Militarized Conflict Modeling Using Computational Intelligence examines the application of computational intelligence methods to model conflict. Traditionally, conflict has been modeled using game theory. The inherent limitation of game theory when dealing with more than three players in a game is the main motivation for the application of computational intelligence in modeling conflict. Militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) are defined as a set of interactions between, or among, states that can result in the display, threat or actual use of military force in an explicit way. These interactions can result in either peace or conflict. This book models the relationship between key variables and the risk of conflict between two countries. The variables include Allies which measures the presence or absence of military alliance, Contiguity which measures whether the countries share a common boundary or not and Major Power which measures whether either or both states are a major power. Militarized Conflict Modeling Using Computational Intelligence implements various multi-layer perception neural networks, Bayesian networks, support vector machines, neuro-fuzzy models, rough sets models, neuro-rough sets models and optimized rough sets models to create models that estimate the risk of conflict given the variables. Secondly, these models are used to study the sensitivity of each variable to conflict. Furthermore, a framework on how these models can be used to control the possibility of peace is proposed. Finally, new and emerging topics on modelling conflict are identified and further work is proposed.

This edited volume addresses the relationship between the essential nature of war and its character at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

The focus is on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, situations that occupy a central role in international affairs and that have become highly influential in thinking about war in the widest sense. The intellectual foundation of the volume is Clausewitz's insight that though war has an enduring nature, its character changes with time, space, social structure and culture. The fact that war's character varies means that different actors may interpret, experience and, ultimately, wage war differently. The conflict between the ways that war is conceptualised in the prevailing Western and international discourse, and the manner in which it plays out on the ground is a key discussion point for scholars and practitioners in the field of international relations. Contributions combine insights from social theory, philosophy, sociology and strategic studies and ask directly what contemporary war is, and what the implications are for the future.

This book will be of much interest to students of war studies, strategic studies, security studies and IR in general.

Caroline Holmqvist-Jonsater is currently completing a PhD in the conflation of war and policing in international conflicts at the Department of War Studies, King's College London.

Christopher Coker is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is the author of 11 books on war and security issues.

This book analyses the problems of current just war theory, and offers a more stable justificatory framework for non-intervention in international relations.

The primary purpose of just war theory is to provide a language and a framework by which decision makers and citizens can organize and articulate arguments about the justice of particular wars. Given that the majority of conflicts that threaten human security are now intra-state conflicts, just war theory is often called on to make judgments about wars of intervention. This book aims to critically examine the tenets of just war theory in light of these changes, and formulate a new theory of intervention and just cause.

For Michael Walzer, the leading scholar of just war theory, armed humanitarian intervention is permissible only in cases of genocide, ethnic cleansing, widespread massacres, or enslavement. This book shows why this threshold is too restrictive in light of the progressive shift away from interstate conflict as well as the emerging norms of 'sovereignty as responsibility' and the 'responsibility to protect'. Justice, Intervention and Force in International Relations aims to establish a new, stable foundation for non-intervention and a revised threshold for 'just cause'. In addition, this book demonstrates that over-reliance on the just cause category distorts understanding, analysis, and public discussion of the justice or injustice of resorting to war.

This new book will be of much interest to students of ethics, security studies, international relations and international law.

Kimberley Hudson is Assistant Professor of Political Science at American International College, and has a Phd in International Relations from Brown University.

