Download or read book A Reconfiguration of Everything That Already Exists Bureaucratic Politics and the Quadrennial Defense Review written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States has made several attempts to re-fashion its armed forces for the post-Cold War world. The most recent effort, called the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), was a study that started with high hopes. Last year then-Deputy Secretary of Defense John White called the QDR an opportunity to analyze "what we do, why we do it, how we do it, and how we pay for it." Another official boasted that the survey would "put everything on the table," including Army, Navy, and Air Force budget shares and de-emphasize the goal of fighting two nearly simultaneous regional wars. In the end. the QDR fell short of those mark. A forecast that the revue would simply be a "reconfiguration of everything that already exists" proved a more accurate assessment than the lofty rhetoric of defense officials. Why did the QDR fall to meet its goals? There was probably little hope that the study would ever match the radical expectations espoused by some. Those statements reflect an assumption that the study would be carried out in a "rational" process, unsullied by organizational politics and pressures. While there were many agencies and personalties that affected the QDR in some way, it was the actions of the Army, Navy, and Air Force that played the major roles in shaping the final report. Understanding the outcome of the QDR must begin by examining how the services practiced bureaucratic politics.
Download or read book Armed Conflict in the 21st Century written by Steven Metz and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Getting MAD Nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction Its Origins and Practice written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly 40 years after the concept of finite deterrence was popularized by the Johnson administration, nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) thinking appears to be in decline. The United States has rejected the notion that threatening population centers with nuclear attacks is a legitimate way to assure deterrence. Most recently, it withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, an agreement based on MAD. American opposition to MAD also is reflected in the Bush administration's desire to develop smaller, more accurate nuclear weapons that would reduce the number of innocent civilians killed in a nuclear strike. Still, MAD is influential in a number of ways. First, other countries, like China, have not abandoned the idea that holding their adversaries' cities at risk is necessary to assure their own strategic security. Nor have U.S. and allied security officials and experts fully abandoned the idea. At a minimum, acquiring nuclear weapons is still viewed as being sensible to face off a hostile neighbor that might strike one's own cities. Thus, our diplomats have been warning China that Japan would be under tremendous pressure to go nuclear if North Korea persisted in acquiring a few crude weapons of its own. Similarly, Israeli officials have long argued, without criticism, that they would not be second in acquiring nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Indeed, given that Israelis surrounded by enemies that would not hesitate to destroy its population if they could, Washington finds Israel's retention of a significant nuclear capability totally "understandable."
Download or read book The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina written by and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2006 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The objective of this report is to identify and establish a roadmap on how to do that, and lay the groundwork for transforming how this Nation- from every level of government to the private sector to individual citizens and communities - pursues a real and lasting vision of preparedness. To get there will require significant change to the status quo, to include adjustments to policy, structure, and mindset"--P. 2.
Download or read book Strategic Appraisal written by Zalmay Khalilzad and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 1999-05-11 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in information technology have led us to rely on easy communication and readily available information--both in our personal lives and in the life of our nation. For the most part, we have rightly welcomed these changes. But information that is readily available is available to friend and foe alike; a system that relies on communication can become useless if its ability to communicate is interfered with or destroyed. Because this reliance is so general, attacks on the information infrastructure can have widespread effects, both for the military and for society. And such attacks can come from a variety of sources, some difficult or impossible to identify. This, the third volume in the Strategic Appraisal series, draws on the expertise of researchers from across RAND to explore the opportunities and vulnerabilities inherent in the increasing reliance on information technology, looking both at its usefulness to the warrior and the need to protect its usefulness for everyone. The Strategic Appraisal series is intended to review, for a broad audience, issues bearing on national security and defense planning.
