|
Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Theory of warfare & military science
Since the end of the Cold War, competition among states has been
waged along economic rather than ideological or military lines. In
Canada, as elsewhere, this shift has forced a rethinking of the
role of intelligence services in protecting and promoting national
economic security. The scholars and practitioners featured here
explore the aim, existing mandate, and practical applications of
economic espionage from a Canadian and comparative perspective, and
present a range of options for policy-makers. Economic Intelligence
& National Security examines the laws in place to thwart
economic spying, and the challenges and ethical problems faced by
agencies working clandestinely to support their national private
sectors.
Since the start of the Trump era, the United States and the Western
world has finally begun to wake up to the threat of online warfare
and the attacks from Russia, who flood social media with
disinformation, and circulate false and misleading information to
fuel fake narratives and make the case for illegal warfare. The
question no one seems to be able to answer is: what can the West do
about it? Central and Eastern European states, including Ukraine
and Poland, however, have been aware of the threat for years. Nina
Jankowicz has advised these governments on the front lines of the
information war. The lessons she learnt from that fight, and from
her attempts to get US congress to act, make for essential reading.
How to Lose the Information War takes the reader on a journey
through five Western governments' responses to Russian information
warfare tactics - all of which have failed. She journeys into the
campaigns the Russian operatives run, and shows how we can better
understand the motivations behind these attacks and how to beat
them. Above all, this book shows what is at stake: the future of
civil discourse and democracy, and the value of truth itself.
Common and destructive, limited wars are significant international
events that pose a number of challenges to the states involved
beyond simple victory or defeat. Chief among these challenges is
the risk of escalation - be it in the scale, scope, cost, or
duration of the conflict. In this book, Spencer D. Bakich
investigates a crucial and heretofore ignored factor in determining
the nature and direction of limited war: information institutions.
Traditional assessments of wartime strategy focus on the
relationship between the military and civilians, but Bakich argues
that we must also take into account the information flow patterns
among top policy makers and all national security organizations. By
examining the fate of American military and diplomatic strategy in
four limited wars, Bakich demonstrates how not only the
availability and quality of information, but also the ways in which
information is gathered, managed, analyzed, and used, shape a
state's ability to wield power effectively in dynamic and complex
international systems. Utilizing a range of primary and secondary
source materials, Success and Failure in Limited War makes a timely
case for the power of information in war, with crucial implications
for international relations theory and statecraft.
Since the late 1970s, anglophone and German military literature has
been fascinated by the Wehrmacht's command system, especially the
practice of Auftragstaktik. There have been many descriptions of
the doctrine, and examinations of its historical origins, as well
as unflattering comparisons with the approaches of the British and
American armies prior to their adoption of Mission Command in the
late 1980s. Almost none of these, however, have sought to
understand the different approaches to command in the context of a
fundamental characteristic of warfare - friction. This would be
like trying to understand flight, without any reference to
aerodynamics. Inherently flawed, yet this is the norm in the
military literature. This book seeks to address that gap. First,
the nature of friction, and the potential command responses to it,
are considered. This allows the development of a typology of eight
command approaches, each approach then being tested to identify its
relative effectiveness and requirements for success. Second, the
British and German armies' doctrines of command during the period
are examined, in order to reveal similarities and differences in
relation to their perspective on the nature of warfare and the most
appropriate responses. The experience of Erwin Rommel, both as a
young subaltern fighting the Italians in 1917, and then as a
newly-appointed divisional commander against the French in 1940, is
used to test the expression of the German doctrine in practice.
Third, the interaction of these different command doctrines is
explored in case studies of two key armoured battles, Amiens in
August 1918 and Arras in May 1940, allowing the strengths and
weaknesses of each to be highlighted and the typology to be tested.
The result is intended to offer a new and deeper understanding of
both the nature of command as a response to friction, and the
factors that need to be in place in order to allow a given command
approach to achieve success. The book therefore in two ways
represents a sequel to my earlier work, Command or Control?
Command, Training and Tactics in the British and German Armies,
1888-1918 (London: Cass, 1995), in that it both takes the
conceptual model of command developed there to a deeper level, and
also takes the story from the climax of 1918 up to the end of the
first phase of the Second World War.
Trying to understand how the world looks through the eyes of
individuals and groups and how it shapes the ways they think and
act is something social workers do all the time. It is what social
theorists do too. This book identifies and explains in a highly
accessible manner the absolute value of social theory for social
work. Drawing on the theoretical ideas and perspectives of a wide
range of classical and modern social theorists, the book
demonstrates the insights their work can bring to bear on a wide
range of social work practice scenarios, issues and debates.
Departing with the work of the classical theorists, the book covers
a diverse range of theoretical traditions including phenomenology,
symbolic interactionism, Norbert Elias, Michel Foucault, Pierre
Bourdieu, feminism and globalization theory. Putting to work ideas
from these different perspectives, a range of social work
scenarios, issues and debates are opened up and explored. The final
chapter brings together the various theoretical strands, and
critically considers the contribution they can make towards
realizing core social work values in a rapidly globalizing world.
Demonstrating exactly how and in what ways social theory can make
important and enduring contributions to social work, Social Theory
for Social Work is essentialial reading for social work students,
practitioners and professionals alike.
How do people decide which country came out ahead in a war or a
crisis? Why, for instance, was the Mayaguez Incident in May
1975--where 41 U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded in
a botched hostage rescue mission--perceived as a triumph and the
1992-94 U.S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia, which saved
thousands of lives, viewed as a disaster? In "Failing to Win,"
Dominic Johnson and Dominic Tierney dissect the psychological
factors that predispose leaders, media, and the public to perceive
outcomes as victories or defeats--often creating wide gaps between
perceptions and reality.
To make their case, Johnson and Tierney employ two frameworks:
"Scorekeeping," which focuses on actual material gains and losses;
and "Match-fixing," where evaluations become skewed by mindsets,
symbolic events, and media and elite spin. In case studies ranging
from the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the current War on Terror,
the authors show that much of what we accept about international
politics and world history is not what it seems--and why, in a time
when citizens offer or withdraw support based on an imagined view
of the outcome rather than the result on the ground, perceptions of
success or failure can shape the results of wars, the fate of
leaders, and the "lessons" we draw from history.
|
|