From grassroots terrorism to the nuclear ambitions of hostile nations, the United States faces increasingly complex threats to its national security, and combating these threats continues to demand a reshaping of the nation's security structure, military forces and defense expenditures. In this study, Anthony Cordesman offers a detailed analysis of critical challenges affecting U.S. national security and how failures in adapting to these challenges have exacerbated the strains on available resources. He systematically identifies the most glaring obstacles to successful national security planning and proposes constructive and practical ways to proceed in the future. Cordesman focuses on ten specific challenges, and each is addressed within the context of the Iraq War, Afghan War, War on Terrorism, and the risk of conflict over the Taiwan Straits. Out of the lessons drawn from these experiences, he examines the future of international coalitions, asymmetric warfare, nation building, and stability operations, and concludes that perhaps the most pressing area for change is the need for accountability among civilian and military policymakers.

The culmination of 25 years of research, Alex Bennett's groundbreaking English translation of Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings reveals the true meaning of the original work. Plus, definitive translations of five more known works of Musashi! This piece of writing by famed samurai Musashi (1584-1645) is the single-most influential work on samurai swordsmanship, offering insights into samurai history, the Zen Buddhist state of "no-mind" that enables warriors to triumph and the philosophical meaning of Bushido--"the way of the warrior." Until now, English translations of The Book of Five Rings have been based on inaccurate copies of Musashi's long-lost original manuscript. Bennett's translation is the first to be based on a careful reconstruction of the original text by Japan's foremost Musashi scholar. By identifying discrepancies among the existing copies, adding missing texts and correcting over 150 incorrect characters, this source is the closest representation of Musashi's original work possible. Utilizing this new source, Bennett captures the subtle nuance of the classic Japanese text, resulting in the most accurate English translation of The Book of Five Rings available Enjoy complete, richly annotated translations of Musashi's most-known works: The Book of Five Rings Mirror on the Way of Combat Notes on Combat Strategy Combat Strategy in 35 Articles The Five-Direction Sword Pathways The Path Walked Alone The texts are richly annotated by Bennett, who includes an extensive introduction on Musashi's life and legacy. This paperback edition also includes a new introduction by Kendo Kyoshi 7th Dan Graham Sayer, who talks about the influence Musashi's writings have had on him as a person and martial artist. The Complete Musashi: The Book of Five Rings and Other Works will be widely read by those interested in Japanese culture, Samurai history and martial arts--setting a new standard against which all other translations will be measured.

From the end of the Cold War to the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, the NATO Alliance has changed profoundly. This book explores the multifaceted consequences of NATO's adjustment to new international and domestic political and security realities. Internal Alliance politics and matters of relative power within the membership have strongly influenced recent NATO developments. Several major issues challenging the Alliance are examined, including how the impact of efforts to develop an enhanced common European security and defense policy have affected NATO: whether missile defense is driving the United States and its European allies closer or further apart; how the experience of NATO in the Balkans and elsewhere brought alliance members together or made MATO cohesion more difficult to maintain; and in what way the changing role of NATO has influenced American and Canadian participation in the Alliance. An important guidepost to pivotal changes and likely NATO developments, scholars and policymakers of Atlantic and international politics will find these meditations indispensable.

A number of authors also speculate on the likely changes for the alliance that will ensue in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the possibility that NATO will soon modify its mission and responsibilities in reaction to the threat of international terrorism. Indeed many of the same strategies and strains that affected NATO cohesion over the past decade are likely to complicate efforts to maintain Alliance unity as part of the anti-terrorist coalition.

Since the buildup of U.S. armed forces peaked under Reagan in 1987, many changes have occurred in all four services, including reductions in both human and material resources. This study traces these trends and details the government's vision of how the military will look in the year 2015. Changes in the global security environment and pressure to decrease federal spending have resulted in force restructuring, eliminating major units, and displacing military and civilian personnel. Other consequences include base closures and reduced major weapon system inventories. Brasher discusses the implications of these new policies and assesses their current and future impact on American defense capabilities. The media has focussed considerable attention on the downsizing of U.S. forces. It predicted that base closures would have catastrophic effects on local communities, and it warned that women and minorities would see fewer opportunities for advancement within the military. Brasher chronicles the effects of base closures on many communities and determines that original fears were exaggerated. Women and minorities have also fared better than initially anticipated. In fact, especially in terms of relative combat power, the new military is even stronger than it was in 1987.

"Strategic Intelligence Management" introduces both academic researchers and law enforcement professionals to contemporary issues of national security and information management and analysis. This contributed volume draws on state-of-the-art expertise from academics and law enforcement practitioners across the globe. The chapter authors provide background, analysis, and insight on specific topics and case studies. "Strategic Intelligent Management "explores the technological and social aspects of managing information for contemporary national security imperatives.

