scholarly journals US security provision under Joe Biden: A preliminary reconstruction of national strategy

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-373
Author(s):  
Vitalii E. Boldyrev ◽  

The article proposes a new understanding of the phenomenon of security as the desire of the state to achieve the most favourable trajectory of development under existing constraints. The concept of a favourable trajectory depends on objective factors and its subjective interpretations that are fixed in strategies and programs. In order to make these interpretations systematic and form a holistic model consisting of them, a new algorithm for strategical and program documents has been developed. According to the algorithm, every priority should be marked by code (or its combination) which corresponds to one of the subsystems of the global system and its component to create a database. The analysis of the database makes it possible to isolate problems whose relevance was artificially overestimated prior to elections, to forecast the directions of sequestration of their priorities, to determine the degree of continuity, to rank areas of the policy, to identify probable interconnections among them and to predict the foundations of a promising strategy. In regard to Biden’s program, the algorithm made it possible to achieve the following results. It was revealed that the program is more a succession to Trump’s strategy than innovative. The priority of the economic, social and financial spheres was artificially overestimated and the degree of their importance will be reduced after Biden’s inauguration. Economic, energy and legal spheres will be the cornerstones of Biden’s future strategy. Cyber, raw materials and technological subsystems will be assigned the role of drivers of development. Their successful functioning will be dependent on the dynamics of the military and agricultural sectors. In turn, demographic, trade, financial and credit, civil, humanitarian and cultural subsystems will acquire a more subordinate position and their role will be determined by the solution of specific issues. At the same time, it is difficult to determine the concrete positions and roles of future social and ecological policies because they had been overdeveloped or unclearly prioritized in the electoral program.

2020 ◽  
pp. 360-374
Author(s):  
Evgeny V. Igumnov

The activities of military topographers in Western Siberia to provide cartographic information on the foreign and domestic policies of the Russian Empire in Central Asia and Siberia in the 19th century are considered in the article. The role of information in the formation of the Russian Empire is emphasized. The contribution of the state to the organization of the study of the Asian regions of Russia and neighboring countries is noted. The establishment of the military topographic service in Western Siberia can be traced taking into account data on administrative transformations in the Siberian region, and on changes in the foreign policy of the Russian Empire. The participation of military topographers in determining and designating the state border with China is described in detail. The question of the role of military topographers in the scientific study of China and Mongolia is raised. The significance of the activities of military topographers for the policy of the Russian Empire on the socio-economic development of Siberia and the north-eastern part of the territory of modern Kazakhstan is revealed. The contribution of topographers to the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, the design of river channels and new land routes is revealed. A large amount of literary sources, materials on the work of military topographers of Western Siberia, published in “Notes of the Military Topographic Department of the General Staff” is used in the article.


Author(s):  
Oren Barak

Since Lebanon’s independence in the mid-1940s, its military—the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)—has played a pivotal role in the country’s politics. The political role of the LAF in Lebanon might seem surprising since the Lebanese state did not militarize, and its political leaders have continuously managed to keep their military relatively weak and small. Indeed, in this respect Lebanon has been markedly different from its close neighbors (Syria and Israel), but also from several other Middle Eastern states (especially Egypt and Iraq), where the military, which was large and powerful, was continuously involved in politics. Additionally, both Lebanon and the LAF have persistently striven to distance themselves from regional conflicts since 1949, particularly in relation to the Palestinian issue, albeit not always successfully. Still, and despite these ostensibly unfavorable factors for the military’s involvement in politics in Lebanon, the LAF has played an important political role in the state since its independence. This role, which has been marked by elements of continuity and change over the years, included mediation and arbitration between rival political factions (in 1945–1958, 2008, 2011, and 2019); attempts to dominate the political system (in 1958–1970 and 1988–1990); intervention in the Lebanese civil war (in 1975–1976 and 1982–1984); attempts to regain its balancing role in politics (in 1979–1982 and 1984–1988); and facilitating the state’s postwar reconstruction (since 1991). The political role of the military in Lebanon can be explained by several factors. First, the weakness of Lebanon’s political system and its inability to resolve crises between its members. Second, Lebanon’s divided society and its members’ general distrust towards its civilian politicians. Third, the basic characteristics of Lebanon’s military, which, in most periods, enjoyed broad public support that cuts across the lines of community, region, and family, and found appeal among domestic and external audiences, which, in their turn, acquiesced to its political role in the state.


