Military Power

Author : Stephen Biddle
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2010-12-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781400837823

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Military Power by Stephen Biddle Pdf

In war, do mass and materiel matter most? Will states with the largest, best equipped, information-technology-rich militaries invariably win? The prevailing answer today among both scholars and policymakers is yes. But this is to overlook force employment, or the doctrine and tactics by which materiel is actually used. In a landmark reconception of battle and war, this book provides a systematic account of how force employment interacts with materiel to produce real combat outcomes. Stephen Biddle argues that force employment is central to modern war, becoming increasingly important since 1900 as the key to surviving ever more lethal weaponry. Technological change produces opposite effects depending on how forces are employed; to focus only on materiel is thus to risk major error--with serious consequences for both policy and scholarship. In clear, fluent prose, Biddle provides a systematic account of force employment's role and shows how this account holds up under rigorous, multimethod testing. The results challenge a wide variety of standard views, from current expectations for a revolution in military affairs to mainstream scholarship in international relations and orthodox interpretations of modern military history. Military Power will have a resounding impact on both scholarship in the field and on policy debates over the future of warfare, the size of the military, and the makeup of the defense budget.

Author : Risa Brooks
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2007-04-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0804768099

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Creating Military Power by Risa Brooks Pdf

Creating Military Power examines how societies, cultures, political structures, and the global environment affect countries' military organizations. Unlike most analyses of countries' military power, which focus on material and basic resources—such as the size of populations, technological and industrial base, and GNP—this volume takes a more expansive view. The study's overarching argument is that states' global environments and the particularities of their cultures, social structures, and political institutions often affect how they organize and prepare for war, and ultimately impact their effectiveness in battle. The creation of military power is only partially dependent on states' basic material and human assets. Wealth, technology, and human capital certainly matter for a country's ability to create military power, but equally important are the ways a state uses those resources, and this often depends on the political and social environment in which military activity takes place.

Author : Stephen Peter Rosen
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2019-05-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781501744792

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Societies and Military Power by Stephen Peter Rosen Pdf

A work with broad implications for theories of comparative strategic behavior and civil-military relations, Societies and Military Power uses the long history of the armies of India as a basis for analyzing whether the character of a given society affects the amount of military power that can be generated by the armies that emerge from that society. By examining the changing relationship between ruling elites in the Indian subcontinent and their armed forces, the book shows that divisions within society are mirrored within the military, even within the contemporary professional military. Stephen Peter Rosen explores the proposition that cultural explanations don't sufficiently account for changes in military power, whereas social structure does. He suggests also that the dynamics of civil-military relations in a non-Western setting are not explicable without social-structural insight. He concludes that the comparative study of strategic behavior and military organization has lacked a sound foundation, which the social-structural explanation offered in this book begins to provide.

Author : Roger Cliff
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 379 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2015-09-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781107103542

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China's Military Power by Roger Cliff Pdf

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of China's military capabilities in 2000 and 2010, with projections for 2020. Recognizing that military power encompasses more than weaponry, it develops an original empirical framework for measuring militaries that also includes doctrine, training, and organizational structure.

Author : Michael C. Horowitz
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2010-07-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1400835100

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The Diffusion of Military Power by Michael C. Horowitz Pdf

The Diffusion of Military Power examines how the financial and organizational challenges of adopting new methods of fighting wars can influence the international balance of power. Michael Horowitz argues that a state or actor wishing to adopt a military innovation must possess both the financial resources to buy or build the technology and the internal organizational capacity to accommodate any necessary changes in recruiting, training, or operations. How countries react to new innovations--and to other actors that do or don't adopt them--has profound implications for the global order and the likelihood of war. Horowitz looks at some of the most important military innovations throughout history, including the advent of the all-big-gun steel battleship, the development of aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons, and the use of suicide terror by nonstate actors. He shows how expensive innovations can favor wealthier, more powerful countries, but also how those same states often stumble when facing organizationally complicated innovations. Innovations requiring major upheavals in doctrine and organization can disadvantage the wealthiest states due to their bureaucratic inflexibility and weight the balance of power toward smaller and more nimble actors, making conflict more likely. This book provides vital insights into military innovations and their impact on U.S. foreign policy, warfare, and the distribution of power in the international system.

