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Specially modified fighter-director destroyers were critical to amphibious air defense against Japanese suicide air attacks during the Battle of Okinawa from April to June 1945. They suffered extremely high and unanticipated losses, especially during the first month of the battle. This paper analyzes the operational and strategic impacts of insufficient initial resourcing and the high losses. Insufficient numbers of fighter-director-equipped destroyers forced ad hoc assignment of available ships incapable of adequately defending themselves. This prevented the development of effective doctrine and degraded fleet readiness, affecting future operations in the summer of 1945. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the implementation and trust‐building strategies associated with successful partnership formation in scale‐up of the Veteran Sponsorship Initiative (VSI), an evidence‐based suicide prevention intervention enhancing connection to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other resources during the military‐to‐civilian transition period. Data Sources and Study Setting: Scaling VSI nationally required establishing partnerships across VA, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and diverse public and private Veteran‐serving organizations. We assessed partnerships formalized with a signed memorandum during pre‐ and early implementation periods (October 2020–October 2022). To capture implementation activities, we conducted 39 periodic reflections with implementation team members over the same period. Study Design: We conducted a qualitative case study evaluating the number of formalized VSI partnerships alongside directed qualitative content analysis of periodic reflections data using Atlas.ti 22.0. Data Collection/Extraction Methods: We first independently coded reflections for implementation strategies, following the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) taxonomy, and for trust‐building strategies, following the Theoretical Model for Trusting Relationships and Implementation; a second round of inductive coding explored emergent themes associated with partnership formation. Principal Findings: During this period, VSI established 12 active partnerships with public and non‐profit agencies. The VSI team reported using 35 ERIC implementation strategies, including building a coalition and developing educational and procedural documents, and trust‐building strategies including demonstrating competence and credibility, frequent interactions, and responsiveness. Cultural competence in navigating DoD and VA and accepting and persisting through conflict also appeared to support scale‐up. Conclusions: VSI's partnership‐formation efforts leveraged a variety of implementation strategies, particularly around strengthening stakeholder interrelationships and refining procedures for coordination and communication. VSI implementation activities were further characterized by an intentional focus on trust‐building over time. VSI's rapid scale‐up highlights the value of partnership formation for achieving coordinated interventions to address complex problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On July 16, 1938, Franklin Delano Roosevelt boarded the USS Houston in San Diego and embarked on what would come to be known as the Third Presidential Cruise. Publicized as a presidential fishing trip, the 1938 excursion was considerably more than a summer vacation. Covering 5,888 miles in twenty-four days, it comprised fourteen stops in the territories of five different countries: Mexico, France, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Colombia. Concluding in Pensacola, Florida, after passing through the Panama Canal, it was an ambitious voyage that involved the intensive use of science as diplomacy, a mere thirteen months before the onset of World War II. On the surface, the cruise, whose collecting activities were supervised by the Smithsonian's Division of Marine Invertebrates, was a major scientific coup. However, the expedition also had a clear geopolitical goal: to assess the United States' naval capabilities in the Pacific and to formulate potential military strategies in the event of global war. Thus, the excursion illustrates how science and diplomacy can intersect at pivotal historical moments, and how it can be deployed to implement foreign policy based on military interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the study of the challenges that disruptive technologies represent for industrial defence strategies and procurement policies. It focuses on the incorporation of drones into military arsenals and will be based on a study of the Brazilian Navy case. Drones are a disruptive technology both for the defence industrial base and for their implications for military tactics and the organisational structure of the armed forces. The analysis addresses the main difficulties encountered in incorporating these technologies into traditional military structures and acquisition systems. We explore the ways in which defence procurement adapts (or fails to adapt) to the emergence of disruptive technologies: are traditional military organisations and procurement structures capable of introducing disruptive technologies and engaging in the organisational and operating practices required to do so? Some lessons are drawn from this experience: even when the military relevance of drone technology is widely acknowledged and even officially recognized, procurement strategies and practices have not been able to shift from their focus on incumbent suppliers and conventional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The India–US relationship has often been described as a defining partnership. But the nature of the friendship in actuality is yet to assume depth. Despite convergences at multiple levels, it falls short of a true strategic partnership or deep friendship. The India–US relationship is neither a trusted nor an assured economic or security partnership. It is often tested by the vagaries of real-time issues, especially involving other great powers. That is why, despite signing the civilian nuclear deal, foundational agreements, being members of the Quad and Indo-Pacific Economic Forum, and with the common objective of containing the rise of China, they are unable to work closely together on myriad bilateral, international and regional issues. There are differences over matters of primary interests and the type of partnership that each wants to establish. The United States was insensitive to Indian concerns in its abrupt drawdown from Afghanistan in 2021, sub-continental security threats emanating from the China–Pakistan axis and its continued military support to Pakistan. India's