Global counterinsurgency and US army expansion: the case for recruiting foreign troops

Given the nature of global counterinsurgency operations, the demands of military expansion, and the need for cultural, linguistic, and regional expertise, the United States Army should evaluate the establishment of US-led foreign troop units for its evolving force structure. This article proposes the creation of an American foreign legion based upon the recruitment of US-led, ethnically homogeneous tribal force units to meet the grist mill of counterinsurgency operations. This structured approach would be more beneficial than the current reliance on a de facto American Foreign Legion, represented by private military contractors (PMCs), many of them comprised of foreigners. These PMCs carry a number of oversight, accountability, and legal risks not found in a fully integrated, and US-officered foreign legion. The British Brigade of Gurkhas, the South-West African Police Counter-Insurgency Unit (Koevoet), and the Kit Carson Scouts serve as relevant historical examples where foreign troops were used to supplement national manpower resources.     

Counterinsurgency force ratio: strategic utility or nominal necessity

As a consequence of intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, force ratio for counterinsurgency (COIN) has come under increased scrutiny. Reduced to its essence, the issue is simply, ‘How many troops does it take to get the job done?’ This answer has been sought by the US military, academia, and think tanks. There have been numerous responses, culminating in several ‘plug-and-play’ equations for minimum force ratios in COIN operations. Due to the impossibility of determining precisely how many insurgent forces there are, it has become common to base force ratios on the population of the country. In the realm of policy, the question above is posed as, ‘How many of our troops does it take to get the job done?’     

基于插件技术的人工免疫智能空间优化平台研究

采用人工智能方法求解空间优化问题已成为当前地理学研究领域的热点之一。研究目的在于通过设计一个开放的、可扩展的人工免疫空间优化模型框架,开发基于插件技术的优化工具软件,丰富空间优化决策支持的方法和技术体系。研究从空间优化问题的基本特点和计算需求出发,定义了面向空间优化问题求解的克隆选择优化模型框架。在此基础上,采用"插件-宿主平台"结构设计了人工免疫智能空间优化平台的总体架构,定义免疫算子插件与空间优化问题应用插件开发机制。实验结果表明,平台的架构和功能设计充分考虑了计算平台的开放性和扩展性,通过平台标准接口的功能扩展可实现对不同类型空间优化问题的求解。空间优化问题研究者或政府决策部门无需关系人工免疫优化方法的具体内涵即可基于本平台完成其具体空间优化决策支持任务。     

自补偿液体静压精密转台轴承设计与实验

设计了一种用于精密转台的新型自补偿圆锥形液体静压轴承,并完成了轴承的制造与性能测试。采用流量平衡原理推导了轴承设计公式,得到了轴向和径向的最优刚度及其优化条件,计入制造误差对轴承承载性能进行了仿真,并测试了轴承的刚度和回转精度。结果表明:轴承刚度受到节流间隙与承载间隙的流阻比以及油腔间内流系数影响,流阻比存在最优值,而内流系数越小,对刚度越有利;计入制造误差的仿真模型能够有效预测轴承刚度范围。     

无人机集群作战概念及关键技术分析

无人机集群作战正在从概念走向雏形.文章总结了国外无人机集群作战概念的发展,分析了无人机集群作战的主要关键技术,包括大规模无人机管理与控制、多无人机自主编队飞行、集群感知与态势共享、集群突防与攻击、集群作战任务控制站等技术,并展望了未来无人机集群协同搜索、协同干扰、协同攻击、协同察/打、集群对抗等作战应用.     

水面舰艇编队空中威胁扇面角预测模型

针对水面舰艇编队空中威胁扇面角的预测问题,分析了影响空中威胁扇面角大小的主要因素。以具有航路规划能力的远程反舰导弹为对象,从航空兵及远程反舰导弹的作战使用特点和装备性能限制着手,建立了计算威胁扇面角的数学模型。通过仿真分析,得出了主要参数对威胁扇面角的影响规律,为水面舰艇编队对空防御兵力的配置提供了依据。     

Transnational terrorism as a spillover of domestic disputes in other countries

This paper models transnational terrorism as a three‐way strategic interaction involving a government that faces armed opposition at home, which may spill over in the form of acts of terrorism by the state's opponents against the government's external sponsor. The external sponsor also utilises deterrence against potential terrorists, which only lowers terrorism if terrorists are not intrinsically motivated by a deep‐seated sense of humiliation. The model highlights the importance of intrinsic motivation. A rise in the external power's preference for deterrence against terrorism may backfire in these circumstances. Increases in the government's military efficiency against the rebels, who are also terrorists against the government's sponsor, raises overall levels of violence.     

BUTTER,GUNS AND ICE‐CREAM THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM SUB‐SAHARAN AFRICA

This paper is intended to complement the existing literature on civil wars. First, it presents a simple theoretical model of conflict that defines a two‐sector economy. In a contested sector, two agents struggle to appropriate the maximum possible fraction of a contestable output. In an uncontested sector, they hold secure property rights over the production of some goods. Agents split their resource endowment between ‘butter’, ‘guns’ and ‘ice‐cream’. Following the theoretical insights the empirical analysis focuses on the relationship between civil wars and different sectors of the economy. In particular, a panel probit specification shows that the incidence of a civil war decreases in the size of manufacturing sector.     

检查搜索时舰艇编队匀速搜潜与跳跃式搜潜比较

在分析水面舰艇编队使用拖曳式线列阵声纳匀速搜潜和“跳跃式”搜潜过程的基础上,对仿真环境进行假设,并建立了水面舰艇搜潜蒙特卡洛法模型,通过仿真试验,对其在一定条件下检查搜潜时匀速搜索与跳跃式搜索效能进行研究,得出的相关结论对提高水面舰艇反潜作战运用水平具有较大的实际应用价值.     

水面舰艇编队反潜作战仿真模型组件化研究

针对目前编队反潜作战仿真领域中模型利用效率和可重用性较低的现状,提出并建立了基于组件技术的编队反潜仿真模型体系结构,依据编队反潜作战实际物理过程对编队反潜作战仿真模型体系进行了组件化层次结构划分和作战仿真模型组件设计,按照J2EE/EJB体系结构,完成了系统配置和不同类型组件及组件间信息交互接口设计,并对仿真系统进行了实现.结果证明该方法能有效提高模型可重用性并提高系统仿真运行效率.