Assessing War

Assessing War PDF Author: Leo J. Blanken
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626162476
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
Today's protracted asymmetrical conflicts confuse efforts to measure progress, often inviting politics and wishful thinking to replace objective evaluation. In Assessing War, military historians, social scientists, and military officers explore how observers have analyzed the trajectory of war in American conflicts from the Seven Years’ War through the war in Afghanistan. Drawing on decades of acquired expertise, the contributors examine wartime assessment in both theory and practice and, through alternative dimensions of assessment such as justice and proportionality, the war of ideas and economics. This group of distinguished authors grapples with both conventional and irregular wars and emerging aspects of conflict—such as cyberwar and nation building—that add to the complexities of the modern threat environment. The volume ends with recommendations for practitioners on best approaches while offering sobering conclusions about the challenges of assessing war without politicization or self-delusion. Covering conflicts from the eighteenth century to today, Assessing War blends focused advice and a uniquely broad set of case studies to ponder vital questions about warfare's past—and its future. The book includes a foreword by Gen. George W. Casey Jr. (USA, Ret.), former chief of staff of the US Army and former commander, Multi-National Force–Iraq.

Assessing War

Assessing War PDF Author: Leo J. Blanken
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626162476
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book

Book Description
Today's protracted asymmetrical conflicts confuse efforts to measure progress, often inviting politics and wishful thinking to replace objective evaluation. In Assessing War, military historians, social scientists, and military officers explore how observers have analyzed the trajectory of war in American conflicts from the Seven Years’ War through the war in Afghanistan. Drawing on decades of acquired expertise, the contributors examine wartime assessment in both theory and practice and, through alternative dimensions of assessment such as justice and proportionality, the war of ideas and economics. This group of distinguished authors grapples with both conventional and irregular wars and emerging aspects of conflict—such as cyberwar and nation building—that add to the complexities of the modern threat environment. The volume ends with recommendations for practitioners on best approaches while offering sobering conclusions about the challenges of assessing war without politicization or self-delusion. Covering conflicts from the eighteenth century to today, Assessing War blends focused advice and a uniquely broad set of case studies to ponder vital questions about warfare's past—and its future. The book includes a foreword by Gen. George W. Casey Jr. (USA, Ret.), former chief of staff of the US Army and former commander, Multi-National Force–Iraq.

Assessing War

Assessing War PDF Author: Leo James Blanken
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626162468
Category : Military planning
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
Assessing War spans two centuries of US military history to examine the challenge of measuring progress in wartime. Expert contributors examine wartime assessment in both theory and practice, and through alternative dimensions of assessment such as justice and proportionality, the war of ideas, and economics. --Robert H. Scales, MG (USA, Ret.) "Parameters"

Strategic Assessment in War

Strategic Assessment in War PDF Author: Scott Sigmund Gartner
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300080698
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
How do military organizations assess strategic policy in war? In this book Scott Gartner develops a theory to explain how military and government leaders evaluate wartime performance, how much they change strategies in response to this evaluation, and why they are frequently at odds when discussing the success or failure of strategic performance. Blending history, decision theory, and mathematical modeling, Gartner argues that military personnel do reevaluate their strategies and that they measure the performance of a strategy through quantitative, "dominant" indicators. But different actors within a government use different indicators of success: some will see the strategy as succeeding when others see it as failing because of their different dominant indicators. Gartner tests his argument with three case studies: the British shift to convoys in World War I following the German imposition of unrestricted submarine warfare; the lack of change in British naval policy in the Battle of the Atlantic following the German introduction of Wolf Packs in World War II; and the American decision to deescalate in Vietnam after the Tet Offensive. He also tests his approach in a nonwar situation, analyzing the Carter Administration's decision to launch the hostage rescue attempt. In each case, his dominant indicator model better predicts the observed behavior than either a standard-organization or an action-reaction approach.