neutral stand (read in the United States as being pro-Russian) in the Ukraine crisis marked by its abstention from voting against Russia in the UN and purchase of Russian oil despite strong objections from the US-led Western camp are cases in point. We argue that India's US policy is a case of limited balancing dictated by compulsions and lacks depth. For rising India, a continued desire for strategic autonomy and multi-alignment—the post-non-alignment foreign policy principles—guides its foreign policy orientation. For Washington, a deeper relationship would imply India abandoning its visions of strategic autonomy and joining more formally in Washington's orbit. These core national objectives of the two countries limit the level of partnership they can forge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India–Japan relations over the last two decades have become a regionally and globally oriented 'strategic partnership' from a narrow bilateral relationship. A key factor driving this transformation has been the discourse of the Indo-Pacific regional construct. Considering the overwhelming space occupied by maritime affairs in the bilateral strategic agenda, describing contemporary India–Japan relations as an India–Japan Indo-Pacific Strategic Partnership is justified. The article attempts to provide an evolutionary account of the India–Japan Indo-Pacific strategic partnership. In doing so, it identifies four phases in the evolution of the partnership: conception, actualisation, consolidation, and resilience, corresponding to the evolution of the Indo-Pacific concept from a geographic idea to a strategic concept to a regional order framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balance-of-power theory has been challenged as insufficient for explaining state behaviour. Powerful anomalies for the theory exist, especially among states confronting intense rivalry and war. One such anomaly is underbalancing in the Sino-Indian rivalry by the Indian side up until 2017. Today India is still engaged in limited hard balancing, relying on asymmetrical arms build-up and strategic partnership with the United States and Japan that are not equal to military alignment. This article argues that India has occasionally engaged in hard balancing, relying on arms build-up and limited alliance formation, but in general, there has been a serious effort not to resort to intense hard balancing by forming military alliances or symmetrical arms build-up. This calls for an explanation. The core argument I make is that the type of balancing is intimately related to the type of rivalry states have. The China– India rivalry has yet to become an intense existential variety compared to the India– Pakistan rivalry where existential security and protection of national identity are of major concern. Indian elite's perceptions of the non-existential character of the Chinese threat and their reading of the Chinese strategy towards India have been the primary factors in explaining India's balancing response. In the latter, active hard balancing has been occurring both internally and externally, whereas the former is characterised by a combination of limited hard balancing, soft-balancing and diplomatic engagement, components of a hedging strategy. The hard balancing has picked up momentum since 2017 in response to a more assertive strategy of the Xi Jinping regime as the Chinese government has ratcheted up military activity on the India–China border. The general implication is that rivals who do not fear existential threats need not engage in intense hard balancing. Perceptions of the threat level play a bigger role in what kind of balancing behaviour occurs in international politics than acknowledged in standard theories on balance of power, especially of the automatic balancing variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The renewed global efforts to contain climate change have meant a gateway for some Latin American countries to declare new military actions. The "war on deforestation," announced in 2021 by Iván Duque, the former president of Colombia, is a paradigmatic example. Through Operation Artemis (Operación Artemisa), the Colombian armed forces were assigned to protect the forests against threats from armed non-state actors (ANSAs) predominantly located in the country's Amazon rainforests. We argue that this war was a rhetorical and political model of the Duque government that sought, based on the re-elaboration of the counterinsurgent categories shared with the United States for half a century, to implement in the Amazon the first state military strategy to reach global agreements against climate change. Why does a state wage war in the name of protecting forests? We argue that in this novel rhetorical, military, and criminal framework, the war on deforestation encouraged the renewal of the war on drugs and the transformation of the internal enemy. Drawing on analyses of presidential policies passed since 1970 and, more recently, green crime law, this article showcases a new chapter on the state's goal of achieving territorial control through green militarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The military industry and programming is the sector that produces weapons, equipment and technologies in order to increase the defense capability of states. Programming, on the other hand, is essential for the functioning, management and development of these technologies. The role of programming is manifested in such areas as equipment management, simulation and training, data analysis. Of great importance is the use of programs for software control of military equipment, collection and analysis of intelligence information. Safety and reliability issues are also important. Cybersecurity ensures the security of the software of military systems. At the same time, the development of new technologies creates breakthroughs in the fields of artificial intelligence and automation. The military industry invests in the research of new weapons systems and defense technologies through programming. From the point of view of strategic importance, programming plays an important role in the development and implementation of military strategies. The development of programming and technology is important to ensure military superiority between states. Consequently, the military industry and programming are complementary areas. Programming increases the effectiveness of military technologies, ensures their safety and accelerates the development of innovations. This connection is of critical importance in modern times to increase the defense capability of states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Military cold weather operations (CWOs) introduce a range of challenges, including extreme