Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors

Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors PDF Author: Stefano Recchia
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150170155X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Why did American leaders work hard to secure multilateral approval from the United Nations or NATO for military interventions in Haiti, the Balkans, and Libya, while making only limited efforts to gain such approval for the 2003 Iraq War? In Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors, Stefano Recchia addresses this important question by drawing on declassified documents and about one hundred interviews with civilian and military leaders.The most assertive, hawkish, and influential civilian leaders, he argues, tend to downplay the costs of intervention, and when confronted with hesitant international partners they often want to bypass multilateral bodies. America's top-level generals, by contrast, are usually "reluctant warriors" who worry that intervention will result in open-ended stabilization missions; consequently, the military craves international burden sharing and values the potential exit ramp for U.S. forces that a handoff to the UN or NATO can provide.Recchia demonstrates that when the military speaks up and clearly expresses its concerns, even strongly pro-intervention civilian leaders can be expected to work hard to secure UN or NATO approval—if only to reassure the military about the likelihood of sustained burden sharing. Conversely, when the military stays silent, as it did in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War, bellicose civilian leaders are empowered; the United States is then more likely to bypass multilateral bodies, and it may end up carrying a heavy stabilization burden largely by itself. Recchia's argument that the military has the ability to contribute not only to a more prudent but also to a more multilateralist U.S. intervention policy may be counterintuitive, but the evidence is compelling.

Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors

Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors PDF Author: Stefano Recchia
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501701541
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Why did American leaders work hard to secure multilateral approval from the United Nations or NATO for military interventions in Haiti, the Balkans, and Libya, while making only limited efforts to gain such approval for the 2003 Iraq War? In Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors, Stefano Recchia addresses this important question by drawing on declassified documents and about one hundred interviews with civilian and military leaders.The most assertive, hawkish, and influential civilian leaders, he argues, tend to downplay the costs of intervention, and when confronted with hesitant international partners they often want to bypass multilateral bodies. America's top-level generals, by contrast, are usually "reluctant warriors" who worry that intervention will result in open-ended stabilization missions; consequently, the military craves international burden sharing and values the potential exit ramp for U.S. forces that a handoff to the UN or NATO can provide.Recchia demonstrates that when the military speaks up and clearly expresses its concerns, even strongly pro-intervention civilian leaders can be expected to work hard to secure UN or NATO approval—if only to reassure the military about the likelihood of sustained burden sharing. Conversely, when the military stays silent, as it did in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War, bellicose civilian leaders are empowered; the United States is then more likely to bypass multilateral bodies, and it may end up carrying a heavy stabilization burden largely by itself. Recchia's argument that the military has the ability to contribute not only to a more prudent but also to a more multilateralist U.S. intervention policy may be counterintuitive, but the evidence is compelling.

Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors

Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors PDF Author: Stefano Recchia
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150170155X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why did American leaders work hard to secure multilateral approval from the United Nations or NATO for military interventions in Haiti, the Balkans, and Libya, while making only limited efforts to gain such approval for the 2003 Iraq War? In Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors, Stefano Recchia addresses this important question by drawing on declassified documents and about one hundred interviews with civilian and military leaders.The most assertive, hawkish, and influential civilian leaders, he argues, tend to downplay the costs of intervention, and when confronted with hesitant international partners they often want to bypass multilateral bodies. America's top-level generals, by contrast, are usually "reluctant warriors" who worry that intervention will result in open-ended stabilization missions; consequently, the military craves international burden sharing and values the potential exit ramp for U.S. forces that a handoff to the UN or NATO can provide.Recchia demonstrates that when the military speaks up and clearly expresses its concerns, even strongly pro-intervention civilian leaders can be expected to work hard to secure UN or NATO approval—if only to reassure the military about the likelihood of sustained burden sharing. Conversely, when the military stays silent, as it did in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War, bellicose civilian leaders are empowered; the United States is then more likely to bypass multilateral bodies, and it may end up carrying a heavy stabilization burden largely by itself. Recchia's argument that the military has the ability to contribute not only to a more prudent but also to a more multilateralist U.S. intervention policy may be counterintuitive, but the evidence is compelling.

Parameters

Parameters PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Military art and science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description


THE RELUCTANT WARRIOR

THE RELUCTANT WARRIOR PDF Author: Barry RICKSON
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 1491881534
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
It is January 1939, and Frank Eberhardt, a young, good-looking university student from Pennsylvania, has taken his fathers advice to have a year off from his studies to undertake work experience at the giant German chemical plant of IG Farben in Bremen. There, he falls in love with Helga, an 18 yr-old law student.The outbreak of war in 1939 causes him to return home before he somewhat reluctantly joins the American Air Force training to become a navigator on the Flying Fortress, or B-17. He is then sent to Norfolk from where he takes part in many historic raids over Germany.There are vivid descriptions of these, the disasters suffered and consequent effect on the mens morale. He struggles between duty and conscience. The life in the Norfolk countryside and relationships with local people is emphasised.He is decorated for bravery, before becoming a major at the USAAF Headquarters at High Wycombe where he takes part in planning strategy. From here he manages to achieve a transfer to Bremen at the end of hostilities.There are many amorous adventures, but will he manage to see Helga again?

A Reluctant Warrior

A Reluctant Warrior PDF Author: Phyllis Owens
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0615251595
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Author Phyllis Owens deftly pieces together the puzzle and extraordinary life of Manuel Velasquez, whose military career included the dangers at the 1968 massacre at Zocalo Square at Mexico City. Later, he was appointed bodyguard of Mexico's Presidente. During his rich and intriguing life, he was irresistible to beautiful women and a chosen few shared his life. This military and police career is emotionally charged, astonishingly powerful and surprising.