Author : Jon R. Lindsay
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : HISTORY
ISBN : 1501749560

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Information Technology and Military Power by Jon R. Lindsay Pdf

"Jon R. Lindsay explains why he believes popular ideas about the military potential of information technology are fundamentally flawed and why military performance depends instead on organizational and strategic context"

Author : Frank Stengel
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Page : 293 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2020-12-08
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780472132218

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The Politics of Military Force by Frank Stengel Pdf

The Politics of Military Force examines the dynamics of discursive change that made participation in military operations possible against the background of German antimilitarist culture. Once considered a strict taboo, so-called out-of-area operations have now become widely considered by German policymakers to be without alternative. The book argues that an understanding of how certain policies are made possible (in this case, military operations abroad and force transformation), one needs to focus on processes of discursive change that result in different policy options appearing rational, appropriate, feasible, or even self-evident. Drawing on Essex School discourse theory, the book develops a theoretical framework to understand how discursive change works, and elaborates on how discursive change makes once unthinkable policy options not only acceptable but even without alternative. Based on a detailed discourse analysis of more than 25 years of German parliamentary debates, The Politics of Military Force provides an explanation for: (1) the emergence of a new hegemonic discourse in German security policy after the end of the Cold War (discursive change), (2) the rearticulation of German antimilitarism in the process (ideational change/norm erosion) and (3) the resulting making-possible of military operations and force transformation (policy change). In doing so, the book also demonstrates the added value of a poststructuralist approach compared to the naive realism and linear conceptions of norm change so prominent in the study of German foreign policy and International Relations more generally.

Author : Gregory Vincent Raymond
Publisher : Nias Monographs
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 8776942406

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Thai Military Power by Gregory Vincent Raymond Pdf

Being at the centre of the vital Asia-Pacific region, Thailand is important. But, despite its large population and powerful military forces performing significant roles in state and society, Thailand has little military power. Why is this? Using strategic culture as an analytical framework, this book portrays the Thai state as an accommodative actor. When Western empires dominated in Asia, Thailand 'bent in the wind' to preserve its independence by a limited trading of territory and sovereignty. This policy continues today in different forms. A key feature is that military organizational culture reinforces a state ideology of royalist nationalism, in turn reinforcing the national strategic culture. Significant here is internal political acceptance not just of military domination in civil-military relations but also of the Thai military's limitations in state-on-state combat. The author finds such 'underbalancing' - not responding to threat, or responding inadequately - elsewhere in Southeast Asia, too.

Author : Ron Smith
Publisher : Springer
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2016-04-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780230244672

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Military Economics by Ron Smith Pdf

Military power needs to be financed and economic development is often shaped by military conflict, thus the interaction of military and economy, power and money is central to the modern world. This book provides an accessible introduction to the economics of the use of organized force, with a wide range of historical and current examples.

Author : Philip Towle
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2021-05-30
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781000370713

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Estimating Foreign Military Power by Philip Towle Pdf

This book, first published in 1982, addresses the problem of assessing the central and regional balance of power. The collection of essays by experts on the different countries looks at the miscalculations about the military power of foreign countries which have been made in the past and the difficulties which have to be overcome today before we can reach a correct estimate of the power of other states.

Author : Sten Rynning,Olivier Schmitt,Amelie Theussen
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2021-03-02
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780815738954

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War Time by Sten Rynning,Olivier Schmitt,Amelie Theussen Pdf

