Arms for Uncertainty

Arms for Uncertainty
Author: Stephen J. Cimbala
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317178513

Nuclear weapons are here to stay. They have survived into the twenty-first century as instruments of influence for the US, Russia, and other major military powers. But, unlike the Cold War era, future nuclear forces will be developed and deployed within a digital-driven world of enhanced conventional weapons. As such, established nuclear powers will have smaller numbers of nuclear weapons for the purpose of deterrence working in parallel with smarter conventional weapons and elite military personnel. The challenge is to agree proportional reductions in nuclear inventories or abstinence requiring an effective nonproliferation regime to contain aspiring or threshold nuclear weapons states. This is the most comprehensive view of nuclear weapons policy and strategy currently available. The author’s division of the nuclear issue into the three ages is a never seen before analytical construct. With President Obama reelected, the reduction and even elimination of nuclear weapons will now rise to the top of the agenda once more. Moreover, given the likelihood of reductions in US defense spending, the subject of the triad, which is covered in Chapter One, will no doubt be an important subject of debate, as will the issue of missile defense, covered in Chapter 10. This book provides an excellent analysis of the spread of nuclear weapons in Asia and the Middle East and the potential dangers of a North Korean or Iranian breakout, subjects that dominate current policy debates.

Mobilizing in Uncertainty

Mobilizing in Uncertainty
Author: Anastasia Shesterinina
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2021-03-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501753770

How do ordinary people navigate the intense uncertainty of the onset of war? Different individuals mobilize in different ways—some flee, some pick up arms, and some support armed actors as civil war begins. Drawing on nearly two hundred in-depth interviews with participants and nonparticipants in the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992–1993, Anastasia Shesterinina explores Abkhaz mobilization decisions during that conflict. Her fresh approach underscores the uncertain nature of the first days of the war when Georgian forces had a preponderance of manpower and arms. Mobilizing in Uncertainty demonstrates, in contrast to explanations that assume individuals know the risk involved in mobilization and make decisions based on that knowledge, that the Abkhaz anticipated risk in ways that were affected by their earlier experiences and by social networks at the time of mobilization. What Shesterinina uncovers is that to make sense of the violence, Abkhaz leaders, local authority figures, and others relied on shared understandings of the conflict and their roles in it—collective conflict identities—that they had developed before the war. As appeals traveled across society, people consolidated mobilization decisions within small groups of family and friends and based their actions on whom they understood to be threatened. Their decisions shaped how the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict unfolded and how people continued to mobilize during and after the war. Through this detailed analysis of Abkhaz mobilization from prewar to postwar, Mobilizing in Uncertainty sheds light on broader processes of violence, which have lasting effects on societies marked by intergroup conflict.

U.S. Security in an Uncertain Era

U.S. Security in an Uncertain Era
Author: Brad Roberts
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 438
Release: 1993
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780262680806

essays collected from issues of the Washington Quarterly focus on important questions posed by the end of the Cold War, a changed Soviet Union, changing alliances, regional instabilities, and new security challenges These essays collected from recent issues of the Washington Quarterly focus on important questions posed by the end of the Cold War, a changed Soviet Union, changing alliances, regional instabilities, and new security challenges. The twenty-eight chapters are divided into sections that cover U.S. security in the 1990s, peacetime defense policy, security in Europe, international security, and proliferation and arms control. Brad Roberts is a Research Fellow in International Security Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

The Politics of Uncertainty

The Politics of Uncertainty
Author: Peter Marris
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1134789076

In The Politics of Uncertainty Peter Marris examines one of the most crucial and least studied aspects of social relationships: how we manage uncertainty, from the child's struggle for secure attachment to the competitive strategies of multinational corporations. Using a powerful synthesis of social and psychological theory, he shows how strategies of competition interact with the individual's sense of personal agency to place the heaviest burden of uncertainty on those with the fewest social and economic resources. He argues that these strategies maximize uncertainty for everyone by undermining the reciprocity essential to successful economic and social relationships. At a time when global economic reorganisation is undermining security of employment, The Politics of Uncertainty makes a convincing case for strategies of co-operation at both personal and political levels to ensure our economic and social survival in the twenty-first century.

Russia's Uncertain Economic Future

Russia's Uncertain Economic Future
Author: John P. Hardt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2015-04-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317460316

The contributors to this volume analyze the present state of the Russian economy and its future prospects - which now seem brighter than at any previous time in the country's history. The Russian economy is now showing positive GDP growth and a positive balance of payments, portending a trend of sustained growth. The record of the Putin presidency with respect to the establishment of market-friendly legal and administrative environments is substantially positive. On the other side of the ledger, the contributors identify the persistence of monopolies in energy, transportation, and agriculture; distortions resulting from corruption, infrastructural inadequacies, and the maldistribution of political power and decision-making authority; demographic decline and the erosion of human capital as manifested in the health, education, and welfare of the population. Russia's successful development as a democratic society with a market economy is of great importance to its neighbors and to the global economy, and specifically to the United States, which is why the U.S. Congress commissioned these studies by expert analysts. This edition includes a comprehensive subject index, making the volume user-friendly.

