Politics and Force Levels

Politics and Force Levels
Author: Desmond Ball
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2024-03-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0520319761

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1980.

Politics and Force Levels

Politics and Force Levels
Author: Desmond Ball
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 1980-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780520036987

The Politics of Military Force

The Politics of Military Force
Author: Frank Stengel
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2020-12-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0472132210

The Politics of Military Force examines the dynamics of discursive change that made participation in military operations possible against the background of German antimilitarist culture. Once considered a strict taboo, so-called out-of-area operations have now become widely considered by German policymakers to be without alternative. The book argues that an understanding of how certain policies are made possible (in this case, military operations abroad and force transformation), one needs to focus on processes of discursive change that result in different policy options appearing rational, appropriate, feasible, or even self-evident. Drawing on Essex School discourse theory, the book develops a theoretical framework to understand how discursive change works, and elaborates on how discursive change makes once unthinkable policy options not only acceptable but even without alternative. Based on a detailed discourse analysis of more than 25 years of German parliamentary debates, The Politics of Military Force provides an explanation for: (1) the emergence of a new hegemonic discourse in German security policy after the end of the Cold War (discursive change), (2) the rearticulation of German antimilitarism in the process (ideational change/norm erosion) and (3) the resulting making-possible of military operations and force transformation (policy change). In doing so, the book also demonstrates the added value of a poststructuralist approach compared to the naive realism and linear conceptions of norm change so prominent in the study of German foreign policy and International Relations more generally.

On War

On War
Author: Carl von Clausewitz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1908
Genre: Military art and science
ISBN:

Command

Command
Author: LAWRENCE. FREEDMAN
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9780197694572

Using examples from a wide variety of conflicts, Lawrence Freedman shows that successful military command depends on the ability not only to use armed forces effectively but also to understand the political circumstances in which they are operating. Command in war is about forging effective strategies and implementing them, making sure that orders are appropriate, well communicated, and then obeyed. But it is also an intensely political process. This is because of the importance of war aims and how they are set, as well as the need to work with other command structures, including those of other branches of the armed forces and allies. In this innovative study, Lawrence Freedman explores the importance of political as well as operational considerations in command with a series of vivid case studies, all taken from the period after 1945. Over this period the risks of nuclear escalation led to a shift away from great power confrontations, and towards civil wars. The chapters cover defeats as well as victories. Pakistani generals try to avoid surrender as they lose the eastern part of their country to India in 1971. Iraq's Saddam Hussein turns his defeats into triumphant narratives of victory. Osama bin Laden escapes the Americans in Afghanistan in 2001. The UK struggles as a junior partner to the US in Iraq after 2003. We come across insubordinate generals, such as Israel's Arik Sharon, and those in the French army in Algeria, so frustrated with their political leadership that they twice tried to change it. At the other end of the scale Che Guevara in Congo in 1966 and Igor Girkin in Ukraine in 2014 both try to spark local wars to suit their grandiose objectives.

Divided Armies

Divided Armies
Author: Jason Lyall
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 530
Release: 2020-02-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 069119243X

How do armies fight and what makes them victorious on the modern battlefield? In Divided Armies, Jason Lyall challenges long-standing answers to this classic question by linking the fate of armies to their levels of inequality. Introducing the concept of military inequality, Lyall demonstrates how a state's prewar choices about the citizenship status of ethnic groups within its population determine subsequent battlefield performance. Treating certain ethnic groups as second-class citizens, either by subjecting them to state-sanctioned discrimination or, worse, violence, undermines interethnic trust, fuels grievances, and leads victimized soldiers to subvert military authorities once war begins. The higher an army's inequality, Lyall finds, the greater its rates of desertion, side-switching, casualties, and use of coercion to force soldiers to fight. In a sweeping historical investigation, Lyall draws on Project Mars, a new dataset of 250 conventional wars fought since 1800, to test this argument. Project Mars breaks with prior efforts by including overlooked non-Western wars while cataloguing new patterns of inequality and wartime conduct across hundreds of belligerents. Combining historical comparisons and statistical analysis, Lyall also marshals evidence from nine wars, ranging from the Eastern Fronts of World Wars I and II to less familiar wars in Africa and Central Asia, to illustrate inequality's effects. Sounding the alarm on the dangers of inequality for battlefield performance, Divided Armies offers important lessons about warfare over the past two centuries—and for wars still to come.

The Politics Industry

The Politics Industry
Author: Katherine M. Gehl
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2020-06-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1633699242

Leading political innovation activist Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter bring fresh perspective, deep scholarship, and a real and actionable solution, Final Five Voting, to the grand challenge of our broken political and democratic system. Final Five Voting has already been adopted in Alaska and is being advanced in states across the country. The truth is, the American political system is working exactly how it is designed to work, and it isn't designed or optimized today to work for us—for ordinary citizens. Most people believe that our political system is a public institution with high-minded principles and impartial rules derived from the Constitution. In reality, it has become a private industry dominated by a textbook duopoly—the Democrats and the Republicans—and plagued and perverted by unhealthy competition between the players. Tragically, it has therefore become incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. In fact, there's virtually no connection between our political leaders solving problems and getting reelected. In The Politics Industry, business leader and path-breaking political innovator Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter take a radical new approach. They ingeniously apply the tools of business analysis—and Porter's distinctive Five Forces framework—to show how the political system functions just as every other competitive industry does, and how the duopoly has led to the devastating outcomes we see today. Using this competition lens, Gehl and Porter identify the most powerful lever for change—a strategy comprised of a clear set of choices in two key areas: how our elections work and how we make our laws. Their bracing assessment and practical recommendations cut through the endless debate about various proposed fixes, such as term limits and campaign finance reform. The result: true political innovation. The Politics Industry is an original and completely nonpartisan guide that will open your eyes to the true dynamics and profound challenges of the American political system and provide real solutions for reshaping the system for the benefit of all. THE INSTITUTE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATION The authors will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Institute for Political Innovation.

American Rage

American Rage
Author: Steven W. Webster
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2020-08-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108491375

Anger is the central emotion governing US politics, lowering trust in government, weakening democratic values, and forging partisan loyalty.