A new investigation into how the advent of precision-guided munitions affects the likelihood of US policy makers to use force. As such, this is an inquiry into the impact of ethics, strategy and military technology on the decision calculus of national leaders.

Following the first Gulf War in 1991, this new study shows how US Presidents increasingly used stand-off precision guided munitions (or "PGMs," especially the Tomahawk cruise missile) either to influence foreign adversaries to make specific policy choices or to signal displeasure with their actions.

Such uses of force...

Since the UN Charter came into effect in 1945, there have been numerous incidents in which one or more of the five major powers (at least arguably) violated the Charter's Article 2(4) prohibition of force. Such incidents notwithstanding, this book demonstrates how the Charter restrains the major powers' military actions. As an instrument of international order, the Charter provides a framework of legal rules restricting the use of armed force. Although these rules are subject to auto-interpretation by the major powers (as a consequence of their veto), they create an expectation of...

This new study challenges the widely held view that many current US adversaries cannot be deterred, maintaining that deterrence is not a relic of the Cold War period and that it should shape US policies toward so-called 'rogue states' and terror groups.

James Lebovic argues that deterrence principles continue to apply, and focuses upon the 'three pillars' of the Bush administration's national security policy:

• missile defence, which preoccupied the administration until September 11, 2001
• pre-emption, which became the US focus with the September...

This is the first book to analyze how the technology to alter images and rapidly distribute them can be used for propaganda and to support deception operations.

This volume explores questions of rebuilding governance in post-conflict societies from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on three interconnected gaps that arise in fragile states: deficits in legitimacy, effectiveness, and security.

This fascinating new study shows how the CIA and the British secret service, in collaboration with the military alliance NATO and European military secret services, set up a network of clandestine anti-communist armies in Western Europe after World War II.

These secret soldiers were trained on remote islands in the Mediterranean and in unorthodox warfare centres in England and in the United States by the Green Berets and SAS Special Forces. The network was armed with explosives, machine guns and high-tech communication equipment hidden in underground bunkers and secret arms caches...

This book examines the different ways in which the laws governing the use of force and the conduct of warfare have become subject to intense scrutiny and contestation since the initiation of the war on terror.

Since the end of the Cold War, the nature of security challenges has changed radically and this change has been recognised by the UN, governments and academics around the world. The 911 attacks and the subsequent launch of the 'war on terror' added a new dimension to this debate on the nature and utility of international law due to the demands from some quarters for a...