Larry May argues that the best way to understand war crimes is as crimes against humanness rather than as violations of justice. He shows that in a deeply pluralistic world, we need to understand the rules of war as the collective responsibility of states that send their citizens into harm's way, as the embodiment of humanity, and as the chief way for soldiers to retain a sense of honour on the battlefield. Throughout, May demonstrates that the principle of humanness is the cornerstone of international humanitarian law, and is itself the basis of the traditional principles of discrimination, necessity, and proportionality. He draws extensively on the older Just War tradition to assess recent cases from the International Tribunal for Yugoslavia as well as examples of atrocities from the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Since World War II, civil wars have replaced interstate wars as the most frequent and deadly form of armed conflict globally. How do we account for when and where civil wars are likely to occur, when and how they are likely to end, and whether or not they will recur? In this timely book, leading scholars guide us through what the latest research tells us about the onset, duration, outcomes, and recurrence of civil wars, as well as the ongoing consequences of conflicts in war-torn countries such as Syria, Sudan, and Rwanda. In mapping out the current state of our knowledge about civil conflicts, the authors also identify what we do not know about civil wars. The book describes new directions in civil-war research, including transitional justice institutions in post-conflict environments, the "resource curse," the role of women, and the relationship between the environment and civil conflict. The authors also highlight new trends in civil-war data collection that have enabled scholars to examine the geographic and temporal patterns of armed conflict. This authoritative text offers both an accessible and current overview of current knowledge and an agenda for future research. With contributions by Halvard Buhaug, David E. Cunningham, Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham, Jacqueline H. R. DeMeritt, Karl DeRouen Jr., Paul F. Diehl, Andrew Enterline, Erika Forsberg, Scott Gates, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, Nils Petter Gleditsch, Caroline A. Hartzell, Cullen Hendrix, Jacob Kathman, Christopher Linebarger, T. David Mason, Erik Melander, Sara McLaughlin Mitchell, Alyssa K. Prorok, Idean Salehyan, Lee J. M. Seymour, Megan Shannon, Benjamin Smith, David Sobek, Clayton L. Thyne, Henrik Urdal, Joseph K. Young

This book studies the impact of cultural factors on the course of military innovations. One would expect that countries accustomed to similar technologies would undergo analogous changes in their perception of and approach to warfare. However, the intellectual history of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) in Russia, the US, and Israel indicates the opposite. The US developed technology and weaponry for about a decade without reconceptualizing the existing paradigm about the nature of warfare. Soviet 'new theory of victory' represented a conceptualization which chronologically preceded technological procurement. Israel was the first to utilize the weaponry on the battlefield, but was the last to develop a conceptual framework that acknowledged its revolutionary implications.
Utilizing primary sources that had previously been completely inaccessible, and borrowing methods of analysis from political science, history, anthropology, and cognitive psychology, this book suggests a cultural explanation for this puzzling transformation in warfare.
"The Culture of Military Innovation" offers a systematic, thorough, and unique analytical approach that may well be applicable in other perplexing strategic situations. Though framed in the context of specific historical experience, the insights of this book reveal important implications related to conventional, subconventional, and nonconventional security issues. It is therefore an ideal reference work for practitioners, scholars, teachers, and students of security studies.

Based on extensive Japanese-language materials, this book is the first to examine the development of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force. It addresses: how the GSDF was able to emerge as the post-war successor of the Imperial Japanese Army despite Japan's anti-militarist constitution; how the GSDF, despite the public skepticism and even hostility that greeted its creation, built domestic and international legitimacy; and how the GSDF has responded to changes in international and domestic environments. This path-breaking study of the world's third-largest-economic power's ground army is timely for two reasons. First, the resurgence of tensions in Northeast Asia over territorial disputes, and the emphasis recent Japanese governments have placed on using the GSDF for defending Japan's outlying islands is driving media coverage and specialist interest in the GSDF. Second, the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami has focused global attention on the GSDF as Japan's lead disaster relief organization. This highly informative and thoroughly researched book provides insight for policy makers and academics interested in Japanese foreign and defense policies.

