandate and organizational set-up of the mission. The study points to the difficulty of monitoring missions to address escalation during an ongoing peace process. Its function is dependent on the goodwill of the parties. In essence, monitoring missions have the potential to strengthen peace when there is momentum in favor of progress, but when relations between the parties turn sour and the conflict escalates a civilian monitoring mission basically loses its potential. During the final stages of the war, which saw a very large number of civilian casualties, the war-torn areas were closed to international observers. Moreover, international pressure for a short-term ceasefire to alleviate the humanitarian situation was dismissed by the Sri Lankan government, which also saw the backing of several important actors, not the least China.     

赛博空间面临的威胁与挑战

对赛博空间和赛博战概念进行解析,研究了赛博安全、赛博空间、赛博力量、赛博作战等领域所面临的威胁与挑战,认为赛博优势和赛博能力决定了一个国家在下一轮军事和综合国力较量中的地位。从国家赛博安全战略、信息基础设施建设和赛博力量建设等方面,给出了应对赛博空间威胁与挑战的思考与策略。     

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.     

机动管线流量在线实时监测技术研究

输送流量在线实时监测是准确掌握机动管线运行工况、优化运行方案、分析判断泄漏的关键之一。分析了容积式、速度式和差压式等常用流量监测技术的技术特征与使用条件,根据机动管线的作业特点和要求,优选出涡街流量监测技术作为该管线系统的流量在线实时监测技术;分析了机动管线输送过程中管道振动对涡街流量计计量精度的影响,提出了几种不同的抗振防干扰技术,并应用于机动管线涡街流量监测装置的研制。样机试验表明,采用抗振技术的涡街流量监测装置检测精度能满足机动管线流量在线实时监测需求。     

多机器人编队控制研究

多机器人编队控制是多机器人协调控制中一个最具有挑战性的研究问题。多机器人编队是指：一组相互协作的机器人组建和保持特定的队形形状。本文首先简要概述了多机器人编队问题的研究现状。从面向问题的角度出发,本文将编队问题分解成编队角色分配、队形生成、队形变换与选择、编队跟踪4个子问题,并针对每个子问题,总结了现有的研究方法。最后,本文特别强调编队控制中的网络问题并指明未来的研究方向。     

基于转移费用矩阵的机器人路径规划方法

本文描述了机器人路径规划的一种新方法：基于转移费用矩阵的机器人路径规划方法。通过定义转移费用矩阵的概念及其上的二元运算,将最优路径的生成,转化为矩阵的运算,使得有限步的矩阵运算,即可得到环境中所有点间的最优路径,达到了在预处理阶段构造最优路径集的目的。最后,介绍了该方法在移动机器人任务规划中的应用     

Operations sequencing for a multi‐stage production inventory system

This article studies operations sequencing for a multi‐stage production inventory system with lead times under predictable (deterministic) yield losses and random demand. We consider various cases with either full or partial release of work‐in‐process inventories, for either pre‐operation or post‐operation cost structures, and under either the total discounted or average cost criteria. We derive necessary and sufficient criteria for the optimal sequence of operations in all cases. While the criteria differ in their specific forms, they all lead to the same principal: those operations with (1) lower yields, (2) lower processing costs, (3) longer lead times, and (4) lower inventory holding costs should be placed higher upstream in the system.Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 144–154, 2014     

Lessons learnt? Cultural transfer and revolutionary wars, 1775–1831

Did participants in small wars in the period 1775–1831 learn from previous or contemporary examples? While this is difficult to prove for participants who left no written records, there is considerable evidence in existing publications by practitioners that they did indeed draw out lessons from recent insurgencies, either from their own experience or from events elsewhere which they studied from afar, especially the Spanish Guerrilla, which had already become legendary. Most authors showed an interest in how to stage insurgencies rather than in how to quell them. Even then, transfer did not come in a package of tactics-cum-values, but in each case in different configurations.