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Copyright of URVIO - Revista Latinoamericana de Seguridad Ciudadana is the property of FLACSO - Ecuador (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) 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.)

The main goal of this paper is to present and compare the main developments in the Russian wars in Ukraine and Syria by considering the main patterns, parallels, and changing trajectories that could shed more light onto both of these war zones, which are highly interlinked due to Russia's leading role in both. It analytically, comparatively, and contemplatively approaches those developments by highlighting multiple similarities and the main differences in global responses to these conflicts. Both conflicts should be seen as highly unpredictable, dynamic, and unnecessarily extended asymmetric proxy wars in which global powers test their new military doctrines and their competitors' responses to their unconventional actions and other unsolicited and indirect interferences in the local dynamism of both wars. Unlike in Syria, the Ukrainian war zone is wholly transformative and ready for the adoption of partial hybridization and the utilization of the new software-defined warfare in combination with conventional weapons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the system of joint doctrine development in the Czech Armed Forces (CAF) focused on the operational level of command and control, including the implementation of the NATO doctrines into national conditions. Among others, it was found that the structure and content of the Czech doctrines are not systematically set. Allied doctrines are introduced either by rewriting them into the Czech version or by introducing them in the full English version. In both cases, it might cause inconsistency in military terminology. The Coordinating Committee as the only supervisory body does not have the authority to streamline the process of producing military publications. The most important paper recommendations include alignment of the Czech doctrinal framework with the NATO architecture, adoption of Allied doctrines in the English version including the national specifics, or redistribution of competencies within the processing group. Notwithstanding, the above-mentioned proposals, which indicated high impact, require crucial steps to be taken to implement them.

Recent events have made it much more likely that the United States (U.S.) and its allies could wage an unconventional warfare campaign in a future international armed conflict. Should this occur, the conflict will--between many of the States involved--be governed by the most controversial portions of Additional Protocol I, including Article 44's rules limiting the need for partisans to wear uniforms. While the U.S. is not a Party to Additional Protocol I, U.S. practitioners cannot ignore the Protocol. By understanding how the Protocol applies to Parties, the U.S. will see many benefits, including increased protections for friendly partisans, and incur necessary costs, including limits on its ability to try enemy fighters. Failure to understand the protocol, however, will undermine the combatant immunity enjoyed by the U.S. Armed Forces and their allies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the policy world, the idea of ideational robustness deals with why and how policy elements can be maintained over time and the implications this has for government strategy and activity. Past approaches to ideas and their influence on public policy stressed the disparate roles of multiple policy mechanisms such as path dependency or the nature of policy networks in either driving policy change forward or ensuring persistence of a policy. Ideational robustness on the other hand allows for the possibility of some changes occurring in policy environments and components while motivating cognitive and normative policy ideas are adapted and retained. While ideational persistence has often been identified as a source of policy stability, the possibility that some ideas allow lesser or greater levels of change in policy components while basic policy content remains more or less intact (ideational robustness) is much less well understood. The article reviews the literature on policy change and stability which highlights the influence of different policy processes on overall policy dynamics and the role played by policy learning in promoting ideational robustness. Using evidence from military doctrines and procurement in Canada and Australia, the study finds that the two countries drew different defence policy lessons from the end of the Cold War which contributed heavily to the extent of robustness of their defence policy ideas. The case studies show that ideational robustness is important but also that its study must be combined with that of other policy mechanisms and processes in order to explain overall policy change patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colombia's military doctrine is being questioned as the country's armed conflict has evolved. President Gustavo Petro has promised a new approach, including negotiations with armed groups and a shift away from aggressive military strategies. However, progress has been mixed, with negotiations having varying outcomes and violence in conflict regions persisting. Petro's strategy combines military deployment and peacebuilding, but concerns remain about the effectiveness of a militarized approach. The government is also addressing the increase in cocaine production and the control of criminal armed groups in rural areas. The new military doctrine prioritizes protecting civilians and targeting the financial activities of these groups. However, challenges persist, such as the lack of trust in the military and the need for long-term investment and state-building. The United States supports Petro's peace efforts, but there are critics both domestically and internationally. Despite the challenges, there is an opportunity for genuine peacebuilding by establishing trust with affected communities and respecting their human rights. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Revista UNISCI is the property of Unidad de Investigaciones Sobre Seguridad y Cooperacion International (UNISCI) 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.)

