Military Advantage Research Articles

Assignment Russia: Becoming a Foreign Correspondent in the Crucible of the Cold War

Assignment Russia: Becoming a Foreign Correspondent in the Crucible of the Cold War

Interview: Robert Latiff on the worsening international security situation in space

ABSTRACT Robert Latiff is a retired US Air Force major general and a private consultant who provides advice on advanced technology matters to corporate and government clients and to universities. His current work includes research on the ethical implications of emerging and dual-use technologies. He has served on the staffs of Headquarters US Air Force and the Secretary of the Air Force. A member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board, Latiff spoke recently with Bulletin editor-in-chief John Mecklin about the worsening international security situation as countries jockey for both military and private-sector advantage in space. This conversation occurred before Russia acknowledged testing an anti-satellite weapon in space, creating a debris field that could threaten the International Space Station and highlighting international tensions over use of space.

Советы и советники в китайских исторических телесериалах

In his article, I examine the image of a political strategist, popular in Chinese historical cinema, the origin of which can be traced to historical chronicles and fiction. Analysis of their cinematographic representation allows to single out the characteristic features of this image, distinguishing it from the functionally close, yet not identical image of a noble minister. Further, I suggest that the literary and cinematic image of Zhuge Liang, the famous politician and strategist of the Three Kingdoms, serves as an archetype of a political and military advisor in general, and substantiate this hypothesis. Based on the analysis of sovereign-advisor relations, I make an assumption that the very image of an advisor, with their characteristic appearance, personality, and their relationship with their overlord, takes its origins in the self-presentation of shi— a social class of the Warring States period. The leading values in this class were intelligence, loyalty to the lord, and freedom. I suggest and support a hypothesis that there is a genetic connection between the image of an advisor and the teaching of Legalism. Counterbalancing and complement to this image in a costume series is the role of a noble minister, which has its ideological basis in the Confucian philosophy. Apart from that, I name some of the strategies of seizing and retaining power, as well as domestic and foreign policy strategies, frequently seen in TV shows. The analysis of political and administrative methods in many Chinese historical series indicates that foreign policy, as presented in these shows, allows for more manipulations, but also more variability. The internal political opposition, by contrast, is almost completely delegitimized, its goals are a priori recognized as immoral and self-serving, and, consequently, the only way left for the sovereign and their advisor is to directly suppress their internal opponents. The results of this study lead to a number of conclusions about the political culture of China as manifested in this type of TV products, and about the strategemic thinking underlying this culture.

The Romanian Mission of General Berthelot (1916–1917): Cooperation and Disagreements with the Russian Command of the Romanian Front

When the Kingdom of Romania entered the Great War in 1916, it was supposed to receive aid from the Entente allies While the Russian troops fought alongside the Romanians on the Eastern Front, the Western allies assisted them with arms, financial resources, and experienced officers. Military cooperation in the various European theatres of war was a rather complex task, and its arrangement actualised the issues of cooperation between the allies in arms in pursuit of a common goal. The French Mission of General Berthelot assisted the Romanian army in a number of ways, including leading the fighting in the autumn of 1916, reorganising the defeated Romanian army, and acting as military advisers in the 1917 campaign. In that respect, the French were competing with the Russians for influence over the Romanian top leadership, especially the military command. The formation of the Romanian front, consisting mainly of Russian troops, allowed the Russian Stavka to sideline the French from directly influencing the course of military operations. The work of the French mission was limited to bringing the Romanian units withdrawn to the rear back into order. However, in 1917, the French resumed their leading role in influencing the Romanian generals. The February Revolution marked a turning point in relations between the rival partners, finally consolidating the leading role of the Berthelot Mission in the affairs of the Romanian Army on the Romanian front. The French Mission helped reorganise the Romanian Army, which played a decisive role in the final stage of the Great War. This allowed the Kingdom of Romania to remain among the victorious nations, despite the vicissitudes of 1918 following the withdrawal of Russia from the war. The main sources for this article are documents from the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA) relating primarily to the competence of the central military authorities and administration during the war period, namely the Supreme Command Headquarters and the General Staff Headquarters.

American Discord: The Republic and Its People in the Civil War Era

American Discord: The Republic and Its People in the Civil War Era

Darfur Peacekeepers: The African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (AMIS) from the Perspective of a Hungarian Military Advisor, J�nos Beseny?

