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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Defence strategy, planning & research > General
The contributors to this overview of the changes in security studies reflect critically on the past decades since the 1980s and consider what the future holds, in a select few areas of security studies. In spite of the individuality of the approaches and spread of topics, the authors conclude that analysts and policy-makers have not been able to respond well to the changes that have occurred and that they must revise their approach is they are to meet the challenges of the future.
This text examines a century of American experience to illustrate how the United States determines its security policies. While scholars have typically focused on "outside factors", such as international pressures, constraints and opportunities, this collection of essays shows that decisions about strategy are critically shaped by domestic politics - political ideologies, state structure and societal interests. Essays by Edward Rhodes, Peter Trubowitz and Mark Shulman offer evidence that America's emergence as a great naval power in the late 19th century had less to do with security than with issues of national identity, commerce and social change. Bartholomew Sparrow compares the power of the press in the late 19th and 20th centuries to explore the media's ability to frame the debate on strategy. Miroslav Nincic, Gerry Gorsky and Roger Rose examine the influence of public opinion on security strategy in the 1990s. Emily Goldman, Edward Smith and Jan Breemer examine the workings of military bureaucracy to relate strategic policy to politics inside the military establishment. At a time when America's security needs and goals are adjusting rapidly, this book offers policymakers and scholars of international affairs critical models for understanding the complex reality of security policy.
Despite its "Peace Constitution" and close security ties to the United States, Japan designs and produces an extensive array of high-tech missiles, tanks, warships and aircraft. As much as these weapons are a testimony to the advancement of Japanese technology, they are also powerful symbols of the potential for Japanese political and military self-reliance. Yet, despite all of the advanced military hardware, Japan has not developed an autonomous military-industrial complex in the post-World War II period.;Exploring the complicated issue of Japanese political and military autonomy in the half-century since World War II, this work focuses on the institutions, individuals, ideas and interests that have shaped Japanese policy in this area. The author demonstrates that the simple model of US pressure leading to Japanese response does not hold true; he shows instead the dynamic policy-making process involving such key players as government, industry, interest groups and the media.;Particularly since the end of the Cold War, the issue of Japanese autonomy, versus alliance with the United States has become urgent. This text suggests the implications of this debate for Japan's future effor
In the early days of the Cold War, thermonuclear conflict was everywhere an imminent threat. With the realization that mutual destruction was the likely result of a nuclear war, US policy makers were forced to articulate a coherent stance on what they would do if the United States went to war with the USSR. The paradox of defeat or mutual annihilation was one that plagued American policy makers and scholars, whatever their stated position. Using declassified government documents from the early Cold War era, this text investigates what America's strategists really thought. It demonstrates that even as they were publicly attempting to make nuclear war technically feasible, many Pentagon officials and leading policy makers privately rejected the feasibility of any nuclear strategy. The author argues that by the late 1950s, the primary objective of the United States - though it was never voiced officially - was the avoidance of nuclear war. Craig examines the arguments Eisenhower had with his national security advisors, showing how he conspired to make the option of war with the Soviet Union impossible. The book explains how Eisenhower clashed a number of times with hardened diplomats and military officials pushing for war, in meetings that the public did not know of. This book explores in detail the various superpower disputes over Berlin and the Taiwan straits, and over NATO and the Cuban missile crisis.
The counterinsurgency (COIN) paradigm dominates military and political conduct in contemporary Western strategic thought. It assumes future wars will unfold as "low intensity" conflicts within rather than between states, requiring specialized military training and techniques. COIN is understood as a logical, effective, and democratically palatable method for confronting insurgency-a discrete set of practices that, through the actions of knowledgeable soldiers and under the guidance of an expert elite, creates lasting results. Through an extensive investigation into COIN's theories, methods, and outcomes, this book undermines enduring claims about COIN's success while revealing its hidden meanings and effects. Interrogating the relationship between counterinsurgency and war, the authors question the supposed uniqueness of COIN's attributes and try to resolve the puzzle of its intellectual identity. Is COIN a strategy, a doctrine, a theory, a military practice, or something else? Their analysis ultimately exposes a critical paradox within COIN: while it ignores the vital political dimensions of war, it is nevertheless the product of a misplaced ideological faith in modernization.
