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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Defence strategy, planning & research > General
This book is a comprehensive overview of oversight conducted over the past decade to measure how well DHS is achieving its mission, operating its programs, spending taxpayer funds, complying with the law, and respecting the boundaries established to limit the federal government and protect the rights of law abiding U.S. citizens. This book describes and analyzes the discretionary appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for fiscal year 2015 (FY2015). It compares the President's request for FY2015 funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the enacted FY2014 appropriations for DHS, and the House-reported homeland security appropriations legislation for FY2015. The book tracks legislative action and congressional issues related to DHS appropriations with particular attention paid to discretionary funding amounts.
National security has become a major concern with the rise of terrorist groups and technological advances. Surveillance systems are crucial in maintaining security. This book discusses different types and forms of cybercrimes; security in medical institutions; real-time surveillance; biofocal panoramic lenses; the Gaussian mixture model; hybrid warms and defence synergetics; and a futuristic perspective in global health diplomacy.
This book's contribution to the discussion on the origin's of the First World War is a pioneering study of both the British General Staff and the evolution of military strategy in the period immediately prior to the war. It describes the development of the General Staff, Britain's agency for strategic planning, and goes on to give an account of its role in devising strategy. Problems are examined as they arose at grass-roots level in the War Office and progressed upward towards the Cabinet. The complex cross-currents involving the Admiralty, Foreign Office, Treasury and individuals from Edward VII downwards are charted. The account covers British military policy up to 1916, interpreting the Gallipoli campaign and explanation for its failure.
CHRISTOPHER PIKE's first book in his trilogy Making Sense of War examined war as a social phenomenon. About War (2021) explained why war, organised violence, happens. War in Context shows - through examples from history - how the state legitimises war and how war legitimises the state, and how Britain has used military force in the past. Pike asks: is war necessary? Can it be predicted? Is terrorism war? Is terrorism effective and how should it be countered? What were the implications of al Qaeda's attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in September 2001? What then might be the effect on world stability of America's less assertive leadership? War in Context looks at deterrence, the basis for nuclear strategy; and the strategic implications of such modern phenomena as cyborgs, Artificial Intelligence and Drones. But the human factor is emphasised - the moral and physical pressure on commanders of robots and hypersonic missiles. Above all, it is humans who decide how and when death is delivered. Science increases the intensity of battle, but man, not the machine, controls the outcome. The book ends with an assessment of Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
While American national security policy has grown more interventionist since the Cold War, Washington has also hoped to shape the world on the cheap. Misled by the stunning success against Iraq in 1991, administrations of both parties have pursued ambitious aims with limited force, committing the country's military frequently yet often hesitantly, with inconsistent justification. These ventures have produced strategic confusion, unplanned entanglements, and indecisive results. This collection of essays by Richard K. Betts, a leading international politics scholar, investigates the use of American force since the end of the Cold War, suggesting guidelines for making it more selective and successful. Betts brings his extensive knowledge of twentieth century American diplomatic and military history to bear on the full range of theory and practice in national security, surveying the Cold War roots of recent initiatives and arguing that U.S. policy has always been more unilateral than liberal theorists claim. He exposes mistakes made by humanitarian interventions and peace operations; reviews the issues raised by terrorism and the use of modern nuclear, biological, and cyber weapons; evaluates the case for preventive war, which almost always proves wrong; weighs the lessons learned from campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam; assesses the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia; quells concerns about civil-military relations; exposes anomalies within recent defense budgets; and confronts the practical barriers to effective strategy. Betts ultimately argues for greater caution and restraint, while encouraging more decisive action when force is required, and he recommends a more dispassionate assessment of national security interests, even in the face of global instability and unfamiliar threats.
Did the Trump administration have a cybersecurity strategy, or was it hell-bent on dismantling years of consensus-building on how the nation should respond to an existential threat to its digital life blood? Based on insider accounts and exclusive interviews with experts, Cyber in the Age of Trump offers a first-time chronicle and analysis of the Trump administration's approach to cybersecurity, its curious decisions and strategic choices, places where its work has earned applause, and the places where cyber pros see major signs of danger. The new administration came in with a strong faith in technology, a sense that the U.S. could better deploy its cyber weaponry to deter foes, and a willingness to continue popular Obama-era policies on collaborating with industry. But it didn't seem to have a cyber vision, or one that was applied consistently. And in the absence of such a strategic overview, the threat to the nation would only grow. Cyber in the Age of Trump is the first book to examine the impact of President Trump on the nation's greatest long-term strategic challenge and how a "disruptor presidency" has upended consensus and threatened to derail cyber policy.
