Conflict Studies / nota bene - rubric Armed conflict and war

Abstract: The author analyzes the features of the expert activity of the RAND Corporation at the end of the twentieth century, aimed at studying the colonial experience of counterinsurgency activities of the British Empire during the interwar period. The position of the American analytical center on the possibility of using such experience in modern conditions is considered. A comparison is made of the conclusions of RAND Corporation experts on a similar issue in an earlier historical period - the Cold War era. The reasons for the change in the views of the experts of the analytical center on the question of the potential possibility of applying the colonial experience of the counterinsurgency of the British Empire are revealed. Thus, the characteristic features of the academic examination of US foreign policy decisions at the end of the twentieth century are analyzed. The analysis showed that the RAND Corporation considered this experience useful to the United States, since this analytical center believed that the United States after the end of the Cold War found itself in the same position as the United Kingdom after the First World War. At the same time, the United States repeats the same mistakes that the British Empire authorities made – reducing spending on the army, shifting the emphasis from using infantry in anti-insurgency operations to modern weapons, spreading pacifist ideas and reducing the level of military training. Also, the RAND Corporation for the first time evaluated the colonial experience of the British Empire in a negative way, thereby advocating a return transfer. The United States of the late twentieth century, according to the analytical center, should make decisions not similar to those taken by the British authorities in the interwar period, but opposite to them. This approach is explained by the fact that the RAND Corporation had to provide information support for increasing spending on the US armed forces and maintaining large contingents of troops.

Keywords: rebellion, expertise, counterinsurgency, transfer, colonial experience, Interbellum, British Empire, counter- guerrilla activities, RAND Corporation, analytical center

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2023.3.38904

Abstract: In modern conditions the range of use of intelligence in politics is expanding. Today, experts single out intelligence operations as a separate kind of informational confrontation, on a par with the cybernetic and psychological struggle. In international conflicts, the goals are more and more often achieved not through direct military influence, but using alternative forms: sabotage, economic, diplomatic, etc. One of the widespread areas of secret services’ activity appears to be the interference into the development of the political systems of sovereign states. Thus, nowadays on a par with military interventions there are economic, diplomatic, ideological, intelligence, etc. interventions. This circumstance significantly complicates both the detection of foreign interventions and realization of countermeasures. It is especially difficult to solve these tasks in a situation of reconnaissance/intelligence intervention carried out by the secret services, whose activities are, as a rule, autonomous and entirely based on the use of unofficial methods and techniques, quite often associated with violation of the law. Moreover, as far as the choice of a interventional course by the government mostly depends on the information on the development of the situation provided by various departments, a misestimation is possible due to high level of bias in the work of intelligence-analytical services. In this perspective, studying the experience of past interventions largely reveals the most dangerous for the state forms of external interference. Account of this experience is a necessary condition for the formation of ability of society to resist disorganization and the crisis of statehood.

Keywords: McNamara’s law, opportunistic behavior, political decision-making, agency, intervention, intelligence, secret services, Civil war, small wars, conflict

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2023.2.40901

Abstract: The author studies the interactions between non-profit organizations and regular military forces within modern conflict zones. It covers the typology of observed relations and analyzes and makes an assessment of their impact on conflict dynamics and humanitarian response. The paper presents four major interaction modes: support, cooperation, neutrality and rivalry. The analysis of the available literature demonstrates a number of challenging issues such as the lack of communication between NGOs and the military, different approaches to similar tasks, information exchange, politicization and others. At the same time the article reveals the shift in the nature of conflicts and the emergence of new modern challenges and threats that require additional research. The study used logical-intuitive modeling based on institutional approach to cover the issue from a political realism perspective. The conclusions demonstrate the insufficient research of certain types of interactions (support and rivalry), specific challenges for the Russian Federation and the importance of bolstering cooperation between NGOs and the armed forces. Therefore, the article provides recommendations on how to increase the efficiency of interactions and reduce risks and threats.

Keywords: conflict management, unfriendly states, instruments of power, humanitarian interventions, armed conflicts, civil-military relations, armed forces, NGO, non-profit organizations, peacemaking

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2017.1.22864

Abstract: The subject of this study is the military and political conflict that broke out in the Republic of South Sudan two years after receiving its independence from the North Sudan in 2011. Analyzing the failure of yet another American democracy-promotion project on the African continent, the author turns to the origins of the conflict, analyzing the multitude of factors that hardly promote economic advance of a young sovereign state, but rather contribute to the spread of corruption, conflict, degradation of power, impoverishment, and transformation of the country into a battleground. As part of the study the author used a structural and functional method of analysis (taking the conflict of parties, opinions and forces as a basis of the conflict), as well as the comparative-historical method, by comparing the development of the conflict in the Republic of South Sudan with the experience of other countries of the African Continent being "democratized". The usage of these tools has allowed the author to study the nature of the military and political conflict. The word «conflict», according to the Great Encyclopedic Dictionary, is interpreted as a collision of parties, opinions, forces. The author explores the origins and the nature of the South Sudan conflict in the context of these three categories, and expands the range of supposed factors that influence the emergence and development of the said conflict in the modern geopolitical conditions, viewing the existing problem as a complex model. The author draws attention to clash if interests as an important aspect of conflict in the modern age of depolarization and redistribution of spheres of influence, which would allow to predict future conflicts, and thus lower the risks of "hot spots" forming in different parts of the world.