Download or read book The PLA Beyond Borders written by Joel Wuthnow and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Art of Systems Architecting written by Mark W. Maier and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2009-01-06 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If engineering is the art and science of technical problem solving, systems architecting happens when you don't yet know what the problem is. The third edition of a highly respected bestseller, The Art of Systems Architecting provides in-depth coverage of the least understood part of systems design: moving from a vague concept and limited resources
Download or read book Reagan s Terrible Swift Sword written by Donald John Devine and published by Jameson Books (IL). This book was released on 1991 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Insurgent Archipelago written by John Mackinlay and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a young British officer in the Gurkha regiment, John Mackinlay served in the rainforests of North Borneo and experienced firsthand the Maoist-style insurgencies of the 1960s. Years later, as a United Nations researcher, he witnessed the chaotic deployment of international forces to Africa, the Balkans, and South Asia, and the transformation of territorial, labor-intensive uprisings into the international insurgent networks we know today. After 9/11, Mackinlay turned his eye toward the Muslim communities of Europe and institutional efforts to prevent terrorism. In particular, he investigates military expeditions to Iraq and Afghanistan and their effect on the social cohesion of European populations that include Muslims from these regions. In a world divided between rich and poor, the surest way for the "bottom billion" to gain recognition, express outrage, or improve their circumstances is through insurgency. In this book, Mackinlay explains why leaders from the wealthiest and most powerful nations have failed to understand this phenomenon. Our current bin Laden era, Mckinlay argues, must be viewed as one stage in a series of developments swept up in the momentum of a global insurgency. The campaigns of the 1960s are directly linked to the global movements of tomorrow, yet in the past two decades, insurgent activity has given rise to a new practice that incorporates and exploits the "propaganda of the deed." This shift challenges our vertically-structured response to terror and places a greater emphasis on mastering the virtual, cyber-based dimensions of these campaigns. Mckinlay revisits the roots of global insurgencies, describes their nature and character, reveals the power of mass communications and grievance, and recommends how individual nations can counter these threats by focusing on domestic terrorism.
Download or read book Chinese Anti Ship Ballistic Missile ASBM Development written by Andrew S. Erickson and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2016-08-02 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China’s anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM), the DF-21D, has reached the equivalent of Initial Operational Capability. Although it probably has been deployed in small numbers, additional challenges and tests remain. This study examines the ASBM’s capability and history, showing how the DF-21D meets multiple priorities in Chinese defense modernization and in the national security bureaucracy, as well its implications for the United States. The ASBM’s physical threat to U.S. Navy ships will be determined by the development of associated systems and organizations, which currently limit data fusion and coordination in the complex task of identifying a U.S. aircraft carrier in the open ocean. Still, the ASBM poses a direct threat to the foundations of U.S. power project in Asia and will undermine the U.S. position, unless efforts to counter its political-military effects are taken.
Download or read book By Other Means Part II written by Kathleen Hicks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-11-04 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Geopolitical competition is increasingly playing out in the space beyond diplomacy and short of conventional war, sometimes referred to as the gray zone, which is forcing the United States to confront the liabilities of its strengths. This report assesses current U.S. government actions to deter, campaign through, and respond to competitors’ gray zone tactics. Using the campaign planning framework established in By Other Means Part I, it also provides recommendations aimed at ameliorating U.S. liabilities and building on its asymmetries to improve U.S. national security in the presence of rivals’ gray zone approaches.
Download or read book Strategic Latency Unleashed written by Zachary Davis and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-30 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is being transformed physically and politically. Technology is the handmaiden of much of this change. But since the current sweep of global change is transforming the face of warfare, Special Operations Forces (SOF) must adapt to these circumstances. Fortunately, adaptation is in the SOF DNA. This book examines the changes affecting SOF and offers possible solutions to the complexities that are challenging many long-held assumptions. The chapters explore what has changed, what stays the same, and what it all means for U.S. SOF. The authors are a mix of leading experts in technology, business, policy, intelligence, and geopolitics, partnered with experienced special operators who either cowrote the chapters or reviewed them to ensure accuracy and relevance for SOF. Our goal is to provide insights into the changes around us and generate ideas about how SOF can adapt and succeed in the emerging operational environment.