War and Chance

War and Chance PDF Author: Jeffrey A. Friedman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190938048
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Uncertainty surrounds every major decision in international politics. Yet there is almost always room for reasonable people to disagree about what that uncertainty entails. No one can reliably predict the outbreak of armed conflict, forecast economic recessions, anticipate terrorist attacks, or estimate the countless other risks that shape foreign policy choices. Many scholars and practitioners therefore believe that it is better to keep foreign policy debates focused on the facts - that it is, at best, a waste of time to debate uncertain judgments that will often prove to be wrong. In War and Chance, Jeffrey A. Friedman shows how foreign policy officials often try to avoid the challenge of assessing uncertainty, and argues that this behavior undermines high-stakes decision making. Drawing on an innovative combination of historical and experimental evidence, he explains how foreign policy analysts can assess uncertainty in a manner that is theoretically coherent, empirically meaningful, politically defensible, practically useful, and sometimes logically necessary for making sound choices. Each of these claims contradicts widespread skepticism about the value of probabilistic reasoning in international politics, and shows how placing greater emphasis on assessing uncertainty can improve nearly any foreign policy debate. A clear-eyed examination of the logic, psychology, and politics of assessing uncertainty, War and Chance provides scholars and practitioners with new foundations for understanding one of the most controversial elements of foreign policy discourse.

On War

On War PDF Author: Carl von Clausewitz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Military art and science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description


Assessing the War on Terror

Assessing the War on Terror PDF Author: Mohammed Ayoob
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Pub
ISBN: 9781588269782
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Was the US-led war on terror, especially the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, a necessary response to the September 11 terrorist attacks? What did the two invasions accomplish? How have the fortunes of al-Qaeda and like-minded organizations been affected? The authors of this important contribution to ongoing debates address these questions as they assess the impact and implications of the war on terror for the Middle East, for Europe, and for the United States itself.

The Allure of Battle

The Allure of Battle PDF Author: Cathal Nolan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199874654
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
History has tended to measure war's winners and losers in terms of its major engagements, battles in which the result was so clear-cut that they could be considered "decisive." Cannae, Konigsberg, Austerlitz, Midway, Agincourt-all resonate in the literature of war and in our imaginations as tide-turning. But these legendary battles may or may not have determined the final outcome of the wars in which they were fought. Nor has the "genius" of the so-called Great Captains - from Alexander the Great to Frederick the Great and Napoleon - play a major role. Wars are decided in other ways. Cathal J. Nolan's The Allure of Battle systematically and engrossingly examines the great battles, tracing what he calls "short-war thinking," the hope that victory might be swift and wars brief. As he proves persuasively, however, such has almost never been the case. Even the major engagements have mainly contributed to victory or defeat by accelerating the erosion of the other side's defences. Massive conflicts, the so-called "people's wars," beginning with Napoleon and continuing until 1945, have consisted of and been determined by prolonged stalemate and attrition, industrial wars in which the determining factor has been not military but matériel. Nolan's masterful book places battles squarely and mercilessly within the context of the wider conflict in which they took place. In the process it help corrects a distorted view of battle's role in war, replacing popular images of the "battles of annihilation" with somber appreciation of the commitments and human sacrifices made throughout centuries of war particularly among the Great Powers. Accessible, provocative, exhaustive, and illuminating, The Allure of Battle will spark fresh debate about the history and conduct of warfare.

Hitler's War in the East, 1941-1945

Hitler's War in the East, 1941-1945 PDF Author: Rolf-Dieter Müller
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781571812933
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
Provides a guide to the extensive literature on the war in the East, including largely unknown Soviet writing on the subject. Sections on policy and strategy, the military campaign, the ideologically motivated war of annihilation in the East, the occupation, and coming to terms with the results of the war offer a wealth of bibliographic citations, and include introductions detailing history of the period and related issues. For military historians, and for scholars who approach this period in history from a socio-economic or cultural perspective. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Law of War

The Law of War PDF Author: William H. Boothby
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108427588
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
A detailed and highly authoritative critical commentary appraising the vitally important United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual.

Soldiers of End-Times

Soldiers of End-Times PDF Author: Ido Levy
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538181339
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
"This book provides an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Islamic State in battle"--