Author(s):  
Oleksandr Zaikivskyi ◽  
Oleksandr Onistrat

Keywords: defense capability, intellectual property, regulatory support The conceptual issues of the legislation of Ukraine,which determine the state policy in the field of national security and defence, regardingthe settlement of issues related to ensuring the state defence capabilities are considered.The scientific publications on actual questions in this sphere concerningproblems and prospects of increase of defence capability of Ukraine are analysed.The role of intellectual property in all components of Ukraine's defence system hasbeen studied, and it has been noted that unresolved problems in the field of intellectualproperty management pose an increasing threat to Ukraine's national security.The importance of ensuring the protection of intellectual property in the process ofimplementing measures to improve the defence capabilities of the state and the needto improve legislation in this area is defined. Recommendations for improving the regulatory framework for national securityand defence in order to address the problematic issues of intellectual property in thisarea are submitted.State defence capability is the ability of state to defend itself in the event of armedaggression or armed conflict. It consists of material and immaterial elements and is aset of military, economic, social and moral and political potential in the field of defenceand appropriate conditions for its implementation.Resolving the issues of reforming not only the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but firstthe entire state, modernization and rearmament of the Ukrainian army has become avital necessity. Only the solution of this issue will allow to raise the defence capabilityof our state to the proper level for the preservation of independent Ukraine.Ensuring the military security of Ukraine largely depends on equipping the ArmedForces of Ukraine with modern types and models of weapons and military equipment,developed on the basis of intellectual property rights.It is the military-technical sphere where the objects of intellectual property rightsbelonging to the sphere of national security and defence are created, and the state isobliged to ensure their protection. This will increase the competitiveness of the domesticdefence industry and make claims impossible for anyone in the mass productionof weapons and military equipment for their own needs and for exports, which directlyaffects defence capabilities.And this requires proper protection of intellectual property rights both in theprocess of own production of weapons and military equipment, as well as in militarytechnicalcooperation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-235
Author(s):  
Maryna Navalna ◽  
Yuliia Kaluzhynska

The article describes the most commonly used lexemes from the texts of contemporary Ukrainian periodicals, reveals new lexicalunits, expands thes copeof the operation oflexemasonmilitarytopicsinthemediamaterialsofsocio-political, military an do the rissues; thefunctional-stylistic role of military vocabulary in the language of the pressis determine dandemphasizedon a negative evaluation injournalistic materials. In the article for the study of military vocabulary in the language of Ukrainian periodicalsat the beginningof the XXI century observation and descriptivemethods are used. At different stagesof the study, the methodoffunctionalanalysis was used to determine the stylisticloadoflexicalunits. Itisconcludedthatdueto a numberofextra-linguistic factors of socio-politicalorientation, the modern Ukrainian language was enriched with new tokens of militaryactions, processesandstates, whichis reflectedin the pages ofthen ational pressof the seconddecade of the XXI century. Inparticular: thelevelofdevelopment of science and technology in the language environment, socio-politicalcondition sin the linguistic society, thestate language (terminology) policyinsociety, the functional statusof the state language, the international status of the national language. The military vocabulary is singled out into two groups: 1) the one that names persons; 2) the one that characterizes processes, actions and states. According to our observations, the most significant manifestations are lexemes of foreign origin for the nomination of persons. Quite often, military vocabulary has a negative coloring, contrasts with the neutral vocabulary and attracts the attention of the reader. The military vocabulary is still a little explored layer of lexicology and requires a thorough study, in particular, the question of replenishment of thematic groups, word-building potential of lexemes, etc.


