Justifying Cyber-intelligence?

The surge in threats aided by or carried out through cyberspace has placed significant pressure on the intelligence community to adapt or leave itself open to attack. Indeed, many in both political and intelligence circles argue for access to ever greater amounts of cyber information in order to catch potential threats before they become real. By collecting all our digital information, the intelligence community argues that it is not only able to detail what people have done or are currently doing but also predict what their next move might be. However, the ethical implications are unclear and the backlash following Edward Snowden’s revelations have shown that such activities are not without controversy. This leaves the debate stuck between the important, ethical role that intelligence can play and the potential for its unrestrained use to cause undue harm. This paper will resolve this by giving greater detail to cyber-intelligence practices, highlighting the different levels of harm that the various intelligence operations can cause. The essence of this paper is not that cyber-intelligence should be banned outright, but that it can be justified given the necessary circumstances. Therefore, the paper will develop a specialised set of Just Cyber-Intelligence Principles, built on the just war tradition, to outline if and when such activities are justified.     

Right Intention and the Ends of War

The jus ad bellum criterion of right intention (CRI) is a central guiding principle of just war theory. It asserts that a country’s resort to war is just only if that country resorts to war for the right reasons. However, there is significant confusion, and little consensus, about how to specify the CRI. We seek to clear up this confusion by evaluating several distinct ways of understanding the criterion. On one understanding, a state’s resort to war is just only if it plans to adhere to the principles of just war while achieving its just cause. We argue that the first understanding makes the CRI superfluous, because it can be subsumed under the probability of success criterion. On a second understanding, a resort to war is just only if a state’s motives, which explain its resort to war, are of the right kind. We argue that this second understanding of the CRI makes it a significant further obstacle to justifying war. However, this second understanding faces a possible infinite regress problem, which, left unresolved, leaves us without a plausible interpretation of the CRI. This constitutes a significant and novel reason for leaving the CRI out of the international law of armed conflict (LOAC).     

Rethinking Military Virtue Ethics in an Age of Unmanned Weapons

Although most styles of military ethics are hybrids that draw on multiple ethical theories, they are usually based primarily on the model of Aristotelian virtue ethics. Virtue ethics is well-suited for regulating the conduct of soldiers who have to make quick decisions on the battlefield, but its applicability to military personnel is threatened by the growing use of unmanned weapon systems. These weapons disrupt virtue ethics’ institutional and cultural basis by changing what it means to display virtue and transforming the roles soldiers perform and the nature of the military profession itself. I argue that in light of these challenges to virtue ethics, at least as it is traditionally understood within the armed forces, soldiers operating unmanned weapons require a more heavily rule-based approach to military ethics.     

Ordering and controlling the dimensions of strategy

Colin Gray’s dimensions of strategy, built upon the earlier work of Clausewitz and Howard, has theoretical, practical, and pedagogic value for the Strategic Studies community. This paper further develops the theory, arguing that the dimensions can be controlled or managed to improve strategic performance. The dimensions are divided into two categories: “internal” and “external” to the process of strategy. The paper describes the dynamic process by which the internal dimensions, which can be controlled, are used to exert influence over the external dimensions that are beyond the control of the strategist. It is argued that six dimensions hold the key to strategic success: politics and the five dimensions concerned with warfighting. This conclusion validates the Clausewitzian paradigm with its emphasis on policy and battle.     

Gendered divisions of military labour in the British armed forces

This paper examines statistical data on the employment of women in the British armed forces. It reviews some of the issues shaping debates about women’s military employment, in order to establish the on-going significance of the topic. It looks at patterns of female military employment across the three services, and places discussion of this in the context of observations about gendered divisions of labour in the wider UK labour market. It examines data for the gendered divisions of labour within different corps, branches and occupational groups within each of the three armed services, and looks at gender patterns across ranks. It concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for both policy and conceptual work on women’s military participation.     

基于蝙蝠算法的多目标战备物资调运决策优化

战备物资的调运是部队后勤工作中十分重要的一环,面对复杂多变的战场环境,战备物资调运必须进行科学合理的决策优化。然而现有战备物资调运模型的优化模型较为复杂,如果涉及较多供应点和目标要求则不易实现。针对涉及多个调运点的多目标战备物资调运问题,提出一种新的决策优化模型,利用启发式蝙蝠算法进行优化计算,发挥出蝙蝠算法易于实现、性能优越的特点,较好地解决了涉及较多供应点的多目标战备物资调运决策优化问题,并结合一个仿真算例,证明该方法相对于其他方法更具简易性和有效性。     

水运液化气火灾隐患分析与对策

在介绍液化气主要成分、主要特性以及贮运方式的基础上,分析了水运液化气的火灾特点。从装卸过程存在点火源、液化气泄漏、惰化处理不彻底、船体老化等几方面分析探讨了目前我国水运液化气存在的火灾隐患,并从消防设计、船整体热处理技术、安全监控技术、船整体耐火条件、安全管理、初起泄漏事故的处理等方面提出了预防对策,为船运公司的安全运营提供参考。     

战争设计工程中从定量到定性反思的方法

定性定量相结合是战争设计工程的技术基础,为了探讨定性定量相结合中的如何从定量到定性进行反思,提出了定量评价干预策略的一致性检验方法;研究了从定量到定性反思的实现方法。最后以一个实例说明了整个从定量到定性进行反思的过程,并证实该反思方法是有效可行的。     

基于复杂网络的作战描述模型研究

针对传统作战模型重点关注兵力的毁伤,不能充分地反映信息时代作战的特点,提出了一个基于复杂网络的作战描述模型,把作战单元抽象成节点,把各单元之间的相互作用抽象成有向边,将战场描述为一个由传感器、决策器、影响器、目标四类节点组成的有向网络图。定义了网络模型的若干特征参数,把作战环看成是反映作战能力的指标,并区别分析了标准作战环和广义作战环,能更好地反映信息时代作战的特点。最后实例研究了传统作战条件下决策器连通程度的变化给作战能力带来的影响。     

装备战损量的兰彻斯特方程预计方法

针对装备战损量预计这一未来作战装备保障必须解决的核心问题,运用兰彻斯特方程探讨解决途径。从分析影响装备战损的因素出发,综合讨论目前预计装备战损量的方法,提出基于指数多元兰彻斯特方程的装备战损量预计模型和模型中毁伤能力系数的确定方法,得到了装备战损量的兰彻斯特方程预计方法,并举例验证。该方法将经验计算与模拟计算相结合,用较简单的确定性解析方程描述所考虑因素对装备战损量的客观约束关系,较好地满足了未来信息化条件下作战装备战损量预计的需要。