Over the past twenty years, a revolution has occurred in relations between the American executive and legislative branches. Once a passive observer of the President's decisions on defense policy, the Congress has assumed a more aggressive role in decisions on the defense budget, arms control, war powers, sales of weapons abroad, and covert operations. Based on interviews with members of Congress and their staffs, The Politics of National Security describes and analyzes this fundamental change in the United States political system, concentrating on the political factors behind the...

The American Military in the Twenty-First Century assesses the likely roles of U.S. military forces in the changed international environment of the twenty-first century and how military roles and missions might best be allocated among the armed services to create a flexible, cost-effective force able to support U.S. national interests. It focuses on the basic functions of the armed forces (for example, defence of the homeland, projection of power abroad, and peacekeeping and humanitarian operations) and shows, with an illustrative force posture, how military capabilities might best be...

The United States has used military force short of war as an instrument of diplomacy on many occasions and in many areas of the world in the years since the Second World War. This book describes and analyzes the circumstances accompanying 215 shows of force and examines how effective these actions were in helping to attain U.S. foreign policy objectives. Which type of force (air, ground, naval) was most often used? What did the forces do and how effective were they? Of what significance was Soviet involvement when U.S. military power was called upon to influence events? Was the threat...