temperatures, strong winds, difficult terrain, and exposure to snow, ice, and water. Personnel undertaking these missions face a heightened risk of cold weather injury (CWI), such as hypothermia, freezing cold injuries, and non-freezing cold injuries. The risk of these injuries is influenced by various factors, including age, sex, and body composition. To ensure optimal and safe performance in CWOs, it is crucial to implement effective preventive measures against CWI. This article emphasizes the most pertinent strategies for CWI prevention in CWOs. Initially, it is important to assess individual vulnerability to CWI. Education and training on CWI prevention should be provided before deployment in CWOs. During CWOs, attention should be given to crucial behaviors such as using a proper layered clothing system, recognizing the risks associated with prolonged stationary periods in cold conditions, consuming adequate calories, and staying hydrated. Additionally, environmental monitoring using tools like the windchill index and regular checks on physical status are essential. Although monitoring by itself does not prevent CWI, it can prompt necessary behavioral adjustments. Education and behavioral modifications are central to preventing CWI. Given the limited research on CWI prevention in military settings, despite the frequent occurrence of these injuries, there is a pressing need for further studies to evaluate effective preventive strategies within this specific operational framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike residential settlements, Chinese traditional defensive settlements (CTDS) are fortress-shaped settlements built by forefathers to resist invasion and defend their homeland. What remains of these settlements today are not only unique defensive entities but also defensive spatial layouts and architectural techniques that reflect military defense strategies and spatial patterns of ancient Chinese society, resulting in a distinct cultural heritage. Using CiteSpace as a research tool and CNKI as a core database, this paper conducts a visual analysis and review of the research related to CTDS, aiming to accurately and intuitively elaborate on the literature distribution characteristics, collaborative characteristics, key issues, research trends, and research hotspots. We found that research on CTDS focuses on three key issues: the composition system and defense mode of northern defensive settlements, the architectural style and cultural characteristics of southern defensive dwellings, and the settlements' heritage conservation and development planning; and research trends can be divided into three phases. We also propose five future research recommendations. This study helps to fill the gap in the bibliometric review of Chinese traditional defensive settlements, serves as a reference for future priority research directions, and provides a manual for heritage conservation and sustainable development of this special type of settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategy, tactic, management, and leadership together with war planning and direction, organization, psychological warfare, and war diplomacy encompass the art of war. Sun Tzu, a Chinese thinker of the 6th century BC, was the first person to discuss the Art of War. This research aimed to analyze his opinions on this topic and evaluate the military performance of the Messenger of God (SAW) based on his theory. Additionally, the present research tried to elucidate the strategic military of the Prophet (SAW) as a successful commander, stating that his proficiency was not acquired through formal military training or the teachings of renowned thinkers. The research question concerns identifying the extent to which the Prophet's performance in the war fields was consistent with Sun Tzu's thoughts on the art of war. This research, conducted using a historical and analytical approach and relying on data from ancient historical sources and an analysis of Sun Tzu's book entitled The Art of War, reveals that successful military strategies of the Prophet (SAW) can be attributed to the practical application of the principles and fundamentals of the art of war. There are numerous parallels between his strategy and the ideas of this renowned strategist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 1946, President Truman decided to second roughly an eighth of all U.S. military forces to the United Nations. The New York Times declared the same month that the international police force initially proposed by U.S. planners would number "perhaps 2,000,000 men" and that it would "enforce the rules and regulations for world order." This article explores American visions of the postwar order through the lens of the UN military project. In particular, it analyzes how the UN military project played a major role in the American reassessment of Soviet intentions, and with it, America's global military strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the Allies' grand strategy for the defeat of Japan in Southeast Asia usually focus on the discussions over Burma. This article examines the roles envisioned for the Bay of Bengal. It argues that operations within and based on the Bay of Bengal formed the basis of Allied strategy in Southeast Asia, but plans quickly diverged. The U.S. and China pushed for amphibious operations as part of the broader Burma campaign. Britain, however, wanted to use the Bay of Bengal as a springboard for operations into broader Southeast Asia. No party got what it wanted. Scrutinizing these strategic developments, however, provides a clearer understanding of the evolution of Southeast Asia's place in the Allies' grand strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polypharmacy poses a growing concern in military and veteran populations due to complex health needs arising from service-related injuries and mental health conditions. