Z and other cinematic tales from the 30-year Greek civil war

Greek cinema has documented and debated the civil war and its repercussions under different angles, largely defined by censorship, the general political climate, and cinematic trends. This article, first, offers a retrospective that traces the evolution of Greek cinema's ‘takes’ on the civil war vis-à-vis the political changes. Second, it provides an in-depth analysis of Costas Gavras’s film Z, examining its relevance to Greece and how political conflict, in general, is cinematically depicted. The article argues that Z and Gavras’s cinema have been affected and have affected the Greek political situation. However, while Z has spearheaded an international cinematic genre (political thriller), it had minimal effect on the Greek cinema.     

Designing rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns for strategic (but distracted) contributors

In rewards-based crowdfunding, entrepreneurs solicit donations from a large number of individual contributors. If total donations exceed a prespecified funding target, the entrepreneur distributes nonmonetary rewards to contributors; otherwise, their donations are refunded. We study how to design such campaigns when contributors choose not just whether to contribute, but also when to contribute. We show that strategic contribution behavior—when contributors intentionally delay until campaign success is likely—can arise from the combination of nonrefundable (potentially very small) hassle costs and the risk of campaign failure, and can explain pledging patterns commonly observed in crowdfunding. Furthermore, such delays do not hurt the entrepreneur if contributors are perfectly rational, but they do if contributors are distracted, that is, if they might fail to return to the campaign after an intentional delay. To mitigate this, we find that an entrepreneur can use a simple menu of rewards with a fixed number of units sold at a low price, and an unlimited number sold at a higher price; this segments contributors over time based on the information they observe upon arrival. We show that, despite its simplicity, such a menu performs well compared to a theoretically optimal menu consisting of an infinite number of different rewards and price levels under many conditions.     

伊拉克战争对中东地区乃至世界军品贸易的影响

在分析了伊拉克战争对中东地区军品贸易影响的基础上,重点分析了其对世界军品贸易的深刻影响———加剧军备竞赛、刺激军工技术发展、引起军贸格局及产品结构发生变化、国际军控形势更加严峻。     

基于混合星座的卫星导航系统功率增强服务性能分析

在导航战中,卫星功率增强技术是提高战区卫星导航系统生存能力的重要措施.针对导航战背景下如何保持Compass系统对我国领土及周边区域导航服务能力的问题进行了研究,提出了一种基于混合星座和最优GDOP值准则的卫星导航系统功率增强方案,并就功率增强覆盖区域在不同实现方式条件下的覆盖性、可用性和实现复杂度等性能进行了对比分析.分析结果表明,采用“5GEO +4MEO”的功率增强组合形式,可以实现对我国领土及近海区域的全天时覆盖,可用性水平达到100％( GDOP ＜6.3),同时具有实现复杂度低和系统稳定性好等特点,可作为我国区域功率增强的备选方案.     

球类比赛对大学生球迷竞争意识的积极影响

通过各类球赛对大学生球迷竞争意识的积极影响研究与分析,球赛对不同大学生球迷的影响具差异性。大学生球迷对竞争意识认识不足,争取优胜的信念还有待提高,对外界事物的判断、认识不够准确,参与社会活动内容贫乏,形式单一,选择性少。随着年龄和学龄的增长,在生活与实践中的竞争意识得到进一步强化。球赛本身激烈性和内容丰富性的特点,可以有效地激发和培养大学生球迷的竞争意识,同时也强化了大学生球迷的竞争意识。     

Operational aspects of a future war between Egypt and Israel

The peace treaty between Israel and Egypt has survived since 1979. Even so, following the events in Egypt, there is a growing tension between the two states, particularly surrounding the Sinai, which could cause a crisis and even a war. In such a case, the main battlefield would be in Sinai, and there would be several dominant aspects. Some of them would appear for the first time, compared with previous wars, such as a collision between Israeli and Egyptian units of around corps size. Other aspects would be more familiar, such as the ratio between the size of the forces to that of the battlefield, the “fog of war,” night fighting, “friendly fire” and deception.     

航天器交会型轨道追逃策略的滚动时域优化

针对航天器自由时域交会型轨道追逃过程中的测量误差等不确定性对交会的影响,提出了一种基于滚动时域优化的高时效策略求解方法。根据微分对策理论推导得到博弈鞍点控制策略,并对问题进行等价转换;通过预先离线求解开环鞍点策略,将问题初始状态和相应的解作为样本以进行神经网络训练,训练后的网络结构可以快速得到相应问题的近似解。为了更好地应对博弈环境中的测量噪声,基于神经网络结构设计了滚动时域求解框架,并通过周期性的滚动求解最终实现对逃逸航天器的交会。数值仿真表明,所提出的策略可以有效应对测量噪声不确定性,且相比于文献中已有的策略,计算耗时可从分钟级降至秒级。     

Civil–military relations and organisational preferences regarding the use of the military in Chinese foreign policy: insights from the debate on MOOTW

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the positions of the Chinese civilian leaders and military elites on Military Operations Other Than War in order to shed light on their preferences about the use of the armed forces in foreign policy between the late 1990s and the early 2010s. Over time, a significant divergence developed between civilians and soldiers until 2011, when the Libyan crisis happened. The study also prompts important considerations about our understanding of civil–military relations in China and future role of the People’s Liberation Army as a tool of statecraft in foreign policy.     

Legitimate Authority as a Jus Ad Bellum Condition: Defense of a Procedural Requirement in Just War Theory

ABSTRACT

Today, it is widely held that while authorization may be helpful in assuring that the other jus ad bellum criteria are met, legitimate authority is not itself a condition for just recourse to war. Or, if it is necessary, it is said to be a trivial requirement, as mobilization for war requires some political authorization. Those who would retain the legitimacy requirement have differing views about who the proper authority is. I argue that, reasonably understood, legitimate authorization is necessary for jus ad bellum. Considerations of agency and consent in force combine with the social contract to commit us to deferring to recognized authorities. These obligations are strengthened by the epistemic reliability and pragmatic value conferred by governing institutions and procedures limiting recourse to war. These same rationales imply that the U.N. Security Council should regulate the international use of force. I qualify that if higher authorities fail to act, other subsidiary authorities may then authorize force. However, the move to each subsequent level of authorization must be justified. Understood in this way, the requirement that wars not be fought without legitimate authorization is a non-trivial, necessary procedural jus ad bellum condition.