Preventive War and Its Alternatives

Preventive War and Its Alternatives PDF Author: Dan Reiter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear nonproliferation
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
The 2002 National Security Strategy suggested preventive attacks, diplomacy, deterrence, and other policies as means of curtailing threats presented by the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons to terrorists and rogue states. The author analyzes which mix of these policies might best and most cost effectively address the NBC threat, with special focus on preventive attacks. The past performances of preventive attacks, diplomacy, deterrence, and other policies as means of curtailing the NBC threat are analyzed. The central findings are that preventive attacks are generally unsuccessful at delaying the spread of NBC weapons; that deterrence, especially nuclear deterrence, is highly successful at preventing the use of NBC weapons by states; and that diplomacy has had moderate and perhaps unappreciated success at curtailing the spread of NBC weapons. The author also discusses how funds spent on preventive wars, which are much more expensive than diplomacy or deterrence, might be better spent to combat threats from terrorism and proliferation, on initiatives such as fissile material recovery, ballistic missile defense, and port security.

Preventive War and Its Alternatives

Preventive War and Its Alternatives PDF Author: Dan Reiter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear nonproliferation
Languages : en
Pages : 48

Get Book Here

Book Description
The 2002 National Security Strategy suggested preventive attacks, diplomacy, deterrence, and other policies as means of curtailing threats presented by the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons to terrorists and rogue states. The author analyzes which mix of these policies might best and most cost effectively address the NBC threat, with special focus on preventive attacks. The past performances of preventive attacks, diplomacy, deterrence, and other policies as means of curtailing the NBC threat are analyzed. The central findings are that preventive attacks are generally unsuccessful at delaying the spread of NBC weapons; that deterrence, especially nuclear deterrence, is highly successful at preventing the use of NBC weapons by states; and that diplomacy has had moderate and perhaps unappreciated success at curtailing the spread of NBC weapons. The author also discusses how funds spent on preventive wars, which are much more expensive than diplomacy or deterrence, might be better spent to combat threats from terrorism and proliferation, on initiatives such as fissile material recovery, ballistic missile defense, and port security.

Preventive War and Its Alternatives

Preventive War and Its Alternatives PDF Author: Dan Reiter
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781584872412
Category : Nuclear nonproliferation
Languages : en
Pages : 35

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Book Description
The 2002 National Security Strategy suggested preventive attacks, diplomacy, deterrence, and other policies as means of curtailing threats presented by the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons to terrorists and rogue states. The author analyzes which mix of these policies might best and most cost effectively address the NBC threat, with special focus on preventive attacks. The past performances of preventive attacks, diplomacy, deterrence, and other policies as means of curtailing the NBC threat are analyzed. The central findings are that preventive attacks are generally unsuccessful at delaying the spread of NBC weapons; that deterrence, especially nuclear deterrence, is highly successful at preventing the use of NBC weapons by states; and that diplomacy has had moderate and perhaps unappreciated success at curtailing the spread of NBC weapons. The author also discusses how funds spent on preventive wars, which are much more expensive than diplomacy or deterrence, might be better spent to combat threats from terrorism and proliferation, on initiatives such as fissile material recovery, ballistic missile defense, and port security.

All Options on the Table

All Options on the Table PDF Author: Rachel Elizabeth Whitlark
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501760351
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
When is preventive war chosen to counter nuclear proliferation? In All Options on the Table, Rachel Elizabeth Whitlark looks beyond systemic and slow-moving factors such as the distribution of power. Instead, she highlights individual leaders' beliefs to explain when preventive military force is the preferred strategy. Executive perspective—not institutional structure—is paramount. Whitlark makes her argument through archivally based comparative case studies. She focuses on executive decision making regarding nuclear programs in China, North Korea, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria. This book considers the actions of US presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, as well as Israeli prime ministers Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ehud Olmert. All Options on the Table demonstrates that leaders have different beliefs about the consequences of nuclear proliferation in the international system and their state's ability to deter other states' nuclear activity. These divergent beliefs lead to variation in leaders' preferences regarding the use of preventive military force as a counter-proliferation strategy. The historical evidence amassed in All Options on the Table bears on strategic assessments of aspiring nuclear powers such as Iran and North Korea. Whitlark argues that only those leaders who believe that nuclear proliferation is destabilizing for the international system will consider preventive force to counter such challenges. In a complex nuclear world, this insight helps explain why the use of force as a counter-proliferation strategy has been an extremely rare historical event.

The Implications of Preemptive and Preventive War Doctrines: A Reconsideration

The Implications of Preemptive and Preventive War Doctrines: A Reconsideration PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 71

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Book Description
Preemption has been, and remains, a leading concept of this decade. But despite its ubiquity in public discourse and its policy relevance, it is a source of great confusion. The term is misused, in some cases deliberately one suspects, but it must be admitted that strategic theorists have offered very little worthwhile reading on the subject. This monograph clarifies the meaning of preemption and distinguishes it from prevention and precaution. It critically reviews the principal charges leveled against preventive warfare and uses that analysis to provide at least the bare bones of strategic theory, more strictly of an alternative to theory relevant to such warfare. The analysis concludes with a set of policy and strategy relevant implications for the United States. Preemption is not controversial; legally, morally, or strategically. To preempt means to strike first (or attempt to do so) in the face of an attack that is either already underway or is very credibly imminent. The decision for war has been taken by the enemy. The victim or target state can try to disrupt the unfolding assault, or may elect to receive the attack before reacting. In truth, military preemption will not always be feasible.