With the Lisbon Treaty in place and the European Union increasingly involved in international crisis management and stabilization operations in places near and far, this volume revisits the trajectory of a European strategic culture. Specifically, it studies the usefulness of its application in a variety of circumstances, including the EU's operations in Africa and the Balkans as well as joint operations with NATO and the United Nations. The contributors find that strategic culture is a useful tool to explain and understand the EU's civilian and military operations, not in the sense of a 'cause', but as a European normative framework of preferences and constraints. Accordingly, classical notions of strategic culture in the field of international security must be adapted to highlight the specific character of Europe's strategic culture, especially by taking the interaction with the United Nations and NATO into account. Though at variance over the extent to which security and defence missions have demonstrated or promoted a shared strategic culture in Europe, the authors reveal a growing sense that a cohesive strategic culture is critical in the EU's ambition of being a global actor. Should Europe fail to nurture a shared strategic culture, its actions will be based much more on flexibility than on cohesion. This book was published as a special issue of Contemporary Security Policy.
This fourteenth volume of India's National Security Annual Review intensively analyses India's national security with respect to the changing internal and external dynamics. In the global environment, the situation is characterised by rising tensions between United States and Russia, intensified rivalry between United States (US) and China, and increasing cooperation between China and Russia. For India which seeks peaceful growth to emerge as a major power, this poses severe diplomatic challenges. This volume discusses the complexity of these challenges and the deftness with which India gets the best out of its strategic partnerships with the US and Russia while warding off the transgressions of a mighty adversary like China. It also studies the impact of internal convulsions and external intrusions on India's security from South Asian nations such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Examining the field of internal security, the essays carry rare insights into the causes of expansion of Naxalite violence in tribal areas and the dynamics of conflict resolution in the Northeast, as well as India's deep concern as a growing power with its economic slowdown in the recent past, and energy and cyber security. Bringing together contributions from eminent scholars and diplomats, the volume will be indispensable for policymakers, government think tanks, defence and strategic studies experts, as well as students and researchers of international relations, foreign policy and political science.
The 45th edition of the SIPRI Yearbook analyses developments in 2013 in Security and conflicts Military spending and armaments Non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament The SIPRI Yearbook contains extensive annexes on the implementation of arms control and disarmament agreements and a chronology of events during the year in the area of security and arms control.
Counterinsurgency will be the prominent style of American warfare in the 21st century: This has long been a common prediction regarding United States foreign policy and has thus far proven true. Written for those who study counterinsurgency from a policy perspective as well as for those who do counterinsurgency in the field, this book demonstrates that the U.S. has had difficulty meeting the challenges of this special form of warfare because it has not properly processed important lessons from the past. Based on the author's wartime experiences, a broad range of topics are covered - from factors to be considered in accepting a counterinsurgency partner, to "rules" for advisors in the field - with points illustrated by real-life examples.
This book assesses the use of mercenaries by states, and their integration into the national armed forces as part of a new hybridisation trend of contemporary armies. Governments, especially in the West, are undertaking an unprecedented wave of demilitarisation and military budget cuts. Simultaneously, these same governments are increasingly opening their armies up to foreign nationals and outsourcing military operations to private companies. This book explores the impact of this hybridisation on the values, cohesion and effectiveness of the armed forces by comparing and contrasting the experiences of the French Foreign Legion, private military companies in Angola, and the merging of private contractors and American troops in Iraq. Examining the employment of foreign citizens and private security companies as military forces and tools of foreign policy, and their subsequent impact on the national armed forces, the book investigates whether the difficulties of coordinating soldiers of various nationalities and allegiances within public-private joint military operations undermines the legitimacy of the state. Furthermore, the author questions whether this trend for outsourcing security can realistically provide a long term and positive contribution to national security. This book will be of much interest to students of private military companies, strategic studies, international security and IR in general."
