Enmeshed in insurgency: Britain's protracted retreats from Iraq and Afghanistan

Ten years of counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan have produced little in Britain's national interest. This article examines the political objectives set in these wars and the reasons why they have proved elusive. The core foreign policy aim was to sustain Britain's position as a great power by assuming responsibility for global order. Alliances with the United States and NATO would be the diplomatic tool for pursuing this aim. These alliances brought obligations, in the shape of agreed common threats. Rogue regimes with weapons of mass destruction and international terrorists harboured in failed states were deemed the primary threats to British security. Military means were therefore used in Iraq and Afghanistan to attack them. Whether Tony Blair's vision of global order ever made sense is debatable, and it attracted scepticism from the outset. The article argues experience in Iraq and Afghanistan showed that a strategy to eliminate terrorism (the WMD threat turned out never to have existed) by expeditionary counterinsurgency could only fail. Therefore the attention lavished on operational-level performance by most studies is misplaced, because no amount of warfighting excellence could make up for strategic incoherence. Finally, the article proposes the more important question arising from the last ten years is why the UK pursued a futile strategy for so long. The difficulties associated with interpreting events, a malfunctioning strategic apparatus, weak political oversight, and bureaucratic self-interest are posited as the most significant explanations.     

Colombia: Changing strategy amidst the struggle

From 1965 to the present, Colombia has been confronted by the insurgency of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The threat reached a new level in 1996 with the advent of mobile warfare, whereby large units sought to neutralize the military in an effort to seize power and institute a Marxist-Leninist regime. Unlike Vietnam, what followed was a regaining of the strategic initiative by the government and a decimation of the insurgent threat. This was accomplished with US assistance but from first to last was driven by Colombian leadership and strategy. The strategy which led to this signal change, ‘Democratic Security’, unfolded under the leadership of President Álvaro Uribe. It was a civil–military partnership, which sought to expand the writ of Colombian democracy to all elements of society. Securing the population provided the shield behind which economic, social, and political life could occur as driven by the will of the people. It was the agreement upon legitimacy as the strategic goal and reform as the route to that goal which allowed the Colombians and the Americans to work so well together.     

A best practice for assessment in counterinsurgency

In September 2011, the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan directed the Afghan Assessment Group to redesign the way in which ISAF was assessing the status of the war, and to be ‘revolutionary’ in so doing. The resulting assessment paradigm was novel, non-doctrinal, and effectively addressed the unique complexities of the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and the needs of the ISAF Commander. It had a two-tier structure consisting of both strategic and campaign assessments. The former focused on answering a set of strategic questions in narrative, analytic form to address the strategic environment, while the latter used a set of standards and accompanying narrative responses to gauge accomplishment of campaign tasks. Both tiers captured the current state of the war while maintaining an eye on future challenges and opportunities. The two assessments and their associated processes were designed to stimulate discussions leading directly to decisions by senior leaders on actions they could take, direct, or request. While any assessment paradigm will have advantages and disadvantages, an examination of the pros and cons of this assessment paradigm makes clear that it should be considered a ‘best practice’ in the field of counterinsurgency assessment.     

基于“招标—投标”策略的舰艇编队协同反导优化

针对舰艇编队协同防空反导的作战过程,以缩短舰艇编队协同反导的整体拦截时间、降低反导资源的消耗为目标,构建了一种"招标—投标"策略的舰艇编队协同反导优化模型。该模型利用模糊数学和动态规划相结合的优化技术,在单个作战单元需要编队内其他作战单元协同反导的情况下,运用"招标—投标"策略建立满足反导策略的决策方案,能实时、动态的调整舰艇编队整体协同反导策略。     

基于搜索论的反舰导弹机动搜捕策略建模方法

针对概略射击条件下反舰导弹机动搜索目标策略优化选择的需求,采用搜索论的基本理论对反舰导弹机动搜捕策略问题进行了研究,建立了反舰导弹随机搜索策略、平行搜索策略和螺旋搜索策略搜捕概率计算模型,并进行了仿真计算。仿真结果表明:在已知目标概略位置的条件下,反舰导弹假若采取螺旋式搜索策略,能以较高的概率快速捕捉目标。     

US strategic preferences in the early twenty-first century

This article investigates how US national security planners have envisioned the emerging strategic environment during the early twenty-first century and evaluates how their perceptions of this strategic environment have changed during these years. This conceptual evolution can be seen in how defense planners define threats, identify defense priorities, and design security strategies. Five key strategic planning documents serve as the basis for this analysis and illustrate significant shifts in how the US government has envisioned its own security requirements as well as the context within which its strategic vision will need to be realized. These planning documents are: (1) Joint Vision 2020, (2) the Bush Administration's 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States, (3) the Obama Administration's 2010 National Security Strategy, (4) US Strategic Defense Guidance entitled Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21^st Century Defense, and (5) the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Capstone Concept for Joint Operations: Joint Force 2020.     

非对称Colonel Blotto博弈模型下的多信道功率分配抗干扰

针对智能干扰条件下传输速率固定的通信系统多信道功率分配问题,建立了非对称Colonel Blotto博弈模型。在完全信息条件下,推导出了各种功率预算约束下通信方和干扰方的等效单信道最优功率分配策略,进而证明了通信方和干扰方存在唯一混合纳什均衡策略,并求得了纳什均衡收益。基于等效单信道最优功率分布,提出了一种多重扫描直接列元素交换算法,可以快速构建多信道混合功率分配矩阵,且相比于线性规划方法,可适应更多的信道数和更广的功率分布范围。通过数值仿真,验证了所提多信道混合功率分配矩阵构造算法的有效性及多信道功率分配策略的最优性。     

高校辅导员职业倦怠成因及干预策略

高校辅导员是开展大学生思想政治工作的骨干力量,是大学生思想政治教育和管理工作的组织者、实施者和指导者,其多重角色决定了辅导员工作的复杂性和艰巨性。多数调查表明,高校辅导员工作劳累导致成就感甚微,多数辅导员在工作中出现职业倦怠。本文结合辅导员的工作职责和工作环境,对高校辅导员职业倦怠成因及干预策略进行探讨。     

《军事语言研究》创刊实践及其发展战略

军事语言学的确立,填补了我国军事学学科体系中的一项空白,具有开创性的意义。《军事语言研究》学术期刊的创办,必将把这一新兴学科推向新的发展阶段。创办《军事语言研究》学术期刊,有其进行理论研究和推进部队现代化建设的现实需要。基于一年多的办刊实践,从注重创新性、突出办刊特色、不断拓展和延伸刊物内涵三个方面探讨了该刊的发展战略问题。     

航天器在轨防碰撞自主规避策略

论文提出了航天器与空间目标距离较近时的自主规避策略。分析了航天器与目标的相对运动模型,将相对运动分解为视线瞬时旋转平面内的运动与该平面的转动。对视线瞬时平面内的运动进行了分析,推导了航天器的最佳规避方向。探讨了在三维惯性空间中该方向的确定方法。通过仿真分析,对比了航天器具有不同规避加速度和不同探测距离时,通过机动所得脱靶量的大小,验证了航天器近距离自主规避策略的有效性。