Darfur Peacekeepers: The African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (AMIS) from the Perspective of a Hungarian Military Advisor, J�nos Beseny?

What Sir Creek means to Pakistan: An Economic Need and a Military Necessity

The author analyzes the territorial dispute between Pakistan and India over the Sir Creek situated in the Indus Delta. The article provides general information about the territorial dispute - its origins, historical development, legal aspect and the negotiation process. With the disputed area being rich in gas and oil resources, it is likely to be of great importance for ensuring energy security. However, the author posits that Sir Creek is of much greater value for Pakistan as one of the tools in the context of military confrontation with India. Lacking a tangible military advantage over its strategic rival, Islamabad can use irregular paramilitary forces to penetrate the enemy's territory, thus highlighting the factor of uncertainty in the military planning carried out by the Indians.

Peter I and the Birth of the Russian Empire: Political Leadership and Military Successes in Comparative Perspective

Empires are usually born through political recognition and extensive military successes. The ruler’s personality and the activities of political and military advisors and generals are crucial for the emergence of an empire. The authors argue that in the case of Peter the Great (Peter I), the political recognition and military successes were achieved simultaneously in the east and west, however, in different contexts. The authors make a series of comparisons between Peter I and other monarchs of the epoch, such as Carl XII, August II, Frederick I, Carlos II, Willem III, Leopold VI, and others, relying on three main categories, namely education, “vices and virtues” and political views. This comparison is necessary to highlight the essential prerequisites in Peter’s personal development that might have determined his political actions. In addition, the article carries out an evaluation of the geopolitical significance of the military campaigns and victories achieved by the tzar and his commanders. These achievements are substantiated to correlate with Russian rise as a great power directly. After the Peace of Nystad, the geopolitical interests of the Tsardom were finally met, with the territorial dominium of the Empire being outlined for a century ahead.Furthermore, the territorial expansion was accompanied by the exercise of the “imperium” as a political authority exclusive to the Russian monarchs. The authors try to highlight the connection between the personal development of monarchs, their achievements, and imperial ambitions. The comparative analysis of these factors in various imperial cases provides additional considerations for understanding the historical period.

СОВЕТСКО-КИТАЙСКИЕ ОТНОШЕНИЯ В РАБОТАХ РОССИЙСКИХ СИНОЛОГОВ

The article attempts to analyze the views of Russian researchers on the development of key aspects of Soviet-Chinese relations. This is relevant not only to satisfy purely scientific and academic interest but also from a political point of view. The article examines the views of Russian sinologists on the goals and conceptual attitudes of the Soviet leaders towards China in various chronological periods; presents some controversial issues of political relations between Moscow and Beijing; analyzes views on the circumstances of the establishment of the first contacts of Soviet Russia with the Kuomintang Party. In addition, the article presents a critical analysis by Russian sinologists of the activities of Soviet military advisers during the reorganization of the Kuomintang army in the 20th of the twentieth century and the attitude of the Soviet leaders to Sun Yatsen is presented. Attention is paid to the assessments of Russian scientists of the relations of the USSR with the Communist Party of China during the Great Patriotic War; the relationship of I.V. Stalin with Mao Zedong; issues of Moscow's military assistance to the CPC in 1945-1949. The points of view of Russian historians on the effectiveness of providing economic and scientific and technical assistance to the USSR to China in 1949-1960 are given; the recall of Soviet specialists in 1960 from the PRC, etc.

United States Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF): A Brief History—Formation, Functionality, and Future

Air mobility has been a military strategic advantage used by the United States (U.S.) from the onset of aircraft carriers, to supporting air bases worldwide. The U.S. government and defense components rely heavily on a civilian fleet of aircraft to supplement air transportation requirements in both peace times and during national emergencies. This paper reviews the historical and legal development of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) and discusses previous struggles and successes of the program by looking at the functionality of the program, before addressing how current events bring about the realization that the program must change. Current changes in the way U.S. airlines operate, the way warfare has been changed, and the financial hardships associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are all used to envision a future of the CRAF program to provide future air transportation capabilities to allow the U.S. government to maintain the necessary strategic advantage of responsive airlift capabilities.