The Other's War is an intervention into a set of contemporary moral, political and legal debates over the legitimacy of war and terrorism within the context of the so-called global War on Terror. Tarik Kochi considers how, despite the variety of its approaches - just war theory, classical realist, post-Kantian, poststructuralist - contemporary ethical, political and legal philosophy still struggles to produce a convincing account of war. Focusing on the philosophical problem of the rightness of war, The Other's War responds to this lack. Through a discussion of a number of key Western intellectual traditions, Kochi demonstrates how often conflicting and contradictory conceptions of war's rightness have developed in modernity. He shows how a process of ordering violence around different notions of right has constantly redrawn the boundaries of what constitutes 'legitimate' violence. Such a process has consequences for anyone who claims to be fighting a 'just war'. Building upon this account and drawing upon the philosophical heritage of G.W.F. Hegel and Ernst Bloch, The Other's War proposes a new understanding of war, not just as a social condition characterised by violent conflict and struggles for power, but as the attempt of individuals and groups to realise their normative claims through violence. Kochi argues that both of these aspects of war are an expression of the metaphysics of human subjectivity. War begins with, and is the radical exaggeration of, a fundamental activity of human subjectivity, in which the subject constitutes its normative and material identity; realising and positing itself through acts that involve negation and violence. By drawing consideration of the problem of war back to the level of a philosophical examination of the metaphysics of human subjectivity, The Other's War develops a novel theory of war that helps us to better understand the nature of contemporary conflict as a process of recognition. From this perspective, judgment, it is concluded, needs to be constantly guided by the effort to recognise the ethics of the other's war.

Although bibliographies do exist that concern themselves with the Nazi period in Germany and the Third Reich, no one has yet attempted a complete reference source. With the publication of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Epoch there is finally, a complete, comprehensive reference source designed to identify all English-language works that relate to the Nazis and the Third Reich. Included in this bibliography are monographs, biographies, pamphlets, and journal articles, as well as more general histories of the time period. The material is subdivided by subject and organized into eighteen chapters, making this large bibliography simple to use. The chapter subjects contain a broad range of data. Included are chapters on Adolf Hitler himself, the origins of national socialism, religion and the Nazis, articles about education and academics in Germany, law and government under the Third Reich, the SS and concentration camps, everyday life in Nazi Germany, foreign policy and more. The range of data collected in this one reference location is astounding, and should provide a nearly inexhaustible starting point for those scholars and students interested in the history of one of the most controversial political parties and governments of the twentieth century.

This volume brings together some of Professor Azar Gat's most significant articles on the evolution of strategic doctrines and the transformation of war during the 20th and early 21st centuries. It sheds new light on the rise of the German Panzer arm and the doctrine of Blitzkrieg between the two world wars; explores the factors behind the formation of strategic policy and military doctrine in the world war era and during the cold war; and explains why counterinsurgency has become such a problem. The book concludes with the spread of peace in the developed world, challenged as it is by the rise of the authoritarian-capitalist great powers - China and Russia - and by the chilling prospect of unconventional terrorism. This last essay summarizes the author's latest research and has not previously been published in article form. This collection will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, military history, and international relations.

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) is a founding figure in the field of sociology. His stature is comparable to that of his contemporaries Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Mead's contribution was a profound and unique American theory that analyzed society and the individual as social objects. As Mead saw it, both society and the individual emerged from cooperative, democratic processes linking the self, the other, and the community. Mary Jo Deegan, a leading scholar of Mead's work, traces the evolution of his thought, its continuity and change. She is particularly interested in the most controversial period of Mead's work, in which he addressed topics of violence and the nation state. Mead's theory of war, peace, and society emerged out of the historical events of his time, particularly World War I. During this period he went from being a pacifist, along with his contemporaries John Dewey and Jane Addams, to being a strong advocate for war. From 1917-1918 Mead became a leader in voicing the need for war based on his theory of self and society. After the war, he became disillusioned with President Woodrow Wilson, with Americans' failure to support mechanisms for international arbitration, and with the political reasons for American participation in World War I. He returned to a more pacifist and co-operative model of behavior during the 1920s, when he became less political, more abstract, and more withdrawn from public debate.

The book includes Deegan's interpretation of Mead's early social thought, his friendship and family networks, the historical context of America at war, and the importance of analysis of violence and the state from Mead's perspective. She also provides illustrative selections from Mead's work, much of which was previously unpublished.

This is the first scholarly book to look at the role of the 'warrior' in modern war, arguing that warriors' actions, and indeed thoughts, are increasingly patrolled and that the modern battlefield is an unforgiving environment in which to discharge their vocation.

As war becomes ever more instrumentalized, so its existential dimension is fast being hollowed out. Technology is threatening the agency of the warrior and this volume paints a picture of early twenty-first century warfare, helping to explain why so many aspiring warriors are becoming disenchanted with their profession.