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to synthesize existing literature on polypharmacy prevalence, focusing on both general and psychotropic medications in military and veteran populations, and to identify contributing factors. The study protocol adhered to PRISMA guidelines and was registered on PROSPERO. A comprehensive search across PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science yielded 19 eligible studies. Two independent reviewers conducted study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment using standardized tools. The primary outcome was prevalence of polypharmacy and secondary outcomes included factors associated with increased polypharmacy risk. Pooled estimates revealed a high prevalence of psychotropic polypharmacy (36 %, 95 % CI: 23–49 %) and general polypharmacy (49 %, 95 % CI: −26-72 %) among active-duty military personnel and veterans. Heterogeneity was substantial (I2 = 100 %). Subgroup analyses in studies on psychotropic polypharmacy revealed that veterans with PTSD had a higher prevalence of polypharmacy (48 %) than those without PTSD (22 %). No significant differences were found in general and psychotropic polypharmacy prevalence based on medication threshold, mean age, and geographical location. Despite heterogeneity and bias, the study indicates generally high-quality research. The findings emphasize the critical importance of tailored medication management strategies for military and veteran personnel, considering mental health diagnosis like PTSD. Future research should prioritize longitudinal studies to discern long-term implications and develop targeted interventions for optimizing medication use in military and veteran populations. • The research finds high rates of general and psychotropic polypharmacy in military and veteran populations. • PTSD diagnosis was associated with increased prevalence of psychotropic polypharmacy. • Findings suggest the need for targeted clinical interventions and tailored treatment protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hamas’s invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023, with the attendant massacre of some 1,200 Israelis and the occupation of population centres and military bases – something that no Arab army has done since the 1948 war – posed unprecedented challenges to Israel’s socio-political and security establishments. Based on Chief-of-Staff Eisenkot’s 2018 doctrinal manifesto ‘The IDF’s Strategy’, this article assesses Israel’s national security principles and the doctrines for the use of force in an attempt to evaluate whether its political and military actions were aligned with these doctrines during the 2023–24 war with Hamas, and to determine the strategy’s value and possible gaps. It concludes that while the political and military responses appear consistent with the outlined principles, unexpected problems like hostage dilemmas and urban warfare complexities present unforeseen challenges not directly addressed by the manifesto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional domains of land, sea, and air warfare have long held prominence, while space and cyberspace have recently gained recognition as spheres of conflict. As conflicts continue to evolve, the domains of war must expand to accommodate new dimensions of engagement and integrate them alongside those human-centred factors that have previously held considerable sway. It is imperative, therefore, to recognise culture as the sixth domain and reflect upon its profound influence on group thinking, decision-making, and behaviour. Integrating culture into the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (C5ISRT) framework acknowledges its strategic relevance in shaping military strategies and responses in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. This paradigm shift highlights that the modern landscape extends beyond physical and virtual theatres to encompass the cognitive and social dimensions that define human interactions and conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of Muslim Brotherhood and jihadist theorists on the making of Hamas’s 7 October 2023, assault. By way of doing so, it discusses Hamas’s historic, ideological, and organisational connections to the Muslim Brotherhood before exploring jihadist warfare doctrine to liberate al-Quds (Jerusalem) from ‘Zionist occupation’, which shaped Hamas’s covenant and may have influenced its military strategy including the 10/7 massacres. The article concludes that Hamas’s ideology is closely aligned with most extremist factions of jihadist and Muslim Brotherhood thought and that efforts to characterise the organisation’s terrorist activities as motivated by national considerations are totally misconceived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States has emerged as a prominent actor in the international fight against transnational terrorism in the Sahel region of Africa since 2002, exerting significant political influence on regional affairs. Under the leadership of the United States, a coalition of Sahel countries has collaboratively established security programs, notably including the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP). However, the U.S. counterterrorism strategy in the Sahel region has not only proven ineffective in containing the deterioration of regional security, but also has exacerbated the vulnerability to coups in recipient countries. The observed deterioration can be attributed to various driving factors, such as deviations in the willingness and ability to involve and the security traffic jam. We contend that the U.S.-Sahel counterterrorism partnership is fundamentally misaligned and plagued by a securitization problem. Firstly, a significant impediment to international cooperation lies in the United States' pursuit of consolidating its dominant role in Sahel security affairs, which usually overlooks the pragmatic principle of 'African solutions to African problems'. In the counterterrorism process, there is a misalignment between U.S. national interests and those of Sahel states. Furthermore, the United States' extensive reliance on military strategies indicates a significant securitization of non-violent civil affairs in certain Sahel states, inadvertently creating an opportunity for genuine terrorist organizations to recruit members. In addition, U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Sahel states heightens the risk of coups, thereby undermining the legitimacy of U.S. leadership in the region. Currently, with both the withdrawal of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and France withdrawing their security forces from the Sahel region, there has a significant weakening effect on regional security capabilities. Therefore, it is imperative for the international community to collaborate with African nations and adopt more proactive measures to safeguard regional security and maintain order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The iron‐armored chain horse is a military strategy in ancient China to enhance the combat force of the entire army, especially when individual fighters are vulnerable to being picked off one by one. Herein, this strategy is adopted to generate highly efficient metal‐free blue room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) using the world's largest production of dicarboxylate acid. By encapsulating the commercially available chemical disodium terephthalate (DTPA) within the iron armor of α‐cyclodextrin (α‐CD), and subsequently linking the iron‐armored DTPA@α‐CD horses into a crystalline array mediated by hydrogen bonds and Na+ coordination, a highly confined and segregated arrangement of DTPA is achieved, leading to heavy atom‐free deep‐blue phosphorescence with a maximum efficiency of 83.3%. Since the crystalline array of the iron‐armored chain horse DTPA@α‐CD can be facilely obtained through water evaporation, the current phosphorescent material allows for rapid, high‐throughput solution processing of deep‐blue afterglow display, offering an economic and environmentally benign approach for deep‐blue RTP materials and facilitating their application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African-staffed apartheid-era military forces now command scholarly attention. I outline relevant archival holdings that survived the mass destruction of documentation as apartheid crumbled, suggesting that additional publicly available materials exist in underutilized archives. Composed of both official and vernacular materials, these sources are less likely to support research into studies of military tactics or strategy, but they offer glimpses into the day-to-day mechanics of these forces and more vividly, the militarized cultural worlds underpinning them. They offer insights into labor, cultural, and social histories. This has relevance for southern African history, and more broadly, for scholars interested in colonial military rule, democratization, the Cold War, and colonialism and its aftermath in Africa. I conclude by calling on scholars to work with military veterans and their families to facilitate archival donations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the second decade of the new millennium, artificial intelligence (AI) became a catchword among senior politicians and the military officers of India. Indian military officers have raised concerns about the potential use of AI-enabled weapon systems by China and by insurgents supported by Pakistan in the subcontinent. This article portrays the complex interlinkages between AI, strategic planning about future warfare and the role of ethics in India. The article, divided into three sections, deals with the role of AI and ethics in India's grand strategy, in military strategy and in command culture. Finally, the article also offers some policy recommendations. For cultural reasons, India follows a defensive strategy. India is attempting to integrate the AI weapons within its dharmayuddha (just war) format. Indian military strategy emphasises that on no account should these intelligent machines be autonomous. Atman (self-consciousness) must not be subordinated to yantras (machines). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new defence policy of the European Union (EU) is forcing the defence industry in Europe to adjust its strategies, especially since the invasion of Ukraine. Both the European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA) are pushing for a European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB), taking account of factors that include the fragmentation of supply chains, the significant efficiency gains that can be made and the prospect of greater EU strategic autonomy. In the industrial field, particularly in the area of technology, it will change the shape of the European defence industry. But what direction will this new industry take? Will national oligopolies be reinforced at the same time as other European oligopolies emerge? Drawing on an empirical analysis based on interviews with experts, this paper focuses on Spain as a case study and explores the repercussions it will have on the country's defence industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The logic of territorial control is central to the study of internal conflict. Existing studies consider the consequences of territorial control without answering a critical question: what motivates rebel territorial control in the first place? Territorial control requires careful explanation. While it confers important benefits it is also costly to achieve and exposes rebels to state attack. This paper argues that benefits exceed costs when territorial control provides rebels with a reliable source of organizational supply. High-value lootable natural resources—resources available in abundance that are easy to extract and transport for sale—represent key components of a rebel's supply chain. To test the theory's implications, we introduce new cross- and sub-national time-series data on territorial control in sub-Saharan Africa and couple it with a new dataset of local natural resource values. We use an instrumental variable approach to address core endogeneity concerns. Results both substantiate our theoretical approach and provide evidence running contrary to existing arguments. These findings demonstrate that valuable natural resources, logistical supply constraints, and, more broadly, rebel military strategy, are critically important and need to be incorporated into work on civil war, territorial control, and rebel governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately classifying the intra-pulse modulations of radar emitter signals is important for radar systems and can provide necessary information for relevant military command strategy and decision making. As strong additional white Gaussian noise (AWGN) leads to a lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of received signals, which results in a poor classification accuracy on the classification models based on deep neural networks (DNNs), in this paper, we propose an effective denoising method based on a denoising diffusion probabilistic model (DDPM) for increasing the quality of signals. Trained with denoised signals, classification models can classify samples denoised by our method with better accuracy. The experiments based on three DNN classification models using different modal input, with undenoised data, data denoised by the convolutional denoising auto-encoder (CDAE), and our method's denoised data, are conducted with three different conditions. The extensive experimental results indicate that our proposed method could denoise samples with lower values of the SNR, and that it is more effective for increasing the accuracy of DNN classification models for radar emitter signal intra-pulse modulations, where the average accuracy is increased from around 3 to 22 percentage points based on three different conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the decision to invade all of Ukraine and Russia's atrocious behavior and disastrous performance in the war may seem surprising and even irrational, Russia has in fact followed patterns that it used in the recent past with the two Chechen wars of 1994–1996 and 1999–2009. In this article, we compare key similarities and differences in the two Russo-Chechen wars and the current war on Ukraine by analyzing three