Irregular warfare / future war Essay

â€Å"The Pentagon’s New Map† is a groundbreaking bestseller of Thomas Barnett, which became one of the most talked-about books of the 2004 year. It combined economic, political, and security factors to provide a fundamental re-examination of war and peace in the post-9/11. Also it’s compelling vision of the future. It consists of preface, 8 chapters and acknowledgements. This writing is devoted to how Mr. Barnett sees the global security landscape and is built on the works of Fukuyama, Huntington and Friedman. In this book author describes recent U. S.strategy and discusses where military forces will likely be heading in the near future. Barnett states: â€Å"I found myself instinctively exploring the seam between war and peace, locating it first in U. S. military crisis responses and then America’s foreign aid, and finally focusing on its leading edge – the spread of the global economy itself† (p. 5). This book examines a new version of national security for the 21st century, makes important suggestions to the Government on actions the America should take, and theorizes what could happen in the next 50 years concerning the global landscape. The author of the book outlines the crucial role the United States needs to play in establishing international stability. Thomas P. M. Barnett, Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating (New York, NY: Berkley Books, 2005). This book is a sequel to Barnett’s â€Å"The Pentagon’s New Map†. The first book dealt with the past and â€Å"Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating† is a futuristic romp through the next 25 years. It consists of preface, 5 chapters, conclusion and afterwards. First chapter preceded by the glossary of key terms. From Chapter 1, â€Å"What the World Needs Now†, â€Å"Blueprint for Action† is an exploration of a three-tiered argument concerning system and individual struggle to understand the seam between war and peace. If the first book was compelling vision of the future, now military analyst Barnett presents his vision of the future. â€Å"Careers will be made and lost, industries will rise and fall, and waging peace will finally prioritized over waging war† (p. 2). He explores both the long- and short-term pathways for governments, institutions, and individuals. Paying particular attention to regions as Iran, Iraq, and the Middle East, China, North Korea he outlines the strategies to pursue, the entities to create, the pitfalls to overcome. His favorite concept is the theory of anti-access. Author states that â€Å"instead of focusing on classified â€Å"black project† to facilitate the Leviathan’s lofty ambitions, the Pentagon conducts secret talks with allies on how they might better shoulder the SysAdmin’s many burdens† (p. 2). The battle space is Leviathan and SysAdmin takes over in transition and peace, also considered â€Å"the areas of everything else†. So â€Å"Blueprint for Action† is something like a road map through a chaotic and uncertain world to â€Å"a future worth creating. † Joseph R. Cerami, Richard A. Chilcoat, and Patrick B. Baetjer, eds. The Future of Transatlantic Security Relations (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army War College, 2006). This writing is a compilation of reports and materials from the conference about the future of transatlantic security relations hold on March 8, 2006, Annenberg Presidential Conference Center in College Station in Texas. Materials of the conference was edited by Richard A. (Dick) Chilcoat (Dean, Bush School of Government and Public Service) and Joseph Cerami (Director, Public Service Leadership Program, Bush School of Government and Public Service) as members of the Executive Committee. The book consists of introduction preceded by a foreword and a letter from President, 4 chapters (panels). After the main text go extra materials – list of addresses, remarks, conference papers, biographies and sponsor information. The purpose of the conference was to examine the future of the NATO. Conference panels examined U. S. and European foreign policies and the potential for forging a new consensus on U. S. and European foreign policy and military strategy. Dr. Steinberg stated that â€Å"The difficulty remains that the United States and Europe do not have a sense of a compelling need for cooperation, thus even the smallest differences tend to divide them† (p. 14). It is needed to develop a deeper understanding of key security issues facing the U. S. and Europe at this critical time. James S. Corum, Training Indigenous Forces in Counterinsurgency: A Tale of Two Insurgencies (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army War College, 2006). Book by James Corum tales about training indigenous police and military forces for counterinsurgency campaigns. The book consists of introduction preceded by a foreword, summary, biographical sketch of the author. After introduction go case study Cyprus, case study Malaya, conclusion and recommendations. Author states that â€Å"While every insurgency has its unique aspects, there are also circumstances that often are repeated in other insurgencies. This conclusion offers a few general insights to help understand the nature of counterinsurgency operations, as well as some specific recommendations to change U. S. military doctrine and policy for training indigenous police and military forces in counterinsurgency†(p. 34). This monograph aims to help fill the information gap about how indigenous security forces should be trained for counterinsurgency. Corum outlines the level