Written by a leading thinker on warfare, this book sets out to explain what makes an American Marine a 'warrior' and why suicide bombers, or Al Qaeda fighters, do not qualify for this title. This distinction is one of the central features of the current War on Terror - and one that justifies much more extensive discussion than it has so far received.

The Warrior Ethos will be of great interest to all students of military history, strategy, military sociology and war studies.

Modern theorists and their ideas on war and peace are here presented, interpreted, and evaluated with scholarship and clarity of expression. In examining the main currents in modern social theory, the author has gone directly to the works of the leading philosophic figures. This book is a carefully documented analysis based on primary sources. Its republication in an expanded version after more than a half century since its initial appearance is a welcome addition to the literature on conflict and conflict resolution.

In this 2007 greatly expanded third edition of "The Idea of War and Peace," Irving Louis Horowitz provides a sense of substance to the character of Western Civilization. The book permits the reader to better understand what the "clash of civilizations" is about. It provides a broad outline of both European and American twentieth century social philosophies as they relate to the issue of war and peace. It also offers a new concluding section that explores in depth this same theme in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Such major figures as Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, Jacques Maritain, Albert Einstein, and Vladimir Lenin, reviewed in earlier editions, are now joined by examinations of the work of Raymond Aron, Harold D. Lasswell, and other contemporaries. "The Idea of War and Peace" is not just one more manual of how to conduct or avoid conflict, and even less, a guideline to policy-making. Instead, the work offers a profound sense of the theories and values that underline manuals and guides.

This third edition is graced by a consideration of major figures in the second half of the twentieth century and a retrospective on the work of Niccolo Machiavelli on the nature of warfare. It also includes chapters on the relationship of war, peace, and the democratic order--and a postscript on new forms of state power and terrorism. This new edition links past and present and serves as an analytical bridge between centuries.

From 1973 to the 2003 liberation of Iraq, American military thought and defense planning was transformed. "US Military Innovation and Strategy after Vietnam" presents the reader with a clear overview and assessment of this Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA).
Robert Tomes skillfully details this thirty-year process that began in the aftermath of Vietnam, matured in the 1980s as Pentagon planners sought an integrated nuclear-conventional deterrent, and culminated with battles fought during sandstorms on the road to Baghdad in 2004. He distills the key historical, conceptual, and doctrinal factors central to the evolution of US defense policy and military thought during the last three decades. In doing so, Tomes explores the widespread perception that advanced US war fighting capabilities became suddenly available in the early 1990s, a perception that skewed defense policy discourse at a time when a more balanced understanding of historical factors was sorely needed.
In addition, the reader is presented with a wide range of invaluable insights into innovation phenomena and a clear understanding of the origins and core elements of recent US advances in areas such as battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance, long-range precision strike, stealth technology, and end-to-end information and knowledge capabilities.
This book will be of great interest to all students of the US military, military history and of military and strategic studies in general.

US Defence Strategy from Vietnam to Operation Iraqi Freedom examines the thirty-year transformation in American military thought and defence strategy that spanned from 1973 through 2003. During these three decades, new technology and operational practices helped form what observers dubbed a 'Revolution in Military Affairs' in the 1990s and a 'New American Way of War' in the 2000s. Robert R. Tomes tells for the first time the story of how innovative approaches to solving battlefield challenges gave rise to non-nuclear strategic strike, the quest to apply information technology to offset Soviet military advantages, and the rise of 'decisive operations' in American military strategy. He details an innovation process that began in the shadow of Vietnam, matured in the 1980s as Pentagon planners sought an integrated nuclear-conventional deterrent, and culminated with battles fought during blinding sandstorms on the road to Baghdad in 2003. An important contribution to military innovation studies, the book also presents an innovation framework applicable to current defence transformation efforts. This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, US defence policy and US politics in general.

