Fencing the bear? Explaining US foreign policy towards Russian interventions

Despite the burgeoning literature on Russia’s renewed power politics, little attention has been paid to the fact that US reactions towards Russia’s military interventions were all but coherent. The USA has chosen weak measures in Georgia in 2008 (shaming) compared to its assertive response in Ukraine in 2014 (sanctions, hard deterrence). This article assesses the explanatory power of neorealist, liberal and constructivist theories for the variation in US reactions towards Russian interventions in Georgia and Ukraine. Our argument is that the constructivist perspective explains the cases best as it highlights the power and communality of normative assessments. The Ukraine crisis was perceived by the USA as a violation of core international norms, especially the non-use of force and the principle of territorial integrity. Relevant international norm carriers shared this assessment of the conflict. In contrast, the perception of the Georgian war centred on the issue of democracy promotion. While democracy is an important aim of US foreign policy, it does not summon the same normative importance as general principles of international law. Furthermore, the perception of the Georgian war remained contested among Western allies, which decreased the communality of the normative assessment.     

Newsvendor bounds and heuristics for serial supply chains with regular and expedited shipping

We study an infinite‐horizon, N‐stage, serial production/inventory system with two transportation modes between stages: regular shipping and expedited shipping. The optimal inventory policy for this system is a top–down echelon base‐stock policy, which can be computed through minimizing 2N nested convex functions recursively (Lawson and Porteus, Oper Res 48 (2000), 878–893). In this article, we first present some structural properties and comparative statics for the parameters of the optimal inventory policies, we then derive simple, newsvendor‐type lower and upper bounds for the optimal control parameters. These results are used to develop near optimal heuristic solutions for the echelon base‐stock policies. Numerical studies show that the heuristic performs well. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

Local perceptions of the EU’s role in peacebuilding: The case of security sector reform in Palestine

ABSTRACT

Perception research can make a valuable contribution to the study of the local dimension in EU peacebuilding. The conceptual framework developed in this article distinguishes between perceptions of the “legitimacy,” “effectiveness,” and “credibility” of EU peacebuilding practices, which are crucial factors for successful peacebuilding. Relying on the case of the EU’s support for security sector reform (SSR) in Palestine, this article shows that local stakeholders—which participate in various EU-sponsored training and capacity-building programs—display considerable support for liberal peacebuilding norms. Yet, perceived discrepancies between the EU’s peacebuilding rhetoric and its SSR activities have severely undermined the potential of the EU’s liberal peacebuilding model in the eyes of Palestinian stakeholders. Critical local perceptions are frequently articulated with reference to the EU’s own liberal peacebuilding discourse, pointing to a lack of inclusiveness of the SSR process and deficits in terms of democratic governance and the rule of law.     

农村公共财政政策下的消防工作研究

介绍了农村消防工作与农村公共财政政策的内在联系,分析了农村公共财政政策和农村消防基础设施建设存在问题。就改革农村公共财政政策,加强农村消防基础设施建设进行了探讨。     

Securitising humanitarian assistance and post-conflict reconstruction in Africa: A critical review of South Africa's new defence policy

The South African Defence Review 2014 is the country's new defence policy. The Review, which is expected to steer South African defence policymaking for the next few decades, discusses in detail the role of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in peace missions in Africa and proposes the direct involvement of the country's soldiers in both military and civilian tasks, from peacekeeping to humanitarian assistance, post-conflict reconstruction and development. This paper contains a critical review of the Review with regard to South Africa's envisaged contribution to regional and continental peace and stability. It is argued that humanitarian assistance and post-conflict reconstruction should not be securitised and that the SANDF should only be tasked with peacekeeping and the establishment of stability and security in fragile in-conflict and post-conflict settings. The humanitarian work should be left to humanitarian and aid agencies, while reconstruction and development should be left to organisations such as the New Partnership for Africa's Development, continental and international development organisations, and local actors.     

Inventory management with advance capacity information

An important aspect of supply chain management is dealing with demand and supply uncertainty. The uncertainty of future supply can be reduced if a company is able to obtain advance capacity information (ACI) about future supply/production capacity availability from its supplier. We address a periodic‐review inventory system under stochastic demand and stochastic limited supply, for which ACI is available. We show that the optimal ordering policy is a state‐dependent base‐stock policy characterized by a base‐stock level that is a function of ACI. We establish a link with inventory models that use advance demand information (ADI) by developing a capacitated inventory system with ADI, and we show that equivalence can only be set under a very specific and restrictive assumption, implying that ADI insights will not necessarily hold in the ACI environment. Our numerical results reveal several managerial insights. In particular, we show that ACI is most beneficial when there is sufficient flexibility to react to anticipated demand and supply capacity mismatches. Further, most of the benefits can be achieved with only limited future visibility. We also show that the system parameters affecting the value of ACI interact in a complex way and therefore need to be considered in an integrated manner. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

欧盟太空安全政策与发展动向

欧盟具有相对成熟的太空技术,处于国际太空力量发展的第一梯队,其太空安全政策是在基于维护太空自主权的前提下,寻求太空与安全防务政策的统一,从而实现共同外交和安全政策的整体目标,目前已取得了较大进展。本文认为,从未来发展来看,面对有限的太空资源优势和脆弱的太空环境,欧盟将会继续利用其技术优势和集体力量,努力保障其太空关键基础设施安全和太空自主权,同时进一步将太空安全重点向军事竞争领域聚焦,将其作为拓展战场空间维度的重要途径。     

A survey of performance issues in defence innovation

This article reviews innovation processes in defence. It analyses the way and the context under which these processes are carried out. The article covers the features of defence goods with impact on innovation, the development of a new good, the institutional arrangements that support these processes and the effect of innovation on industrial market. The analysis helps to identify the causes of facts observed in practice, such as poor performance in terms of product quality, cost or delivery time, as well as to assess potential remedies. Some policy implications, which can be derived from this analysis, are finally outlined.     

火箭助飞鱼雷与空投鱼雷齐射攻潜射击方法

火箭助飞鱼雷与空投鱼雷齐射攻潜是水面舰艇中远距离攻潜的有效方法之一。由于火箭助飞鱼雷和空投鱼雷齐射的平台、弹道不同,为了有效的组织鱼雷的齐射,必须解决相关的问题。因此,从火箭助飞鱼雷与空投鱼雷的作战使用特点出发,首先探讨两雷齐射的定义及实施方法,其次通过计算机仿真研究了实施齐射时的直升机安全问题,并研究了两雷射击的间隔时间,拟合了计算公式。总之,此问题的研究对发挥水面舰艇中远距离反潜作战能力具有一定的意义。     

军人犯罪刑事政策探究

刑事政策是大刑事法思想的基本范畴 ,军人犯罪刑事政策是国家基本刑事政策在军队的具体沿用。军人犯罪刑事政策是由军委就一定时期军队犯罪情况制订的原则性指导意见 ,它不直接对某一犯罪人作出评判 ,而是作为军事立法机关和司法机关形成最终法律判断的动态标准。