Author(s):  
Philippe Droz-Vincent

Why did the Syrian army play such a crucial role in the country? How did it change over the years after independence? At first glance, one would look at the post-independence history of coups d’état for an explanation. Such path dependence helps us to understand how the army positioned itself close to politics and how the surge of the military in the state (cor)related with huge changes in Syrian society. The political role of the Syrian military, however, is much more complex to decipher. The officer corps that acted behind many different regimes became a crucible for political scripts in Syria. The military or politicized cliques within it came to control (civilian) politics in Syria. Yet, quite differently from other Arab countries where coups took place, such as in Egypt, the Syrian army was much more subjected to broad social trends active in the modernizing of Syrian society, in particular the role of ethnicity and confessionalism. Closeness to politics had blowback effects on the (civilian) political system and even on the army institution itself, as it literally imploded in politics. Syrian politics was later “de-militarized” in a very specific sense, that is, politics was rebuilt on different grounds larger than just military politics, namely authoritarianism. The coup in November 1970 by Hafez al-Assad was a real break and not just another coup in a long series. A new political system was rebuilt by Hafez, himself an officer, with the army as a crucial pillar of his regime, much more focused on internal security functions than on waging wars with Israel. At the same time, however, Hafez pushed the officer corps away from direct politics and relied on other pillars, especially networks of power in the security services and the state bureaucracy. The Syrian military was transformed and adapted to this new enduring regime, quite a novelty in Syria when compared with the 1950s–1960s. The military was part of the enduring status quo of the Assad regime for 40 years and benefited from it—at least the high officers did. No wonder that in March 2011 and at times of Arab uprisings spreading from Tunisia to Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, and Syria, the army was pulled by the regime into repression. The role of the Syrian military became all the more crucial as Syria treaded the path toward full-scale civil war after 2012, or after the latter took the form of a proxy war around Syria with huge regional and international interventions. After a substantial number of individual defections, the military was rebuilt during the conflict with Russian and Iranian support, and this support will be a key component of regime reformation in Syria.


Author(s):  
A. Sindeev

The article examines the state of the Bundeswehr reform in the context of the European Security and Defence Policy. The emphasis is laid on the process of major decisions preparation, problems to be solved in the course of the reform, the state of the Bundeswehr, the role of a subjective facilitation, and on the approaches of three German Ministers of Defence. According to the article, the Bundeswehr is being transformed into an offensive army. It will be active outside Germany, and is gradually changing its essence as a parliamentary army. The reform was prepared gradually and imperceptibly to the public. In 2010, the Weise-Commission presented the reform proposals. The new Defence Minister De Maizière left these proposals unchanged. His merit was a good management of the reform. The scandal with the Euro Hawk forced him to resign. As the next Minister Von der Leyen was new to the Ministry of Defence, the reform of the Bundeswehr stopped. Germany will have to realize a dual strategy: а) to strengthen the military cooperation in the EU and NАТО; b) to maintain the own strength before the emergence of the EU security and defence structures and mechanisms.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 544-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Battera

This article argues that differences in Arab authoritarian regimes were mainly linked to the relationship between the state, the political party in power and the military. By exploring such differences in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria prior to the 2011 crisis, they are explained in the context of the political changes that ensued in the wake of the crisis. How the army played the dual role of instigating change while impeding it at crucial points in the transitional process is described. The mutual lack of autonomy between the state, the party and the military appears to have been a key factor in impeding change, whereas a clear separation of the functions of these institutions was more likely to enable political change to come about.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
Vadym Pakholchuk

Introduction. Military conflicts cause a lot of destructive influences not only on the political situation in the country but of course on its the financial system. That’s why in this article, the main emphasis of the research was done on risk-ratio analysis of the Ukraine and Israel economies since the role of military budget expenditures in the whole financial system is growing. Military finance is one of the biggest components of the financial system of Ukraine. So, according to the nowadays situation and military conflict in Ukraine appears the necessity of searching for new ways to increase this kind of expenditures efficiently.  Aim and tasks. The problem of the research was to measure risks of the economies according to the GDP trends and to find the place of the military expenditures in all government expenditures. Results. In the research results, it should be mentioned that the most difficult approach for comparing is the international currency, which is weighed against the depreciation of cash flows in time. However, the research used the current exchange rate for convenience. But, this does not have a significant effect on the interpretation of the results of the research, presented in the form of a CAPM analysis of the economies of countries and their defense expenditures. After all, trends are generally observed over a period of time that has been analyzed. The general state of financial systems in the regions was analyzed as the value of volatility, aggregate risks and the overall growth of the economy. The US GDP, as for an example of the largest economy in the world, served as a comparative basis. It correlates and affects all other financial markets. The obtained results made it possible to draw conclusions about the attractiveness of the state for potential investors, despite armed conflicts with neighbors in the territory and areas of influence on the regions under control. In this paper, a standard statistical analysis package was used using an example of linear regression with one variable. The power of the influence of military expenditures was measured by the ratio of variables and their correlations. The obtained results were characterized by a high level of interconnection power and reliability of the hypotheses obtained. This gives an opportunity to describe the role of military conflicts and support the Armed Forces for the state economy. Conclusions. The result of the presented research of the role of support and financing of the Armed Forces as one of the key elements of the stability of the Ukrainian economy and ensuring its sustainable growth is the sustaining of the military expenditures for Ukraine. The presented conclusion was approved on the Israel example and calculations. This approach and methodology is universal and can be used for other researches.


