Transforming the Italian Armed Forces, 2001-13

According to the Military doctrine ofUkraine, one of the central tasks is to reform the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to achieve interoperability and technical compatibility with the armed forces of NATO member states, as well as adherence to the standards of work, division of functions and core tasks adopted in the EU and NATO member states. Today, there is a need to improve the system of communication between governing bodies in the military management system. However, the slow pace of implementation of NATO standards is significantly hampering this process. One reason for this is the lack of attention to the adaptation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' operational planning system to similar systems used in NATO countries. The article analyzes the principal principles of the communications organization and discusses the key steps involved in developing an operational plan based on the capabilities of NATO member countries. Since communication planning is one of the major elements of NATO operations planning, the authors of that article analyzed the operational planning of the communications and information system planning, taking into account the need to alignUkraine's Armed Forces management systems with NATO standards. During the research, the authors examined the main steps involved in planning the communications system, identified the factors that influence its planning process. Therefore, a promising direction for further research by the authors should be considered the justification of ways to improve the planning process of the Armed Forces communications system and detailed research of NATO documentation and standards, in terms of organization and planning of communications, in order to explain the requirements for the military management system inUkraine. This will allow the harmonization (integration) ofUkraine's national development plans with the NATO defense plan.

Military doctrine represents military thought and a common language of a military organization. It consists of a doctrinal troika - theory, culture, and authority -which is an important source of command, education, and change for any military organization. Conceptually, military doctrine is controversial; on the one hand, it is binding in a military organisation, but on the other hand, the dynamic nature of the environment requires rationality in its application. In this paper, we examine the ontological question »what is military doctrine«. The main contribution of the paper is to clarify the essence of military doctrine and to stimulate critical thinking among military commanders about its relevance for the coherent functioning of the military organisation.

It may be useful at the outset to define our terms. By military doctrine I shall understand the principles which are laid down as true concerning the deployment and employment of military force in the event of war. In the case of NATO they are embodied in MC 14/3 and amplified by authoritative spokesmen for the North Atlantic Council, the Secretary General of NATO or SACEUR. The doctrine typically establishes the relationship between challenge and response and among the various measures available for response. It should give general guidance to operational planning and the force planning process as well as provide a bridge between foreign policy and military dispositions. By arms control I shall understand measures — tacit or explicit; unilateral, bilateral or multilateral — designed to reduce or otherwise constrain the deployment or employment of military force. It seems clear therefore that military doctrine and arms control may at times constitute opposite sides of the same coin or of very similar coins. The purpose of arms control is to prevent war and limit the damage if a war should break out in spite of the efforts to prevent it. The purposes of a military doctrine is to provide coherence and cohesion to the process of mustering military force to deter and defeat an enemy. The perspective of military doctrine is typically one of maximizing the chance of success at the minimum cost, in other words it is concerned about the efficient allocation of means. The perspective of arms control is to prevent the military means from dictating or dominating political decision-making. Arms-control policy and military doctrine form a complex medley of policy perspectives on the prevention and conduct of war.

The article discusses the main changes in the use of the National Guard of the Republic of Kazakhstan within the framework of the evolution of the state's Military Doctrine. Since the independence of Kazakhstan, six Military Doctrines have been adopted. The author examines each of these doctrines, analyzing their implications and highlighting the role of the National Guard within the national security system, particularly its crucial function in ensuring military security. The article reveals that the construction, development, and strategic use of the National Guard of the Republic of Kazakhstan have been guided by the requirements outlined in the Military Doctrines. It emphasizes the main characteristics and features of modern military conflicts, as well as the primary tasks associated with the development of the state’s military organization, including the National Guard, which is responsible for maintaining internal security.

Globally, military doctrine plays a vital role as it provides the principles, guidelines, and policies that guide decision-making, planning, and operations in military organizations. In connection with this, doctrine development is a continuous process that aims to adapt to new and emerging threats and technologies, enhance operational readiness, and improve strategic effectiveness. Effective military doctrine ensures that military operations are conducted with discipline, efficiency, and effectiveness while minimizing risk to personnel and civilians. It also ensures that military operations are consistent with international law, human rights, and humanitarian norms. In addition, military doctrine fosters interoperability and cooperation among different military organizations, promoting greater stability and security globally. Therefore, the development and implementation of effective military doctrine are essential for ensuring peace and security in the world.