Keywords: military-political conflict, UN peacekeepers, race for power, sovereignty, independence, interethnic contradictions, South Sudan, humanitarian disaster, global hegemony, ISIL

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2015.1.14063

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2015.1.66063

Abstract: This article analyzes the unfolding situation in the Black Sea region, on the background of escalating crisis in Russia-NATO relations that is closely linked to the perception of current events in Ukraine. The author outlines the interests of the USA in the Black Sea region, as well as the dynamics of NATO expansion in this area. A growth in NATO politico-military activity becomes evident since early 2014, simultaneous with the escalation of Ukrainian crisis, taking into account the increase in overtly anti-Russian military exercises by Alliance member states. The author analysis of NATO leadership’s decisions to increase Navy presence in the Black Sea. The methodology of this research includes systemic, structural-functional and comparative approaches, as well as methods of analysis, synthesis, observation and modeling. In this article, the author reaches a conclusion that NATO leadership deliberately aggravates the situation in the Black Sea basin, as well as possible withdrawal from the Montreux convention that regulates military ship presence in the Black Sea by U.S. and their allies. The author provides a risk appraisal for international security and national security of Russian Federation.

Keywords: conflict studies, foreign politics, conflict, Black Sea region, Black Sea gulfs, NATO, Russia, North- Atlantic Alliance, Security, Crimea.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2022.3.35062

Abstract: The subject of the study is a non-lethal (non-lethal) weapon. The object of the study is the thesis of his humanity and safety, put forward by some military experts. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the correctness of the thesis about its safety based on the analysis of the features of the use of non-lethal weapons in modern local wars and armed conflicts. The relevance of the study is determined by the appearance in the United States and NATO of updated conceptual and combat documents defining the principles and conditions for the use of non-lethal weapons. When writing the review article, general scientific research methods were used – analysis and synthesis, implemented on the basis of studying organizational documents that are in the public domain. Based on the assessment of the use of non-lethal weapons during local wars and recent military conflicts, the features and consequences of its use are analyzed. Based on the results of the analysis, conclusions are drawn that the purpose of using such weapons is not the humanization of conflicts stated in a number of conceptual documents, but to increase the effectiveness of defeating the enemy in difficult conditions of modern conflicts. Thus, in the review article it is determined that the increasing role of non-lethal weapons in modern operations is determined by its physical properties, which make it possible to solve the tasks of defeating the enemy in difficult conditions of the background-target situation characteristic of modern local wars and armed conflicts

Keywords: Modern conflicts, Comprehensive defeat of the enemy, Conflict condition, Impact effectiveness, Non-lethal weapon, Humanization of Armed Conflict, Non-lethal combat weapon, Types of non-lethal weapons, Impact factors, The consequences of non-lethal exposure

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2014.1.13076

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2014.1.65849

Abstract: Communication Management has become a common tool in the arsenal of the West in the context of trying to build the pretext for war, and then controlling the information flows after the fighting has begun. It is an attempt to justify the seemingly unjustifiable, where reason and logic are distorted, and the use of emotion is actively promoted. In the 21st century, its use has come to be common place in the settling of scores and the advancement of national interest in international relations (Pashenstev & Simons, 2009). Methodological basis of the research is a systematic, structural-functional, comparative political and comparative-historical approaches, methods of analysis, synthesis, observation, simulation, expert assessments. Certainly, one may now even speak of a blueprint for going to war being established. This has been gradually shaped and refined by events such as the 1991 Gulf War, 1999 Kosovo War and the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.Libya gave the opportunity to operationalize the blueprint, which in political terms proved to be successful, in terms of managing the information environment in order to promote a dubious political agenda (going to war against Libya under Gadaffi). The current situation in Syria points to the urgent need to be able to understand and to counter these tactics.

Keywords: Konfliktologiya, vneshnyaya politika, Liviya, geopolitika, Siriya, informatsionnaya voina, ideologiya, interesy, tsennosti

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2016.3.22002

Abstract: The object of this study is the influence of war crimes on the background of armed conflict on the regional security on the African Great Lakes region. The subject of research are armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The author draws attention to the issue of crimes committed by military and law enforcement personnel, and the reaction of courts to the demands to punish offenders by human rights organizations and specific political and public figures. This article accents the issue of restoring peace in the central region of the African continent, the humanitarian catastrophes and their consequences. Among the theoretical methods the author gave preference to the systemic, institutional and comparative analysis. Prioritized empirical methods include field research, including interviewing. The scientific novelty of this research is in the uncovering the underlying causes of armed conflicts, and the defining of the contradictory processes in the Democratic Republic of Congo aimed at resolving the military and political crisis, as well as in the examination of the influence of armed conflict on the humanitarian situation in this country. The author introduces a multitude of new sources, previously untapped by Russian researchers and, as presumed, are available only to a handful of foreign scientists who work directly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Keywords: armed conflicts, refugees, fundamentalist Islam, ethnic-confessional contradictions, U.N., peace, military groups, military crisis, security, Africa

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2016.3.68609

Keywords: armed conflicts, refugees, fundamentalist Islam, ethnic-confessional contradictions, U.N., peace, military groups, military crisis, security, Africa

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2015.3.14334

Abstract: The article examines the traits of modern military threats to national security in the context of globalization. They are characterized by the following: an enormous spatial scope that defines the globalization of military strategy; extensive use of political and economic isolation of the victim states; coalition-based warfare; the shifting of armed conflict to the aerospace and information arenas; the growing importance of near space for warfare; the transition of electronic warfare combat from combat support to a form of warfare; intensification of innovation in the weapons industry, military and special equipment.The methodological basis of the study includes a systemic, structural-functional, comparative-historical, comparative political, geopolitical, cultural and civilizational approaches, methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, modeling, observation.Among the modern threats to national security is the lack of a solid line of contact between the opposing sides; the internationalization of internal conflicts, direct or indirect involvement of foreign governments, intelligence services, and others. Considering the characteristics of modern military threats, the author formulates the priorities for the Russian state, society and citizens that would prevent and deter wars.

Keywords: interests, diplomacy, state, conflict, Russia, foreign policy, international relations, NATO, values, security

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0617.2015.3.66896