2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-83
Author(s):  
Alexander S. Sukhanov

The article deals with the contributions of servants and clerks of Western Siberia in the second half of the XVII early XVIII centuries based on the materials of two contribution books of the Dalmatov Assumption Monastery. These books were described and preserved by V.P. Biryukov and introduced into scientific circulation by I.L. Mankova. The purpose of the article is to analyze the contributions of service corporations, as well as to determine their number among the population of the region. Based on the analysis, the table lists the main categories of the military and military population of the region and their families. A total of 126 entries were recorded, out of more than 1300 contributors. The article traces the fate of the noble and non-noble representatives of these social groups and their role in the development of Western Siberia. The article also examines the military and political processes that took place in the Moscow state and were reflected in the contributions of this population group. The article deals with the service of the boyar children in Siberia, the dragoon reform of the Tobolsk voivode P. I. Godunov, the role of the Slobodchiks and the White Local Cossacks in consolidating the region as part of the state. In addition to these categories, among the contributions of service people are mentioned collars, gyrfalcon pomykalschiki, coachmen, blacksmiths and others. The article also shows the social changes that took place within the service population of the region.


Author(s):  
Ayesha Siddiqa

Civil–military relations (CMR) in Sri Lanka are an outgrowth of its military’s primary role of defending the state against domestic insurgencies. Historically devoid of any external threat, the main role of the Sri Lankan Army, which was the only active service at the time of independence of the island state in 1948, was ceremonial. Later, when the Air Force and Navy were also established, the role of the armed forces remained limited to policing. This function grew as a result of multiple insurgencies in the south, and later, north and northeast of the country. The CMR balance is defined by Sri Lanka’s politics. Successive governments have used the armed forces as a policy tool in enforcing a political philosophy that upholds Sri Lanka’s status as a Sinhala-Buddhist state. Over the years, the state was gradually transformed from its secular and semi-European character to predominantly, Sinhala-Buddhist. This resulted in the first coup attempt in 1962 by officers that were fearful of “Sinhalization” of the state, which went against the traditions the military had inherited. While the attempt failed, the political leadership speeded up the process of changing the ethnic balance in the armed forces through increasing Sinhala intake. Other policy changes like introducing Sinhalese as the only state language went against the inherited secular structure of the state. This caused a spike in internal tension that presented itself initially as a class conflict, and later morphed into ethnic contestation between the Sinhala and Tamil populations. The internal ethnic war that was fought from the 1970s onwards solidified both the Sinhala ethnic character of the state and the military. These domestic conflicts have also defined the professionalism of the armed forces. While ensuring that the military remains under control, the civilian leadership invested both in making the armed forces professional and ethnically tilted toward the majority. This contradiction represents Sri Lanka’s politics and CMR balance. Since the 1980s with a rise in Tamil insurgency, successive governments in Colombo appreciated the need to professionalize the military to fight internal wars. More money was spent on honing the defense services’ capabilities. However, this capacity building ensured that the military and its military capacity would serve the political interest of the Sinhala elite and majority population, with little concern for the political rights of the Tamil. In this respect, Colombo’s politics is unrepresentative and its CMR balance makes for a model that can only be explained as positively favoring civilians if viewed only from the theoretician Samuel P. Huntington’s viewpoint as laid out in his book ‘The Soldier and the State’. This makes Sri Lanka’s case similar to those of other regional democracies like India where the majority ethnic group or the ruling elite partner uses the armed forces to enforce its legal and constitutional framework, which does not necessarily favor minority groups, or certain regions. Such a framework means that the CMR balance must be described as representing not a strong and stable democracy, but a weak democratic structure.


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