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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Theory of warfare & military science
Raymond Aron made major investigations into the dialectic between war and peace, and also developed a sophisticated theory of international relations. Despite this, his body of work has been overlooked compared to that of his more famous contemporaries. This book shines a light on both the man and his work on ideological critique, the philosophy of history, international relations and political economy. The book also discusses Aron's political legacy and argues that a number of his critiques and theories can help us address many of the problems and conflicts of the 21st century.
Review: This brilliant work cannot fail to stimulate debate and advance understanding. It is gloriously replete with arguments from and about philosophy, biology, sociology and the course of our all too human history. The reasons for the grim longevity of war have rarely been more cogently explained or better illustrated by telling anecdote. Colin Gray, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Reading A wide-ranging meditation on the embeddedness of war- in our cultures, our minds and our expectations - and its evolution by one of the subject's most erudite, informed and reflective scholars. Philip Bobbitt, author of The Shield of Achilles Christopher Coker's new book is a masterpiece of erudite concision in which I learned something new on every page. He is not only Britain's leading philosopher of warfare, but a prolific historian who puts the competition to shame. Michael Burleigh, author of Small Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and The Making of the Modern World From pre-modern city-state to post-modern cyberspace, Christopher Coker reminds us that war is a natural part of our human condition. Both idealists and realists will benefit from reading this small gem of a book from an outstanding scholar of the role of war in the history of ideas. Michael Evans, General Sir Francis Hassett Chair of Military Studies, Australian Defence College With searingly elegant prose, Professor Coker brings a vast array of ideas and events to bear on one of the most pressing issues of this or any other time. A must-read book. Steven Metz, Director of Research, U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.
Surrounded by potential adversaries, nineteenth-century Prussia and twentieth-century Germany faced the formidable prospect of multifront wars and wars of attrition. To counteract these threats, generations of general staff officers were educated in operational thinking, the main tenets of which were extremely influential on military planning across the globe and were adopted by American and Soviet armies. In the twentieth century, Germany's art of warfare dominated military theory and practice, creating a myth of German operational brilliance that lingers today, despite the nation's crushing defeats in two world wars. In this seminal study, Gerhard P. Gross provides a comprehensive examination of the development and failure of German operational thinking over a period of more than a century. He analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of five different armies, from the mid--nineteenth century through the early days of NATO. He also offers fresh interpretations of towering figures of German military history, including Moltke the Elder, Alfred von Schlieffen, and Erich Ludendorff. Essential reading for military historians and strategists, this innovative work dismantles cherished myths and offers new insights into Germany's failed attempts to become a global power through military means.
In Samurai to Soldier, D. Colin Jaundrill rewrites the military history of nineteenth-century Japan. In fifty years spanning the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate and the rise of the Meiji nation-state, conscripts supplanted warriors as Japan’s principal arms-bearers. The most common version of this story suggests that the Meiji institution of compulsory military service was the foundation of Japan’s efforts to save itself from the imperial ambitions of the West and set the country on the path to great power status. Jaundrill argues, to the contrary, that the conscript army of the Meiji period was the culmination—and not the beginning—of a long process of experimentation with military organization and technology. Jaundrill traces the radical changes to Japanese military institutions, as well as the on-field consequences of military reforms in his accounts of the Boshin War (1868–1869) and the Satsuma Rebellions of 1877. He shows how pre-1868 developments laid the foundations for the army that would secure Japan’s Asian empire.
Systematically analyses the impact of external military crises on Japanese security policy expansion in the post-Cold War period. Focuses on the widening of Japan's security posture in external security affairs and investigates the causes of this critical change Identifies the external military crisis as a critical determinant of change in Japanese security policy Unpacks the deep structures within the Japanese decision-making processes, especially during and after military crises Examines five key military crises in detail: the 1990-1 Persian Gulf War; the 1994 North Korean Nuclear Crisis; the 1996 Taiwan Straits Crisis, the 1998 Taepodong Crisis; and 2001 September 11 attacks that led to the US-led war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq Draws on over 70 interviews the author has conducted with officials, former officials, and academics in universities and think tanks in Japan, the United States, South Korea and Singapore, including officials who were directly involved in the crisis decision-making process This book is a detailed study of the role that external military crises played in the development and growth of Japanese security policies in the period following the end of the Cold War. This evolution can be seen in the widened role of the Self-Defence Force (SDF) in shaping Japan's security priorities, as well as its proactive contribution to regional/ international security. Focusing on four key case studies - international peacekeeping in 1992, regional defence in 1997-99, global missions in 2003-05, and collective self-defence in 2014-15 - the author argues that the Japanese security policymaking elite achieved security policy expansion by utilizing external military crises as policy windows, inflating and deflating threat elements to circumvent the constraints and justify the implementation of security policy initiatives.