The Uncertain Friendship

The Uncertain Friendship
Author: Herbert Druks
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2000-11-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0313002754

Although the United States has been a friend to Israel from the beginning and Israel has in return been an important American ally in the region, relations between the two nations have never been without difficulties. This study traces U.S.-Israeli relations from the 1930s to the early 1960s and examines the roles played by both Israelis and Americans in the formation of an independent Israel. Taking into account economic, political, social, and military factors, Druks devotes particular attention to elements of Israel's dependence on and independence from the United States during crucial phases of relations. These include the Holocaust and the failure to rescue European Jewry; Roosevelt and the promise of independence; establishment and recognition; Washington's ongoing relations with the new nation; the 1956 Sinai War; and President John F. Kennedy's enlightened approach towards Israel and the Middle East. On the U.S. side, Druks analyzes the defining roles played by the various presidents involved, the efforts of Congress, the influence of the media, and the contributions of Americans in general. Discussion of the Israeli side of the equation includes the impact of Israeli leaders, society, and the parliamentary democratic process. The work is based on materials from public and private archives in the U.S. and Israel, published governmental documents, as well as personal diaries. In addition, the author includes interviews with such key figures as Harry S Truman, W. Averell Harriman, Roger P. Davies, Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Yitzhak Shamir Moti Gur, Moshe Arens, and Ezer Weizman.

An Uncertain Trumpet

An Uncertain Trumpet
Author: Kenneth Finlayson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2001-07-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0313074178

Faced with severe budgetary constraints, a radically reduced force structure, and a crippling intellectual dogmatism, the American Infantry struggled throughout the interwar years to modernize its doctrine. Finlayson examines these difficulties, beginning with an overview of the experiences of the primary combatants of the First World War, comparing their battlefield doctrines with that of the American Expeditionary Force. The brief American appearance on the battlefield did much to shape the convictions of those men assigned the task of developing doctrine after the war. The findings of the post-World War I Superior Board provide valuable insight into how institutional conservatism and the dogmatic approach to new ideas that existed among senior Army leaders stymied possible doctrinal advances. The Army would suffer greatly in the post-war demobilization and the subsequent ravages of the Great Depression. With little money and few soldiers spread around far-flung posts, little advancement in terms of doctrinal development was possible. As the likelihood of war became more imminent in the 1930s, a concerted effort to modernize was made; however, the magnitude of the task made success virtually impossible-a situation that was evident in the Infantry's poor performance in the early battles of the war. The U.S. entry into World war II would, unfortunately, find the infantry branch only partially prepared for the battle field of 1942.

Uncertain Justice

Uncertain Justice
Author: Laurence Tribe
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2014-06-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0805099093

An assessment of how the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts is significantly influencing the nation's laws and reinterpreting the Constitution includes in-depth analysis of recent rulings and their implications.

Russia's Uncertain Economic Future

Russia's Uncertain Economic Future
Author: John Pearce Hardt
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
Total Pages: 508
Release: 2003
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780765612083

The Russian economy is now showing positive GDP growth and a positive balance of payments, portending a trend of sustained growth. The contributors to this volume analyze the present state of the Russian economy and its future prospects which now seem brighter than ever.

Uncertain Future

Uncertain Future
Author: Mark Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2019-08-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000733513

In July 2015, eight parties – France, Germany and the United Kingdom, together with the European Union and China, Russia and the United States on the one side, and Iran on the other – adopted the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the Iran nuclear deal. Under the agreement, Iran accepted limits to its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. Hailed by some as a diplomatic achievement, detractors – both in the US and the Middle East – saw the deal as overly lenient. In May 2018, US President Donald Trump announced that the US would cease waiving sanctions and withdraw from the agreement. This Adelphi book assesses that Trump’s decision was a grave error. Like any multilateral agreement, the deal was not perfect, but Iran had been honouring its commitments. Drawing on a deep understanding of the non-proliferation regime and technical expertise, the authors trace the emergence of antipathy to the JCPOA and set out how many of the politicised criticisms of the accord are demonstrably incorrect. They argue that the little-known Procurement Channel – established by the JCPOA to give Iran a legitimate route to procure goods and services for its now-limited nuclear programme – has been an effective check on Iran’s illicit procurement of nuclear-related goods. Moreover, this book demonstrates that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programmes are not intrinsically linked, as not all Iranian missiles are designed to be nuclear-capable. While the deal endures for now, its survival will ultimately depend on Iran.