Most studies of Asia-Pacific security are marked by pessimism and continuing belief in the virtues of a balance of power. Pacific Asia? goes against the grain by pointing to a number of positive developments especially economic in regional relationships, the absence of an arms race, the growth of multilateral groups, and an emerging consensus on the importance of nonmilitary paths to national security. Above all, Mel Gurtov stresses a definition of security that focuses on basic human needs, social justice, and environmental protection. The author disagrees with proponents of a China threat, criticizes U.S. Cold War notions of security through forward-based power, and argues for new efforts at regional dialogue based on multilateral cooperation, sensitivity to Asian nationalism, and a role for Japan as a 'global civilian power.'

Is war ever a just way to resolve conflict? Diana Francis argues that it is not. With passion and eloquence, she mounts a head-on challenge to the belief that war as an institution is either necessary or effective for good. Refuting the notion that human nature condemns us to perpetual carnage, she argues that we can change the ways we think and the systems we live by. In a tightly reasoned discussion of the ethics of war and peace she asserts that war is a gross denial of the core values on which peace depends, and that the Just War Theory has failed and deceived us. The book explores alternative ways of confronting aggression and injustice, showing that these are neglected but well proven. Francis argues that our security can be enhanced by recognition of our shared responsibility for each other and our planet. Practical solutions require a new level of participation in public affairs. Recent events have shown that this is possible. Francis outlines the steps we must take to bring about the radical shift so urgently needed.

"This brief, provocative, and accessible book offers snapshots of seven pernicious myths in military history that have been perpetrated on unsuspecting students, readers, moviegoers, game players, and politicians. It promotes awareness of how myths are created by 'the spurious misuse and ignorance of history' and how misleading ideas about a military problem, as in asymmetric warfare, can lead to misguided solutions. "Both scholarly and engaging, this book is an ideal addition to military history and historical methodology courses. In fact, it could be fruitfully used in any course that teaches critical thinking skills, including courses outside the discipline of history. Military history has a broad appeal to students, and there's something here for everyone. From the so-called 'Western Way of War' to its sister-myth, technological determinism, to the 'academic party game' of once-faddish 'Military Revolutions,' the book shows that while myths about history may be fun, myth busting is the most fun of all." -Reina Pennington, Norwich University

Coup d'Etat astonished readers when it first appeared in 1968 because it showed, step by step, how governments could be overthrown. Translated into sixteen languages, it has inspired anti-coup precautions by regimes around the world. In addition to these detailed instructions, Edward Luttwak's revised handbook offers an altogether new way of looking at political power-one that considers, for example, the vulnerability to coups of even the most stable democracies in the event of prolonged economic distress. The world has changed dramatically in the past half century, but not the essence of the coup d'etat. It still requires the secret recruitment of military officers who command the loyalty of units well placed to seize important headquarters and key hubs in the capital city. The support of the armed forces as a whole is needed only in the aftermath, to avoid countercoups. And mass support is largely irrelevant, although passive acceptance is essential. To ensure it, violence must be kept to a minimum. The ideal coup is swift and bloodless. Very violent coups rarely succeed, and if they trigger a bloody civil war they fail utterly. Luttwak identifies conditions that make countries vulnerable to a coup, and he outlines the necessary stages of planning, from recruitment of coconspirators to postcoup promises of progress and stability. But much more broadly, his investigation of coups-updated for the twenty-first century-uncovers important truths about the nature of political power.

Immortal is the only single-volume English-language survey of Iran's military history. CIA analyst Steven R. Ward shows that Iran's soldiers, from the famed "Immortals" of ancient Persia to today's Revolutionary Guard, have demonstrated through the centuries that they should not be underestimated. This history also provides background on the nationalist, tribal, and religious heritages of the country to help readers better understand Iran and its security outlook. Immortal begins with the founding of ancient Persia's empire under Cyrus the Great and continues through the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and up to the present. Drawing on a wide range of sources including declassified documents, the author gives primary focus to the modern era to relate the build-up of the military under the last Shah, its collapse during the Islamic revolution, its fortunes in the Iran-Iraq War, and its rise from the ashes to help Iran become once again a major regional military power. He shows that, despite command and supply problems, Iranian soldiers demonstrate high levels of bravery and perseverance and have enjoyed surprising tactical successes even when victory has been elusive. These qualities and the Iranians' ability to impose high costs on their enemies by exploiting Iran's imposing geography bear careful consideration today by potential opponents.