Brahmand World Defence Update 2018 features a fully updated country-by-country representation of the Armed Forces of the World. It covers 113 countries along with in-depth analysis of 33 major countries. The database provides the latest updates on each and every country's military equipment, resources, procurements including military budget and expenditure data. The integrated database system contains high quality, up-to-date and clearly documented information covering many areas in the field of various country's armed forces, international relations and security.
Opponents rarely go to war without thinking they can win--and clearly, one side must be wrong. This conundrum lies at the heart of the so-called "war puzzle": rational states should agree on their differences in power and thus not fight. But as Dominic Johnson argues in "Overconfidence and War," states are no more rational than people, who are susceptible to exaggerated ideas of their own virtue, of their ability to control events, and of the future. By looking at this bias--called "positive illusions"--as it figures in evolutionary biology, psychology, and the politics of international conflict, this book offers compelling insights into why states wage war. Johnson traces the effects of positive illusions on four turning points in twentieth-century history: two that erupted into war (World War I and Vietnam); and two that did not (the Munich crisis and the Cuban missile crisis). Examining the two wars, he shows how positive illusions have filtered into politics, causing leaders to overestimate themselves and underestimate their adversaries--and to resort to violence to settle a conflict against unreasonable odds. In the Munich and Cuban missile crises, he shows how lessening positive illusions may allow leaders to pursue peaceful solutions. The human tendency toward overconfidence may have been favored by natural selection throughout our evolutionary history because of the advantages it conferred--heightening combat performance or improving one's ability to bluff an opponent. And yet, as this book suggests--and as the recent conflict in Iraq bears out--in the modern world the consequences of this evolutionary legacy are potentially deadly.
'War is the most important thing in the world', writes Martin van Creveld, one of the world's best-known experts on military history and strategy. The survival of every country, government, and individual is ultimately dependent on war - or the ability to wage it in self-defence. That is why, though it may come but once in a hundred years, it must be prepared for every day. When it is too late-when the bodies lie stiff and people weep over them-those in charge have failed in their duty. Nevertheless, in spite of the centrality of war to human history and culture, there has for long been no modern attempt to provide a replacement for the classics on war and strategy, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, dating from the 5th or 6th century BC, and Carl von Clausewitz's On War, written in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. What is needed is a modern, comprehensive, easy to read and understand theory of war for the 21st century that could serve as a replacement for these classic texts. The purpose of the present book is to provide just such a theory.
Wars throughout history have been fought in the name of ideology,
religion and the pursuit of peace. Our thinking about war - when it
is justified, how it should be fought and how it is perceived - has
changed dramatically over time. Whereas in the past war has been
seen as a battle of wills, this provocative and illuminating new
book shows how war has evolved into an exercise in risk management.
Peace is Everybody's Business is about conflict prevention, hope and peace for the oppressed and alienated, and the imaginative use of soft-power to win back estranged communities into the social and political mainstream. Past strategies in managing alienated societies have been derived from two extreme ideological positions-imprisoning those who take up arms against the stage, or ultra-liberalism, which is denounced as impractical. The author suggests an alternative strategy to reconcile these two extreme positions-a three-pronged strategy to achieve success by preventing conflict by addressing human security through human development, pursuing a policy of atonement and forgiveness, and eliminating trust deficit between the State and the marginalized. The central focus of this strategy, which the author in his capacity as a General successfully executed in Operation Sadhbhavna, is the people. The author believes that killing is counterproductive and the army must change its role from 'winning wars' to 'preventing wars'.
A useful book that deals with a number of psychological issues surfacing in military and paramilitary forces. Military Psychology: Concepts, Trends and Interventions offers various psychological theories that are not only significant in the context of soldiers but also help to strengthen the capability of military and paramilitary forces during combat and non-combat operations. Stressing on the psycho-social well-being of the soldiers, this book offers insights into military psychological issues, such as soldier selection, combating stress, instances of misconduct, psychological operations, optimism, resilience and hardiness training, gender bias, value-based leadership, familial well-being and the future warfare. The global case studies in the book offer lessons for India and other countries where military and para-military forces are engaged in dealing with both external and internal extremism.
China is building a modern and regionally powerful military with a modest but growing capability for conducting operations away from China's immediate periphery. The question of how the United States should respond to China's military modernisation effort is a central issue in U.S. defense planning and foreign policy. Congress' decisions on this issue could affect U.S. defense strategy, budgets, plans, and programs, and the U.S. defense industrial base. This book provides a brief overview of the Chinese military. It provides background information and issues for Congress on China's naval modernisation effort and its implications for U.S. Navy capabilities.