The article assess how acts of counter-proliferation have formed a niche doctrine for military action against threatening nuclear weapon programs from non-nuclear weapon states and the application of this doctrine to future nuclear threats. Topics include a discussion of the Caroline Doctrine and attempts to expand or modify it for the nuclear age, why states would want a nuclear weapon, and concerns in the U.S., European Union and Israel about Iran's effort to build a nuclear weapon.

Large-scale military platform procurement is an essential but understudied component of the policy studies of megaprojects. Procurement decisions in this area, from ships to aircraft, are examples of a specific type of often very expensive purchases which feature complex multi-actor and multiyear processes characterized by high degrees of conflict between actors over purchases and planning horizons. This study of military procurement efforts of this type demonstrates the importance of maintaining policy 'alignment' between governments and service providers for successful megaproject procurement to occur and suggests several strategies for accomplishing this that can be applied to similar large-scale but nondefense-related projects, ranging from hydroelectric dams to high-speed railway development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista UNISCI is the property of Unidad de Investigaciones Sobre Seguridad y Cooperacion International (UNISCI) 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.)

This paper analyzes and compares the impact of the 1968 Prague Spring on military and strategic thinking in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. A great change in the Czechoslovakian military caused Memorandum 68, a proposal of domestic military doctrine which consistently took into account the vital security interests of Czechoslovakia in international relations at that time. The document was mainly based on the inviolability of Czechoslovak territory and the right of its nations to defend their own existence regardless of the superpower interests of the Soviet Union. At the same time Yugoslavia began to develop its own doctrine of the General People's Defence and Social Self-Protection, which emphasized its total nature, creating the reality of the concept of a "nation in arms," which attached great importance to soldiers and the art of soldiering in Y ugoslavia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the many reasons for the failure of the Israel Defence Forces' (IDF) in the Second Lebanon War was the concept of Systemic Operational Design (SOD), translated into de facto military doctrine. The story of the rise and fall of the SOD idea is a warning sign for all militaries faced with "modern" and "fashionable" ideas. The purpose of this paper is therefore to describe and evaluate the Systemic Operational Design created and introduced into the IDF by Brigadier General Shimon Naveh and the Operational Theory Research Institute (OTRI). The study is based on the literature created by the State of Israel, the IDF, and its main proponent Shimon Naveh, as well as other militaries (mainly the US Army). This theoretical background is confronted with the IDF's operations during the Second Lebanon War of 2006 and their effects on the war's outcome. The over intellectualised, ambiguous, and not properly structured concept of the SOD, introduced as the IDF's doctrine and approach to operations, led to military failure (which also had more root causes) in Lebanon. A study of the SOD failure should lead to a careful approach being taken to all new military concepts and ideas. Both change and continuation need to be properly balanced and evaluated, while enhanced military effectiveness could be of great value. At the same time, the impact of concepts which are not well anchored in military science/history and untested, like the SOD, could be devastating for militaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1991, when they regained their independence, the Baltic States have made a concerted effort to become part of the Western alliance system. The article is based on the idea that the primary reason for this orientation cannot be explained solely by normative elements such as identity or culture. Undoubtedly, the West has always been a world to which these countries in question did not belong. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the main priority of the Baltic States, which are categorised as small states, is to preserve their independence. As a result of their historical experiences, Russia is the biggest obstacle that the Baltic countries see in front of these goals. In order to balance the renewed and intensely felt Russian threat, the West has been seen as the only real strategic choice for the region’s countries. This article argues that the countries of the region have no alternative option in this process, which resulted in membership in NATO and the EU. Indeed, historical experience has shown that these countries’ strategic choices, such as bandwagoning to preserve their independence, which would mean aligning with the threatener, or avoiding being the centre of attention of the adversary by remaining neutral have not yielded results. Therefore, this article aims to try to understand the logic of the Baltic states’ strategic choices based on the balance of threat theory. This is because by turning towards the West, the countries of the region have sought to balance not Russian power but the threat they perceive from this country.

Copyright of Journal of Policy & Complex Systems is the property of Policy Studies Organization 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.)

