MILITARY STRATEGIC DOCTRINE

Douglas S. Blaufarb, The Counter-Insurgency Era: U.S. Doctrine and Performance 1950 to the Present
Berry M. Blechman and Stephan S. Kaplan, Force without War: U.S. Armed Forces as a Political Instrument     

Regionalism, Iran and Central Asia

A combination of revolutionary ideology, trouble with neighbours and location in the Middle East, where regionalism is moribund, make the Islamic Republic of Iran an unlikely enthusiast for regional coalition-building. The impetus towards regionalism derives first and foremost from geopolitical considerations–the need to counter the US government's efforts to isolate Iran–but also from domestic dynamics; the regionalist discourse has lent an acceptable ideological colouring to an increasingly pragmatic foreign policy.
Iran's neighbours, however, share neither its geopolitical predicament nor its ideological complexion, and the actual implementation of Tehran's regionalist agenda has been based on functional cooperation, rather than on geopolitics and ideology. Trade promotion and the development of transport infrastructure to link Central Asia and the Caspian to Turkey and the Persian Gulf have been the most appealing areas for northern neighbours, and dominate the agenda of the Economic Cooperation Organization, Iran's main vehicle for multilateral cooperaton with Central Asia and Azerbaijan. Tehran's 1992 proposal for a Caspian Sea Cooperation Organization has so far been stymied by the littoral states' well-publicized disagreements over the sea's legal status, though their numerous multilateral meetings and handful of agreements suggest that the idea has potential in the medium–term.
Notwithstanding the meagre tangible results to date, Iran's tilt towards regionalism has had a positive impact. It has helped to rehabilitate the Islamic Republic in the eyes of its neighbours, contributed to the evolution of policy debate at home and prepared the ground for future multilateral cooperation.     

Afghanistan: Imperatives of Stability Misperceived

More than seven years have passed since the intervention of the international community in Afghanistan, yet the country has not only failed to achieve stability; it has actually experienced a downward trend on that account. The worsening situation in Afghanistan has occurred despite the fact that the Afghan government and its international partners have allocated unprecedented amounts of resources, increased their security forces and implemented socio-political and economic programs that they deemed were conducive to stability. Why and how this failure did come about? This article challenges some of the underlying assumptions for stability and the notion of political reconstruction that the international community and the Afghan government have implemented so far as being largely responsible for the gloomy state of affairs in that country.     

阿富汗巴米扬巨佛雕像的色彩装饰

2001年3月,被塔利班摧毁的位于巴米扬山谷悬崖上的两座巨佛雕像引起了公众的注意。这一爆破不仅成为塔利班疯狂的象征,而且还带来了一个问题,雕像的残迹将怎么办。2004年,国际古遗址理事会计划着手移动佛壁龛的材料,并从而拯救雕塑的碎片。这些碎片不仅包括或大或小的石块,而且还有粘土层,锚梁,木桩和绳索。调查显示,雕像表面明显是由粘土层组成,部分用钉和布加固,以增加石头和外形布料的强度。最后在表面施以彩绘。对有机添加物进行放射性碳测年可以确定粘土层的起源,从而确定雕像建造时间范围。佛雕像的276颜料残片被带到慕尼黑进行研究。颜料和粘合剂目前正在确定中。本报告说明该雕塑被涂上明亮的色彩并且至少被涂染过两次。这里所涉及的信息是一个正在进行的研究项目的部分,并提供了对现况研究的调查。