Strategy, Doctrine, And The Politics Of Alliance


Book Description

This book examines the processes of nuclear policymaking in NATO and the interaction of alliance strategy with the docrines underlying it. Dr. Buteux focuses on the issue of theatre nuclear force modernisation to illustrate his thesis that NATO's strategic posture results from a political process in which other than purely strategic objectives are sought; agreements on alliance strategy may in fact be related only indirectly to the actual military posture of the alliance and the means available to support it. The book highlights the cumulative effect of strategic and technological change on the strategy and nuclear politics of NATO. Emphasizing that the present strategic environment has called into question many of the strategic and political premises on which NATO's nuclear posture has been based, Dr. Buteux gives special attention to recent proposals to deploy enhanced-radiation weapons (the "neutron bomb") and new intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. He considers the impact of these proposals on NATO's nuclear policymaking process and on the ability of the alliance to continue to base its deterrent posture on the concept of flexible response




NATO's Future Conventional Defense Strategy in Central Europe


Book Description

This report provides a political-military analysis for thinking about how NATO's conventional defense strategy can be adjusted to contribute to stability in Central Europe in the coming post-Cold War era. The report (which was assembled in early 1991) concludes that NATO will need to employ a new "theater employment doctrine"--The way NATO uses military force on the battlefield to attain its goals--one that defends further eastward and more flexibly than linear defense contemplated. All viable alternatives for such a doctrine will require NATO to uproot long-established defense practices. Changes will have to be made not only in NATO's force posture, but also in how coalition defense is conducted. Having a concerted planning effort that forges a coherent relationship among NATO's future defense strategy, employment doctrine, and force posture can ensure these changes are well-managed, thus leaving NATO with a viable conventional defense strategy even if forces are smaller than they are now.




NL ARMS Netherlands Annual Review of Military Studies 2020


Book Description

This open access volume surveys the state of the field to examine whether a fifth wave of deterrence theory is emerging. Bringing together insights from world-leading experts from three continents, the volume identifies the most pressing strategic challenges, frames theoretical concepts, and describes new strategies. The use and utility of deterrence in today’s strategic environment is a topic of paramount concern to scholars, strategists and policymakers. Ours is a period of considerable strategic turbulence, which in recent years has featured a renewed emphasis on nuclear weapons used in defence postures across different theatres; a dramatic growth in the scale of military cyber capabilities and the frequency with which these are used; and rapid technological progress including the proliferation of long-range strike and unmanned systems. These military-strategic developments occur in a polarized international system, where cooperation between leading powers on arms control regimes is breaking down, states widely make use of hybrid conflict strategies, and the number of internationalized intrastate proxy conflicts has quintupled over the past two decades. Contemporary conflict actors exploit a wider gamut of coercive instruments, which they apply across a wider range of domains. The prevalence of multi-domain coercion across but also beyond traditional dimensions of armed conflict raises an important question: what does effective deterrence look like in the 21st century? Answering that question requires a re-appraisal of key theoretical concepts and dominant strategies of Western and non-Western actors in order to assess how they hold up in today’s world. Air Commodore Professor Dr. Frans Osinga is the Chair of the War Studies Department of the Netherlands Defence Academy and the Special Chair in War Studies at the University Leiden. Dr. Tim Sweijs is the Director of Research at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Military Sciences of the Netherlands Defence Academy in Breda.




NATO Acquisition Strategy


Book Description







Strategic Narratives


Book Description

Communication is central to how we understand international affairs. Political leaders, diplomats, and citizens recognize that communication shapes global politics. This has only been amplified in a new media environment characterized by Internet access to information, social media, and the transformation of who can communicate and how. Soft power, public diplomacy 2.0, network power – scholars and policymakers are concerned with understanding what is happening. This book is the first to develop a systematic framework to understand how political actors seek to shape order through narrative projection in this new environment. To explain the changing world order – the rise of the BRICS, the dilemmas of climate change, poverty and terrorism, the intractability of conflict – the authors explore how actors form and project narratives and how third parties interpret and interact with these narratives. The concept of strategic narrative draws together the most salient of international relations concepts, including the links between power and ideas; international and domestic; and state and non-state actors. The book is anchored around four themes: order, actors, uncertainty, and contestation. Through these, Strategic Narratives shows both the possibilities and the limits of communication and power, and makes an important contribution to theorizing and studying empirically contemporary international relations. International Studies Association: International Communication Best Book Award




NATO's New Strategic Concept


Book Description

The evolution of the Strategic Concept, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) blueprint for its approach to the global security environment, has undergone substantial change during the last ten years. These changes reflect the vastly different international world order precipitated by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The United States, as a member of NATO, has been equally involved with the developments of the post bi-polar world. It has begun to restructure its military in an attempt to better respond to the full-spectrum of conflict and higher tempo of contemporary operations. The potential for complex multinational operations, coupled with the unique military and strategic dynamics found within such an environment, will ultimately demand a higher level of understanding of such operations from members of the United States Army. Using a contemporary analytical strategy to explore the development of NATO's Strategic Concept, coupled with an examination of Army service specific doctrine, this monograph will answer the problem statement of this research: Is the United States Army aware of the operational ramifications contained within NATO's new strategic concept? The most visible evidence of alliance understanding and awareness rests within the cornerstone publications and service doctrine. This monograph concludes that there is insufficient attention paid to alliance and multinational operations within its doctrine and manuals and points to After Action Reviews from Kosovo and Bosnia to support these findings. The extensive experience accumulated by U.S. Am% commanders since the signing of the Dayton peace Accords must be cultivated and ultimately integrated into future doctrine development.




Military Readiness


Book Description

Throughout most of American history, U.S. military forces proved unready for the wars that were thrust upon them and suffered costly reverses in early battles. During the Cold War, for the first time, U.S. defense policy tried to maintain high readiness in peacetime. But now, with the Cold War over and defense budgets falling, what will happen to U.S. military forces? Will they revert to a state of unpreparedness or find a new balance? Politicians and military planners alike have found this crucial issue especially difficult to deal with because they have often misunderstood what readiness really means. In this book, security expert Richard Betts surveys problems in developing and measuring combat readiness before, during, and after the Cold War. He analyzes why attempts to maximize it often have counterproductive effects, and how confusions in technical concepts cause political controversy. The book explores conflicts between two objectives that are both vital but work against each other because they compete for resources: operational readiness to fight immediately, and structural readiness—the number of organized units that increase military power, but require time during a crisis to gear up for combat. Betts also discusses the problem brought on by the Cold War and plunging defense budgets: mobilization readiness—the plans and arrangements needed to shorten the time for recreating a large military if it once again becomes necessary. Betts offers new ideas for understanding the dilemmas and tradeoffs that underlie debates on how readiness should be maintained in peacetime, and he explores the strategic consequences of different choices.