aspects of the wars: Russian political strategy in the territories, Russian military strategy and conduct, and the Russian state's approach to war-related information and media campaigns. By drawing these comparisons, we hope to show how Russia's past war strategies in Chechnya might shed light on outcomes in Ukraine. In addition, in showing the similarities between Russian actions in Chechnya and Ukraine we highlight the argument that Russia is treating Ukraine not as a sovereign state, but as a part of Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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For nearly 80 years, the study of National Political Assembly (Guo Min Can Zheng Hui) has been a hot topic among scholars in mainland China. However there's a scarcity of deep research regarding the reasons and roles of National Political Assembly. This study aims to identify the reasons behind the establishment of National Political Assembly and to explore National Political Assembly’s role in uniting the Chinese. A qualitative research approach was employed, involving collecting primary and secondary historical materials in archives and libraries of China for literature analysis and case studies of representative events or proposals. The findings show that its establishment was related to Japan's aggression, the foreign policies of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and other countries, as well as the domestic anti-Japanese parties represented by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, and the people of all walks of life across the country. This paper concludes that in the early days of its establishment, it played a positive role in China's unity against Japan, democratic politics, and economic stability. This research is extremely valuable for studying the history of China's Second Sino-Japanese War and the Second KMT-CPC Collaboration, as well as the economic policies, political proposals, and military strategies of the Kuomintang, the Communist Party of China, and other parties involved in the Second Sino-Japanese War, as well as the history of the Communist Party of China, the Republic of China, and modern Chinese history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the British lost their American colonial territories in 1781 at the end of the American Revolutionary War, it was the culmination of events that began during the conclusion of the American Theater of the Seven Years' War (the French and Indian War, 1763). Examples include changing dynamics in British Parliamentary charters, the involvement of American international allies (primarily France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic) seeking retribution for the French and Indian War, shortages of supplies and munitions, misjudgments regarding Loyalist support, and independent British generals failing to coordinate their military offensives. However, one less-discussed example is the disconnection in leadership styles among the three British Commanders-in-Chief of the American Colonies from 1775 to 1783: Thomas Gage, William Howe, and Henry Clinton. This paper assesses their leadership failures as they navigated their varying styles during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their variants equipped with sophisticated weapon systems called unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) have completely changed the classical war strategies and concept of military operations. For guaranteeing the autonomous flight safety and success of the task being performed by these modern aerial vehicles, a path must be determined optimally after considering some kinematic constrains, existence of enemy threats, fuel or battery limitations. Immune plasma algorithm (IP algorithm or IPA) inspired by the implementation steps of a medical method gained popularity with the COVID-19 and known as convalescent or plasma treatment is one of the most recent intelligent optimization or meta-heuristic techniques. In this study, plasma treatment procedure of the IPA was changed with a newly introduced approach called the best individual guidance for short BIG that is based on using the most qualified solution found by the algorithm and three different donors when collecting plasma and BIGIPA was developed as a novel UCAV path planner. For investigating the path planning capabilities of the BIGIPA, a set of detailed experiments was carried out by using different battlefield configurations and assigning various constants to the control parameters such as population size and number of receivers and then obtained results were compared with the results of other path planners based on well-known meta-heuristic algorithms. Experimental studies showed that introduced treatment procedure gives a significant contribution to the convergence performance and qualities of the final solutions especially for the test cases with relatively high dimensionalities and BIGIPA calculates more promising, flight efficient, and safe UCAV paths compared to the tested algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen the U.S. Government and U.S. military branches produce national space strategy and military doctrinal documents for conducting military operations in or from space. This literature is produced by the White House and individual armed service branches and is often required by congressionally mandated legislation. This work will examine such literature produced during the Trump and Biden Administrations, emphasize the public availability of significant portions of this literature, assess that China and Russia are key rivals of the U.S. in the military space sphere, and will assess congressional reaction to these documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different armies around the world have bet to make their websites the center of their digital communicative strategy. This paper examines and compares the websites of 14 elite military units in the five continents to elaborate a taxonomy based on the structured dimensions and indicators of usability, contents, interactivity, and accessibility. For this purpose, a qualitative digital ethnography has been developed using a quantitative-qualitative content analysis made up of 14 thematic dimensions, 36 indicators and 69 variables. This study identifies, among others, the importance of the dialogic and multiformat component in cyberspace. It also concludes that, in general, the armies analyzed have barely included content typologies from gamification, immersion and virtuality, and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper provides the compliance strategy for the certification activity of environmental control systems (ECS) according to the military standard. Firstly, the paper defines the ECS. Secondly, it