Academic researchers and graduate students in computer science, information studies, social science, law, terrorism studies, and politics, as well as professionals in the police, law enforcement, security agencies, and government policy organizations will welcome this authoritative and wide-ranging discussion of emerging threats.
Hot topics like cyber terrorism, Big Data, and Somali pirates, addressed in terms the layperson can understand, with solid research groundingFills a gap in existing literature on intelligence, technology, and national security

Rhetoric, Lynn Boyd Hinds and Theodore Windt argue, is central to shaping both political consciousness and political culture. In this important new contribution to Praeger's Series in Political Communication, they examine how the rhetoric of the early Cold War years was used to create and develop a national and international reality. The pervasive political view of events, motives, actions, and policy was largely created in the years between 1945 and 1950 and grew from a pre-existing set of rhetorical beliefs as well as from the political speeches and pronouncements of the time. Hinds and Windt focus their study on American rhetoric applied to Soviet-American relations, centering essentially on Europe. They offer a brief outline of the theoretical principles used in their analysis, and follow with a look at certain images of the USSR selected for use by American politicians. In subsequent chapters, the authors trace developments from the end of World War II to Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech, thoroughly explore the British leader's address and its effect in dividing the world into two warring camps, analyze the writing and presentation of the 1947 Truman Doctrine and its suggestion of two ways of life, and detail the Truman Loyalty Program and the 1947 House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings in Hollywood. The remaining chapters discuss George Marshall's address originating the European Recovery Act, George Kennan's Sources of Soviet Conduct, contemporary critics, and such proofs as the Korean War, which showed the rhetoric to be correct. This work will be an important reference tool for courses in political communication, American history, political science, and presidential studies, and a useful addition to library collections.

In an earlier study, "Toward an Entangling Alliance: American Isolationism, Internationalism, and Europe, 1901-1950," Powaski described the events, factors, and personalities that contributed to the American decision to abandon a century-and-a-half-old isolationist tradition and join an entangling alliance with European nations. This study is a continuation of the story of America's involvement in Europe's security affairs since 1950. In it, Powaski explains why America expanded its military commitment to Europe--including the stationing of U.S. combat forces, both nuclear and conventional, on the continent--and why the U.S. military presence in Europe is now declining. In addition, Powaski describes the issues and personalities that have divided, as well as united, the United States and its European allies, and why, despite these disagreements, America's involvement in the entangling alliance is likely to endure.

The AWACS debate represents one of the most critical and controversial events in the history of American diplomacy and legislative politics. It locked the Reagan administration and opponents of the AWACS sale in a fierce and pitched battle over American policy in the most economically and strategically vital region in the world: the Middle East.

Accordingly, Laham finds there are at least five political lessons to be drawn from the debate. First, contrary to the arguments of its critics in Congress, the pro-Israel lobby does not control American policy in the Middle East. Second, the Senate tends to defer to the authority of the president on matters of foreign policy and national security. Third, while remaining a passive president overall, Reagan was among the most active of chief executives on issues involving the economy and national security. Fourth, given the enormous contribution the AWACS sale made to the vital economic and national security interests of the United States, Reagan's masterful handling of this politically explosive issue provides evidence that he displayed attributes of presidential greatness, but much further study of the other major foreign and domestic policy issues Reagan confronted during his tenure in office will be required before any definitve judgment can be rendered concerning where he stands in the ranking of America's 42 presidents. Fifth, the AWACS debate shows that the United States need not sacrifice its special relationship with Israel in order to forge stronger ties with Saudi Arabia. This analysis will be of particular interest to scholars, students, and policy makers involved with national security issues, presidential politics, interest groups, and Middle East studies.

This book is based on a conference addressing the relationship between the environment and security in the post-Cold War world. It brings together scholars and practitioners from a variety of different disciplines and perspectives in an effort to both explore the complexities of the relationship between environmental variables and security conditions, and re-focus the debate within the environmental community. The book combines analytical frameworks and case study material with proposals for addressing environmental challenges and enhancing the security and welfare of peoples, states and regions.

High-ranking government officials, defense analysts, and scholars focus on the geopolitics and security of the Nordic region at a time when East-West relations in Europe are undergoing momentous changes. Experts from Scandinavia, Europe, and the United States examine the impact of the United States and the Soviet Union on Scandinavian security in terms of defense doctrines and deployment and the evolving technologies of defense, paying particular attention to neutral Finland and Sweden. This strategic analysis, edited by Ciro Zoppo, is intended for academicians and policymakers in the fields of military studies, political science, Nordic and European affairs, and East-West relations. This survey of key problems and prospects in the Northern cap of the globe offers the historical background necessary for understanding the foreign policies and domestic politics of Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and Denmark. The study is unique in its detailed examination of military policy and emerging technologies alongside a discussion about their economic consequences for the countries in the region. The cross-national team of experts also considers the significance of the changing politicial and technological environment for the future of Swedish and Finnish defense and neutrality.