African armed forces face many challenges with regard to military professionalism, as the latest coups in Mali and Niger, and the poor performance of the DRC's armed forces, illustrate. And military professionalism is linked to military culture, which is about the collective activities of armed forces, particularly their distinctive practices and collective understanding of shared goals and how to achieve them. A major challenge for the African Union as well as AFRICOM is to understand and reconcile its different military cultures, which are at a formative stage. But discussion of military culture largely occurs around North American and Western European armies. Nor are there many contributions from African scholars on the subject. This book offers a contemporary perspective on military culture within Africa, with contributions from scholars and practitioners from Africa as well as North America, Europe and Australia. The underlying argument is that African armed forces need to come to terms with the elements of military culture if they want to become more professional. To this end the book first focuses on the theory of military culture, its implications for civil-military relations, and the role of the armed forces in society. It then examines a number of cases, from Canada, Australia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Namibia. Thirdly, the book moves into a detailed discussion of the South African military, with a retrospective view of its military culture and an examination of its post-apartheid vision. In a post-colonial world, discussions about the role of the military are regarded with suspicion, but if the role of soldiers today is to serve society as well as to fight war, then scholarship is needed around this subject matter to determine the military culture of the 21st century.

In the past 15 years, UK anti-militarist activists have auctioned off a tank outside an arms fair, superglued themselves to Lockheed Martin's central London offices and stopped a battleship with a canoe. They have also challenged militarism in many other everyday ways. This book explores why anti-militarists resist, considers the politics of different tactics and examines the tensions and debates within the movement. As it explores the multifaceted, imaginative and highly subversive world of anti-militarism, the book also makes two overarching arguments. First, that anti-militarists can help us to understand militarism in new and useful ways. And secondly, that the methods and ideas used by anti-militarists can be a potent force for radical political change.

Voltaire said, "Machiavelli taught Europe the art of war; it had long been practiced, without being known." For Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), war was war, and victory the supreme aim to which all other considerations must be subordinated. "The Art of War" is far from an anachronism--its pages outline fundamental questions that theorists of war continue to examine today, making it essential reading for any student of military history, strategy, or theory. Machiavelli believed "The Art of War" to be his most important work.

The turn of the century was accompanied by two historically significant phenomena. One was the emergence of computer networks as a vital component of advanced militaries and interdependent global economic systems. The second concerned China's rise on the global stage through economic reforms that led to sustained growth and military modernization. At the same time, Chinese government policies and actions have drawn international criticisms including persistent allegations of online espionage, domestic Internet censorship, and an increased military capability, all of which utilize computer networks. These threat perceptions are heightened by a lack of transparency. Unlike the United States or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, China does not articulate its strategic doctrine. Further, open source material on this topic is often contradictory, cursory, and unclear due, in part, to the absence of consensus on cyber-related terminology and the infancy of this field. With a focus on the period 1998 to 2016, this book identifies and analyzes the strategic context, conceptual framework, and historical evolution of China's cyber warfare doctrine.

Addressing an increasingly complex array of nuclear weapons challenges in the future will require talented young people with the necessary technical and policy expertise to contribute to sound decisionmaking on nuclear issues over time. To that end, the CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) runs a yearly Nuclear Scholars Initiative for graduate students and young professionals. Those accepted into the program are hosted once per month at CSIS in Washington, DC, where they participate in daylong workshops with senior government officials and policy experts. Over the course of the six-month program, scholars are required to prepare a research paper. This volume is a collection of the 2014 papers from the Nuclear Scholars Initiative.

The only Latin art of war to survive, Vegetius' Epitome was for long a part of the medieval prince's military education. The core of his proposals, the maintenance of a professional standing army, was revolutionary for medieval Europe, while his theory of deterrence through strength remains the foundation of modern Western defence policy.

Wars and conflicts have become a near constant presence today, brought to us on a real-time basis on myriad communication devices. A cursory scan of recent conflicts reveals the blurring lines between war and peace, state versus non-state, regular and irregular, and conventional vis-à-vis unconventional. Over the past decade or so, the prevailing security environment in many regions has changed radically. Simultaneously the probability of conventional conflict between states or groups of states has steadily declined while sub-conventional conflict has gained prominence. These small, niggling wars have been termed as hybrid, non-linear, grey zone, or unrestricted, among others. It thus becomes necessary to enquire ontologically and epistemologically into these terms to understand if they allude to the same phenomenon through different frames. Furthermore, are these an aberration or, increasingly, the convention? This book tries to address this crucial research gap related to the changing character of conflicts in the strategic discourse in India.

This book develops a framework for analysis, and a set of research strategies, to better understand the conditions and mechanisms involved in the considerable use of caveats by states contributing militarily to coalition operations. In the professional language of military servicemen, security analysts and decision-makers, "caveats" refers to the reservations on the use of force states put on their military contingents as a precondition to participate in particular multinational enforcement operations. Such understood caveats are an instrument of statecraft and foreign policy. However, caveats also are a potential threat to the integrity and military effectiveness of the coalition force in question, and, further down the road, an erosion on the fabric of security alliances. This volume is ideal for audiences interested in military and defence studies, security studies and coalition warfare.

