Transforming Military Power since the Cold War

Transforming Military Power since the Cold War
Author: Theo Farrell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2013-10-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1107471494

This book provides an authoritative account of how the US, British, and French armies have transformed since the end of the Cold War. All three armies have sought to respond to changes in their strategic and socio-technological environments by developing more expeditionary capable and networked forces. Drawing on extensive archival research, hundreds of interviews, and unprecedented access to official documents, the authors examine both the process and the outcomes of army transformation, and ask how organizational interests, emerging ideas, and key entrepreneurial leaders interact in shaping the direction of military change. They also explore how programs of army transformation change over time, as new technologies moved from research to development, and as lessons from operations were absorbed. In framing these issues, they draw on military innovation scholarship and, in addressing them, produce findings with general relevance for the study of how militaries innovate.

Buying Military Transformation

Buying Military Transformation
Author: Peter J. Dombrowski
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2006
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 023113570X

In Buying Military Transformation, Peter Dombrowski and Eugene Gholz analyze the United States military's ongoing effort to capitalize on information technology. New ideas about military doctrine derived from comparisons to Internet Age business practices can be implemented only if the military buys technologically innovative weapons systems. Buying Military Transformation examines how political and military leaders work with the defense industry to develop the small ships, unmanned aerial vehicles, advanced communications equipment, and systems-of-systems integration that will enable the new military format. Dombrowski and Gholz's analysis integrates the political relationship between the defense industry and Congress, the bureaucratic relationship between the firms and the military services, and the technical capabilities of different types of businesses. Many government officials and analysts believe that only entrepreneurial start-up firms or leaders in commercial information technology markets can produce the new, network-oriented military equipment. But Dombrowski and Gholz find that the existing defense industry will be best able to lead military-technology development, even for equipment modeled on the civilian Internet. The U.S. government is already spending billions of dollars each year on its "military transformation" program-money that could be easily misdirected and wasted if policymakers spend it on the wrong projects or work with the wrong firms. In addition to this practical implication, Buying Military Transformation offers key lessons for the theory of "Revolutions in Military Affairs." A series of military analysts have argued that major social and economic changes, like the shift from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age, inherently force related changes in the military. Buying Military Transformation undermines this technologically determinist claim: commercial innovation does not directly determine military innovation; instead, political leadership and military organizations choose the trajectory of defense investment. Militaries should invest in new technology in response to strategic threats and military leaders' professional judgments about the equipment needed to improve military effectiveness. Commercial technological progress by itself does not generate an imperative for military transformation. Clear, cogent, and engaging, Buying Military Transformation is essential reading for journalists, legislators, policymakers, and scholars.

Transforming America's Military

Transforming America's Military
Author: Hans Binnendijk
Publisher:
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2003-08-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9781410207944

CONTENTSPart I- Foundations of TransformationChapter 1- Assessing New MissionsChapter 2- Harnessing New TechnologiesChapter 3- Choosing a StrategyPart II- Transforming the ServicesChapter 4- The Army: Toward the Objective ForceChapter 5- The Naval Services: Network-Centric WarfareChapter 6- The Air Force: The Next RoundPart III- Coordinating Transformed Military OperationsChapter 7- Integrating Transformation ProgramsChapter 8- Transforming JointlyChapter 9- Coordinating with NATOPart IV- Broader Aspects of TransformationChapter 10- Strengthening Homeland SecurityChapter 11- Changing the Strategic EquationChapter 12- Controlling SpaceChapter 13- Protecting CyberspaceChapter 14- Maintaining the Technological LeadChapter 15- Getting There: Focused Logistics

Finding the Target

Finding the Target
Author: Frederick W. Kagan
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 666
Release: 2010-05-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1458771911

In Finding the Target, Frederick W. Kagan describes the three basic transformations within the U.S. military since Vietnam. First was the move to an all-volunteer force and a new generation of weapons systems in the 1970s. Second was the emergence of stealth technology and precision-guided munitions in the 1980s. Third was the information technology that followed the fall of the Soviet Union and the first Gulf War. This last could have insured the U.S. continuing military preeminence, but this goal was compromised by Clinton's drawing down of our armed forces in the 1990s and Bush's response to 9/11 and the global war on terror. The issue of transformation leads Kagan to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's vision of a ''new ''military; the conduct of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; and the disconnect between grand strategic visions such as the Bush Doctrine's idea of ''preemption ''and the underfunding of military force structures that are supposed to achieve such goals.

China’s Incomplete Military Transformation

China’s Incomplete Military Transformation
Author: Michael S. Chase
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2015-02-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0833088319

Through extensive primary source analysis and independent analysis, this report seeks to answer a number of important questions regarding the state of China’s armed forces. The authors found that the PLA is keenly aware of its many weaknesses and is vigorously striving to correct them. Although it is only natural to focus on the PLA’s growing capabilities, understanding the PLA’s weaknesses—and its self-assessments—is no less important.

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.

China's Military Transformation

China's Military Transformation
Author: you Ji
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2016-01-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 150950334X

China's military transformation is one of the major geo-strategic developments of the 21st Century. Billions of dollars are being spent modernizing The People's Liberation Army (PLA) as China seeks to upgrade and expand its military capabilities to rival the US. In this cutting-edge analysis, You Ji, a leading expert on China's military affairs, explores the changes taking places within the PLA today, covering its ground, aerospace and maritime forces, its ability to meet asymmetric threats, and the growing role played by the People's Armed Police in quelling dissent in China. He shows how these transformations in personnel, technology and strategic goals are slowly driving a wedge between China's two most powerful institutions. Until recently, relations between the CCP and PLA were harmonious, but as the PLA becomes increasingly professionalized and autonomous so its unconditional loyalty to the ruling Party may weaken. The changing relationship between the CCP and PLA, he argues, is likely to have profound implications for China's own political development and the balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region. Comprehensive and incisive, this timely book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the nature and consequences of China's military rise.

The George W. Bush Defense Program

The George W. Bush Defense Program
Author: Stephen J. Cimbala
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781597975087

An in-depth assessment of Bush's military policy and defense strategy

Military Transformation and Strategy

Military Transformation and Strategy
Author: Bernard Loo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2008-08-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134103425

This book explores the idea of arevolution in military affairs (RMA), which underpins the transformational agenda of the US military, and examines its implications for smaller states.The strategic studies literature on the RMA tends to be American-centric and directed towards the strategic problems of the US military. This volume seeks to fill t

Hope Is Not a Method

Hope Is Not a Method
Author: Gordon R. Sullivan
Publisher: Currency
Total Pages: 325
Release: 1997-09-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 076790060X

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States Army has been reengineered and downsized more thoroughly than any other business. In the early 1990s, General Sullivan, army chief of staff, and Colonel Harper, his key strategic planner, took the post-Cold War army into the Information Age. Faced with a 40 percent reduction in staff and funding, they focused on new peacetime missions, dismantled a cumbersome bureaucracy, reinvented procedures, and set the guidelines for achieving a vast array of new goals. Hope Is Not a Method explains how they did it and shows how their experience is extremely relevant to today's businesses. From how to stay on top of long-range issues to how to maintain a productive work force during times of change, it offers invaluable lessons in leadership and provides proven tactics any business can implement.