{"title":"Relations of Central Asia with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization","authors":"M. de Haas","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2017.1271642","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2017.1271642","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Comparing the influence of and relationship of Central Asia with the major regional bodies, the SCO is an advantageous organization for the economic development of Central Asia, since it is an opportune podium for doing business, especially with China, with a guarantee that Moscow nor Beijing will take a dominating stance against them. Due to a lack of armed forces among CSTO allies, Russia delivers the majority of the troops assigned under the banner of the CSTO. However, this also means that the Kremlin — in return for its security umbrella — demands a certain degree of political influence on the Central Asian member states of the CSTO. The less Central Asian countries are depending on Russia for political, economic/energy, or security reasons, the more they can pursue their national interests.","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"1 - 16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13518046.2017.1271642","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59847685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Lien, Kristian Firing, Mons Bendixen, L. Kennair
{"title":"Meaning and inconsistencies of meaning – exploring the perspectives of Norwegian veterans in Afghanistan","authors":"R. Lien, Kristian Firing, Mons Bendixen, L. Kennair","doi":"10.1515/jms-2016-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jms-2016-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This qualitative study explores the meaning-making process of veterans to address the positive aspects of military service in international operations. Thirteen veterans from a Force Protection Unit in Norway were interviewed about their deployment to Afghanistan. A thematic analysis revealed three main themes reflecting meaningful aspects of the service. “Confirmation of ability” refers to finding meaning by coping with stressful situations and being recognized for it. “Cohesion of peers” refers to finding meaning by belonging to a team and giving mutual support within the team, such as backing up each other and caring. “Significance of effort” refers to finding meaning by seeing their efforts as a contribution, as well as by receiving recognition and gaining status for their efforts. The analysis also revealed accompanying themes of inconsistencies, which in turn activated different coping strategies. The findings have been substantiated through a functional exposition of meaning: purpose, value, efficacy, and self-worth, as advocated by Baumeister (1991), and are discussed in the context of previous research and a theoretical concept of meaning making. Steps for future research are proposed.","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"26 1","pages":"31 - 43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84374714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bayesian belief network for assessing impact of factors on army’s lean–agile replenishment system","authors":"Pankaj Sharma, M. Kulkarni","doi":"10.1515/jms-2016-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jms-2016-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A dynamic time-separated lean–agile spare part replenishment system can prove beneficial to the army by being efficient (cost saving) during peace and effective (assured availability) during war. The logistics echelons must have certain attributes in order to implement such a dynamic replenishment system. The purpose of this article is to identify the factors/attributes that are necessary in a spare part replenishment system of vehicles and weapon platforms in order to implement a time-separated lean–agile strategy through a systematic literature review. Furthermore, the article will investigate the impact of these factors/attributes, individually and collectively, on overall system performance. This will enable logistics managers to focus only on the factors that have greater impact on the system. A model explaining the effects of various contributory factors/attributes on the overall logistics system has been developed through a comprehensive literature review, experts’ judgments and inputs from practising logisticians in the military field. The article then models the system using a Bayesian belief network (BBN) on Netica software. After the development of the model using Netica, a sensitivity analysis based on the mutual information criterion is conducted to identify the critical factors that most significantly affect a dynamic lean–agile spare part replenishment system. The study addresses the identified need of applying BBN to model an uncertain and complex military logistics domain.","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":"11 - 23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84678431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measuring military university Students’ motivational goals in the domain of physical exercise","authors":"Antti-Tuomas Pulkka","doi":"10.1515/jms-2016-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jms-2016-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The aim of this study was to test whether the existing achievement goal orientation instrument could be modified to measure goal endorsement in recreational physical training. The participants were 139 second-year students at the Finnish National Defense University. The orientations were assessed using a modified questionnaire that included four orientations: mastery-intrinsic orientation (focus on learning new things and developing competence), mastery-extrinsic orientation (focus on learning and mastery but with extrinsic criteria such as grades), performance-approach orientation (focus on outperforming others) and performance-avoidance orientation (focus on avoiding judgments of incompetence). Based on the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, factor structures were compared. The comparison of psychometric results of different models supported the four-dimensional instrument. The participants mostly strived for personal development of fitness, as well as good results. They also emphasized social comparison to some extent but had very little concerns of failure or appearing inferior.","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":"1 - 10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78302797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Lugo, Stefan Sütterlin, Benjamin J. Knox, Øyvind Jøsok, Kirsi Helkala, N. M. Lande
