One of the most controversial aspects of United States foreign policy centers about its response to unconventional conflict--that is, revolutions, counterrevolutions, and terrorism--in and from a number of Third World countries. Examining the current U.S. political-military posture, this critical study assesses the challenges posed to open systems by these conflicts and proposes guidelines for creating a more effective U.S. response. The author first explores the nature of unconventional conflicts, then turns to the U.S. response to the challenges unconditional conflicts present. Urging the need for a "new realism" based on a more accurate picture of present political conditions and U.S. interests, he concludes with a series of suggested guidelines for designing U.S. policy, strategy, doctrine and organizational strategies as a means of developing a more viable approach to the challenges of contemporary military and political conflict.

This work was designed to establish a sense of history and perspective for the study and teaching of national security. It is also intended to bring a sense of balance to current debates on national security policy. This is accomplished by presenting selected official U.S. documents covering the past thirty years, a careful reading of which not only provides valuable insights into the policy process but also into the meaning of American values. Rather than giving a comprehensive picture, this volume is designed to portray the critical reference points in the periods and events examined, and to identify the attitudes of the times. The book primarily treats the period from 1950 to the mid-1980s, although the first document examined is the National Security Act of 1947. The documents examined cover the national security establishment, new defense policies such as counterinsurgency, the events of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, nuclear strategy, the Reagan reassertion, and congressional constraints on the executive branch of government. A number of foreign and national security policy references were used as background and guides; these are listed in the Select Bibliography.

This book is a critical analysis of the issues and problems in the U.S. domestic arena and how these affect and interplay with the formulation and implementation of U.S. national security. The threats and challenges of the external environment are examined and analyzed with respect to their impact on the domestic political-social environment. Special attention is placed on the national security establishment. The result is a book that identifies major linkages between the domestic and national security agendas, showing how these agendas affect each other, and what such linkages mean in terms of national security policy and the ability of the United States to design and implement a national security policy that will be appropriate for the 21st century.

The United States must devise entirely new military and political strategies because threats to the nation's security have shifted so markedly. This work provides the first comparative analysis of unconventional conflicts, using Malaya and Vietnam as lessons for developing effective policies and operations to counter strife, drug wars, and new types of Third World conflict today. This text for students, experts, and policymakers in military studies, history, and international relations combines insights from primary and secondary sources, participant-observer experiences, and scholarly and professional thinking in order to formulate practical recommendations for future policy. Sarkesian provides a comparative framework for analyzing unconventional conflicts, describing past strategies used by Great Britain, France, and the United States. He defines the military posture and nature of conflict, leadership, and indigenous situations in Malaya and Vietnam. He analyzes the nature of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary systems. Sarkesian describes a new U.S. national security agenda to deal with a transformed geostrategic world landscape. A lengthy bibliography adds to the usefulness of this provocative text for classes in contemporary military studies, world history, war and peace, U.S. foreign policy, and conflict management.

This handbook by 14 well-known experts provides an overall analysis of U.S. military strengths and weaknesses in the 1990s and needs at the turn of the century. The first part of the book covers the U.S. armed forces under the Department of Defense and the military chain of command. The second half of the book deals with the American way of war, different military conflicts, and noncombat contingencies. The introduction defines national security concepts and sets the stage for the assessments that follow; the conclusion evaluates the military challenges confronting the United States in the 21st century. Each chapter offers short lists of readings. A glossary and comprehensive index make this an easy-to-use reference for students, teachers, professionals, and general readers concerned with America's defense needs.

This book examines the role of the president in the defense policy process, focusing specifically on the administration of President Carter. It provides an assessment of the impact of the president's policies on future U.S. defense posture.

""Revolution"" is a word that causes fear in some, exhilaration in others, and confusion in most. Originally used to describe a restoration, it eventually came to mean a sweeping, sudden attack on an existing order. Human history has borne witness to a variety of national and social revolutions population revolution, revolution of ideas, technological revolution, and revolution in education. Simultaneously, there has been a proliferation of literature on revolution, armed struggle, and violence aimed at unseating policies and leadership of governments and societies.

Revolutionary struggles are more than simply armed internal conflict; they involve the essence of the political system. The desire to make such phenomena understandable often leads to oversimplification. Attempts to encompass their multi-dimensional nature, on the other hand, can become immersed in complexities, ambiguities, and misinterpretations. The perspective of this classic volume, available in paperback for the first time, is that revolution is here to stay. Guerrilla warfare, according to Sarkesian, is a particularly useful strategy for the weak, the frustrated, the alienated, and seekers of power against existing regimes. The collected works in this volume examine thei1/2social roots of revolution, development of strategy and tactics, practice in city and countryside, dilemmas of attackers and defenders. The actors and thinkers collected and analyzed here range from leading political analysts, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and officials as well as practitioners of guerrilla warfare. This core text with primary sources in the area of war, revolution, and insurgence develops an understanding of revolution, traces the growth of guerilla doctrine, and studies the specifics of revolutionary and counterrevolutionary guerilla warfare.

This book examines the role of the president in the defense policy process, focusing specifically, but not exclusively, on the administration of President Carter. Contributors discuss such current concerns as the NATO-Warsaw confrontation and attitudes of European allies, U.S.-China-Japan defense relationships, and the issues of military intervention. In examining the broader aspects of defense policy, they focus on the style of leadership and world view of the president and his immediate national security staff and on the politics of the defense budget. A constant theme is the comparison of past defense policies with those of the present administration. The authors offer insights on important aspects of the Carter defense policy, provide an assessment of the impact of the president's policies on future U.S. defense posture, and present a conceptual framework for examining both the president's role in defense policymaking and the general concept of national security.