DARFUR PEACEKEEPERS, REVIEW

DARFUR PEACEKEEPERS, REVIEW

“Every death matters?”: Combat casualties, role conception, and civilian control

AbstractHow do combat missions, defined as an armed confrontation that causes casualties, shape civil-military relations and military’s role conception? This article argues that militaries that incur combat casualties gain a stronger hand in the civil-military equilibrium. This is because casualties affect domestic political opinion and give prominence to the views expressed by military officials. Civilians are then more deferential to professional military advice. In turn, the military obtains considerable operational freedom, and can pick and choose missions which they find desirable. Second, the military’s role conception – an important determinant of military missions, is shaped most prominently by its combat experience. Militaries sustaining casualties obtain leverage vis-à-vis civilians and based on their institutional preference, they either prioritise or avoid non-traditional missions. While making these arguments, this article examines combat casualties, role conception, and civilian control in India. These concepts as a whole and, the Indian case study especially are surprisingly understudied considering it is among the few non-Western democracies with firm civilian control, a record of overseas intervention operations and a military with varying roles and missions. Analysing India’s experience therefore adds to the literature and illuminates the mechanism through which casualties affect civil-military relations.

“There will be no shortage of books… or money to purchase them.” Education and the Reputation of the Library of the College of Artillery in Segovia as a Scientific and Publishing Centre

Charles III arrived in Spain from Naples accompanied by a multidisciplinary team of military advisers, including Count Gazzola from Piacenza, who had already drawn up his plans for the urgent military reforms required for the artillery. These included the institutionalisation of that branch of the army and the foundation of the college for artillery officers and industrial engineers to run the military factories being taken over by the State. The most eye-catching element of this undertaking is the formation of its magnificent Enlightenment scientific library. A study of this library reveals an exceptional collection, the origins of the first books brought to the institution, the way it was organised and the military and scientific topics addressed. But its fundamental contribution can be measured in terms of results: indeed, textbooks were created for the cadets, as well as research works on military, artillery and scientific topics written by teachers from the college, and translations of important European scientific books. Finally, as a contribution to demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of the Crown’s investment in education for war, we highlight the work of three captains, showing the versatility they achieved thanks to their education at the college and their reputation outside it, in the service of society, as guiding lights of the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País (SEAP – Economic Society of Friends of the Country) in Segovia. Without this magnificent library, the research, monographs and translations – ultimately the college’s own published works which brought it great academic credit in Enlightenment Europe – would not have been possible.

NATO’S ENCOUNTERS IN THE CYBER DOMAIN

Last two decades technological advances in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, telecommunications or space assets, brought new threats for the international security and have fundamentally changed the nature of warfare. Coercive cyber aggressions between opponents have enough potential to affect the digital economy and national security services without escalate into traditional conflicts. Cyber threats to Western security organizations are becoming more frequent, complex, and destructive. NATO’s strategic competitors such as Russia and China seek to shape cyberspace through state action in order to gain an asymmetric military advantage. By adapting its posture in the cyber domain, refining doctrine and developing new capabilities, NATO aims to deter cyber aggressions against its interest and to coordinate better the defense of its member states.

The Temple of Zeus at Lebadea. The architecture and the semantics of a colossus

The Temple of Zeus Basileus at Lebadea rests almost unknown. Its physical remains and date (not systematically explored so far) pose a riddle, as regards not only the circumstances which entailed its presumed incompletion but also the historic context in which the commencement of construction can be embedded. The dimensions of the krepis alone render this edifice highly interesting in the history of temple-building. The in situ preserved architectural elements suggest that here was begun the erection of what was at the time the largest peristasis in Mainland Greece. The temple stylobate measures 200 feet/podes in length, with a lower column diameter equal to just over two metres, and the longest interaxial spacings and corresponding architraves of its time. By increasing the length and height of the structure, the architects achieved its qualification as colossal. This qualification is revealed from the uniquefor-the-Classical-period length of 14 columns along the peristasis, with visible euthynteria and hypeuthynteria courses. As shown in this paper, this colossal structure abided by the rules of Doric design. Ascribing the unfinished state of the temple probably to financial shortcoming and/or military adventures, Pausanias did comment on its ambitious, gigantic size. The level of construction eventually reached is another focal point of our investigation. The study of the Temple of Zeus Basileus brings out the multifaceted notion of the term “monumentality”, tightly related to visual impact. One of the aims of its commissioners would have been to establish a landmark on the summit where Zeus was probably co-worshipped with Trophonios, the Boeotian hero-prophet. Since the temple in question, as we propose, most probably commemorated both a grandiose military victory in the 3rd century BC and the contemporary political situation, its imposing volume, along with the aesthetic effect of bichromy, were meant to perpetuate the overtone of these events within the ambience of the sacred Lebadea. Another facet of monumentality involves the respective building programme, and it derives from epigraphical sources, namely a contract specifying construction details, with particular instructions already at the orthostate level, denoting that accuracy in execution safeguarded the high quality of ancient Greek architecture.