Intriguing, real-life espionage stories bring to life a comparative history of the Allies' efforts to seize, control, and exploit German science and technology after the Second World War. During the Second World War, German science and technology posed a terrifying threat to the Allied nations. These advanced weapons, which included rockets, V-2 missiles, tanks, submarines, and jet airplanes, gave troubling credence to Nazi propaganda about forthcoming "wonder-weapons" that would turn the war decisively in favor of the Axis. After the war ended, the Allied powers raced to seize "intellectual reparations" from almost every field of industrial technology and academic science in occupied Germany. It was likely the largest-scale technology transfer in history. In Taking Nazi Technology, Douglas M. O'Reagan describes how the Western Allies gathered teams of experts to scour defeated Germany, seeking industrial secrets and the technical personnel who could explain them. Swarms of investigators invaded Germany's factories and research institutions, seizing or copying all kinds of documents, from patent applications to factory production data to science journals. They questioned, hired, and sometimes even kidnapped hundreds of scientists, engineers, and other technical personnel. They studied technologies from aeronautics to audiotapes, toy making to machine tools, chemicals to carpentry equipment. They took over academic libraries, jealously competed over chemists, and schemed to deny the fruits of German invention to any other land-including that of other Allied nations. Drawing on declassified records, O'Reagan looks at which techniques worked for these very different nations, as well as which failed-and why. Most importantly, he shows why securing this technology, how the Allies did it, and when still matters today. He also argues that these programs did far more than spread German industrial science: they forced businessmen and policymakers around the world to rethink how science and technology fit into diplomacy, business, and society itself.
Churchill has gone down in history as one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known. From the day the Second World War was declared he stood out as the only man wanting to take offensive action. But is this accolade deserved? The first few years of the war were nothing short of disastrous, and author Stephen Napier shows how Churchill's strategies - and his desire not to be the first British prime minister to surrender the nation - brought the war effort to the brink of ruin and back again. Did his series of retaliatory raids in response to a German accidental bombing help cause the Blitz? Were plans already at large for the US to join the war, with Churchill as the primary puppet master? Napier explores all this and more in a controversial examination of Churchill's leadership using first-person accounts from his peers and electorate.
Is there a Western way of war' which pursues battles of annihilation and single-minded military victory? Is warfare on a path to ever greater destructive force? This magisterial new account answers these questions by tracing the history of Western thinking about strategy the employment of military force as a political instrument from antiquity to the present day. Assessing sources from Vegetius to contemporary America, and with a particular focus on strategy since the Napoleonic Wars, Beatrice Heuser explores the evolution of strategic thought, the social institutions, norms and patterns of behaviour within which it operates, the policies that guide it and the cultures that influence it. Ranging across technology and warfare, total warfare and small wars as well as land, sea, air and nuclear warfare, she demonstrates that warfare and strategic thinking have fluctuated wildly in their aims, intensity, limitations and excesses over the past two millennia."
India is poised to resurge as a maritime power, with cooperative engagement as its most prominent pan-regional characteristic. Enabled by a sound national strategy within the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, this would enable successive governments to further the overarching national objective of securing the economic, material, and societal wellbeing of the people of India. In this context, the book appraises the various facets related to India's ascendance as a maritime power, and lays down policy-relevant recommendations to assist the national policy-makers to chart the 'way ahead'. This book additionally seeks to address policymakers in other countries of the Indo-Pacific region, as also extra-regional State entities that are actively seeking to engage with India.
A gripping narrative of the love and betrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer, told through the lives of three unique women. Set against a dramatic backdrop of war, spies, and nuclear bombs, "An Atomic Love Story "unveils a vivid new view of a tumultuous era and one of its most important figures. In the early decades of the 20th century, three highly ambitious women found their way to the West Coast, where each was destined to collide with the young Oppenheimer, the enigmatic physicist whose work in creating the atomic bomb would forever impact modern history. His first and most intense love was for Jean Tatlock, though he married the tempestuous Kitty Harrison--both were members of the Communist Party--and was rumored to have had a scandalous affair with the brilliant Ruth Sherman Tolman, ten years his senior and the wife of another celebrated physicist. Although each were connected through their relationship to Oppenheimer, their experiences reflect important changes in the lives of American women in the 20th century: the conflict between career and marriage; the need for a woman to define herself independently; experimentation with sexuality; and the growth of career opportunities. Beautifully written and superbly researched through a rich
collection of firsthand accounts, this intimate portrait shares the
tragedies, betrayals, and romances of an alluring man and three
bold women, revealing how they pushed to the very forefront of
social and cultural changes in a fascinating, volatile era.