Not Even Past

Not Even Past PDF Author: David Fitzgerald
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1789202167
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Offers essential perspectives on the Cold War and post-9/11 eras and explores the troubling implications of the American tendency to fight wars without end. “Featuring lucid and penetrating essays by a stellar roster of scholars, the volume provides deep insights into one of the grand puzzles of the age: why the U.S. has so often failed to exit wars on its terms.”— Fredrik Logevall, Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan: Taken together, these conflicts are the key to understanding more than a half century of American military history. In addition, they have shaped, in profound ways, the culture and politics of the United States—as well as the nations in which they have been fought. This volume brings together international experts on American history and foreign affairs to assess the cumulative impact of the United States’ often halting and conflicted attempts to end wars. From the introduction: The refusal to engage in historical thinking, that form of reflection deeply immersed in the US experience of war and intervention, means that this cultural amnesia is related to a strategic incoherence and, in these wars, the United States has failed in its strategic objectives because it did not define, precisely, what they were. If Vietnam was the tragedy, Iraq and Afghanistan were repeated failures. The objectives and the national interests were elusive beyond issues of credibility, identity, and revenge; the end point was undefined because it was not clear what the point was. What did the United States want from these wars? What did it want to leave behind?

Allies that Count

Allies that Count PDF Author: Olivier Schmitt
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626165475
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
In Allies That Count, Olivier Schmitt analyzes the utility of junior partners in coalition warfare, determines which political and military variables are more likely to create utility, and challenges the conventional wisdom about the supposed benefit of having as many states as possible in a coalition.

Active Defense

Active Defense PDF Author: M. Taylor Fravel
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691210330
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Since the 1949 Communist Revolution, China has devised nine different military strategies, which the People's Liberation Army (PLA) calls strategic guidelines. What accounts for these numerous changes? Active Defense offers the first systematic look at China's military strategy from the mid-twentieth century to today. Exploring the range and intensity of threats that China has faced, M. Taylor Fravel illuminates the nation's past and present military goals and how China sought to achieve them, and offers a rich set of cases for deepening the study of change in military organizations. Drawing from diverse Chinese-language sources, including memoirs of leading generals, military histories, and document collections that have become available only in the last two decades, Fravel shows why transformations in military strategy were pursued at certain times and not others. He focuses on the military strategies adopted in 1956, 1980, and 1993 when the PLA was attempting to wage war in a new kind of way to show that China has pursued major change in its strategic guidelines when there has been a significant shift in the conduct of warfare in the international system and when China's Communist Party has been united. Delving into the security threats China has faced over the last seven decades, Active Defense offers a detailed investigation into how and why states alter their defense policies.

Generals and Admirals, Criminals and Crooks

Generals and Admirals, Criminals and Crooks PDF Author: Jeffrey J. Matthews
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268206511
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
U.S. flag officers are intended to be exemplary defenders of duty, honor, and country—but what can we learn by exposing the bad leaders lurking within these venerable ranks? There is an ugly strain of criminal and unethical leadership in the upper ranks of the American military. Despite the exemplary service of most American military members, a persistent minority of U.S. flag officers (Navy admirals and Army, Air Force, and Marine generals) have embroiled the profession in scandal since the Revolutionary War. In Generals and Admirals, Criminals and Crooks, award-winning author Jeffrey J. Matthews examines bad leadership in American military history over the past one hundred years, beginning with war crimes in the Philippine-American War and ending with the recent Fat Leonard corruption scandal. Scrutinizing a range of leadership failures, including moral cowardice, sex crimes, insubordination, toxic leadership, and obstruction of justice, Matthews offers a fascinating analysis of the bases and motives leading to these missteps and explores what could be done to curtail future misconduct of generals and admirals. The book also includes an up-to-date examination of President Trump’s term in office that highlights the vital role honorable military leadership plays in our democracy. Confronting the dark side of criminal and unethical conduct among U.S. flag officers, this frank and historically grounded book offers valuable lessons in leadership that will stimulate further debate and critical self-assessment within the U.S. military.

The Oxford Handbook of International Security

The Oxford Handbook of International Security PDF Author: Alexandra Gheciu
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191083585
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 826

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Book Description
This Oxford Handbook is the definitive volume on the state of international security and the academic field of security studies. It provides a tour of the most innovative and exciting news areas of research as well as major developments in established lines of inquiry. It presents a comprehensive portrait of an exciting field, with a distinctively forward-looking theme, focusing on the question: what does it mean to think about the future of international security? The key assumption underpinning this volume is that all scholarly claims about international security, both normative and positive, have implications for the future. By examining international security to extract implications for the future, the volume provides clarity about the real meaning and practical implications for those involved in this field. Yet, contributions to this volume are not exclusively forecasts or prognostications, and the volume reflects the fact that, within the field of security studies, there are diverse views on how to think about the future. Readers will find in this volume some of the most influential mainstream (positivist) voices in the field of international security as well as some of the best known scholars representing various branches of critical thinking about security. The topics covered in the Handbook range from conventional international security themes such as arms control, alliances and Great Power politics, to "new security" issues such as global health, the roles of non-state actors, cyber-security, and the power of visual representations in international security. The Oxford Handbooks of International Relations is a twelve-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and innovative engagements with the principal sub-fields of International Relations. The series as a whole is under the General Editorship of Christian Reus-Smit of the University of Queensland and Duncan Snidal of the University of Oxford, with each volume edited by specialists in the field. The series both surveys the broad terrain of International Relations scholarship and reshapes it, pushing each sub-field in challenging new directions. Following the example of Reus-Smit and Snidal's original Oxford Handbook of International Relations, each volume is organized around a strong central thematic by scholars drawn from different perspectives, reading its sub-field in an entirely new way, and pushing scholarship in challenging new directions.