A generic reasoning approach for autonomous unmanned vehicle (UxV) mission execution is presented. The system distinguishes (a) mission planning and (b) mission execution, treating these as separate but closely interdependent stages. The context of the work is that of tactical military operations, and the focus of the current (simulated) application is on ground-based platforms. The reference behavior for the UxVs is defined by military doctrine. Two operational requirements are met: (1) Mission plan and execution must be constructed such that they can be understood and evaluated (prior to giving the go ahead for the platforms to commence the mission) by a decision maker. (2) Mission plan and execution must account for both observations/information gathered during execution (for example, the spotting of enemy units) and for foreseeable changes in the internal and external situation (e.g., a sub-system failure, or changes in terrain or weather). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the formal establishment of their partnership in the early 2000s, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has built initial political trust with NATO by supporting NATO’s military operations in Afghanistan and combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden, and a basic framework for promoting political dialogue and bilateral cooperation has been set up, which focuses on military capacity building and interoperability, cyber security, as well as science and technology. By deepening its relationship with NATO, the ROK intends to demonstrate its pro-Western identity and improved international status, increase diplomatic pressure and sanctions over the DPRK to force it into denuclearization, learn from NATO’s military doctrines and technologies to improve its own military capabilities, and seek opportunities to have its place in the European arms market. Under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, the ROK is expected to further elevate its partnership with NATO and build itself into a stronghold of NATO cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. The deepening of the ROK’s relations with NATO will boost the expansion of NATO influence in the Asia-Pacific and undermine the regional balance of power. It will also create new divisions in the region and worsen the surrounding environment for China’s development, which poses challenges to China-ROK relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1991, when they regained their independence, the Baltic States have made a concerted effort to become part of the Western alliance system. The article is based on the idea that the primary reason for this orientation cannot be explained solely by normative elements such as identity or culture. Undoubtedly, the West has always been a world to which these countries in question did not belong. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the main priority of the Baltic States, which are categorised as small states, is to preserve their independence. As a result of their historical experiences, Russia is the biggest obstacle that the Baltic countries see in front of these goals. In order to balance the renewed and intensely felt Russian threat, the West has been seen as the only real strategic choice for the region's countries. This article argues that the countries of the region have no alternative option in this process, which resulted in membership in NATO and the EU. Indeed, historical experience has shown that these countries' strategic choices, such as bandwagoning to preserve their independence, which would mean aligning with the threatener, or avoiding being the centre of attention of the adversary by remaining neutral have not yielded results. Therefore, this article aims to try to understand the logic of the Baltic states' strategic choices based on the balance of threat theory. This is because by turning towards the West, the countries of the region have sought to balance not Russian power but the threat they perceive from this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security strategy documents are the main sources of a state’s threat perceptions, interests, and possible foreign policy steps. These documents include national security concepts, foreign policy concepts and military doctrines. In light of these documents, it is also possible to clearly predict how a state can respond to regional and global developments. In this context, these documents highlight the outlines of the policies of the Russian Federation (RF) toward post-Soviet geography and its relations with the Euro-Atlantic Bloc (NATO and the European Union). Ukraine is also one of the factors determining relations between the RF and the Euro-Atlantic Bloc. Within this frame, relations between the RF and Ukraine are generally assessed in the context of the eastward enlargement of the Euro-Atlantic Bloc. However, in addition to this enlargement, historical-symbolic and military-geopolitical relations between the two states should also be considered. In other words, the annexation of Crimea should be reduced not only to current geopolitical realities but also to the place of Ukraine and Crimea in Russian historiography. After all, the RF’s perception of Ukraine was crucial to the occupation process. Within this framework, the annexation of Crimea will be analyzed in light of geopolitical and historical developments and the context of the RF’s security strategy documents. This analysis will undoubtedly guide the study of the RFUkraine War that began in February 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between Western military doctrine, international law, and the impact of sieges in war. This paper examines three case studies – the battles of Mosul (2016–2017), the Second Battle of Donetsk Airport (2014–2015), and Ghouta – to analyze the effect of international law on the conduct of sieges and how that impacts the attacker, the besieged, and the innocent bystanders. In the end, we find that Western military doctrine is inadequate to address siege situations, which in turn can result in mishandling siege situations from an international law standpoint. Additionally, we find that international law, as well as applied law, provides the actors therein sufficient leeway to create the conditions for the siege to continue to be used well into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politologija is the property of Vilnius University 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.)