{"title":"The moderating influence of self-efficacy on interoceptive ability and counterintuitive decision making in officer cadets","authors":"R. Lugo, Stefan Sütterlin, Benjamin J. Knox, Øyvind Jøsok, Kirsi Helkala, N. M. Lande","doi":"10.1515/jms-2016-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jms-2016-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The rapid technical progress in cyber threats and cyber security poses increased cognitive demands on cyber officers. The macrocognitive demand characteristics placed on the cyber officers exceed those in most common military contexts and are new in nature. Research on decision-making competence within the cyber domain is needed to identify strategies and give a better understanding of how these strategies can have consequences depending on task characteristics. Belief in one’s capabilities to handle a certain task has been shown to be a key factor for cognitive performance. This study investigated how high self-efficacy negatively moderated intuitive decision-making tendencies on performance when facing a problem that required counterintuitive strategies. Twenty-seven cyber officer cadets from the Norwegian Defence Cyber Academy participated in an experiment assessing self-efficacy, interoceptive sensitivity, and decision-making. Participants with high situational self-efficacy generally performed better, but this relationship was moderated by interoceptive sensitivity. The findings suggest potential detrimental effects of intuitive decision-making tendencies in combination with high self-efficacy. Implications for training and feedback structures in cyber defense are discussed.","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"7 1","pages":"44 - 52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78384972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Examining the relationship between personality, organizational political skill and perceived team performance in a multinational military staff exercise context","authors":"Alicia Ohlsson, Erik Hedlund, G. Larsson","doi":"10.1515/jms-2016-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jms-2016-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Military staffs are composed of many smaller teams that are interdependent upon each other for a positive functioning level of the whole staff. Many factors can improve or harm the harmony of the staff. Recently, there has been an increased interest in the soft factors that may affect team performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the Big Five personality dimensions, political skill and perceived team performance in a multinational staff training event. The sample included 185 military staff officers (49% response rate). The results indicated that the personality dimension Emotional stability and Political skill had a limited, yet statistically significant, predictive power on team performance. Practical considerations and future research directions are suggested.","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"24 - 30"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75152139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stahel, David, Operation Typhoon: Hitler’s March on Moscow, October 1941","authors":"Romedio Graf von Thun-Hohenstein","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2016.1200398","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2016.1200398","url":null,"abstract":"For the reviewer, it is an astonishing yet welcome fact that the German-Soviet War of 1941–1945 is still being covered by such recently published books such as Niklas Zetterling and Anders Franksonʼs The Drive on Moscow, or Jack Radey and Charles Sharpʼs The Defense of Moscow 1941, while Lev Lopukhovsky has written a major study about the Viazʼma encirclement battle. There is also the meticulous and profound, but somewhat less accessible, day-to-day four-volume study about the Battle for Smolensk, in which David Glantz has cast new light on this complex operation, which, according to a detailed official study by General G. F. Krivosheev, resulted in the Soviet loss of 759,974 soldiers. Now David Stahel, whose previous books aboutOperation Barbarossa and the battle for Kiev asserted that Hitlerʼs decision to attack the Soviet Union on 22 June and divert its forces to conduct the encirclement battle of Kiev in September sealed the fate of the Third Reich in the long run, has produced a new volume about Operation Typhoon and the German defeat at Moscow in December 1941. This new work, which exploits predominantly German sources, should be evaluated and compared with the major studies written by General Klaus Reinhardt and Ernst Klink, which were published in 1971 and 1983 respectively, to determine whether Stahel provides new and deeper insights. Apart from his German-centered approach, Stahel points out that the main focus of this book is on the role of German panzer and motorized divisions, whose operations produced understandable limitations on the German Army’s operational capabilities. However, despite acknowledging the fact that the invading German Army of June 1941 was principally an infantry