outlines the steps for the system’s certification activities in the concept of the means of compliance. Thirdly, it recommends the minimum set of documents with technical explanations obtained by academic learning, vocational training and recommendations from the regulations for compliance with the given requirements in military certification of ECS. Then, the differences in terms of compliance methods are specified. Finally, it is concluded that a specific compliance strategy for military certification of ECS is required for a systematic and comprehensive approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I will try to provide the justifications according to the laws in force and the needs of democratic policies and institutions to allow the creation of PMCs according to international rules and standards by applying the constitutional laws and with particular emphasis on freedom and human rights in the civil-military aspect. So the challenge and the journey remain in the aspect of the formation of the professional framework within the organizational structure of the PMC from the functionality of the state military structures. During the work, I will be able to identify why there is a demand and implementation of PMC by many democratic states and how much these are covered by laws, regulations, and international conventions, considering that we are dealing with direct intervention in the civil-military aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When states fight wars, they choose between multiple military strategies, e.g. whether to place boots on the ground or restrict efforts to an air campaign. We modify the standard crisis bargaining model to account for this by endogenizing a state's war strategy. Intuitively, states choose the more powerful strategy when the additional strength gained covers the additional costs of doing so. However, there is a counterintuitive second-order consequence of this. When stronger campaigns are expensive but still credible, states are more likely to reach a negotiated settlement to avoid the corresponding high costs. As the cost of the more powerful option increases, states substitute their actions with cheaper but weaker alternatives. Because of these lower costs, states become less likely to reach a settlement. In some cases, both parties may be worse off as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Military organizations are generally defined by a "cult of the offensive." For cyberspace, this gives rise to an empirical puzzle, at least in the United States. What accounts for the early restraint and skepticism about cyber offense publicly expressed by many US military cyber leaders? In this article, I explore the US military's approach to cyberspace as a theory-developing case study. I examine more than a decade of public discourse among senior military leaders about when and how the military should employ cyber force. I argue that, in the formative years of US military cyber organization, the military's predisposition to the offense was challenged by other cultural and institutional influences, especially from the signals intelligence and strategic nuclear communities. Moreover, this influence shaped the public discourse even after US military cyber organizations gained greater autonomy and turned toward more objectively offensive strategies. This suggests implications for theory and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current US-China competition draws comparisons to the Cold War contest between the United States and the Soviet Union. But there are three crucial differences between the great-power contests of today and during the Cold War: China is now more economically powerful than the Soviet Union was; the American and Chinese economies are more intertwined now than the United States' and Soviet Union's ever were; and US allies today are wealthier and more militarily capable than during the Cold War. Because of these differences, the United States should approach its rivalry with China in a way that emphasizes economics and focuses less on the types of ideological and military contests that characterized the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the collaborative efforts at Pikes Peak State College to support veterans within the institution and community. In partnership with PPSC's Military and Veterans Program and with assistance from professional colleagues inside and outside the institution, two English faculty spearheaded efforts to organize events and create a military arts publication they hope to turn into a national journal that accepts submissions from across the country. In keeping with military strategies encouraging teamwork and adaptation, they have built a framework for ongoing military and veteran outreach in the Pikes Peak region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Relações Internacionais is the property of Relacoes Internacionais and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Strategic information operations (IO) have normally been viewed as an issue above the military level. Nevertheless, they are critical both in shaping the larger operational environment and in providing a strategic initiative short of war. As such, they are crucial for military strategists. Also, in most Western countries, the focus has been on defensive measures against opponents' IO efforts. Such a defensive mindset is unlikely to succeed. Some long-term patterns and lessons learned in IO provide a useful template for both defensive and offensive IO campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the complex security situation in the Sahel region, identifying the causes and drivers of conflicts. The main hypothesis underlying the article is that the security situation in the Sahel region is influenced by several different causes and conflict drivers which have cumulative effects, making conflict resolution extremely difficult. The first part of the article identifies the causes and drivers of conflict and classifies them into four main categories. In the second part, the article shows how the causes and drivers are interwoven, creating multiple spillover effects, making the Sahel region one of the most problematic regions in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Principle of distinction, one of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law dictates, that participants in hostilities at all times distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives, as well as between civilians and combatants. This article addresses the adequacy of the protection offered by the principle in the cyber domain. Great reliance of militaries on civilian cyberinfrastructure expands the range of military objectives to the systems which key civilian activities depend