The paper presents the results of research, whose main goal is to evaluate the aviation and rocket capability of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and Ukraine in terms of a possible launch of regular warfare. The authors primarily focus on changes in the military doctrine of the Russian Federation, which have created legal determinants of the use of armed forces outside the country’s territory in defense of national minorities, illustrated by taking control of Crimea. The authors also stress Russia’s military plans, including the development directions of the potential of armed forces as well as a possible threat to the security of the eastern NATO’s flank in the event of a conflict in Ukraine. In this respect, the capabilities of the air defense of countries on the eastern NATO flank, particularly Poland’s capability, were analyzed.

Since cyberspace was identified as a domain of operations, defence practitioners started a race with academy, researchers, and industry and military organizations working together towards defining related lines of capability development (e.g., DOTMLPFI) and exploring the needs and opportunities they entail. An essential cornerstone of adapting to the convergence of the cyber domain with conventional theaters of operation is the need for producing tools for easing to acquire cyber situational awareness (CSA), from which human operators shall be able to perceive, reason and project situations and events observed in cyberspace that may vertically/horizontally propagate from technological to tactical, operational and strategic planes. Benefiting from the higher maturity level of civilian capabilities for cybersecurity, the military sector has embraced the challenge of creating related beyond state-of-the-art CSA enablers that comprise the existing technological background while adopting concepts such as operations, missions or courses of action (CoAs), properly aligning them with military doctrine. Beyond ongoing development efforts, there is a wide methodological gap in the lack of suitable CSA verification and validation (V&V) frameworks, which are expected to analyze if related capabilities meet the requirements to operate in the military context; at the same time supporting the thorough development life-cycle of brand new cyber defence technologies. With the motivation of closing the identified gap, this research introduces a novel V&V framework able to guide the evaluation of CSA-related tools, which makes converge purely military aspects with dual-use state-of-the-art V&V approaches. Three core CSA evaluation concepts are discussed in-depth: software, operational and application tests. They range from the daily application of new capabilities to their ability to enable the acquisition of a joint operational picture understandable by human decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a review of the studies about the National Security Doctrine (DSN) by means of approaching pioneering studies that describe it as a Latin American phenomenon. This literature is analyzed based on two objectives: to account for the DSN and how is it characterized, and to show how these studies explain the process of development or incorporation of the DSN in the region. The literature is classified into two tendencies, "classical" and "critical". The first conceives the DSN as a corpus of ideas originating abroad --mainly in the United States- and absorbed by the Latin American armed forces. The second one has a critically stance regarding the latter, it denies the systematic nature of the DSN and its homogeneous penetration in the region; emphasizes the different origins and temporalities of its components, and the internal processes that enabled it. It is established that the differences between them derive from their way of conceiving the Cold War, the determinations that it entails, and the link between center and periphery, and that those differences are understood when situating the respective currents in the Latin American intellectual field in which they emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The redirection of military strategy towards counter-guerrilla warfare in the 1950s and the United States' positioning as the dominant power in the Western Hemisphere after World War II enriched the Colombian National Army's doctrine. This article examines the background that enabled implementing the military concept of air mobility -prevalent worldwide in those years-in the Colombian Army's military doctrine to complement the troops' ground maneuver performance. To this end, the article analyzes the 1962 Lazo Plan and the 1969 EJC 3-10 regulation to establish their conceptual advances, American influence, and the circumstances that prompted these new elements, such as Colombia's participation in the Korean War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to highlight the contents of theAlgerian approach to resolving the current Libyan crisis, which is basically consistent with the principles of its foreign policy, by focusing on the principle of dialogue and emphasizing peaceful solutions, and rejecting all forms of foreign intervention. In this context, the Algerian diplomacy strives within the framework of the regional competition to find a solution to the Libyan conflict through dialogue between the Libyans parties. Thus, the Algerian approach and its perceptions of the solution to the Libyan crisis do not depart from the principles of theAlgerian foreign policy and the principles of its military doctrine. In fact, Algeria does not hide its fulfilment to these principles, which are mainly based on non-interference in the internal affairs of states, respect for the sovereignty and unity of states and the choices of peoples, and searching for peaceful and diplomatic options to resolve international crises instead of resorting to the use of force and military decisiveness. Since President Abdelmadjid Tebboune came to office, the Libyan issue has topped the priorities of the Algerian foreign policy. Hence, Algeria's diplomatic initiative to solve the Libyan crisis is based on its historically impartial diplomatic weight in the region, and the output of Algeria's network of relations with the various active powers in the Libyan arena which has been the establishment of a new equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Recent Period Turkish Studies / Yakın Dönem Türkiye Araştırmaları is the property of Recent Period Turkish Studies / Yakin Donem Turkiye Arastirmalari 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 Estudios Internacionales is the property of Instituto de Estudios Internacionales de la Universidad de Chile 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 Military Science Review / Hadtudományi Szemle is the property of National University of Public Service 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.)