Perceptions of time contributed to recent Western military failings The “decline of the West” is once again a frequent topic of speculation. Often cited as one element of the alleged decline is the succession of prolonged and unsuccessful wars—most notably those waged in recent decades by the United States. This book by three Danish military experts examines not only the validity of the speculation but also asks why the West, particularly its military effectiveness, might be perceived as in decline. Temporality is the central concept linking a series of structural fractures that leave the West seemingly muscle-bound: overwhelmingly powerful in technology and military might but strategically fragile. This temporality, the authors say, is composed of three interrelated dimensions: trajectories, perceptions, and pace. First, Western societies to tend view time as a linear trajectory, focusing mostly on recent and current events and leading to the framing of history as a story of rise and decline. The authors examine whether the inevitable fall already has happened, is underway, or is still in the future. Perceptions of time also vary across cultures and periods, shaping socio-political activities, including warfare. The enemy, for example, can be perceived as belong to another time (being “backward” or “barbarian”). And war can be seen either as cyclical or exceptional, helping frame the public's willingness to accept its violent and tragic consequences. The pace of war is another factor shaping policies and actions. Western societies emphasize speed: the shorter the war the better, even if the long-term result is unsuccessful. Ironically, one of the Western world's least successful wars also has been America's longest, in Afghanistan. This unique book is thus a critical assessment of the evolution and future of Western military power. It contributes much-needed insight into the potential for the West's political and institutional renewal.

Author : Steven L. Rys
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 1983
Category : Air forces
ISBN : 0811905640

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U.S. Military Power by Steven L. Rys Pdf

Author : Rachel Maddow
Publisher : Crown
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2012-03-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780307461001

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Drift by Rachel Maddow Pdf

The #1 New York Times bestseller that charts America’s dangerous drift into a state of perpetual war. Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war. To understand how we've arrived at such a dangerous place, Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today's war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring Reagan's radical presidency, the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us, and even the changing fortunes of G.I. Joe. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the scope of American military power to overpower our political discourse. Sensible yet provocative, dead serious yet seri­ously funny, Drift reinvigorates a "loud and jangly" political debate about our vast and confounding national security state.

Author : Tai Ming Cheung
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2014-02-24
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781421411590

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Forging China's Military Might by Tai Ming Cheung Pdf

“His collection of nine essays offers a comprehensive and insightful assessment of the Chinese defense science and technology (S&T).” —Pacific Affairs Among the most important issues in international security today are the nature and the global implications of China’s emergence as a world-class defense technology power. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Chinese defense industry has reinvented itself by emphasizing technological innovation and technology. This reinvention and its potential effects, both positive and negative, are attracting global scrutiny. Drawing insights from a range of disciplines, including history, social science, business, and strategic studies, Tai Ming Cheung and the contributors to Forging China’s Military Might develop an analytical framework to evaluate the nature, dimensions, and spectrum of Chinese innovation in the military and broader defense spheres. Forging China’s Military Might provides an overview of the current state of the Chinese defense industry and then focuses on subjects critical to understanding short- and long-term developments, including the relationship among defense contractors, regulators, and end-users; civil-military integration; China’s defense innovation system; and China’s place in the global defense economy. Case studies look in detail at the Chinese space and missile industry. “Constitutes high-quality, cutting-edge research on China’s defense industries. It should enjoy broad appeal—among academics, policy makers, security analysts, and business people in countries around the world.” —Andrew Scobell, RAND Corporation “Forging China’s Military Might belongs in any political science shelf interested in China’s issues and international security and considers the nature of China’s emergence as a world power.” —Midwest Book Review

Author : Larry M. Wortzel
Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2013-06-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781612344065

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The Dragon Extends its Reach by Larry M. Wortzel Pdf

China has evolved from a nation with local and regional security interests to a major economic and political power with global interests, investments, and political commitments. It now requires a military that can project itself around the globe, albeit on a limited scale, to secure its interests. Therefore, as Larry M. Wortzel explains, the Chinese Communist Party leadership has charged the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with new and challenging missions that require global capabilities. Advances in technology and the development of indigenous weapons platforms in China, combined with reactions to modern conflicts, have produced a military force very different from that which China has fielded in the past. Wortzel presents a clear and sobering picture of the PLA’s modernization effort as it expands into space and cyberspace, and as it integrates operations in the traditional domains of war. This book will appeal to the specialist in security and foreign policy issues in Asia as well as to the person interested in arms control, future warfare, and global military strategies. The book puts China’s military growth into historical context for readers of recent military and diplomatic history.