Only several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, nuclear security issues are again at the forefront of international concern. This timely collection addresses issues of cleanup at Chernobyl and other sites of nuclear disasters, nuclear smuggling, safety concerns in the Ukrainian and Russian nuclear industries, and Ukraine's negotiations with Russia and the West regarding the transference of its nuclear weapons to Russia. Preeminent scholars in their fields, the contributors provide up-to-the-minute information and fresh insights into questions critical to the future of the former Soviet Union and to Russian and Ukrainian relations with the West.
The development of a European security architecture comprising NATO, the EU, WEU, and the OSCE exemplifies the redefinition of Western values and institutions in the post-Cold War era. Gülnur Aybet examines the precedents for legitimate intervention in upholding democracy, free markets, and human rights in the post-Cold war era from the perspectives of international law and Gramscian-derived concepts of legitimacy. The author also focuses on the acceptance of military power by civil society.
The establishment of the Defense Intelligence Agency was the result of a confluence of long-term and short-term trends. Seen over the long duration, the creation of DIA was a part of the extended process of centralisation in the Department of Defense that had been taking place since the National Security Act created the department. This book is designed to provide an understanding of the Defense Intelligence Agency's participation in military and intelligence developments of the last half century. While history does not repeat itself, it does provide context, guideposts, and a framework for understanding the present. In some ways, the challenges discussed in this book and confronting today's Intelligence Community personnel are similar to those faced by their cohorts from earlier generations.
Drawing together the work of eight experts on the arms trade and Asia-Pacific security affairs, Arms Trade, Transparency and Security in South-East Asia presents analysis and extensive data related to the arms trade and defence policy transparency mechanisms in South-East Asia. It also includes a de facto regional arms register for South-East Asia covering the period 1970-96, and will prove useful to security analysts and policy-makers seeking new approaches to transparency and confidence-building in South-East Asia.
Many books and articles have been written on wars in narrow seas. However, none deals in any comprehensive manner with the problems of strategy and conduct of naval operations. The aim of this book is to explain in some detail the characteristics of a war fought in narrow seas and to compare and contrast strategy and major operations in narrow seas and naval warfare in the open ocean..
This book examines the subject of strategy and its relationship with politics. Despite the fact that strategy is always the product of political process, the relationship between the two concepts and their ancillary activities has scarcely been touched by scholars. This book corrects that serious deficiency, and explains the high relevance of political factors for matters of general defence. Each chapter aims to show how and why strategy and politics interact and how this interaction has had significant consequences historically. Neither strategy nor politics can make sense if considered alone. Strategy requires direction that can only be provided by political process, while politics cannot be implemented without strategy. In summary, this volume will explain: what strategy is (and is not) why strategy is essential what strategy does and how it does it how strategy is made and executed Written by a leading scholar and former practitioner, this book will be essential reading for all students of military strategy, strategic studies, security studies and war and conflict studies.
Using major new documentary sources, the authors tell the story of
why and how China built its nuclear submarine flotilla and the
impact of that development on the nation's politics, technology,
industry, and strategy.
The Transatlantic Relationship , written by a group of experts drawn from both sides of the Atlantic, examines the security, trade, and cultural aspects of the United States - European Union relationship. It focuses in particular on the politics of alliance reconfigurations, especially with regard to NATO, the NACC, and the OSCE; the new issues in the new World Trade Organization; the structural factors affecting NAFTA-EU relations; and the cultural dimensions of the relationship.
