Short Story International #101

Medvedev's Plan: Giving Russia a Voice but Not a Veto in a New European Security System

Richard Kirkus

Understanding the North Korea Problem: Why it has become the "Land of Lousy Options"

Politics & Social Sciences

William Boik

Politics & Government

This book presents several essays analyzing Russia¿s extensive nuclear agenda and the issue connected with it. It deals with strategy, doctrine, European, Eurasian, and East Asian security agendas, as well as the central U.S.-Russia nuclear and arms control equations. This work brings together American, European, and Russian analysts to discuss Russia¿s defense and conventional forces reforms and their impact on nuclear forces, doctrine, strategy, and the critical issues of Russian security policies towards the United States, Europe, and China. It also deals directly with the present and future roles of nuclear weapons in Russian defense policy and strategy.

Russian Nuclear Weapons Past, Present and Future

Strategic theory should educate to enable effective strategic practice, but much of contemporary theory promotes confusion, not clarity, of suitable understanding. A little strategic theory goes a long way, at least it does if it is austere and focused on essentials. Unfortunately, contemporary strategic conceptualization in the U.S. defense community is prolix, over-elaborate, and it confuses rather than clarifies. Recent debate about irregular, as contrasted allegedly with traditional, challenges to U.S. national security have done more harm than good. Conceptualization of and for an operational level of war can imperil the truly vital nexus between strategy and tactics. In much the same way, the invention of purportedly distinctive categories of challenge endangers the relationship between general theory for statecraft, war, and strategy, and strategic and tactical practice for particular historical cases. It is not helpful to sort challenges into supposedly distinctive categories. But, if such categorization proves politically or bureaucratically unavoidable, its potential for harm can be reduced by firm insistence upon the authority of the general theory of strategy.

Categorical Confusion? The Strategic Implications of Recognizing Challenges Either As Irregular or Traditional

Colin Gray

Today, America faces security challenges that are exceedingly dynamic and complex, in part because of the ever changing mix and number of actors involved and the pace with which the strategic and operational environments change. To meet these new challenges more effectively, the Obama administration advocated strengthening civilian instruments of national power and enhancing America¿s whole-of-government (WOG) capabilities. Although the need for comprehensive integration and coordination of civilian and military, governmental and nongovernmental, national and international capabilities to improve efficiency and effectiveness of post-conflict stabilization and peacebuilding efforts is widely recognized, Washington has been criticized for its attempts at creating WOG responses to international crises and conflicts for overcommitment of resources, lack of sufficient funding and personnel, competition between agencies, ambiguous mission objectives, and undermining the military¿s primary purpose of defending the national interest. Presenting the results of an international Symposium held at Kennesaw State University in February 2011, this volume traces the genesis of WOG, critically examines current WOG practices, and draws lessons from the operational contexts of Iraq and Afghanistan. The first part of the book describes the overall global security context within which peacebuilding and stability operations are currently conducted, examines the merits of WOG approaches, and discusses their efficacy for responding to a range of emerging threats. The second part addresses some of the practical challenges of implementing WOG approaches to international conflict management and specifically to U.S. intervention in fragile states. The third and final part examines WOG efforts in the field and draws lessons learned from operational experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq to potential future interventions.

Conflict Management and "Whole of Government": Useful Tools for U.S. National Security Strategy?

Volke Franke

The explosive growth of China¿s economic interests in Africa¿bilateral trade rocketed from $1 billion in 1990 to $150 billion in 2011¿may be the most important trend in the continent¿s foreign relations since the end of the Cold War. China surpassed the United States in 2010 as Africa¿s top trading partner; its quest to build a strategic partnership with Africa on its own terms through tied aid, trade, and development finance is also part of Beijing¿s broader aspirations to surpass the United States as the world¿s preeminent superpower. Africa has become an attractive partner for China and other emerging economies not only for its natural resources, but as a growing market. Africa¿s rapid growth since 2000 has not just occurred because of higher commodity prices, but more importantly due to other factors including improved governance, economic reforms, and an expanding labor force. China¿s rapid and successful expansion in Africa is due to multiple factors including economic diplomacy that is clearly superior to that of the United States. China¿s ¿no strings attached¿ approach to development, however, risks undoing decades of Western efforts to promote good governance. China¿s oil diplomacy, equity investments in strategic minerals, and food policy toward Africa are examined. The official U.S. rhetoric is that China¿s rise in Africa should not be seen as a zero-sum game, but areas for real U.S.-China cooperation to help Africa will remain elusive, mainly because of Beijing¿s hyper-mistrust of Washington. The United States could help itself and Africa by improving its own economic diplomacy and adequately funding its own soft power efforts.

Hidden Dragon, Crouching Lion: How China's Advance in Africa Is Underestimated and Africa's Potential Underappreciated

Reference

David E. Brown

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

As if combating vicious narco-syndicates were not a sufficiently formidable challenge, the Mexican government has assigned such additional roles to the Army and Navy as overseeing customs agents, serving as state and municipal security chiefs, taking charge of prisons, protecting airports, safeguarding migrants, functioning as firefighters, preventing drug trafficking around schools, establishing recreational programs for children, and standing guard 24-hours a day over boxes of ballots cast in recent elections. This expansion of duties has sparked the accusation that Mexico is being ¿militarized.¿ A creative outreach program includes parades and other ceremonial extravaganzas, pilots encourage adults and children to hop into the seat of a helicopter; other wide-eyed youngsters grasp the controls of anti-aircraft weapons; admiring onlookers are invited to shake hands and have photos taken with nationally prominent military athletes; in Veracruz and other ports, residents are given tours of ships, landing craft, and submarines. The Army especially creates career opportunities for women, who traditionally filled posts as nurses, secretaries, translators, doctors, and dentists. Now the Defense Ministry has opened all of its instructional institutions, including the Heroic War College (Mexico¿s version of West Point) to females.

The Impact of President Felipe Calderon's War on Drugs on the Armed Forces: The Prospects for Mexico's "Militarization" and Bilateral Relations

George W. Grayson

The premise of most Western thinking on counterinsurgency is that success depends on establishing a perception of legitimacy among local populations. The path to legitimacy is often seen as the improvement of governance in the form of effective and efficient administration of government and public services. However, good governance is not the only possible basis for claims to legitimacy. The author considers whether, in insurgencies where ethno-religious identities are salient, claims to legitimacy may rest more on the identity of who governs, rather than on how whoever governs governs. This monograph presents an analytic framework for examining these issues and then applies that framework to two detailed local case studies of American counterinsurgency operations in Iraq: Ramadi from 2004-05; and Tal Afar from 2005-06. These case studies are based on primary research, including dozens of interviews with participants and eyewitnesses. The cases yield ample evidence that ethno-religious identity politics do shape counterinsurgency outcomes in important ways, and also offer qualified support for the argument that addressing identity politics may be more critical than good governance to counterinsurgent success. Key policy implications include the importance of making strategy development as sensitive as possible to the dynamics of identity politics, and to local variations and complexity in causal relationships among popular loyalties, grievances, and political violence.

Governance, Idenity, and Counterinsurgency: Evidence From Ramadi and Tal Afar

Michael Fitzsimmons

Text is clean and in fine condition. Cover has heavy wear around edges and corners. Crease on back cover. Shelf wear.

Conflict Management and Peacebuilding : Pillars of a New American Grand Stretegy

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