Kategoria BISAC: History >> Military - Strategy

James D. Kiras shows how a number of different special operations, in conjunction with more conventional military actions, achieve and sustain strategic effect(s) over time. In particular, he argues that the root of effective special operations lies in understanding the relationship existing between moral and material attrition at the strategic level. He also presents a theoretical framework for understanding how special operations achieve strategic effects using a unique synthesis of strategic theory and case studies.

This study shows how the key to understanding how special...

This is the first book to survey the evolution of the strategic basing systems of the great powers, covering an 800-year span of history, from the Mongol dynasty to the era of the US empire.

Robert E. Harkavy details the progression of strategic basing systems and power projection, from its beginnings at a regional level to its current global reach, while emphasizing the interplay between political and international systemic factors (bipolar vs. multipolar systems), and technological factors. Analyzing the relationship between basing structures and national power, the book deals...

Good strategic assessment does not guarantee success in international relations, but bad strategic assessment dramatically increases the risk of disastrous failure. The most glaring example of this reality is playing out in Iraq today. But what explains why states and their leaders are sometimes so good at strategic assessment--and why they are sometimes so bad at it? Part of the explanation has to do with a state's civil-military relations. In Shaping Strategy, Risa Brooks develops a novel theory of how states' civil-military relations affect strategic assessment during...

"New France" consisted of the area colonized and ruled by France in North America from the 16th to the 18th century. At its peak in the early 18th century its territory was huge, stretching from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico. This title reviews the lengthy chain of forts built to guard the French frontier in the American northeast from the province of Quebec through New York State to Pennsylvania and Indiana. Among the sites examined are forts Chambly, St. Frederic (Crown Point), Carillon (Ticonderoga), Duquesne (Pittsburgh, PA), Ouiatenon (Quebec) and Vincennes (IN).

These forts,...

The challenges that vex the United States today in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere are not altogether as new and unique as they seem. U.S. involvement in Central America during the 1980s clearly demonstrated the costs, risks, and limits to intervention and the use of force in internal conflicts. Much can be learned today about the nature of irregular warfare from the experiences of the United States and the other protagonists in Central America during the final phase of the Cold War. The U.S. perceived a threat to national security in these wars from determined insurgents with a...

Military transformation can be understood as comprising three overlapping and sometimes competing layers--the conventional-force dominated revolution in military affairs, a more recent irregular warfare emphasis, and a wider dimension including homeland defense, space and nuclear policy. The Western world is currently focusing its attention on transformation's middle layer, while China and Russia are focusing on the RMA and transformation's wider aspects. This dynamic indicates the United States and its allies should continue to prepare for the full range of conflicts.

This book...

This volume undertakes a systematic analysis of the relationship between Special Forces and contemporary strategy, explaining the resurgence of interest in Special Forces, particularly in the West, by exploring their appeal over traditional conventional force options in the current a ~War on Terrora (TM).

Special Forces, Terrorism and Strategy comprises four overarching themes:

• theory and practice
• command and control
• culture and technology
• operations and the a ~War on Terrora (TM).

By developing a credible theory about the role...