There is little doubt that Asia- stretching from the Eurasian landmass to the maritime reaches of Australia and the South Pacific-is experiencing a major shift in the global balance of power. Expressions like the 'Indo-Pacific' and 'Asia-Pacific', contested they maybe, capture Asia's expanse and dynamism. A power shift from the West to the East is well under way. But what is not understood is how this global re-distribution of political, economic and military power will impact global and regional geopolitical order. IR experts warn that power transitions of this magnitude can prove to be destabilizing. The argument that the world is interdependent to an unprecedented degree offers some hope that the transitions to new world order may turn out to be peaceful. Interestingly, these changes are also changing the mindset of the people who are pushing for political reforms and accountability. The chapters in this edited volume take a measure of these changes and try to understand their impact on peace and stability.
Discerning the early stages of the rebirth of a new Russian empire from the ashes of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin and Russia's Imperial Revival argues that Russia's recent overtly aggressive actions and foreign policy doctrines have signaled a renewal of the Cold War. At the least, Russia's actions represent the potential for renewal. This book explains these developments in a historical context. The book begins by describing Russia's initial policy of rapprochement after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its development into a foreign policy of threatened or actual armed aggression. It identifies today's Russia as a nation determined to re-establish itself as a political and military force. As a prominent figure in the development and continuation of its current foreign policy, Vladimir Putin plays a central role in the topics covered. Previous literature often treats Putin as an individual phenomenon examining his connections to corruption or the secret police, but here David E. McNabb examines him as the latest in a long history of Russian despots who followed similar expansionist policies. He details some of the tactics Putin uses to instill fear and dominate political policies of republics newly independent from Russia. These tactics include the use of energy as a weapon, cyber terrorism, and military support for ethnic Russian separatists in other sovereign nations, most recently exemplified by Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine via armed invasion. In an attempt to demystify Russia's re-emergence as an international political force, Vladimir Putin and Russia's Imperial Revival grounds its analyses in history. It explores as far back as the establishment of the first Russian empire, and regards Putin as a leader determined to establish a fifth imperial incarnation. It provides a nuanced understanding of how Russia arrived at its current position through recent and distant internal and international events.
Whatever happened to the post-Cold War "peace dividend"? Why does military spending continue to escape federal budget reductions? Why, despite the nearly universal desire to reduce government waste and budget deficits, is the United States still saddled with a costly, bloated military-industrial complex? The answer, says Sanford Gottlieb, is the debilitating dependence of a key sector of the American economy on defense jobs and profits. Defense Addiction is based on hundreds of interviews with defense contractors, union representatives, members of Congress, state and federal officials, lobbyists, economic development professionals, and local activists. Gottlieb explains how these groups and individuals cope with defense dependence, competition for federal funds, and budget and job cuts-painting a sobering picture of how this addiction hampers the nation's ability to deal effectively with a host of domestic and global problems. Gottlieb's engaging and jargon-free volume points to civilian public investments, reduced military spending, strengthened international peacekeeping, and other measures that could help our country kick the defense habit. His book also provides guidance to companies and communities struggling to break free in the face of inadequate government policies.
Today's North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with nearly thirty members and a global reach, differs strikingly from the alliance of twelve created in 1949 to "keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down." These differences are not simply the result of the Cold War's end, 9/11, or recent twenty-first-century developments but represent a more general pattern of adaptability first seen in the incorporation of Germany as a full member of the alliance in the early 1950s. Unlike other enduring post-World War II institutions that continue to reflect the international politics of their founding era, NATO stands out for the boldness and frequency of its transformations over the past seventy years. In this compelling book, Seth A. Johnston presents readers with a detailed examination of how NATO adapts. Nearly every aspect of NATO-including its missions, functional scope, size, and membership-is profoundly different than at the organization's founding. Using a theoretical framework of "critical junctures" to explain changes in NATO's organization and strategy throughout its history, Johnston argues that the alliance's own bureaucratic actors played important and often overlooked roles in these adaptations. Touching on renewed confrontation between Russia and the West, which has reignited the debate about NATO's relevance, as well as a quarter century of post-Cold War rapprochement and more than a decade of expeditionary effort in Afghanistan, How NATO Adapts explores how crises from Ukraine to Syria have again made NATO's capacity for adaptation a defining aspect of European and international security. Students, scholars, and policy practitioners will find this a useful resource for understanding NATO, transatlantic relations, and security in Europe and North America, as well as theories about change in international institutions.
