This book focuses on the key issues that affect military families when soldiers are deployed overseas, focusing on the support given to military personnel and families before, during and after missions.

Today's postmodern armies are expected to provide social-psychological support both to their personnel in military operations abroad and to their families at home. Since the end of the Cold War and even more so after 9/11, separations between military personnel and their families have become more frequent as there has been a multitude of missions carried out by multinational task...

This book presents the current history of United States military strategy in Afghanistan as an example of dysfunctional policy discourse among the nation s elites.

The legitimacy of a country s military strategy can become a subject of intense public debate and doubt, especially in prolonged conflicts. Arguments typically hinge on disagreements about the values at stake, the consequences of action or inaction, and the authority of those responsible for the plan. As the US entered its second decade at war in Afghanistan, political and military leaders struggled to explain the ends and...

This book examines international military interventions that have supported stability in four communities in Afghanistan and Nepal, in an attempt to analyse their success and improve this in future.

This is the first in-depth village-level assessment of how local populations conceive of stability and stabilisation, and provides a theory and model for how stability can be created in communities during and after conflict. The data was collected during field research from 2010-12. In Afghanistan the conflicts examined include the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1979, the civil...

This book examines the challenges that military forces will face in multinational operations in the 21st century.

Expanding on Rupert Smith's The Utility of Force, the volume assesses the changing parameters within which force as a political instrument is ultimately carried out. By analysing nine carefully selected mission types, the volume presents a comprehensive analysis of key trends and trajectories. Building upon this analysis, the contributors break the trends and parameters down into real and potential tasks and mission types in order to identify...

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the global diffusion of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and its impact on military innovation trajectories in small states.

Although the 'Revolution in Military Affairs' (RMA) concept has enjoyed significant academic attention, the varying paths and patterns of military innovation in divergent strategic settings have been overlooked. This book seeks to rectify this gap by addressing the broad puzzle of how the global diffusion of RMA-oriented military innovation - the process of international transmission,...

This book examines the evolution of airpower and specifically the growth and proliferation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAs).

While most existing literature examines either the law or ethics of RPAs, and some newer scholarship looks to the battlefield effectiveness (the gains from strikes versus the potential for blowback, etc.), this work investigates it from a broader military perspective. It examines the strategy for employment of RPAs across the spectrum of warfare, the potential deterrent value of RPAs in some circumstances, and the resulting ability of RPAs to fundamentally...