of training which security forces need to conduct effective counterinsurgency operations, defines the role of the police in counterinsurgency, and discovers the role of irregular security organizations. Besides this the author tells about different training programs for producing effective military leaders. Martin Van Crevald, The Transformation of War (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1991). Israeli military historian Van Creveld advances a new understanding of the ends and means of war in his book â€Å"The transformation of war†. There were perhaps 160 armed conflicts around the world since the end of WWII. Those conflicts were not global. Therefore author speaks about low-intensity conflict (LIC) which is the true nature of contemporary war. Its principal characteristics are as follows: â€Å"First, they tend to unfold in ‘less developed’ parts of the world†¦. Second, very rarely do they involve regular armies on both sides, though often it is a question of regulars on one side fighting guerrillas, terrorists, even civilians, including women and children, on the other. Third, most LICs do not rely primarily on the high-technology collective weapons that are the pride and joy of any modern armed force† (p. 42). Israeli historian states that existing of empires made impossible for the ‘subjects’ to take the conflict to the heart of the empire. Van Creveld compares clashes between Hindus and Muslims in 1947-49, Nigerian Civil War from 1966 to 1969, Vietnamese conflict; analyses conflicts which taking place in the Sri Lanka, Iraq, Kurdistan, Sudan, Angola and half a dozen other countries. Book of Van Creveld answer a question what war is today. Thomas A. Dempsey, Counterterrorism in African Failed States: Challenges and Potential Solutions (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army War College, 2006). The book of Thomas Dempsey examines three failed states in Sub-Saharan Africa – Somalia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone to give an outline of the terrorist groups operating there. â€Å"Counterterrorism in African Failed States† consists of introduction preceded by a foreword, summary, biographical sketch of the author. Then go defining state failure, case study methodology. Dempsey states that criminalization and disintegration of administrative structure of the failed state, collapse of public security forces provide advantageous circumstances for terrorists. The author focuses on the current the characteristics of a network of terroristic organizations and covers up two very different types of cells: terrorist nodes and terrorist hubs. â€Å"Hubs provide centralized direction and communication linkages among nodes that are decentralized and largely, if not entirely, independent of each other† (p. 6). Research reveals presence of both types of cells in those states. To fight with terrorist groups operating from failed states Dempsey suggests new strategy that combines both military and law enforcement efforts, supported by intelligence capabilities and intelligence-led policing. Thomas X. Hammes, The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century (St. Paul, MN: Zenith Press, 2006). Colonel Thomas X. Hammes contends that American military forces are engaging in a fourth generation of warfare, which he labels â€Å"4GW† (Fourth Generation Warfare) throughout â€Å"The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century†. That’s the only kind of war America has ever lost. First generation of war, Hammes sees, was conflicts of Napoleonic era, the second generation was World War I, and the third generation was World War II, focuses on examples of the evolution of 4GW. In the writing are analysed conflicts in Afghanistan, Vietnam and Iraq. And a new, forth, form of warfare â€Å"directly attacks the minds of enemy decision makers to destroy the enemy’s political will† (p. 11). Hammes contends Mao Tse-tung was the first who started a new form of war and Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap have been influenced by Mao. The main author’s concept is that expanding of 4GW encouraged the fact that â€Å"only unconventional warfare works against established powers† (p. 103). The author asserts that current concentration on advanced technology is incorrect because the wars â€Å"are long term struggles that will be won or lost primarily with human skills and knowledge† (p. 14), because high-tech weapons have a little meaning when the enemy has a different concept of conflict. Samuel P. Huntingdon, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996). In â€Å"The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order† Samuel P. Huntington suggests a new view international political theory, contending that in modern world the most important distinctions among peoples are cultural, but not political or ideological. â€Å"While nation states will remain the principal units of analysis in international affairs, their behavior will be shaped most decisively not by the pursuit of power and wealth (as realism suggests), but by cultural preferences, commonalities, and differences† (p. 21). The author argues civilization divides people of the same race, but at the same time people of different races are united by the same civilization. Huntington understands religion as a central uniting characteristic of civilizations. The global dynamic will be one of the civilizational â€Å"fault lines† along which civilizational blocs would engage each other. According to an author view civilizations clash because conflict is naturally prevalent in