In five decades since India's Independence, the Indian soldier has repeatedly made the supreme sacrifice. India owes an immeasurable debt to the untold thousands of soldiers who have died uncelebrated in her service. The 21 recipients of the Param Vir Chakra are the few acknowledged symbols of the unknown soldiers and their many exceptional acts of courage and sacrifice. A wilful act of self-sacrifice performed as an act of duty can only come from a tremendous training in character. The author Shyam Kumari of Sri Aurobindo Ashram deserves to be complimented on this laudable project she has undertaken to write the acts of bravery of some of these heroes in two volumes. There are a number of books written on these brave heroes, but Shyam Kumari has written their acts in a very simple language after having interviewed their near and dear ones to get the true incidents. These stories should motivate all of us specially the youth of the nation to do the same in every action of our daily lives.
This book examines emerging defense technologies such as directed energy weapons, nanotech devices, and bioscience applications that have the potential to dominate international relations in the future, just as nuclear weapons and space infrastructure-assisted conventional weapons do now. Emerging Military Technologies: A Guide to the Issues examines the potential of the United States to bring new technologies to deployment in the service of America's security and defense. The work also discusses how other international actors may regard the United States' investment in these high-tech capabilities, identifying possible resultant counter actions, and presents several divergent viewpoints on what the future may bring. The book thoroughly explores three general categories of emerging technologies: autonomous computers, nanotechnology and biotechnology, and the interrelated topics of directed energy weapons and ubiquitous space access. Security studies expert Wilson W.S. Wong balances coverage of today's cutting-edge science and engineering with treatment of real-world concerns of effectiveness, military ethics, and international relations in the 21st century. An invaluable resource for members of the military and intelligence communities, this book also provides general readers with an accessible introduction to these highly technical topics.
There is a tendency when dealing with world superpowers to focus on their successes. After all, these are what made them superpowers in the first place. However, reverses and disasters suffered on the way to preeminence are equally significant. The experience of ancient Rome is no different. This book is the first to examine the paradoxical role lost battles and defeat played in the success of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Over some 1200 years, the Romans proved adept at learning from military disaster and this was key to their eventual success and hegemony. Roman Military Disasters covers the most pivotal and decisive defeats, from the Celtic invasion of 390 BC to Alaric's sack of Rome in AD 410. Paul Chrystal details the politics and strategies leading to each conflict, how and why the Romans were defeated, the tactics employed, the generals and the casualties. However, the unique and crucial element of the book is its focus on the aftermath and consequences of defeat and how the lessons learnt enabled the Romans, usually, to bounce back and win.
Builds a revisionary theoretical framework for researching intelligence knowledge and applies it to the Swedish Military and Security Directorate Gunilla Eriksson revises our perception of intelligence as carefully collected data and objective truth, arguing that there are hidden aspects to intelligence analysis that need to be uncovered and critically examined. This twofold study investigates the character of intelligence knowledge and the social context in which it is produced, using the Swedish Military and Security Directorate (MUST) as a case study. Eriksson argues that there is an implicit framework that continuously influences knowledge production: what kind of data is considered relevant, how this data is interpreted and the specific social and linguistic context of the organisation, surrounded by unarticulated norms and specific procedures. She asks whether these conventions hamper or obstruct intelligence assessments; an essential analysis, given that history has shown us the grave consequences basing policy on intelligence's wrong conclusions. Sources include: The annual Swedish Armed Forces Strategic Intelligence Estimates from 1998-2010 Lengthy and highly valuable interviews with the analysts, including managers, working at MUST, giving insights into everyday life at the institution and leading to many important results Participant observation carried out by the author at MUST working meetings and seminars during the production process of the 2010 estimate, and drawing on her experience from her years working as an active analyst
'War is merely the continuation of policy by other means' On War is one of the most important books ever written on the subject of war. Clausewitz, a Prussian officer who fought against the French during the Napoleonic Wars, sought to understand and analyse the phenomenon of war so that future leaders could conduct and win conflicts more effectively. He studied the human and social factors that affect outcomes, as well as the tactical and technological ones. He understood that war was a weapon of government, and that political purpose, chance, and enmity combine to shape its dynamics. On War continues to be read by military strategists, politicians, and others for its timeless insights. This abridged edition by Beatrice Heuser, using the acclaimed translation by Michael Howard and Peter Paret, selects the central books in which Clausewitz's views on the nature and theory of war are developed. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