In this thesis, the research subject is the strategic thought of He Bo Shi Bei Lun writing by He qufei, which based on the “document analysis” research methods and adopts military strategy and political strategy as its research approach. For investigate the value of strategic thought of He Bo Shi Bei Lun, this thesis uses the case of U.S. War on Counter-Terrorism in Afghanistan (2001-2014) to examine the applicability and limitation of strategic thought in the war of today. The first chapter in this thesis, it discusses internal strategic environment and external strategic environment of the Northern Song Dynasty. The research concludes that both of the strategic environment are interacting and influencing each other. Because of the interaction, the prevailing custom of scholar discussing military science was been formed in the intermediate stage of Northern Song Dynasty and He Bo Shi Bei Lun can be published in the China’s history. The second chapter in this thesis, which uses military strategy research approach to analyze He Bo Shi Bei Lun in three parts: buildup, governance, and use of military force. In this analysis, first, buildup of military force has three points: doctrine of elite troops, brain-trust, and army comprised of national. Second, the opinion of governance of military force includes generalship and commanding soldiers, in this chapter our discuss tend to emphasize on generalship. The former contains leadership and civil–military relations; the latter focuses on the principle of commanding soldiers by law. Finally, the ideas of use of military force are discussing the importance of circumstances and flexibility of using military force. The third chapter in this thesis, which uses political strategy research approach to analyze He Bo Shi Bei Lun by four indicators: the government’s organizational force, the people’s centripetal force, the society’s stable force, and the international supporting force. In the first indicator about government’s organizational force, leader should keep its power certainly and use it to keep government stable. Second, the part of the people’s centripetal force, which indicates popular sentiment can influence the result of war and the transition of regime. So, the authorities should hold the heart of people. Third, the idea of society’s stable force, which is decision- maker, needs to carry out the policy that separate different ethnic groups to prevent ethnic conflict. The last anatomy in this chapter, international supporting force, it point out the importance of diplomacy, and then think that government should use diplomacy method to increase the possibility to win a war. After the second and third chapter, which uses military strategy and politics strategy to analyze He qufei’s strategic thought. The forth chapter uses the Case of U.S. War on Counter-Terrorism in Afghanistan (2001-2014) to examine the value of strategic thought in modern. In sum, He qufei’s strategic thought still has merit in modern, but some part of his thought also has limitation because it is limited by the factor of space and time.

Giuseppe Costantino was born in Nocera Terinese, Italy, on December 25, 1937. Giuseppe's personal understanding of the immigrant experience infused his career. He developed Cuento therapies, hero/heroine therapy for adolescents, and the Tell-Me-a-Story (TEMAS) tests, which addressed the growing needs of multiculturalism. He served as a junior lieutenant/training officer in the Italian Armed forces, obtained his teaching degree (1955). Costantino immigrated to the United States in 1961. He earned a bachelor's degree in industrial psychology from Baruch College, a master's degree in school psychology from City College, and a doctorate in clinical/community psychology from New York University in 1975. Giuseppe began his career as a caseworker. The bulk of his career was spent in Brooklyn, New York, where he was chief psychologist for 7 years, clinical director for 21 years, and director of research, training, and new programs from 2005 until his death. Giuseppe, a psychologist who dedicated his life to working for minority populations, particularly children, died on February 18, 2015.