on. There are many unknowns in fulfilling even the simple conditions for the combatant status, as well as in regulation of civilian direct participation in hostilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the event of a conflict or contingency on the Korean Peninsula, one of the five People’s Liberation Army (PLA) theater commands is responsible for implementing China’s military strategy and operations in Korea—the Northern Theater Command (NTC). What capabilities does China deploy to the NTC? How does it compare to the other theater commands? And do NTC’s military capabilities change the existing balance of power on the Korean Peninsula? Using the most up-to-date data, this paper offers, first, a theater-level comparative analysis of the PLA and, second, a quantitative assessment of how China’s NTC capabilities affect the military balance of power between North Korea on the one hand, and South Korea and the U.S. Forces Korea on the other. Of PLA’s five theater commands, the paper finds that the NTC has maintained the largest and heaviest ground force, the largest air force, and the second most powerful naval fleet. When NTC military capabilities are added to the existing military balance between North Korean forces and the U.S.– South Korean alliance forces, the United States and South Korea’s air supremacy is challenged and naval dominance is overturned. This is especially the case in the West Sea of Korea, the Yellow Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Less armed parties resort to tunnel warfare to reduce military and technological superiority gap with their adversaries. The use of tunnels has prominently emerged since the 1970s by nationalist liberation movements, factions, and other non-governmental forces. Palestinian resistance in Gaza has benefited from this tactic to enhance its military capabilities against Zionist occupation. Over the past two decades, Israel has made destroying Palestinian resistance tunnels a primary objective in its comprehensive wars in the Gaza Strip. This study explores tunnel warfare in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by tracing the historical development of Gaza tunnels, their types, effectiveness, and military operations, and understanding Israeli military strategy towards these tunnels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the impact of Chinese military strategy during the Korean War and its interplay with US intelligence at the time. It posits that intelligence analysts must grasp Chinese military strategy as a cornerstone of their training to enhance their effectiveness in estimative, current, and warning intelligence for operational gains. Drawing from an array of authoritative primary and secondary sources, it seeks to illuminate instructive insights through a juxtaposition of Chinese strategic maneuvers and US intelligence efficacy. By joining select multiservice and multiagency experiences, this article propels the performance of the US intelligence community today, offering a yardstick to gauge contemporary advancements. Intelligence analysts and operational planning teams markedly enhance their achievements by drawing from historical precedents to decipher Chinese intentions and capabilities. Embracing this paradigm equips military operations to adeptly tackle the realistic tactical, operational, and strategic challenges confronting US forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2015, the Chinese government initiated an important reform program targeting the defense industry, namely civil–military integration (CMI), with the objectives of introducing military technologies to the civilian market and infusing private capital into military enterprises. On examining this unique exogenous shock in a 2007-2017 sample of Chinese A-share listed firms, we identify the following effects of CMI on military firms' performance. (1) The market value of military firms significantly increases after the establishment of the CMI policy in 2015 and the market value of military firms is on average 6.682% higher after 2015. (2) This effect is robust to propensity score matching, instrumental regression, alternative measures of corporate market value. (3) The positive impact of CMI on military listed firms' market value is stronger for firms with lower innovation ability and weaker corporate governance, suggesting that the CMI policy can improve the research and development abilities and ease the agency conflicts of military firms. (4) After 2015, military firms with weaker financial constraints and those located in provinces with lower marketization levels perform better. Overall, offering a micro-perspective on military firms, this paper complements the growing literature on defense economics and clarifies how CMI improves military firms' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Planning and Strategy: Fundamentals for Confusing Times" highlights the importance of planning in different aspects of life. It is mentioned that technical planning requires specialists in each field and consists of making anticipatory decisions about actions that need to be carried out. Additionally, the importance of strategy and policies in planning is emphasized, as well as the need to have options and perform control to verify if the plan is being carried out correctly. The text also provides a glossary of terms and concepts related to strategic planning in a company, such as objectives, industry analysis, SWOT matrix, budget, among others. It is emphasized that planning is a technique that allows for selecting the appropriate means to achieve objectives and can be seen as an art and part of the political process of a society. [Extracted from the article]

Between 1854 and 1856 the shape of private and public collections of arms, armour, and ordnance were influenced directly by the conflict with Russia, especially from the main theatre in the Crimea and its key military engagements including Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, and Sevastopol. While antiquities and some examples of militaria had entered private collections through personal travel during the first half of the nineteenth century, it was the outbreak of war with Russia that perhaps had the strongest influence on collections. The new theatre of war provided fresh opportunities to begin a collection or expand an existing one. Moreover, a greater number of individuals from all levels of society were given chances to acquire objects than hithertofore, from militaria to objets d'art to ordinary domestic items. Pictures and photographs were often the most highly prized, particularly of the time before war had started and the destruction of cities such as Sevastopol had occurred.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]