Andidora tells the story of four men who successfully commanded battlefleets in the 20th century: Japan's Heihachiro Togo, England's John Jellicoe, and America's William Halsey and Raymond Spruance. This study provides personality profiles and detailed accounts of their major battles. Analyzing their command decisions based on what each commander knew or could have reasonably inferred at the time decisions were made, Andidora compares their accomplishments to those of Horatio Nelson, who delivered stunning naval victories for England during the Napoleonic Wars. However, he concludes that the Nelsonian standard is inappropriate in the modern naval environment due to the increased size and technological complexity of modern fleets and the political imperative to preserve costly and strategically significant naval assets. Trained in England and acquiring the skill and spirit of Nelson's heirs, Togo annihilated his Russian opponents at the Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War and, therefore, produced the 20th century's only facsimile of Nelson's Trafalgar. Despite heavy losses against a numerically inferior German Navy at Jutland, Jellicoe's single-minded adherence to an unpopular strategy would prove instrumental in achieving final victory in the First World War. Although strikingly different in personality and leadership style, Halsey and Spruance would both do their part in the naval battles of the Second World War. In the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Spruance would deal Japanese naval aviation a blow from which it would never recover; while at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Halsey would essentially eliminate the Japanese navy as an effective fighting force.

Knowing how to end war and to prevent the escalation of conflict is of paramount importance today when weapons of mass destruction have spread beyond the control of major powers and democratically accountable governments, and when regional and global stability have become more precarious. Stephen Cimbala and Sidney Waldman have drawn together prominent analysts with different perspectives to discuss key issues before and after the Cold War. This authoritative and provocative study assesses military and political strategies of serious concern to military historians and professionals, political scientists, academics, and policymakers. The book covers all the major aspects of conflict termination before and after the Cold War and defines the basic concepts and principles involved. Noted contributors offer insights into how military and political strategies to end and limit various types of conflict must adapt to political change, to nationalism, irredentism, and boundary disputes. Chapters deal with deterrence, Soviet military doctrine, an American-Soviet war, the changing role of nuclear weapons, behavioral and institutional factors, the maritime component, civil wars, coalition war, nuclear deterrence and political hostility. The book ends with new determinations about the major issues and points to future research agendas.

A generation after the First Gulf War, and in the wake of a decade of counterinsurgency operations and irregular warfare, this book explores how the concept of the Revolution in Military Affairs continues to shape the way modern militaries across the globe think about, plan and fight wars.

Image Warfare in the War on Terror provides an innovative re-examination of the war on terror. It argues that since 11 September 2001 image warfare has replaced techno-war as the dominant warfighting model. Roger suggests that it is a form of warfare in which Al Qaeda currently dominates while the West is still playing catch-up. By dealing frankly with the deployment of disturbing images generated by the 9/11 attacks - from bin Laden videos, suicide terrorism and hostage executions to prisoner abuses, Roger provides us with a new vocabulary through which these acts can be discussed and understood.

This book offers the first comprehensive assessment, from an International Relations perspective, of image warfare. Through engagement with IR, Media Studies and Visual Culture literatures, Roger introduces three new conceptual terms 'image munitions', 'counter-image munitions' and 'remediation battles'. These terms are then explored in chapters about political communications concerning Bush, Blair and bin Laden; suicides; executions and abuses.

A Sunday Times and FT Book of the Year

When a rising power threatens to displace a ruling one, the most likely outcome is war.

In this razor-sharp analysis, Harvard scholar Graham Allison examines the phenomenon known as Thucydides’s Trap, which is currently playing out between the world’s two biggest superpowers: the US and China.

Through uncanny historical parallels, Destined for War shows how close we are to the unthinkable. Yet, stressing that war is not inevitable, Allison also reveals how clashing powers have kept the peace in the past ― and what painful steps international leaders can and must take to avoid disaster.

Three policy actions taken during the Revolutionary War period helped form the military supply and acquisition structure still in place today. These include the formation of a management structure; the choice of management methods; and debates related to ancillary issues such as R&D, fostering of expertise, encouraging innovation, and the role of the federal government in the development of an industrial base. To provide valuable context, Horgan looks not only at decisions made by the Continental Congress, but also at the environment in which these plans were made. Of the wide range of methods used to procure the supplies needed for war, many were harsh measures taken by beleaguered policy makers, forced to desperate steps by the demands of war.