Arms intervention: Weimar Germany, post-imperial influence and weapons trafficking in warlord China

The Treaty of Versailles aimed to strip Germany of both its colonial empire and the global reach of its arms industry. Yet the conflicts in warlord-era China led to the reestablishment of German influence on the other side of the world via the arms trade. Weimar Germany had declared a policy of neutrality and refused to take sides in the Chinese civil war in an effort to demonstrate that as a post-colonial power, it could now act as an honest broker. From below, however, traffickers based in Germany and German merchants in China worked to evade Versailles restrictions and an international arms embargo to supply warlords with weapons of war. Although the German state officially aimed to remain neutral, criminal elements, rogue diplomats, black marketeers and eventually military adventurers re-established German influence in the region by becoming key advisors and suppliers to the victorious Guomindang. Illicit actors in Germany and China proved to be crucial in linking the two countries and in eventually overturning the arms control regimes that were imposed in the wake of World War I.

A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century China

A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century China

Arms Control as Wedge Strategy: How Arms Limitation Deals Divide Alliances

Abstract Strategic arms control is in crisis. The United States and Russia have retreated from agreements that formed the framework for post–Cold War arms cuts and strategic stability, such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The only strategic arms control agreement between the United States and Russia (i.e., New START) expires in 2026. The political forcefield that sustained the old framework has been altered by major technological revolutions and China's rise. Motives for strategic arms control are conventionally framed in terms of their potential to enhance stability by limiting certain weapons, avoiding costly arms races, or preserving military advantage. But states can also use strategic arms control to divide adversaries. Wedge strategy theory explains how arms control can do so by affecting adversaries' threat perceptions, their beliefs about the costs and benefits of formal commitments, and their degree of trust in one another. Three landmark strategic arms control negotiations (the Five-Power Treaty and the Four-Power Treaty at the Washington Naval Conference, the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) show how the wedge motive informed these negotiations and influenced great power relations. The wedge logic remains relevant today. For example, the United States may employ future arms control agreements to drive a wedge between China and Russia, and it must be cautious about arms control deals with North Korea that would negatively affect its relationship with South Korea.

Iron Making in Fornovolasco (Italy) at the End of the Fifteenth Century, the Canecchio Furnace, and an Artifact Characterization

This study investigates the rise of the Este family in Garfagnana (Tuscany, Italy) during the first half of the 15th century. The Este wanted to annex this region to improve their cast-iron production both for military and economic advantages. This article, thanks to a document found in the State Archives of Modena, encompasses an overview of the Fornovolasco settlement, a description of the furnace room, an analysis of the first casting campaign, and an attempt at furnace sizing. In the final section, a brief characterization of a cast-iron artifact found in that region and probably coming from this casting campaign is provided.

Combatant socialization and norms of restraint: Examining officer training at the US Military Academy and Army ROTC

Can armed groups socialize combatants to norms of restraint – in essence, train soldiers to adopt norms of international humanitarian law on the battlefield? How can social scientists accurately measure such socialization? Despite being the central focus of organizational and ideational theories of conflict, studies to date have not engaged in systematic, survey-based examination of this central socialization mechanism theorized to influence military conduct.This study advances scholarly understanding by providing the first comparative, survey-based examination of combatant socialization to norms of restraint, using surveys and interviews with US Army cadets at the US Military Academy (USMA), Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), and active duty Army combatants. Additionally, to better understand ‘restraint’ from combatants’ perspective, this study introduces the concept of the ‘combatant’s trilemma’ under which combatants conceptualize civilian protection as part of a costly trade-off with the values of military advantage and force protection.Survey results hold both positive and negative implications for socialization to law of war norms: military socialization can shift combatants’ preferences for battlefield conduct. However, intensive norm socialization may be required to shift combatants’ preferences from force protection to civilian protection norms. Study findings hold significant implications for understanding violence against civilians in conflict and for policies to disseminate civilian protection norms in armed groups worldwide.