“Flectas non frangas”: revisiting early twenty-first century UK–US defense relations (2000–2005) after five years

Adopting the analytical framework of the established interpretive “schools” of Anglo-American relations, this article offers several reflections on UK–US defense relations as they occurred over the significant years of 2000–2005. During those years, trajectories were established on which UK–US defense relations continue to travel today and outcomes emerged which are still being navigated. This article concludes that the Latin phrase, “Flectas Non Frangas” (essentially translated as: “Bend not Break”), is the most appropriate to adopt to characterize the developments undergone in recent UK–US defense relations. Many historical and strategic lessons with contemporary relevance are drawn.     

Beyond Just War: Military Strategy for the Common Good

The objective of this article is to move ethical discourse on military strategy beyond the confines of the established War Convention. This is achieved by utilising the common good, a concept found in political philosophy and theology. The common good acts as a positive organising concept for socio-political activity. With its focus on peace, development and the flourishing of the individual and community, the common good poses a significant challenge to strategy. This article constructs an approach to strategy that is compatible with the common good. Importantly, it does so whilst respecting the pursuit of victory as an indispensable component of strategy’s true nature. The theory presented in this article is then tested in relation to four different modes of strategy: regular war, irregular war, deterrence, and cyberwar.     

Nonlinear pricing with consumer satiation

In various scenarios, consumers may become satiated with products, and the degree of satiation is directly associated with their prior experiences. Confronted with consumer satiation, the seller is unable to either identify consumers who have a higher likelihood of being satiated ex ante or distinguish satiated from non‐satiated consumers ex post. Therefore, the seller should address dynamic selling, valuation uncertainty, and quantity decisions, all of which are important operational issues. We consider a two‐period problem in which consumer types are influenced by their prior consumption experiences. Faced with these consumers, the seller intends to optimize quantities and adjust the prices of the products in each period to maximize revenue. We find that the seller may reduce ex ante production quantity as some consumers become satiated. Moreover, the ex ante quantity is first decreasing and then increasing with regard to the satiation rate. Furthermore, two‐period information asymmetries may provide a rationale for upward distortion in quantity when consumer preferences are highly sensitive to first‐period consumption. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 386–400, 2016     

Size Still Matters: Explaining Sri Lanka’s Counterinsurgency Victory over the Tamil Tigers

The military effectiveness literature has largely dismissed the role of material preponderance in favor of strategic interaction theories. The study of counterinsurgency, in which incumbent victory is increasingly rare despite material superiority, has also turned to other strategic dynamics explanations like force employment, leadership, and insurgent/adversary attributes. Challenging these two trends, this paper contends that even in cases of counterinsurgency, material preponderance remains an essential—and at times the most important—factor in explaining battlefield outcomes and effectiveness. To test this, the paper turns to the case of the Sri Lankan state’s fight against the Tamil Tiger insurgency, a conflict which offers rich variation over time across six periods and over 25 years. Drawing on evidence from historical and journalistic accounts, interviews, memoirs, and field research, the paper demonstrates that material preponderance accounts for variation in military effectiveness and campaign outcomes (including military victory in the final campaign) better than strategic explanations. Additionally, a new quantitative data-set assembled on annual loss-exchange ratios demonstrates the superiority of materialist explanations above those of skill, human capital, and regime type.     

The Afghan model in northern Iraq

In Operation ‘Iraqi Freedom’, as the Coalition's heavy forces fought in the South, in the North a handful of special operations forces, working with Kurdish rebels, clashed with the Iraqi army along the Green Line. In operations reminiscent of those used a year earlier to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, the lightly armed and heavily outnumbered Coalition forces called in air strikes to defeat Iraq's regular and Republican Guard army divisions. This article tells the story of these operations and discusses some of their implications for future US military policy. The success of the Afghan model in Iraq goes a long way toward demonstrating the efficacy of new air-heavy tactics and shows the strategic value of using light indigenous allies to replace heavy US land forces in both conventional combat and occupation operations.     

具有策略偏好的模糊双矩阵对策模型及其应用

针对局中人对策略有偏好、支付值模糊的双矩阵对策给出了一种具体的求解方法,首先根据加权算子集结得到局中人的策略偏好向量、利用模糊数排序方式将模型转化为清晰的双矩阵对策,再利用粒子群优化算法求解.最后以雷达电子对抗为例,建立了具有策略偏好的模糊双矩阵对策的作战效能评估模型,研究结果对于双方资源分配,提高作战效能具有一定的军...     

基于PBL教学法的公共教育学教学策略探析

作为教师职前教育的一门重要的基础课程公共教育学,其教学效果一直不尽如人意。文章从什么是PBL教学法出发,并基于PBL教学法的视角,提出公共教育学要教给学生什么、怎么教以及如何评价教和学三个问题,为公共教育学的教学改革提供一种新的思路。     

提高消防部队灭火救援作战能力对策研究

紧紧围绕提高消防部队灭火救援作战能力,从更新灭火与应急救援理念、加大思想政治和职业道德教育力度、加强业务理论知识的培训、增强消防官兵的身体素质和心理素质、提高消防官兵的消防器材装备使用技能、增加现代模拟训练设施建设的投入、开展区域或跨区域性的灭火救援演习、抓好干部队伍建设、完善士官改选和培训制度等九个方面提出具体对策。     

Beyond balancing? Intrastate conflict and US grand strategy

Grand strategic theorists share an historical emphasis on interstate conflict, yet in contrast to the more frequent intrastate conflicts, these represent only 7 of the some 273 US military deployments since 1900. We argue that these intrastate conflicts limit the utility of regional balances of power in mitigating forms of conflict that the US may consider inimical to its national security interests. When considering potential changes to US force posture and grand strategy, American coercive statecraft should be theorised along a broader strategic continuum encompassing the full range of conflict.     

典型航天装备试验鉴定总体策略研究

航天装备具有面向任务、科研性强、全系统的技术状态难以固定,以及小子样等特点,在全寿命周期内的试验策略与常规武器装备的差异很大。本文在介绍装备试验鉴定模式改革的基础上,分析了航天装备试验鉴定按照新模式进行的相应调整,重点给出了卫星系统、运载火箭和航天测控装备等典型航天装备的全寿命周期模型,设计了新体制下全寿命周期内的试验阶段和关键时间节点、主要试验类型、决策支持依据、试验方式方法,以及与原试验要求的继承关系等总体策略;同时,鉴于航天装备试验鉴定数据量小等特殊性,给出了有别于常规装备的数据采信原则。该试验鉴定总体策略和数据采信原则可为航天装备试验鉴定顶层设计、组织实施、数据分析和决策支持提供参考。