Download or read book George Bush s Foreign Aid written by Carol Lancaster and published by CGD Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past seven years, the Bush administration has launched a revolution in U.S. foreign aid. At no time since the administration of President Kennedy have there been more changes in the volume of aid, in aid's purposes and policies, in its organization, and in its overall status in U.S. foreign relations. George Bush's Foreign Aid: Transformation or Chaos? analyzes in detail the array of recent reforms of U.S. economic assistance and the difficult issues these reforms raise, while placing the changes and the manner of their implementation in a historical and political context. Lancaster draws out the challenges and opportunities this transformation of U.S. aid offer for the next administration to engage the emerging world of the 21st century.
Download or read book Transformational Diplomacy written by Justin Vaïsse and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Peacebuilding Power and Politics in Africa written by Devon Curtis and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-21 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peacebuilding, Power, and Politics in Africa is a critical reflection on peacebuilding efforts in Africa. The authors expose the tensions and contradictions in different clusters of peacebuilding activities, including peace negotiations; statebuilding; security sector governance; and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. Essays also address the institutional framework for peacebuilding in Africa and the ideological underpinnings of key institutions, including the African Union, NEPAD, the African Development Bank, the Pan-African Ministers Conference for Public and Civil Service, the UN Peacebuilding Commission, the World Bank, and the International Criminal Court. The volume includes on-the-ground case study chapters on Sudan, the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Niger Delta, Southern Africa, and Somalia, analyzing how peacebuilding operates in particular African contexts. The authors adopt a variety of approaches, but they share a conviction that peacebuilding in Africa is not a script that is authored solely in Western capitals and in the corridors of the United Nations. Rather, the writers in this volume focus on the interaction between local and global ideas and practices in the reconstitution of authority and livelihoods after conflict. The book systematically showcases the tensions that occur within and between the many actors involved in the peacebuilding industry, as well as their intended beneficiaries. It looks at the multiple ways in which peacebuilding ideas and initiatives are reinforced, questioned, reappropriated, and redesigned by different African actors. A joint project between the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town, South Africa, and the Centre of African Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Download or read book Great Powers and Geopolitical Change written by Jakub J. Grygiel and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2007-02-01 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named by Foreign Affairs as a book to read on geopolitics. In an era of high technology and instant communication, the role of geography in the formation of strategy and politics in international relations can be undervalued. But the mountains of Afghanistan and the scorching sand storms of Iraq have provided stark reminders that geographical realities continue to have a profound impact on the success of military campaigns. Here, political scientist Jakub J. Grygiel brings to light the importance of incorporating geography into grand strategy. He argues that states can increase and maintain their position of power by pursuing a geostrategy that focuses on control of resources and lines of communication. Grygiel examines case studies of Venice, the Ottoman Empire, and China in the global fifteenth century—all great powers that faced a dramatic change in geopolitics when new routes and continents were discovered. The location of resources, the layout of trade networks, and the stability of state boundaries played a large role in the success or failure of these three powers. Grygiel asserts that, though many other aspects of foreign policy have changed throughout history, strategic response to geographical features remains one of the most salient factors in establishing and maintaining power in the international arena.
Download or read book Diplomacy in the 21st Century written by Paul Sharp and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-05-02 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an introduction to the theory and practice of diplomacy and its vital role in an era of increasing international uncertainty. The work employs a distinctive "diplomatic perspective" on international relations and argues that the experience of conducting diplomacy gives rise to a set of priorities: first, the peaceful resolution of disputes; second, the avoidance of unwanted conflict; and, third, the minimization of the intensity of violent conflict where it has become unavoidable. It argues that changes in the international system require a shift in priorities from the diplomacy of problem-solving by building institutionalized cooperation, to the diplomacy of managing relationships between people. Divided into three sections, the first examines what is meant when we talk about diplomacy, why we need diplomats, and the operations of the modern diplomatic system of states. The second discusses the "three bads," about which people generally worry: bad leaders, bad media, and bad followers. The idea of "bad" is considered in terms of the moral character, professional competence, and the consequences of what people do for us. The final section discusses diplomacy and bad diplomats, reviewing what people can do to help themselves and the professionals be good diplomats. This book is intended as a primary text for courses in international diplomacy and as a supplementary text for courses on contemporary issues in international relations.