This book examines how the United States's extensive nation-building and stability operations will continue to evolve in the 21st century in the face of ever-growing budgetary concerns and constraints. Stability, Security, Reconstruction, and Transition Operations: A Guide to the Issues puts the people, places, and events crucial to nation-building and security operations through U.S. experiences under the microscope. This book focuses on the period after the Cold War, when U.S. operations proliferated, but also outlines the development of U.S. strategic decisions on nation-building and stability operations in a chronological fashion, providing documentation of these actions throughout American history. Original documents are provided and referenced to clarify concepts. With the increased attention on recent events in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Libya, the United States's actions and policies of nation-building are now a key public policy discussion topic, and an understanding of these topics is critical for students, scholars, and general readers alike. Maps outlining the areas where U.S. operations have occurred over past Documents that form the basis of U.S. policy Bibliography containing books, articles, websites, and prominent blogs Glossary of key terms
Throughout history society has determined specific rules of engagement between adversaries in armed conflict. With advances in technology, from armor to in the Middle Ages to nerve gas in World War I to weapons of mass destruction in our own time, the rules have constantly evolved. Today, when killing the enemy can seem palpably risk-free and tantamount to playing a violent video game, what constitutes warfare? What is the effect of remote combat on individual soldiers? And what are the unforeseen repercussions that could affect us all? Lt Col Wayne Phelps, former commander of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft unit, and Lt Col Dave Grossman, author of the landmark work On Killing and a leading scholar of the effects of killing on the human psyche, address these questions and many others as they tell the story of the men and women of today's "chair force." Exploring the ethics of remote military engagement, the misconceptions about PTSD among RPA operators, and the specter of military weaponry controlled by robots, their book is an urgent and compelling reminder that it should always be difficult to kill another human being lest we risk losing what makes us human.
As the People's Republic's seemingly inexorable rise to economic and military power con-tinues, never has the need for a better grasp of Chinese strategic thought by the West been more acute. In Deciphering Sun Tzu, Derek Yuen seeks to reclaim for the reader the hidden contours and lost Chinese and Taoist con- texts of Sun Tzu's renowned treatise The Art of War, a literary classic and arguably one of the most influential books ever written. He also explains its historical, philosophical, strategic, and cross-cultural significance. His comprehensive analysis of Sun Tzu, based on close reading of the Chinese sources, also reconstructs the philosophy, Taoist methodology and worldview that effectively form the cornerstones of Chinese strategic thinking, which are arguably as relevant today as at any moment in history. Yuen's innovative reading and analysis of Sun Tzu within and from a Chinese context is a new way of approaching the strategic mas- ter's main concepts, which he compares with those of Clausewitz, Liddell-Hart and other Western strategists.Deciphering Sun Tzu offers illuminating analysis and contextualisation of The Art of War in a manner that has long been sought by Western readers and opens new means of getting to grips with Chinese strategic thought.
This is the first modern bibliography in English of the Seven Weeks' War of 1866. It includes books in English, French, German and Italian, subdivided into sections on general histories, particular campaigns and battles (Hanoverian, Bohemian-Moravian, Italian, southern German and naval), biographies, journals and reminiscences by participants, and state organizational and regimental histories, the last divided by arm of service. Many rare works are covered, and there are editorial comments in the general histories and campaign/battle accounts. It is an indispensable work for beginning serious study of the conflict. This comprehensive reference lists in excess of 1,200 titles, and will prove invaluable to historians, researchers, collectors and librarians.
Ray Clark had a simple idea: send a postcard - the same postcard - depicting a memorial to war dead to those who might share their thoughts with others on loss, remembrance, war and peace. The response was remarkable. Men and women from all walks of life, from the Cabinet, the House of Lords and the senior ranks of the British Army to ex-servicemen, military historians, journalists and war widows, felt moved to express their feelings in a few words on that postcard. This book will sadden, provoke and inspire. The royalties will all go to Help for Heroes, the well-known charity working for the wounded of the British Armed forces, and Action Cancer.
Since the end of the Cold War, scholars, military historians and analysts have struggled to agree a workable definition of contemporary warfare with reference to the conflicts that have erupted since 1989, whether in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq or Afghanistan, to name only a few. Among the many attempts to hit the right conceptual note are asymmetrical war, 'Fourth' Generation War' and, perhaps the most influential of all, 'New Wars'. In addition to these attempts to define war, the West's military establishments, with the Pentagon in the vanguard, have worked hard to map out new strategic and tactical concepts in order to try to win these wars. Two of the more influential from recent years are Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) and Effects-Based Operations (EBO). The contributors contend that very few of these terms and concepts are particularly useful when it comes to defining war or to creating a winning strategy. On that basis it is easy to ridicule every one of these terms and concepts, but the aim of the contributors to this book -- who include Hew Strachan, David Kilcullen, Steven Metz, Helen Dexter and Ian Beckett -- is instead to search for meaning where meaning can be found. Can these terms and concepts tell us something about the development of war and how wars can be won? |
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