Developing solid, thorough infrastructure security assessments in diverse sectors Drawing on the collective experience of many experts, this definitive reference presents the best methods, techniques, and measurements to help security analysts conduct objective security assessments. It helps readers understand advanced security assessment concepts in today's high-risk world and identify, measure, and prioritize security risks. A comprehensive, practical guide, this resource: Describes a practical, proven approach that has been used in over 3,000 security assessments in thirty countries Features three primary sections: an introduction that helps analysts understand today's challenging environment; an overview of security assessment methodology broken down into five specific elements; and details on tailoring the methodology to specific industries Defines the purpose of the security assessment process, the behavioral and physical sciences brought into play, the techniques used, and measurement and evaluation tools and standards Presents an S3E comprehensive, system-integrated methodology supported by user-friendly, step-by-step guidance that is complemented by a series of S3E Security Assessment Methodology matrices Includes chapters dedicated to specific infrastructure sectors: water; energy; transportation; chemical industry and hazardous materials; agriculture and food; banking and finance; and telecommunications Provides worksheets that facilitate the cataloging and documenting of research data This book gives consultants, security practitioners, corporate security managers and directors, and others a reliable, hands-on "briefcase" reference to use in theoffice as well as in the field. It's also an ideal text for upper-level students in related courses.
This book offers an analysis of key individuals who have contributed to both the theory and the practice of counterinsurgency (COIN). Insurgencies have become the dominant form of armed conflict around the world today. The perceptible degeneration of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan into insurgent quagmires has sparked a renewal of academic and military interest in the theory and practice of counterinsurgency. In light of this, this book provides a rigorous analysis of those individuals who have contributed to both the theory and practice of counterinsurgency: 'warrior-scholars'. These are soldiers who have bridged the academic-military divide by influencing doctrinal and intellectual debates about irregular warfare. Irregular warfare is notoriously difficult for the military, and scholarly understanding about this type of warfare is also problematic; especially given the residual anti-intellectualism within Western militaries. Thus, The Theory and Practice of Irregular Warfare is dedicated to analysing the best perceivable bridge between these two worlds. The authors explore the theoretical and practical contributions made by a selection of warrior-scholars of different nationalities, from periods ranging from the French colonial wars of the mid-twentieth century to the Israeli experiences in the Middle East; from contributions to American counter-insurgency made during the Iraq War, to the thinkers who shaped the US war in Vietnam. This book will be of much interest to students of counterinsurgency, strategic studies, defence studies, war studies and security studies in general.
'Outstanding ... combines a glimpse behind the security screens with a sharp analysis of the real global insecurities - growing inequality and unsustainability' - New Internationalist Written in the late 1990s, Losing Control was years, if not decades, ahead of its time, predicting the 9/11 attacks, a seemingly endless war on terror and the relentless increase in revolts from the margins and bitter opposition to wealthy elites. Now, more than two decades later and in an era of pandemics, climate breakdown and potential further military activity in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Paul Rogers has revised and expanded the original analysis, pointing to the 2030s and '40s as the decades that will see a showdown between a bitter, environmentally wrecked and deeply insecure world and a possible world order rooted in justice and peace.
Much of the literature on the African philosophy of education juxtaposes two philosophical strands as mutually exclusive entities; traditional ethnophilosophy on the one hand, and 'scientific' African philosophy on the other. While traditional ethnophilosophy is associated with the cultural artefacts, narratives, folklore and music of Africa's people, 'scientific' African philosophy is primarily concerned with the explanations, interpretations and justifications of African thought and practice along the lines of critical and transformative reasoning. These two alternative strands of African philosophy invariably impact understandings of education in different ways: education constituted by cultural action is perceived to be mutually independent from education constituted by reasoned action. Yusef Waghid argues for an African philosophy of education guided by communitarian, reasonable and culture dependent action in order to bridge the conceptual and practical divide between African ethnophilosophy and 'scientific' African philosophy. Unlike those who argue that African philosophy of education cannot exist because it does not invoke reason, or that reasoned African philosophy of education is just not possible, Waghid suggests an African philosophy of education constituted by reasoned, culture-dependent action. This book provides an African philosophy aimed at developing a conception of education that can contribute towards imagination, deliberation, and responsibility - actions that can help to enhance justice in educative relations, both in Africa and throughout the world. This book will be essential reading for researchers and academics in the field of the philosophy of education, especially those wanting to learn from the African tradition.