The Implications of Preemptive and Preventive War Doctrines: A Reconsideration

The Implications of Preemptive and Preventive War Doctrines: A Reconsideration PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 71

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Book Description
Preemption has been, and remains, a leading concept of this decade. But despite its ubiquity in public discourse and its policy relevance, it is a source of great confusion. The term is misused, in some cases deliberately one suspects, but it must be admitted that strategic theorists have offered very little worthwhile reading on the subject. This monograph clarifies the meaning of preemption and distinguishes it from prevention and precaution. It critically reviews the principal charges leveled against preventive warfare and uses that analysis to provide at least the bare bones of strategic theory, more strictly of an alternative to theory relevant to such warfare. The analysis concludes with a set of policy and strategy relevant implications for the United States. Preemption is not controversial; legally, morally, or strategically. To preempt means to strike first (or attempt to do so) in the face of an attack that is either already underway or is very credibly imminent. The decision for war has been taken by the enemy. The victim or target state can try to disrupt the unfolding assault, or may elect to receive the attack before reacting. In truth, military preemption will not always be feasible.

Preventive Engagement

Preventive Engagement PDF Author: Paul B. Stares
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231544189
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
The United States faces an increasingly turbulent world. The risk of violent conflict and other threats to international order presents a vexing dilemma: should the United States remain the principal guarantor of global peace and security with all its considerable commitments and potential pitfalls––not least new and costly military entanglements––that over time diminish its capacity and commitment to play this vital role or, alternatively, should it pull back from the world in the interests of conserving U.S. power, but at the possible cost of even greater threats emerging in the future? Paul B. Stares proposes an innovative and timely strategy—“preventive engagement”—to resolve America’s predicament. This approach entails pursuing three complementary courses of action: promoting policies known to lessen the risk of violent conflict over the long term; anticipating and averting those crises likely to lead to costly military commitments in the medium term; and managing ongoing conflicts in the short term before they escalate further and exert pressure on the United States to intervene. In each of these efforts, forging “preventive partnerships” with a variety of international actors, including the United Nations, regional organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the business community, is essential. The need to think and act ahead that lies at the heart of a preventive engagement strategy requires the United States to become less shortsighted and reactive. Drawing on successful strategies in other areas, Preventive Engagement provides a detailed and comprehensive blueprint for the United States to shape the future and reduce the potential dangers ahead.

Counterproliferation Strategy: The Role of Preventive War, Preventive Strikes, and Interdiction

Counterproliferation Strategy: The Role of Preventive War, Preventive Strikes, and Interdiction PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Book Description
This thesis analyzes the potential effectiveness of preventive war, preventive strikes, and interdiction as tools for the United States to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) Examination of these three counterproliferation techniques is important because the George W Bush administration has given more prominence to military operations to deal with WMD threats, Six historical cases of preventive war, preventive strikes, and interdiction, against adversarial WMD programs are examined to show the conditions that make military options desirable and effective and the issues that make their implementation difficult, These case studies reveal that interdiction and preventive strikes are viable and can be effective under very limited legal, political, and military circumstances, Although the United States successfully conducted a preventive war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, this strategy is not likely to succeed in the cases of Iran and North Korea.

The Ethics of Preventive War

The Ethics of Preventive War PDF Author: Deen K. Chatterjee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521765684
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
The book examines the complex and contested moral and legal issues of preventive warfare.

All Options on the Table? Nuclear Proliferation, Preventive War, and a Leader's Decision to Intervene

All Options on the Table? Nuclear Proliferation, Preventive War, and a Leader's Decision to Intervene PDF Author: Rachel Elizabeth Whitlark
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


The Justice of Preventive War

The Justice of Preventive War PDF Author: Henry A. Stephenson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781423520450
Category : Humanitarian intervention
Languages : en
Pages : 87

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Book Description
In response to the 9/11 attacks and continuing threats of mass- casualty terrorism, the United States has adopted a new security strategy that emphasizes anticipatory actions, including preventive war. Prevention, undertaken in the absence of an act of aggression or an imminent threat, is prohibited by modern conceptions of just war and international law. Many critics of the strategy fear that any legitimization of preventive war would endanger international stability. But an examination of the relevant ethical issues from the perspective of just war doctrine reveals contradictions within a blanket prohibition of preventive war. Preventive "strategic interventions" against illiberal regimes -- states that correlate with the threats of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction -- parallel humanitarian interventions in that they have an ethical basis in the relationship between human rights and the right of state sovereignty. A widely accepted minimum standard of human rights, incorporated into new international institutions and/or an explicit revision of the definition of just war, could serve as an ethical boundary for both preventive wars and humanitarian interventions. The formal qualification of prevention and its merger with humanitarian goals could bring enhanced international legitimacy and support to preventive actions by the United States and its allies. (51 refs.)