An ethical defense of treason by means of espionage

This essay argues that treason by means of espionage is ethically justified when six factors are present, two of which are: that the political community being betrayed fails to secure for its citizens basic human rights and other means of peaceful or otherwise lawful protest are unavailable. The paper begins by analyzing the application of several theories of ethics to treason, including: consequentialism, deontology, the Just War tradition, and Michael Walzer’s influential concept of ‘dirty hands.’ It then criticizes these points of view and offers an account of jus ad proditione per intelligentia (just treason by means of espionage) based upon Aristotelian thinking about ethics and politics.     

The carcass of dead policies: lessons for Obama in dealing with Iran

The United States has spent 30 years clinging to variations of the same policy towards Iran, to no avail. ‘Doing the right thing’ has proved perplexing, complicated and, ultimately, elusive. In 1979, the United States struggled to come to terms with Iran's transformation from consort to adversary. Washington had difficulty fitting Iran into the hierarchy of regional and international priorities, often viewing it through the prism of its other regional concerns. Administration tensions, varying levels of dysfunction and wider governmental conflict also affected policy formulation and execution by producing different agendas, and, occasionally, a range of different assessments of US policy. Underpinning and exacerbating these problems was the fact that policymakers were doing a jigsaw with missing pieces. Two types of intelligence failures, missing and poor information and flawed interpretation, proved debilitating. A further complication was the fact that the United States and Iran engaged in a dialogue of the duff for nearly 30 years. Besides not hearing each other (and when they did, regularly misunderstanding the message), bad timing and the intervention of events conspired repeatedly to frustrate initiatives and confound a breakthrough. This case-study-based analysis of policymaking and policy explores why successive administrations have failed to ‘park Iran in a better place’ and offers a set of lessons for the Obama administration as it confronts this unique ‘non-relationship’.     

WarViews: Visualizing and Animating Geographic Data on Civil War

In the recent years, the field of conflict research has produced new findings on the relation between conflict and geography. In doing so, new data sets have been created with the help of GIS software. These data sets include variables relevant for the study of conflict with a spatial component. However, the use of geographic data requires specialized software and substantial training and therefore involves high entry costs for researchers and practitioners. This paper introduces the WarViews project whose aim is to create an easy-to-use front end for the exploration of GIS data on conflict. It takes advantage of the recent proliferation of Internet-based geographic software and makes geographic data on conflict available for these tools. With WarViews, geographic data on conflict can be accessed, browsed, and time-animated in a few mouse clicks, using only standard software. As a result, a wider audience can take advantage of the valuable data contained in these databases, for example, as supplementary data for conflict case studies or for classroom demonstrations. We present two versions of WarViews. The static version runs in a web browser and allows the user to switch between different data sets. The dynamic version is based on Google Earth and can time-animate geographic data such that the development over time can be monitored. The WarViews website can be freely accessed at http://www.icr.ethz.ch/research/warviews .     

高技术局部战争中电子对抗的特征

结合８０年代以来发生的几场主要高技术条件下局部战争的战例，可以看出电子对抗的主要特征：电子对抗已经渗透到了军事的各个领域；主要目标是Ｃ３Ｉ系统；采取的手段是“软”、“硬”打击并举；电子对抗已几乎贯穿于战争的全过程，成为高技术局部战争中的重要作战手段。现代战场上，电子对抗斗争异常激烈，没有“电磁优势”、“钢铁优势”就难以维持，不掌握“制电磁权”，就谈不上什么制空权、制海权     

禁毒人民战争解读

在国家禁毒委员会的全面部署下，各地、各部门以“参与禁毒斗争，构建和谐社会”为主题，组织开展了全国性的禁毒人民战争。毒品问题的严峻形势得到有效缓解，全民识毒、拒毒、防毒意识普遍提高，禁毒的社会氛围更加浓厚。本文从健全和完善禁毒人民战争的理论体系出发，着力于禁毒斗争的纵深发展。     

从小说叙事视角还原《水浒传》“滥杀”

《水浒传》中存在着大量的＂滥杀＂情节描写。从小说文本的角度去观照这个问题,＂滥杀＂情节存在的原因有：一是历史事实在小说文本中的遗迹,二是继承于话本及杂剧,三是小说的浓厚的神学色彩,四是文人在水浒故事的艺术再创造过程中具有的＂暴力美学＂思想。     

未来战争对传统战争观念的挑战

传统的战争观念要随着战争形态的变化而改变。未来战争对传统战争观念将提出四个方面的挑战：“近战制胜观”受到“远战制胜论”的挑战；传统的夜战优势，受到高技术夜视装备器材优势的挑战；传统的以歼灭敌人有生力量为主的思想，受到以歼灭敌人的装备系统为主的思想的挑战；传统的“战争是流血的政治”，受到“战争也可能是不流血的政治”的挑战     

乔治·华盛顿军事思想述评

早在殖民地时期,华盛顿就生动地阐述了用武力反抗暴政的思想。独立战争期间,伴随着军事斗争实践经验的不断积累,华盛顿的军事思想得以全面丰富和发展,主要包括:实行积极的防御,根据敌我双方的力量对比灵活制定战略;着眼形势的发展,正确作出判断和决策;集中优势兵力;保持部队的机动性;加强正规军建设;树立必胜的信念;建立国际军事同盟;等等。华盛顿和平时期的国防思想主要包括以下内容:坚持不加重国家经济负担的军事建设原则;把海军放在军队建设的第一位;国防建设的基点放在民兵身上;坚持文官治军原则;重视军事教育和军事科研;等等。     

宪法中的战争权

人民主权理论决定了战争决定权应由议会行使。战争宣布权一般属于国家元首。战争指挥权由最高行政长官掌握,是军事统帅权而不是军事统率权。战争执行权主要属于政府及其有关部门。最高军令权和军政权属于总统或首相;此外的军令权属于军官,军政权属于文官,在许多国家二者统属于国防部。在战争的决定权、宣布权、指挥权和执行权中,战争的决定权和指挥权（以及彼此的关系）是最重要的,也是宪法重点规范的对象。     

ISIS-chan – the meanings of the Manga girl in image warfare against the Islamic State

This article explores gendered meanings of ISIS-chan, an Internet meme in the form of a manga girl, produced and used to disrupt the messages from the Islamic State. Moreover, it investigates the performative power of ISIS-chan, and how it is used/interpreted as it circulates on the Internet. The ISIS-chan campaign is seen as an example of how the girl figure is mobilised in the political context of the War on Terror. Characterised by girlish playfulness, humour and creativity, I suggest that ISIS-chan challenges the stereotypical representations of femininity in the War on Terror, and may be perceived as a trickster.