the international system. Therefore there are two levels of conflict between civilizations: micro-level (conflicts between adjoining states from different civilizations) and at macro-level (conflicts occur between major states of different civilizations). But to achieve cultural cohesion every civilization should develop its values, institutions and culture. Mark D. Mandeles, The Future of War: Organizations as Weapons (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, Inc. , 2005). Mark D. Mandeles analyses major post-9/11 military events in his book to make consideration about future of warfare. The book consists of seven chapters. Its main theme is influence of organization upon military operations, and Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) plays centrally into it. A qualitative improvement in weapons transforms the character of warfare. Mandeles states that military organizations will have to adapt in fundamental ways to seize the advantages offered by technological superiority, seeking optimum utilization of technology. But the optimum utilization can occur only through optimum organization. Author insists on â€Å"relationship between the difficulties of coordinating large organizations composed of many people and offices having specialized roles, and the challenges of calculation, attention, and memory that face individuals making decisions with inadequate or ambiguous information under short deadlines or stressful situations† (p 3). â€Å"The Future of War† gives information how command and control should be organized in the context of the changing new technology. Jerry Mander and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, eds. Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples Resistance to Globalization (San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 2006). â€Å"Paradigm Wars† is an anthology, edited by Jerry Mander and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, which is dedicated to modern international relations. In this book twenty-seven intellectuals tell about globalization and how native peoples resist to it, about economic institutions and the indigenous nations. It records examples of how indigenous communities have used the global economy to create sustainable industry (such as ecotourist programs by communities in Belize and Australia), the role played by American Indians in a safer energy future and how the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund struggle for resources (wood, genetic materials, oil) situated on the native peoples lands. â€Å"Paradigm Wars† details impacts of extractive industries and bioprospecting on the environment, damage done by conservation groups. It gives information about degrading of cultural artifacts and languages and how indigenous communities protect their sovereignties as no community is more directly impacted by globalization than 350 million indigenous peoples. Anthology assures us that indigenous nations continue to resist against the New World order. Michael McClintoc, Instruments of Statecraft: U. S. Guerilla Warfare, Counter-insurgency, and Counter-terrorism, 1940-1990 (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1992). The book of Michael McClintoc is a study of how the U. S military applied special-warfare doctrine in third world nations. Scope of the book consists of introduction, 18 chapters divided to three parts and an epilogue. McClintoc tells about unconventional warfare, which in fact is state supported terrorism waged against ideological adversaries, from the Truman administration up to the recent war in the Persian Gulf. The author gives an expose of the dark side of American foreign policy, narrates about using of terroristic activities (torture, kidnapping, sabotage and assassination) to overthrow the foreign governments. The writing provides interesting facts for example that CIA helped to develop the infrastructure for state terrorism that appeared in Latin America during the 60s. It examinates tactical roots of U. S policy from the pronouncements of Clausewitz and Raymond Aron, to its ideological basis in the Monroe Doctrine and Woodrow Wilson’s post-colonialist crusade. And it’s continued nowadays. Michael McClintoc states that â€Å"special operations in the new world order would have a new range of objectives, with their missions—and pretexts—adjusted to the end of the Cold War. The new missions, such as drug enforcement, will provide a vehicle for continuing some of the old missions that persist from the Cold War and the counterinsurgency era. † Steven Metz and Raymond A. Millen, Future War/Future Battlespace: The Strategic Role of American Landpower (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army War College, 2003). In monograph by Steven Metz and Raymond A. Millen, authors examine new trends in the strategic environment in their development in a future war. They outline tremendous challenges in war fighting in the post 9-11 era and insist on the need that U. S. Landpower should adapt to new type of conflict. As â€Å"transformation must continuously develop new operational and strategic concepts, educate soldiers and officers to implement them, and develop organizations and technologies to ensure they function† (p. x). To make that adaptation real, the monograph gives a scope of what will be the shape and characteristics of the future international security environment, responds characteristics of the future battlefield, and outlines the potential or probable roles and missions of the Army. After transformation â€Å"the Army is vital