Book Description

The History and Future of Warfare Selections of the Professional Readings in Military Strategy Published by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College Legal standards are an important part of military strategic decision making, both as to whether or not to take military action and how military action should be conducted once the decision is made. Insight into the practical and economic application of these standards is at the core of this thought-provoking book. Edited with extensive legal commentary and analysis by two prominent US military lawyers with global experience, The History and Future of Warfare presents a revealing survey of the most significant findings, over a 30-year period, of outstanding military advisers and scholars on the use, control, and conduct of military forces in hostilities. Drawing on the work of the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College--work which has deeply influenced military thinking and doctrine not only in the US but worldwide--this book distills the considered judgment of a generation of commentators on the operational controls that have evolved since the 1960s and been tested and refined in conflicts from Vietnam to Kosova. Collecting 31 essays in ten chapters (with introductory comments to each chapter), the book addresses such specific issues and practical problems as the role of NATO and its enlargement; justifications of the recourse to war, especially the `Weinberger Doctrine'; setting legal controls on new weapons and new military technologies; and the doctrine of peacekeeping and its strategic promise. There are also essays dealing with particular geographical and regional military issues that arise in Russia, China, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, as well as studies of the changing role of the United Nations and the US in the New World Order. The History and Future of Warfare allows international lawyers, defense policymakers and other interested parties to consider in depth serious problems involving the use of military force. Through its clear thinking about legal standards, both existing (such as the Geneva Protocols of December 1977) and proposed, it helps these professionals to resolve issues of improper or unlawful conduct in regard to the use of military force.