Aside from the occasional nod to epaulets or use of camouflage, war and fashion seem to be strange partners. Not so, argue the contributors to this book, who connect military industrial practices as well as military dress to textile and clothing in new ways. For instance, the book includes a series of commentaries on the impact of military dress in the airline industry, in illustrated wartime comics, and even considers today's muscled soldier's body as a new type of uniform. Elsewhere, the impacts of conquest introduce a new set of postcolonial aesthetics; this is because military and colonial regimes disrupted local textile production and garment making. In another chapter, it is argued that textiles and fashion are important because they reflect a core practice, one that bridges textile artists and designers in an expressive, creative, and deeply physical way to matters of cultural significance. And the book concludes by calling the very mode of "military chic" into ethical question.
The premier text to illustrate the impact of war on textiles, bodies, costume, art, and design, "Fashion and War in Popular Culture "will be warmly welcomed by scholars of fashion design and theory, historians of fashion, and those interested in theories of warfare and military science.

Anything but a detached theorist, Clausewitz was as fully engaged in the intellectual and cultural currents of his time as in its political and military conflicts. Late-eighteenth century thought helped shape the analytic methods he developed for the study of war. The essays in this volume follow his career in a complex military society, together with that of other students of war, both friends and rivals, providing a broad perspective that leads to significant documents so far unknown or ignored. They add to our understanding of Clausewitz's early ideas and their expansion into a comprehensive theory that continues to challenge our thinking about war today.

Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq offers a feminist critique and reconstruction of just war theory. It points out gender biases in the just war tradition and suggests alternative jus ad bellum and jus in bello standards that emphasize women, political marginality, and empathy. Laura Sjoberg applies this feminist just war theory to analyze the wars in Iraq since the end of the Cold War-the First Gulf War, the war of sanctions, and the Second Gulf War. By examining international political discourse from and about Iraq, it shows where war generally and just war specifically are gendered. Through the stories of key just war characters like Jessica Lynch, this book reveals where women are omitted and subordinated in global politics. Sjoberg suggests that dialogue and empathy replace righteousness in just war thinking for the good of human safety everywhere and concludes with alternative visions of Gulf War policies, inspired by feminist just war theory.

For more than two thousand years, Sun-tzu's The Art of War has provided leaders with essential advice on battlefield tactics and management strategies. An elemental part of Chinese culture, it has also become a touchstone for the Western struggle for survival and success, whether in battle, in business, or in relationships. Now, in this crisp, accessible new translation, eminent scholar John Minford brings this seminal work to life for today's readers. Capturing the literary quality of the work, Minford presents the core text in two formats: first, the unadorned ancient words of wisdom ascribed to Sun-tzu; then, the same text with extensive running commentary from the canon of traditional Chinese commentators. A lively, learned introduction and other valuable apparatus round out this authoritative volume.

War is a paradox. On the one hand, it destroys bodies and destroys communities. On the other hand, it is responsible for some of the strongest human bonds and has been the genesis of many of our most fundamental institutions. War and Society addresses these paradoxes while providing a sociological exploration of this enigmatic phenomenon which has played a central role in human history, wielded an incredible power over human lives, and commanded intellectual questioning for countless generations. The authors offer an analytical account of the origins of war, its historical development, and its consequences for individuals and societies, adopting a comparative approach throughout. It ends with an appraisal of the contemporary role of war, looking to the future of warfare and the fundamental changes in the nature of violent conflict which we are starting to witness. This short, readable and engaging book will be an ideal reading for upper-level students of political sociology, military sociology, and related subjects.

Patton: A Genius for War is a full-fledged portrait of an extraordinary American that reveals the complex and contradictory personality that lay behind the swashbuckling and brash facade. According to Publishers Weekly, the result is "a major biography of a major American military figure."

"This massive work is biography at its very best. Literate and meaty, incisive and balanced, detailed without being pedantic. Mr. D'Este's Patton takes its rightful place as the definitive biography of this American warrior." --Calvin L. Christman, Dallas Morning News

"D'Este tells this story well, and gives us a new understanding of this great and troubled man."-The Wall Street Journal

"An instant classic." --Douglas Brinkley, director, Eisenhower Center

Fully illustrated, this absorbing study assesses the warriors fighting on both sides during the Vikings' attacks on the Frankish realm in the 9th century, as raiding escalated into full-scale siege warfare. On the eve of the 9th century, Vikings first raided the Frankish Empire on the coast of what is now western France. Although this attack ended in disaster for the Scandinavians, Charlemagne reportedly wept, not in fear of his own life, but for the ensuing bloodshed brought upon his successors. Mobile parties of highly skilled Viking warriors would continue to raid Francia for decades; as these attacking contingents grew more numerous they began to assail powerful centres, besieging Paris in 845 and again in 885. To combat the Viking threat, Frankish kings mustered scores of infantrymen, then subsequently transitioned to cavalry-based forces in the 9th century. The dynamic nature of Viking activity in Francia meant that numbers and mobility would determine the fate of Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire. This study documents the evolving trial of strength between the Vikings and the Franks under Charlemagne and his successors. Through a careful synthesis of primary sources, expert analysis and the archaeological record, the author invites the reader to visualize the fighting men who fought one another in Francia, and offers a balanced assessment of their successes and failures over decades of warfare during the Viking Age.

