Art of Military Coercion : Why the West's Military Superiority Scarcely Matters / Rob De Wijk.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wijk, Rob de, 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Military doctrine--History.

Military doctrine.

Military art and science--Decision making.

Military art and science.

War (Philosophy).

History.

Physical Description:

325 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2014.

Summary:

Practitioners of international politics usually have a poor understanding of the concept of coercion. The lack of theoretical understanding of the coercive use of force as well as the underfunding of the missions, too few troops, the asymmetrical tactics of the opponent, numerous political caveats, the inability to cooperate effectively and misjudgement of the local dynamic explains why military missions fail. The failure to understand the dynamics of conflicts confirmed the conclusion of the first edition of this book (2006) that the West's military superiority scarcely matters. Geopolitical change, operational lessons learned and new conceptual and doctrinal insights required an updated of the first edition with new case studies and statistics. The Art of Military Coercion: Why the West's Military Superiority Scarcely Matters includes the lessons learned of the missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya as well as new insight on the future use of armed force by the West. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Political Culture: Why the West Coerces

1 A Western Civilization of Warriors? 31

Two cases: Iraq and Somalia 31

Realism, Idealism, and interventions 35

Western civilization 42

A universal and superior civilization? 48

The international legal order 51

Transatlantic differences in political culture 59

Conclusion 63

2 Liberal Democracies and Interventions 65

Democracy and the justification of interventions 65

Democratization and war 73

Democracies and interventions: the Cold War period 75

Democracies and interventions: the post-Cold War era 79

The decay of the non-intervention principle 83

America's primacy 89

Conclusion 96

3 The Strategic Efficacy of Power Instruments 99

The theoretical foundation of coercion 100

Decision making 103

The instruments of coercion 109

The dynamics of coercion 119

Two strategies of coercion 122

Applications of military force in coercion strategies 138

Strategies and Opponents 142

Policy implications 144

Part 2 Strategic Culture: How the West Coerces

4 The Evolution of Modern Military Doctrine 151

Flexible response 153

Active defense 155

Interoperability 158

Attrition warfare versus maneuver warfare 160

The debate on active defense 163

The European reactions 169

AirLand Battle and NATO tactical doctrine 172

Follow-on Forces Attack 174

Doubts about the feasibility of AirLand Battle 175

The doctrinal mess of the 1990s 177

Lessons learned: the development of joint doctrine 186

New capabilities for full spectrum dominance 190

Two strategic cultures 192

Conclusion 194

5 Premodern Challenges and the Modern and Postmodern World 197

Trends explained 198

Interstate conflicts 201

Intrastate wars and complex contingencies 202

Non-state actors and the use of black holes 205

Religious anti-systemic terrorism 207 Biological and chemical threats 215

Nuclear and radiological weapons 220

Missile proliferation 225

Conclusion 229

6 Dealing with Complex Security Challenges 231

Western preoccupations 232

Savage warfare 235

Revolutionary warfare 237

Planning an operation 244

Special forces and intelligence 250

The Chechen wars 251

Operation Defensive Shield 255

Operation Cast Lead 257

Afghanistan: Operation Enduring Freedom 259

Afghanistan: the stabilization phase 264

Unified Protector (2011) 266

New doctrines 269

Operation Iraqi Freedom 275

Stabilization operations: reinventing population-centric COIN 282

Field Manual 3-24 285

NATO Doctrine 287

Measuring success in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan 292

Postmodern warfare 293

Conclusion 294

7 The Art of Military Coercion 297

The successful application of force 301

The principles of military operations 303

The timing of an intervention 304

Coalition warfare 307

Political preconditions 310

Public support 312

Concept of operations 314

Balancing means and ends 315

Military aid 317.

ISBN:

9089646744

9789089646743

OCLC:

871671005