army, he does not adequately cover the many problems generated by the army’s organizational structure. For example, Army Group Centerʼs forces on 2 October 1941 numbered 46 infantry, 13 panzer, and seven motorized infantry divisions, although unlike the US infantry divisions in June 1944, the German motorized divisions were only partially motorized. Even though the Wehrmacht began the war on 22 June 1941 with around 600,000 motor vehicles, Stahel estimates it lost between ʻ180,000 and 240,000ʼ vehicles by the end of September, which is a bit inaccurate. Here, he should have mentioned that the Army Command (Allgemeines Heeresamt) had declared on 1 May 1941 that the monthly attrition rate up to this time, while fighting in countries with good infrastructures like France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, was as much as 12 percent. This meant that, under the far worse conditions of the Russian road network, the monthly attrition rate went sky-high. The author might also have mentioned that the attrition rate was not the only problem with motor verhicles, since the number of differing spare parts for vehicles within Army Group Center reached","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"527 - 531"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13518046.2016.1200398","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59847675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"War Games of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization: Drills on the Move!","authors":"Marcel de Haas","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2016.1200383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2016.1200383","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The SCO is a political, economic, and security organization that started its security policy in arms control and subsequently developed war games. Conversely, the CSTO is a military alliance with collective armed forces. The military exercises of the CSTO are focused on conventional warfare, peacekeeping, antinarcotics, counterterrorism, and disaster relief. The SCO conducts counterinsurgency drills, as well as large-scale conventional warfare games. The dominating role of Russia and China in CSTO and SCO is also reflected in the military exercises of these bodies. The views that Central Asian countries put forward in SCO and CSTO are not coordinated on a Central Asian regional level but usually only serve national interests. There is no such thing as a common Central Asian approach to security.","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"378 - 406"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13518046.2016.1200383","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59847640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Security Policy and Developments in Central Asia: Security Documents Compared with Security Challenges","authors":"M. de Haas","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2016.1168123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2016.1168123","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the security policy of the Central Asian (CA) states, by comparing theory (security documents) with practice (the actual security challenges). The lack of CA regional (security) cooperation and authoritarian rule puts political and economic stability at stake. The internal and external threats are partly caused by the CA regimes themselves: Political opposition groups are often described as terrorists and/or blamed to be connected to Islamic State (IS). There is hardly any effort toward improving social-economic circumstances, which would take away grounds for (Islamic) radicalization. Moreover, the CA governments are themselves responsible for regional border, water, and energy disputes. Political unrest and radicalization, IS, as well as terrorism and drugs from Afghanistan could become serious threats to the survival of CA governments.","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"203 - 226"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13518046.2016.1168123","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59847633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adversarial Risk Analysis for Enhancing Combat Simulation Models","authors":"Juho Roponen, Ahti Salo","doi":"10.1515/jms-2016-0200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jms-2016-0200","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Adversarial Risk Analysis (ARA) builds on statistical risk analysis and game theory to analyze decision situations involving two or more intelligent opponents who make decisions under uncertainty. During the past few years, the ARA approach-which is based on the explicit modelling of the decision making processes of a rational opponent-has been applied extensively in areas such as counterterrorism and corporate competition. In the context of military combat modelling, however, ARA has not been used systematically, even if there have been attempts to predict the opponent’s decisions based on wargaming, application of game theoretic equilibria, and the use of expert judgements. Against this backdrop, we argue that combining ARA with military combat modelling holds promise for enhancing the capabilities of combat modelling tools. We identify ways of combining ARA with combat modelling and give an illustrative example of how ARA can provide insights into a problem where the defender needs to estimate the utility gained from hiding its troop movements from the attacker. Even if the ARA approach can be challenging to apply, it can be instructive in that relevant assumptions about the resources, expectations and goals that guide the adversary’s decisions must be explicated.","PeriodicalId":35160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"256 1","pages":"103 - 82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74499833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}