To understand the problems involved in adapting to war, one must first come to grips with the complexities, ambiguities, and nature of war itself. This paper aims at theorizing multi-dimensionality of modern warfare antecedent?s non-state actors and state actor illuminated by Russia military capability to disrupt and deter Western activities and Eastern Europe infrastructure leveraged by the network grid of modern infrastructure as decisive point of victory. A framework for hybrid warfare (adaptive construct at war and peace time) set out a view of the character of conflict, depicts how military doctrine must change because of constrains and influence by globalization, technology and encapsulated by national interest in the battle space today. The framework components are (values/national interest, warfare ecosystem. human capital, infrastructure, scenario and stakeholders) depicting war strategy (ends/ways/ means) recentre of gravity nizing the limits of military expertise for collaboration; where, environmental degradation and food security are decisive point of victory that engage the most effective use of civilian buy-in during war campaign. The consequence of the ability of armed forces and war ecosystem to learn, adapt with distributed leadership capability and foresight to thrive on chaos because ?hybrid warfare? accentuate ?anticipation war doctrine?, war or peace is not declared, but in the continuum that examines the ?military capability? of every nation including the ?extra-terrestrial? like US Space Force, sixth military branch by 2020. Methodology thrives on change and evolution like the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria have shown that irregular warfare breaks from traditional understanding of how military and civilian leaders should each contribute to the overall effort of modern warfare (multi-modality, simultaneity, fusion, and catastrophic).

Military Ratchets Up Effort To Prevent Suicides

Problem setting. Prolonged hybrid aggression against Ukraine requires scientists to search for fundamentally new ways, forms and ways of confronting it. Goal one is to restore territorial integrity and peace in the East of our country. Unfortunately, Ukraine has already paid and continues to pay a large enough price to achieve this goal.Given the state of the national economy, the ability of the defense-industrial complex to ensure that the capabilities of the national defense forces are enhanced is a matter for obtaining foreign military assistance. Harnessing the capabilities of international security organizations is one way of counteracting hybrid threats. At the same time, the experience of practical implementation of these ways indicates that there are some restrictions on their use for peacekeeping in the East of Ukraine.Analysis of the recent research and publications. The current state of science of public administration of Ukraine is characterized by an active development of its theoretical foundations, which is evidenced by numerous publications in scientific journals. The issues related to the process of counteracting hybrid threats are considered in the works of modern Ukrainian scientists in the military sphere V. Frolov, M. Lobko, P. Snitsarenko, O Ustymenko, Yu Sarychev, F. Sahanyuk, Ye. Mahda, A. Ivashchenko.The experience of neutralizing threats to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and economic independence of Ukraine has shown the need to strengthen the capabilities of the state defense forces. This applies not only to the military but also to the information sphere, the integrated use of military and non-military forces and the means to ensure a sufficient level of military security of the state.The paper objective. The purpose of the article is to identify the problematic issues of receiving military assistance from NATO countries and other security organizations and how to address them. Research should be conducted on the basis of previous scientific research, analysis of the results of providing foreign military assistance to Ukraine for counteracting threats of a hybrid nature.The paper main body. For today's military conflicts, which have been called hybrids, it is characteristic that the purpose of resolving them is not so much the seizure of territories and natural resources, but the desire to control the mood of the citizens of the opponent country by controlling the information space and imposing its own policies.At the 2014 Wales Summit, NATO Member States decided to establish five trust funds to assist Ukraine in critical areas: management, control, communications and computerization (C4); logistics and standardization; cyber security; retraining and social adaptation of military personnel; medical rehabilitation. At the end of 2015, NATO also initiated the creation of a Joint Multinational Training Group – Ukraine. In June 2016, a decision was made to expand support for Ukraine. Through this assistance, the Alliance supports the reform of the security and defense sector in accordance with NATO standards. Strategic-level consultations are provided, and 40 specially designed support measures are being implemented.Since 2014, Ukraine has received assistance totaling more than $ 3 billion from the United States. About $ 1.3 billion in equipment was provided to the security and defense sector. However, assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine is only $ 361 million.Despite the considerable amount of assistance from Alliance countries and other international security organizations, there are some pressing issues in expanding forms, methods and tools (mechanisms) for obtaining military assistance. The issues at stake do not allow a systematic approach to foreign military assistance policies and to fully exploit the potential of international security organizations to counter hybrid threats.There is a need for research to determine the priority of the tasks and activities that rely on joining (parts) the components of the defense forces involved in a Joint Force operation to counter a hybrid threat. The purpose of such research is to determine the rational composition of the forces in the Joint Operation Area and the contribution of individual components of the defense sector to the objective of the operation.The policy pursued in the territories of the occupied parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions by a group of usurpers is unacceptable. This policy has led to widespread destruction of the infrastructure and suffering of civilians. Therefore, more attention should be paid to another rule of law that can be used to benefit from assistance from other countries and international security organizations. This rule is embodied in the «Responsibility to Protect» concept. It is the duty of the world community to protect civilians, social and ethnic groups from genocide from other groups or from the criminal policies of their own state's authorities. At present, the concept of «Responsibility to Protect» is a set of principles based on the idea that «sovereignty is not a privilege, but a responsibility».Given the lack of study of the impact of the use of mechanisms and provisions of this concept in the interest of receiving foreign military assistance to counteract hybrid threats, it is appropriate to conduct separate scientific studies.Conclusions of the research. Despite the considerable amount of foreign military assistance, especially from the United States, which Ukraine received in 2014–2019, it was not systematic.The ambiguity in the priority of the individual components of the defense sector in addressing major tasks in the operation of the Joint Force creates additional difficulties in planning activities aimed at obtaining military assistance from NATO countries and security organizations.Implementation of the proposed pathways in the practice of counteracting hybrid threats will make more effective use of the instruments (mechanisms) of bilateral and multilateral cooperation with partner countries, notably in the direction of intensification of defense and technical cooperation, including the receipt of military assistance from them.

