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。     

THE FUTURE OF UK DEFENCE RESEARCH

Developments within the UK in the Ministry of Defence’s policy on defence equipment acquisition demand changes in the scale and allocation of the Ministry’s budget for defence research. To facilitate the national debate on those changes, this paper reviews the key questions about UK defence research which the Ministry must resolve in order to implement its new Defence Technology Strategy.     

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.     

“strategic technology＂研究热点与趋势分析

以Web of Science数据库相关文献为数据源,运用Excel图表工具及CitespaceⅡ可视化知识图谱软件进行数据信息分析,绘制了共现网络图谱,通过解读图谱.对国外“strategic technology”研究热点及趋势进行了初步探析,得出“strategic technology”研究热点与前沿的相关结论,对国内战略技术的研究与政策制定具有一定的参考价值.     

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.     

效能评估研究热点分析

采用计量学方法,以CNKI、SCI数据库中的文献为数据源,运用CitespaceⅡ、Excel软件对效能评估中文、英文相关文献进行分析,通过对比方式,得出国内外效能评估研究热点的相关结论,并将主要关键词以时间轴的顺序区分归类,对效能评估的研究具有一定的参考价值     

相依目标群系统火力分配问题分析与解法

本文中讨论由若干个相依目标群组成的平面点目标系统的火力分配问题。对于武器型号相同的情形,得到了“边际毁伤递减原理”和“循序最优方案即全局最优方案”等结论,并在此基础上提出了问题的解算方法。对于武器型号不同的情形,提出了“循序最优枚举法”,并得出有关结论。     

空地支援多目标模型

本文研究空地支援优化问题。模型的构造是基于目标规划理论。首先建立基础模型,然后根据问题条件,建立多目标模型。