The organizational structure created to manage the supply effort was, Horgan reveals, in constant flux, characterized by the abandoning of one failed experiment in favor of another that would soon be exposed as equally unsuccessful. The two major weapons of the period, the big guns of Army artillery and navel ordnance and Navy ships, are examined within this framework. Horgan explores how the Congress managed their acquisition, including procedures related to the manufacture of artillery in private sector founders and government facilities, as well as the construction projects for Navy ships. She demonstrates how policy decisions made during these early years relate to the present policy environment for the acquisition of major weapon systems.

Colonel David T. Twining and his colleagues look at the impact of glasnost and the collapse of the Soviet system on the military. The case study approach used allows for in-depth examination of a number of key issues. Within the former USSR, the remarkable record of sacrifice and valor by women in wartime has not been matched by equal opportunity during peacetime, where they are effectively excluded from meaningful military careers. The KGB, the world's largest security and intelligence organization, proved to be among the most resistant to reform, and this, the book contends, appears to have hastened its doom. The adoption of the rule of law was widely resisted in the Soviet armed forces, and reforms in military service have come from demands by parents and relatives that the military change its lethal ways. Soviet foreign military affairs have also been affected by glasnost. The volume looks at the influence of the war in Afghanistan in the reversal of Moscow's Middle East policy. Equally important, but unheralded, has been the re-establishment of ties with China. Together, the essays in this collection illustrate the impact of a stressed political system struggling to adapt to changing circumstances, caught between the exigencies of reform and revolt. Students and scholars involved in Soviet studies as well as contemporary military studies will find much to ponder.

Developments in the Soviet Union necessitate a radical restructuring of U.S.-Soviet relations and the security system that underpins them. Marshall Brement succinctly and masterfully chronicles the history of this relationship and offers a prescription for change in this important book. The United States can influence the power struggle within the USSR by holding out the prospect of going beyond the wary cooperation that our government espouses, to a relationship that embodies comprehensive partnership. It is only through such a relationship that we can achieve a genuine new world order guaranteeing security for decades to come and at the same time sloughing off the burden of excessive defense costs that this nation can no longer afford. The new grand strategy outlined here would demand much of the Soviets, but also offers much. It has a nuclear component, a conventional arms component, an economic component, a Third World component, and a Western Europe component. It sets out clear benchmarks and a method for moving ahead.

Past Soviet and American security policies are so interrelated that they must be changed together, not separately or in sequence. To accomplish this change, the fear doctrine of nuclear deterrence that underlies our entire defense philosophy must be abandoned. The sophistication and power of modern conventional weapons makes it possible for both sides to reduce, even eliminate, nuclear weapons. While establishing a program to eliminate nuclear weapons, we must concurrently lay down benchmarks as to what exactly will be required from both Moscow and Washington to make such a transformation possible, restructure our armed forces to make them less threatening to each other, and engage in a broad-ranging program of economic investment and cooperation in solving critical global problems. These proposals are radical, even visionary. Nevertheless, only through a comprehensive program can a fundamentally different U.S.-Soviet relationship be achieved. This book is addressed not only to the specialist in Soviet and security affairs, but also to a general audience of informed citizens.

A reinterpretation of the British Army's conduct in the crucial 1944-45 Northwest Europe campaign, this work examines systematically the "Colossal Cracks" operational technique employed by Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group and demonstrates the key significance that morale and casualty concerns exerted on this technique. To ensure a full understanding of the campaign, one needs to look not only at Montgomery's methods but at those of his army commanders, Dempsey and Crerar; thus, this study addresses the scant attention to date paid to these two figures. Hart suggests that Montgomery and his two senior subordinates handled this formation more effectively than some scholars have suggested. In fact, "Colossal Cracks," the concentration of massive force at a point of German weakness, represented the most appropriate weapon the 1944 British Army could develop under the circumstances. Previous studies have been characterized by an overemphasis on Montgomery's role in the campaign, rather than a systematic examination of overall British methods. They have ignored the difficulties that the 1944 British Army faced given its manpower shortage, and they have underestimated the appropriateness of Monty's methods to the campaign war aims that Britain pursued: namely, the desire that Britain's modest military forces secure a high profile within a larger Allied effort. The cautious, firepower-laden approach used by the 21st Army Group was both crude and a double-edged sword; however, despite these weaknesses, "Colossal Cracks" represented an appropriate technique given the nature of British war aims and the relative capabilities of the forces involved. It proved to be just enough to defeatthe Germans and keep alive British hopes that her war aims might be achieved.