Four years before the outbreak of the First World War, Alfred Thayer Mahan, the world famous naval historian and strategist, warned of the approaching conflict in The Interest of America in International Conditions. Mahan's geo-historical approach compared Imperial Germany's early twentieth-century quest for hegemony to previous attempts by Napoleon's France, Louis XIV's France, and the Austrian and Spanish Hapsburgs to upset the European balance of power. Each previous bid for hegemony brought forth a coalition of powers that restored the balance of power. Mahan foresaw in the early twentieth century that a new coalition of powers, including Britain, France, Russia, and the United States, would be needed to prevent German domination of the continent.

Conflict is central to human history. It is often the cause, course and consequence of social, cultural and political change. Military history therefore has to be more than a technical analysis of armed conflict. War in the Modern World since 1815 addresses war as a cultural phenomenon, discusses its meaning in different socities and explores the various contexts of military action.

Conflict is central to human history. It is often the cause, course and consequence of social, cultural and political change. Military history therefore has to be more than a technical analysis of armed conflict. War in the Modern World since 1815 addresses war as a cultural phenomenon, discusses its meaning in different socities and explores the various contexts of military action.

The fear that a conflict will spread is often used as a justification for "peacekeeping" operations. But why and under what conditions is war likely to widen? When are concerns warranted and justified? This book answers these important policy questions.
The book offers a theoretical explanation for war widening based on the decisiveness of warfare in a given era. It argues that conflicts are most likely to spread when the effects of warfare are limited, as states seek limited gains with a low cost. In an era where warfare is decisive, in other words, an era of total war, wars are less likely to widen. By understanding whether a war occurs in an era of total war or limited war, we can then assess how likely that conflict is to spread.
The explanation of war widening is developed through four historical cases: The Seven Years War, the French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and World War I. These cases capture both eras of limited war, total war and the transition between them. Finally the author looks to the future, to foresee what developments might limit the costs of warfare and make future conflicts likely to spread.

In this wide-ranging work, Jacques Richardson documents the application of scientific research to the evolution of modern weapons, including some of the most lethal, such as nuclear-tipped missiles, biological agents, poison gas, silent submarines and stealth aircraft. He shows how the natural, engineering, information and environmental sciences are thoroughly exploited - and how social science is applied to recruitment, battlefield management and logistics, as well as the careful preparation of terrorist acts.

Describes the application of research to the evolution of weapons. It shows how natural, engineering, information and environmental sciences are exploited how even social science is applied to recruitment, battlefield and logistical management, and careful preparation of terroristic acts.

Military forces are now confronted, not only with the non-conventional threats of terrorism but the moral dilemmas of humanitarianism, intervention and human rights. Gwyn Prins explores these conflicting impulses using a variety of fascinating examples: the September 11th attacks and the history of 'spectacular' terrorism, humanitarian intervention in Bosnia, Kosovo, West Africa and elsewhere, the extradition of General Pinochet for human rights abuses and the nuclear issue, in the light of ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan.
Wide-ranging and challenging, this book will interest all those seeking to understand the enormous recent changes in military strategy and global politics.

Military Resilience in a Low-Intensity Conflict: A Comparative Study of New Directions Worldwide, by Rachel Suissa, offers a prognosis for the dilemma of army resilience in the post-modern era. She clarifies the concept of military resilience among the challenges of the twenty-first century, examining how the military model affects resilience, and how those effects are expressed during the management of a given conflict. She investigates the issue through a comparative study of armies and states which have been involved or are currently involved in low intensity conflicts the countries discussed include France and Algeria, Great Britain and Ireland, Russia and Chechnya, and Israel and the Palestinian authority. Another challenge that Suissa addresses is that of peace coalitions and their organizational resilience. She further discusses the connection between political and military ranks, and under which conditions the former affects the latter. Military Resilience in a Low-Intensity Conflict makes the issues associated with resilience and conflict accessible to both academics and those who might translate its findings into practicable insights.