This yearbook continues SIPRI's annual analyses of developments in major armed conflicts, in conflict prevention, management and resolution, and in peacekeeping, developments in chemical and biological weapons, new military technology, world military expenditure, nuclear explosions, arms production, the arms trade, and nuclear, chemical, and biological arms control. Special Studies in this volume: BL area studies of the Middle East, Russia, and Europe BL armed conflict prevention, management and resolution BL information on multilateral observer, peacekeeping and electoral operations BL the comprehensive test ban treaty BL multilateral military-related export control measures BL the trade in major conventional weapons and conventional arms control
James H. Lebovic explores the logic of seeking peace in an arms race. Flawed Logics offers a compelling intellectual history of U.S.-Russian strategic nuclear arms control. Lebovic thoroughly reviews the critical role of ideas and assumptions in U.S. arms control debates, tying them to controversies over U.S. nuclear strategy from the birth of the atomic age to the present. Each nuclear arms treaty - from the Truman to the Obama administration - is assessed in depth and the positions of proponents and opponents are systematically presented, discussed, and critiqued. Lebovic concludes that the terms of these treaties with the Russians were never as good as U.S. proponents claimed nor as bad as opponents feared. The comprehensive analysis in Flawed Logics is objective and balanced, challenging the logic of hawks and doves, Democrats and Republicans, and theorists of all schools with equal vigor. Lebovic's controversial argument will promote debate as to the very plausibility of arms control.
Despite their immense war-fighting capacity, the five most powerful
states in the international system have failed to attain their
primary political objective in almost 40% of their military
operations against weak state and non-state targets since 1945. Why
are states with tremendous military might so often unable to attain
their objectives when they use force against weaker adversaries?
More broadly, under what conditions can states use military force
to attain their political objectives and what conditions limit the
utility of military force as a policy instrument? Can we predict
the outcome of a war before the fighting begins?
The Instant New York Times Bestseller "I could not put this extraordinary book down. Three Days at the Brink is a masterpiece: elegantly written, brilliantly conceived, and impeccably researched. This book not only sparkles but is destined to be a classic!" -Jay Winik, bestselling author From the #1 bestselling author and award-winning anchor of Special Report with Bret Baier, comes the gripping lost history of the Tehran Conference, where FDR, Churchill, and Stalin plotted D-Day and the Second World War's endgame. With the fate of World War II in doubt and rumors of a Nazi assassination plot swirling, Franklin Roosevelt risked everything at a clandestine meeting that would change the course of history. November 1943: The Nazis and their Axis allies controlled nearly the entire European continent. Japan dominated the Pacific. Allied successes at Sicily and Guadalcanal had gained them modest ground but at an extraordinary cost. On the Eastern Front, the Soviet Red Army had been bled white. The path of history walked a knife's edge. That same month a daring gambit was hatched that would alter everything. The "Big Three"-Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin-secretly met for the first time to chart a strategy for defeating Adolf Hitler. Over three days in Tehran, Iran, this trio-strange bedfellows united by their mutual responsibility as heads of the Allied powers-made essential decisions that would direct the final years of the war and its aftermath. Meanwhile, looming over the covert meeting was the possible threat of a Nazi assassination plot, code-named Operation Long Jump. Before they left Tehran, the three leaders agreed to open a second front in the West, spearheaded by Operation Overload and the D-Day invasion of France at Normandy the following June. They also discussed what might come after the war, including dividing Germany and establishing the United Nations-plans that laid the groundwork for the postwar world order and the Cold War. Bestselling author and Fox News Channel anchor Bret Baier's new epic history, Three Days at the Brink, centers on these crucial days in Tehran, the medieval Persian city on the edge of the desert. Baier makes clear the importance of Roosevelt, who stood apart as the sole leader of a democracy, recognizing him as the lead strategist for the globe's future-the one man who could ultimately allow or deny the others their place in history. With new details discovered in rarely seen transcripts, oral histories, and declassified State Department and presidential documents from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Baier illuminates the complex character of Roosevelt, revealing a man who grew into his role and accepted the greatest challenge any American president since Lincoln had faced.
After a decade and a half of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, US policymakers are seeking to provide aid and advice to local governments' counterinsurgency campaigns rather than directly intervening with US forces. This strategy, and US counterinsurgency doctrine in general, fail to recognize that despite a shared aim of defeating an insurgency, the US and its local partner frequently have differing priorities with respect to the conduct of counterinsurgency operations. Without some degree of reform or policy change on the part of the insurgency-plagued government, American support will have a limited impact. Using three detailed case studies - the Hukbalahap Rebellion in the Philippines, Vietnam during the rule of Ngo Dinh Diem, and the Salvadorian Civil War - Ladwig demonstrates that providing significant amounts of aid will not generate sufficient leverage to affect a client's behaviour and policies. Instead, he argues that influence flows from pressure and tight conditions on aid rather than from boundless generosity. |
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