to the type of strategy that would best promote American interests over the long term† (p. 33). Williamson Murray, ed. National Security Challenges for the 21st Century (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army War College, 2003). An anthology edited by Williamson Murray consists of reports written by officers who participated in the Advanced Strategic Art Program (ASAP) during their year at the U. S. Army War College. ASAP is a course instructing in theater strategy. Essays included in this volume provide insights into challenges facing the defense establishment in the United States at the beginning of the 21st century in the post 9-11 era. In the foreword of the anthology Murray states â€Å"that America needs officers who possess a deep understanding of the difficulties involved in the use of force in the international arena as well as understand the complex problems involved in the political and strategic challenges confronted by the United States†(p. 1). So the authors speaking about present army problems address such issues as the development of officer’s carrier and make predictions about how could be â€Å"combined tactical and operational excellence with intellectual curiosity in their careers† (p.15). Williamson Murray, ed. A Nation at War in an Era of Strategic Change (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army War College, 2004). This book is a compilation of essays, edited by Williamson Murray, written by the students enrolled in the Army War College’s Advanced Strategic Art Program (ASAP). It consists of 14 essays preceded by a foreword and an introduction. The authors give coverage to some issues connected with transforming the U. S. Army to engaging in active combat operations associated against terrorists. The main theme of the anthology is lessons of Iraq conflict. Dr. Murray states in foreword that â€Å"the victory over Saddam Hussein’s forces underlined that the fundamental nature of war is not going to change,† because of â€Å"the technological monism† of American forces â€Å"has quite simply foundered on the realities of the battlefields in Iraq† (p. 2). The editor observes that â€Å"the conflict also suggests that the American military needs to think in a more holistic fashion about the conduct of war at the operational level† (p.3). The authors of the compilation provide thorough examination of the lessons from the battlefield, outline the U. S. national strategies, rise up the problem questions and offer ways to resolve. The final conclusions of the compilation states â€Å"The United States needs to focus on learning the right lessons from its past conflicts by examining not only what went right, but also by examining what went wrong and what adjustments potential adversaries have made as a result of U. S. actions† (p. 361). Henry E. Sokolski, ed. Taming the Next Set of Strategic Weapons Sets (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army War College, 2006). This volume edited by Henry Sokolski features research the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center commissioned. It consists of 9 chapters divided into three sections, preceded by an introduction. The book starts with the statement that nowadays nuclear technologies have become much more difficult to control. â€Å"Attempts to develop a legally binding inspections protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention were recently rejected by U. S. officials as being inadequate to catch serious violators while being prone to set off false alarms against perfectly innocent actors. † Therefore the anthology is designed to illustrate what might happen if these emerging threats go unattended and how best to mitigate them. Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute makes clear the issue of further proliferation is Iran in Chapter 2, â€Å"Proliferation in the Middle East: Who is Next after Iran? † By the end of the chapter Sokolski argues â€Å"that the greatest security danger renewed strategic arms proliferation presents is not the increased chance of nuclear theft or terrorism† (p. 6). The book explains how the United States and other advanced states might share unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) services and turn-key missile systems rather than handing over the means for their production. Strobe Talbott and Nayan Chanda, eds. The Age of Terror: America and the World After September 11 (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2001). â€Å"The Age of Terror: America and the World After September 11† was written just a few months after the terrorist attacks. But each of the eight chapters provide critical analyses of the American and international developments and events that are as helpful in explaining 9/11. The authors of the book placed events of September 11 into highlighting political and historical contexts. â€Å"The post-cold war era began with the collapse of one structure, the Berlin wall on November 9,1989, and ended with the collapse of another, the World Trade Center’s twin towers on September 11† (p.3). Ideas shared by Strobe Talbott and Nayan Chanda compose serious discourse about American post-9/11 policies. The authors states that â€Å"Americans were not responsible for the Pearl Harbour, but they would have been irresponsible in the extreme if they had not, as a consequence of that attack, dramatically altered their policies†(p. 5). And the crucial conclusion which is drawn in the book is that the geographical position and the military power of the U. S. are no longer sufficient to ensure its security.