Low-intensity conflict is a concept whose beginnings date back to the 1980s and it is defined as a political-military confrontation between contending states or groups below the intensity of conventional war and above the routine, peaceful competition among states. It frequently involves protracted struggles of competing principles and ideologies. Low-intensity conflict ranges from subversion to the use of the armed forces. It is waged by a combination of means, employing political, economic, informational and military instruments. Low-intensity conflicts are often localized, generally in developing countries, but contain regional and global security implications. The most significant content of the low-intensity con flict in the country being acted upon is insurgency, whether it is being helped or crushed. Insurgency is an organized, armed political struggle aimed at seizing power through revolutionary takeover and replacement of the existing government. This paper provides an overview of previous research on the topic of low-intensity conflict and presents its key components.

The root cause for the defeat of the Armenian forces in the second Nagorno-Karabakh War was flawed military doctrine inherited from the Soviet Union. This article analyzes the major problems faced by Armenia, uncovers the main reasons for unsuccessful innovation, tests empirical findings against some of the most authoritative theories in the field, and outlines current research on the conflict, while substantiating the analysis with established scholarship in the field of military innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Relaciones Internacionales, Estrategia y Seguridad is the property of Revista de Relaciones Internacionales, Estrategia y Seguridad 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.)

India's aggressive military doctrine exploits the questionable space for a limited war under a nuclear overhang. This doctrine is designed to dilute, if not fully compromise, the notion of nuclear deterrence. Indian military high command has often boasted about waging a conventional war against Pakistan. India's unilateral decision to repeal Kashmir's special constitutional status has further exacerbated the volatility of the hitherto conflict-prone environment in South Asia. India's doctrine manifests in the offensive deployment of S-400 missile systems along Pakistan's border, further supplemented by the positioning of Dassault Rafale fighter jets. While it might temporarily alter the region's strategic stability equation, Pakistan must rebalance this shift in its strategic stability. There is a need to review the notion of strategic stability as it applies to the region's nuclear balance of power. This paper analyses India's aggressive military doctrine fuelling its desire to wage a limited conventional war against Pakistan, examines the effects of growing military asymmetry, evaluates the impact of the short but swift military action in February 2019, and finally endeavours to determine the stabilizing impact of the nuclear deterrent on South Asia's strategic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lijecnicki Vjesnik is the property of Croatian Medical Association 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.)

Why do some winning rebel groups build obedient and effective state militaries after civil war, while others suffer military defections? When winning rebels face intense security threats during civil wars, rebel field commanders are more likely to remain obedient during war-to-peace transitions. Intense security threats incentivize militants to create more inclusive leadership structures, reducing field commanders' incentives to defect in the postwar period. Intense security threats also reduce commanders' capacity for postwar resistance by forcing insurgents to remain mobile and adopt shorter time horizons in rebel-governed territory, reducing the likelihood that field commanders will develop local ties and independent support bases. The plausibility of the argument is examined using a new list of winning rebel groups since 1946. Two case studies—Zimbabwe and Côte d'Ivoire—probe the causal mechanisms of the theory. The study contributes to debates about the consequences of military victory in civil war, the postwar trajectories of armed groups, and the conditions necessary for civil-military cohesion in fragile states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia i Polityka is the property of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun 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.)