Negotiating a peaceful end to civil wars, which often includes an attempt to bring together former rival military or insurgent factions into a new national army, has been a frequent goal of conflict resolution practitioners since the Cold War. In practice, however, very little is known about what works, and what doesn't work, in bringing together former opponents to build a lasting peace. Contributors to this volume assess why some civil wars result in successful military integration while others dissolve into further strife, factionalism, and even renewed civil war. Eleven cases are studied in detail-Sudan, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Rwanda, the Philippines, South Africa, Mozambique, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi-while other chapters compare military integration with corporate mergers and discuss some of the hidden costs and risks of merging military forces. New Armies from Old fills a serious gap in our understanding of civil wars, their possible resolution, and how to promote lasting peace, and will be of interest to scholars and students of conflict resolution, international affairs, and peace and security studies.

There could be no better homage to recently deceased sociologist Charles C. Moskos than dedicating to him this selection of the papers presented at RC01's international conference in Seoul (July 2008). It offers an up-to-date view of the panorama of social studies on armed forces and conflict resolution in a context of fast-moving change that renders many preceding theoretical previsions obsolete. Just to cite two aspects of this change, one can point first of all to how the presented studies move beyond the very concept of globalization, after which the conference had been named. It in fact emerged with clarity that the new dimensions of the context in which militaries and military policy must move are those of a constant, diffuse interaction of the 'local' and the 'global', so-called globalization. A second aspect, in the international area, is the shift towards a multipolar global order with the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, Latin America, Japan and India all manoeuvring for position, a shift that has significant consequences on military action as well.

When is the use of force for humanitarian purposes legitimate? The book examines this question through one of the most controversial examples of humanitarian intervention in the post Cold War period: the 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo. Justifying Violence applies a critical theoretical approach to an interrogation of the communicative practices which underpin claims to legitimacy for the use of force by actors in international politics. Drawing on the theory of communicative ethics, the book develops an innovative conceptual framework which contributes a critical communicative dimension to the question of legitimacy that extends beyond the moral and legal approaches so often applied to the intervention in Kosovo. The empirical application of communicative ethics offers a provocative and nuanced account which contests conventional interpretations of the legitimacy of NATO's intervention. -- .

How are militarism and militarisation embodied and why is it important to study these concepts together? This volume highlights a lack of research into people's emotions, bodies and experiences in global politics, and brings these important dimensions to bear on how we study militarism and process of militarisation. This collection showcases innovative research that examines people's everyday lived experience and the multiple ways militarism is enshrined in our societies. Emphasising the benefits of interdisciplinary thinking, its chapters interrogate a range of methodological, ethical, and theoretical questions related to embodiment and militarism from a range of empirical contexts. Authors from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds reveal the myriad of ways in which militarism is experienced by gendered, raced, aged, and sexed bodies. The volume covers a wide range of topics, including the impact of social media; gender, queer, and feminist research on the military; the challenges of writing about embodied experience; and the commercialisation of military fitness in civilian life. This book fills a gap in the study of militarism and militarisation and will be of interest to students and scholars of critical military studies, security studies, and war studies. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Critical Military Studies.

What does it mean to be secure? In the global news, we hear stories daily about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, about domestic-level conflicts around the world, about the challenges of cybersecurity and social security. This broad list highlights the fact that security is an idea with multiple meanings, but do we all experience security issues in the same way? In this book, Nicole Detraz explores the broad terrain of security studies through a gender lens. Assumptions about masculinity and femininity play important roles in how we understand and react to security threats. By examining issues of militarization, peacekeeping, terrorism, human security, and environmental security, the book considers how the gender-security nexus pushes us to ask different questions and broaden our sphere of analysis. Including gender in our analysis of security challenges the primacy of some traditional security concepts and shifts the focus to be more inclusive. Without a full understanding of the vulnerabilities and threats associated with security, we may miss opportunities to address pressing global problems. Our society often expects men and women to play different roles, and this is no less true in the realm of security. This book demonstrates that security debates exhibit gendered understandings of key concepts, and whilst these gendered assumptions may benefit specific people, they are often detrimental to others, particularly in the key realm of policy-making.