Russian annexation of Crimea and the subsequent air campaign over Syria took the world by surprise. The capabilities and efficiency of Putin's armed forces during both operations signalled to the world that Russia was back in business as a significant military actor on the international stage. In this cutting-edge study, Bettina Renz and Hanna Smith combine their respective expertise in strategic studies and foreign policy to offer an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of Russia's military revival under Putin's leadership. Whilst the West must adjust to the reality of a modernised and increasingly powerful Russian military, they argue that the renaissance of Russian military might and its implications for the balance of global power can only be fully understood within a wider historical context. Assessing developments in Russian Great Power thinking, military capabilities, Russian strategic thought and views on the use of force throughout the post-Soviet era, the book shows that rather than signifying a sudden Russian military resurgence, recent developments are consistent with longstanding trends in Russian military strategy and foreign policy. This timely and thoughtful book is a must-read for students of politics as well as anyone interested in current affairs.
The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the unification of Germany, the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the possible disintegration of the Soviet Union, disengagement of the United States and creation of a federal Europe - all this has changed the security context in Europe and stimulated a Europe-wide debate about the future. Questions about the nature of security itself have been raised. The authors question, however, why none of these themes have been raised in Britain? A comparison with Germany shows that there is now a similar spread of party political opinion in the two countries, reflecting a rapid convergence of security interests. "Beyond Deterrence" argues that it is time that there was also a similar level of public debate.
Over the past twenty years, a revolution has occurred in relations between the American executive and legislative branches. Once a passive observer of the President's decisions on defense policy, the Congress has assumed a more aggressive role in decisions on the defense budget, arms control, war powers, sales of weapons abroad, and covert operations. Based on interviews with members of Congress and their staffs, The Politics of National Security describes and analyzes this fundamental change in the United States political system, concentrating on the political factors behind the Congress' greater assertiveness.
A new look at the crusaders, which shows how they pursued long-term plans and clear strategic goals Medieval states, and particularly crusader societies, often have been considered brutish and culturally isolated. It seems unlikely that they could develop "strategy" in any meaningful sense. However, the crusaders were actually highly organized in their thinking and their decision making was rarely random. In this lively account, Steve Tibble draws on a rich array of primary sources to reassess events on the ground and patterns of behavior over time. He shows how, from aggressive castle building to implementing a series of invasions of Egypt, crusader leaders tenaciously pursued long-term plans and devoted single-minded attention to clear strategic goals. Crusader states were permanently on the brink of destruction; resources were scarce and the penalties for failure severe. Intuitive strategic thinking, Tibble argues, was a necessity, not a luxury.
In the not-too-distant future, an American military commander is
preparing to take charge of counterinsurgency operations in the
Narabad Province of remote and mountainous Khanastan, an
impoverished region scarred by war and ruled by diverse religious
and tribal communities. As part of his preparations, he enters a
stunningly real conflict-mapping simulation that allows him to see
the results of his on-the-ground decisions within hours.
This book provides a detailed application of identity theory to contemporary questions of extremism, radicalization and security. The analysis considers how identity forms a central aspect of notions of extremism and security in Western societies, as articulated both by political leaders, the media and the government. It also takes a close and critical look at counter-extremism policy in contemporary Western society. With its detailed and empirical approach to these questions, this book is an accessible and invaluable resource for academics, practitioners, policy-makers and general readers keen to establish a deeper understanding of the key societal security threats of the day.
In this collection of papers, the theory of defensive strategy and the ways of implementing it are explored by scholars and military professionals from East and West. These papers are a result of workshops organised by the Pugwash conferences on science and world affairs. |
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