The “Arab Spring” uprisings are a historic milestone from Israel’s national security perspective, regarding to the political and security changes in the regional strategic environment, as Israel’s geographic neighboring, Egypt and Syria, have become more threatening. As a serious scientific attempt under the umbrella of the balance of power theory in the political science literature on military doctrine change, this paper aims to examine conditions under which a domestic political change or unrest in a state may affect, positively or negatively, the change of the military doctrine of another state or states in neighborhood. By applying this research question to the case of the Arab uprisings and Israel, the study examines, from Israeli elite’s perspective, why and how the aforementioned uprisings affect the Israeli military doctrine, and explores whether the particular components of this doctrine have been affected to the same degree. The study uses elite approach, and discourse analysis as key methodological tools. The general findings indicated that the Arab uprisings have strong and diversified impacts on the components of the Israeli military doctrine. These impacts may be compared to those of regional wars and military conflicts, as they have reshaped the map of security risks and threats.

Although inter-state tensions have generally been easing after the Cold War, military power remains a dominant factor in Asian regional politics. As China, operating the world's largest army, grows stronger, there are ongoing debates over the implications for Asia's regional security. This book argues that it is imperative to look beyond the empirical observations and conventional materialist reading of Chinese military development to understand its dynamics and directions in doctrinal terms and put it in a readiness context for evaluation. Military doctrine has long been under-studied and is often treated as a subject separate from force development. But, as this study contends, this factor is necessary for interpreting the making and purposes of China's military power because it forms the intellectual foundation of military structural and hardware development. When loaded with political rhetoric, it also communicates to us the intended uses of the military power. The role of doctrine is reinforced in the context of military readiness, which defines what for and how the army is getting ready. Force development is evaluated in structural, operational and directional terms.The importance of this analytical framework based on military doctrine and readiness is demonstrated in a survey of the evolutionof Chinese military doctrine and force development. As the Chinese People's Liberation Army has continued to adjust its military structure and operation to follow the doctrinal lead, its switches between the doctines of local war and total war have seen corresponding changes to the emphasis between operational and structural readiness.

The Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988) was the result of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East after the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. Certain longstanding territorial disputes and the absence of mutually recognized state border between the rivalry countries were among the direct pretexts of the war. At the same time neither Iraq, nor Iran were ready to serious war, both did not want it in such scales, and they did not possess chemical weapons (CW). During the war, Iraq enjoyed broad international support. At the same time, revolutionary Iran turned into a pariah state. By 1983, Iraq began to suffer a defeat from Iran, which possessed considerable human resources. Because of that certain Western countries helped Iraq (on the paid basis) to start its own CW program and the industrial production of chemical agents and munitions. Gradually CW became an integral part of the offensive and defensive operations, planned by the Iraqi command. Due to the technologies, equipment and chemicals, supplied by certain foreign, mainly Western firms, Iraq was able to start the industrial production of mustard gas, tabun and sarin/cyclosarin, as well as to start the synthesis of VX. During the war, CW turned from purely defensive into offensive means of warfare. The war ended as chemical. In 1988 all the operations, which led to the end of the war, were carried out by Iraq with the use of CW. At the same time, the war revealed certain weaknesses of chemical protection means, possessed by both sides. Thus, it appeared to be impossible to sort effectively the wounded and affected by CW during the medical evacuation phase. The existing decontamination means turned out to be ineffective in case of mass arrival of the affected into hospitals. Because of that, the secondary contamination of medical stuff took place even in Western hospitals. The protective equipment against blister agents, used by NATO countries, turned out to be insufficient in case of use of «dry yperite» by the Iraqis. The accepted schemes of treatment of the affected by tabun also showed their inefficiency. As we find out, the experience of the Iran-Iraq chemical war is studied actively in the West up to now

Nowadays, the military forces’ operational environment is shaped by dynamic changes that give its most representative characteristics such as volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). Based on this and taking into consideration the tendency of NATO to use more prominently its multinational military structures, we are obligated to adapt our way of teaching and training if we want to be effective in the process of educating the next leaders for future military environments. In other words, during the classes, also in the field, we should try to educate and train our cadets, at least, to think from a joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational (JIIM) perspective when conducting military actions, even at a small tactical level, such as the platoon.

The central theme of this issue is asymmetric threats with emphasis on the new role of the armed forces as one of several possible national responses. Asymmetric threats are not a new phenomenon. According to the literature, they are one of the oldest forms of threats, although in most cases the term asymmetric is not specifically mentioned. Asymmetry as a term referring to something that is not symmetrical or equivalent emerged later than the threats we today identify as asymmetric, and is consequently considered more modern. In reality, asymmetry is a form of threat that no one expects. It can relate to the organizational, personnel-related, and quantity-related aspects or some other aspect. It is important to note that an asymmetric threat emerges in a way that comes as a surprise. Our responses are therefore delayed, since such a threat was unexpected and we are not (yet) properly prepared to counter it. For this reason asymmetric threats are a big challenge. We can deal with them in different ways; one of them is certainly military. In asymmetric warfare, a very important effect is demonstrated with the use of minimal input, assertion of various interests – most often of an individual or group against a larger group or country – innovative approaches, and with high efficiency compared to the resistance of the target. When considering the role of the armed forces and their response to asymmetric threats, both the question and the answer to whether this should be the new role of the military are quite obvious. Asymmetric threats are a series of threats with a rich history, but it is their very innovation, effect of surprise, and inflicted damage that require a great deal of vigilance on the part of all whose fundamental mission is to ensure national security. In the past few years, Slovenia has faced various threats that could be classified as asymmetric, such as floods; ice storm; mass, group and individual illegal migration, and COVID-19. The state responded to them by activating various stakeholders, including the military. With its numerous past experiences acquired at home and abroad, the Slovenian Armed Forces has successfully joined state activities to normalize, assist in, restore and resolve the existing situation, and to provide order and security. Nevertheless, all stakeholders in the country who are involved in the efforts tackling the emerging asymmetric threats, including the Slovenian Armed Forces, are constantly faced with new challenges. These are manifested in various forms such as the need for new knowledge, other forms of cooperation, provision of specific logistical support, changes in legislation, modernization of the self-protective equipment for the employees and the efficiency of communication and other devices. In order to be better prepared and more responsive to asymmetric threats in the future, we still need to do more to face the above-mentioned challenges. There are several ways to do this. One of them is to write articles on the role of the armed forces in asymmetric threats. The authors of articles in this issue share a variety of experiences, views and ideas on how to proceed in order to be better prepared and more effective in the future.