Stalin's Conception of Maritime Power: Revelations from the Russian Archives

Through unprecedented access to archival documents, the author places Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin's decisions regarding the navy in the context of a national economy in ruins, bureaucratic infighting, and Stalin's own unique understanding of geopolitics and naval strategy. These documents illustrate the decidedly defensive character of Stalin's maritime conception, as it reveals the Kremlin leader's strong disposition against attempts to ‘mimic the Americans’ and pursue an ocean-going fleet. The author also discusses Stalin's lessons from the Korean War and the impact of these lessons on the subsequent development of the Soviet fleet. Finally, this study offers insights for students of asymmetric warfare, as it explores the challenges and dilemmas that confront relatively limited powers within intense rivalries.     

The future of the defence firm in small and medium countries

The Western European defence industry used to be characterized by numerous constraints, especially in the small countries, subject to uneconomic defence production policies. It faces, since the end of the Cold War, a succession of new challenges such as budget restrictions, armament reductions and geopolitical upheavals. The EU is pushing in the direction of a cohesive foreign policy, including security and defence. Today, the emergence of a more consolidated European defence industry and the presence of oligopolistic European companies imply the definition of new roles for the EU and for its European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The solution is not protectionism, but more co‐operation to ensure effective defence production at a socially acceptable cost. In the framework of this co‐operation, defence companies in small and medium countries have a role to play as part of the supply chain to major weapon system integrators.     

Measuring defense conversion in Russian industry

This paper develops and implements a methodology for quantifying defense conversion in Russian manufacturing in the early 1990s. A two‐sector, three‐good model is employed to analyze the flows of resources from military to non‐military uses and applied to firm‐level survey data under alternative definitions of military production and the MIC. An aggregation framework is constructed to estimate the total quantity and change in Russian military production, the latter decomposed into intrafirm and intersectoral resource reallocation and overall industrial decline. Although there is evidence of substantial decline in military production, the data show little reallocation to productive civilian uses, neither within the MIC nor to other manufacturing sectors.     

Country survey IV: Pakistan

This paper examines the role of the military in Pakistan, particularly in regard to civil‐military relations and defence industrialisation. Pakistan's military expenditure is relatively high, but apart from investment multipliers, little of this spending filters through to the civil sector. Pakistan's defence‐industrial strategy centres on rebuild and Chinese technological collaboration. However, while this ‘capital‐saving’ approach has merit, the strategy has thus far failed to stimulate broader civil development linkages. A conclusion of this paper is that Pakistan is failing to maximise the strategic dual‐use benefits of integrating civil‐military activity.     

Country survey XII: South Africa

This article examines the relationship between defence expenditure and economic performance in South Africa, both prior to and after that country's first fully democratic election in 1994. Prior to 1994 defence expenditure decisions were largely dominated by non‐economic factors; since then defence spending has declined in reaction to, inter alia, the need to address a number of socio‐economic inequities.

After 1975 in particular, military industrialisation in South Africa placed a disproportionately high burden on the country's industrial resources and natural economic and technical capabilities. However, although this suggests that the opportunity cost of domestic arms production has been fairly high, the country's poor economic and development performance since the mid‐1970s is a function of underlying structural deficiencies and institutional constraints rather than the consequence of inordinately high defence spending levels.     

Efficient generation of cycle time‐throughput curves through simulation and metamodeling

A cycle time‐throughput (CT‐TH) curve, which quantifies the relationship of long‐run average cycle time to throughput rate, plays an important role in strategic planning for manufacturing systems. In this paper, a nonlinear regression metamodel supported by queueing theory is developed to represent the underlying CT‐TH curve implied by a manufacturing simulation model. To estimate the model efficiently, simulation experiments are built up sequentially using a multistage procedure. Extensive numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

无监督特征学习的人体活动识别

针对人的局限性可能会导致在提取特征中丢失重要信息,从而影响最终的识别效果问题,提出无监督特征学习技术的惯性传感器特征提取方法。其核心思想是使用无监督特征学习方法学习多个特征映射,再将所有特征映射拼接起来形成最终的特征计算方法。其优点是不会造成重要信息的损失,而且可以显著减少所使用的无监督特征学习模型的规模。为了验证所提出的特征提取方法在活动识别中的有效性,运用一个公开的活动识别数据集,使用三种常用无监督模型进行特征提取,并使用支持向量机进行活动识别。实验结果表明,特征提取方法取得了良好的效果,与其他方法相比具有一定的优势。     

Brazil's new defense paradigm

In 2015, Brazil has taken steps toward re-consolidating its domestic defense industry. In the 1980s, Brazil built a dynamic and diversified defense industry. The state-driven effort resulted in a tripod strategy, where the state, state-run companies, and their private sector became the pillars of Brazil's defense industry. Brazil developed an export-driven defense industry; where close to 80–90% of its output was exported to Latin American, African, Arab, and Asian nations. In the 1980s, Brazil became the world's fifth largest exporter of defense products and services, exporting to over 40 countries. In the 1990s and 2000s, Brazil's defense industry suffered a dramatic reduction in size, diversification, and momentum. Successions of domestic political and economic policies have relegated Brazil's once emerging defense industry to a marginal position in the global defense industry. This article analyzes future prospects, challenges, and growth strategies for Brazil's defense industry.     

工业企业火灾爆炸量化分析方法应用探讨

运用工业企业火灾爆炸量化分析方法对发生在韩国的一起液化石油气充装站火灾爆炸事故进行了量化分析.结果表明在沸腾液体扩展蒸气爆炸发生前的21 min时间内约有6.0t的丁烷泄漏并参与到池火燃烧中;丁烷槽车胶管与丁烷地下储罐管线之间的不良连接是导致丁烷泄漏的原因,其有效泄漏直径为27 mm;参与火球燃烧的丁烷为3.7t,约占沸腾液体扩展蒸气爆炸发生时槽车内剩余丁烷的62％;参与火球燃烧的丙烷为8.0t,约占丙烷槽车全部装载量的53％.     

日本防卫产业发展潜力问题分析

日本自卫队追求能力提升和活动范围扩大的努力受到其防卫产业发展的局限。防卫预算的有限直接导致防卫产业的市场规模狭小。部分核心技术自主研发的缺失限制了防卫产业独立发展的能力。融合式发展模式在成本核算、劳动生产率提升和产业发展稳定性等方面限制了防卫产业发展的潜力。