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1211. Democratic Politics and NATO War Making: Great Britain, Germany and America in the Kosovo Crisis

Author:
Scott A. Silverstone
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
NATO's ability to assume an activist military role in the international system will depend on the capacity of its member states to generate and sustain domestic support for using military force and for adapting to the changing military conditions that evolve over the course of armed conflict. This article argues that the ability or willingness of national leaders to use force through NATO will vary significantly depending on the arrangement of their democratic political institutions. In the Kosovo war, while Great Britain was a persistent advocate of a ground assault, Germany threatened to veto any such NATO action. The United States was between these extremes, only slowly moving toward acceptance of a ground assault over the course of the conflict. The key variable, "institutional vulnerability" (defined by the degree to which the executive is vulnerable to being removed from office and losing decision-making autonomy to legislative opponents), is the basis for contrasting Britain's Westminster parliamentary, Germany's coalition parliamentary, and America's presidential systems, and for explaining their policy differences in this crisis.
Topic:
Defense Policy and NATO
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Kosovo

1212. A Model of Electoral Competition with Two-Year Terms

Author:
John C. Hansen and John M. Barron
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
This paper will shed some light on the legislative voting literature by using a standard median voter model, however, the legislator's term is split into two distinct voting years. This allows us to analyze in more detail the voting decisions made by Congressmen. We estimate a voting record based on constituency variables and calculate the residual. We find that a higher first-year residual on the part of a congressman causes a lower probability of being reelected. In addition, we find that the first-year residual plays the key role in this lower reelection probability. The second-year residual lacks any consistent significance with regards to the reelection probability. In this paper, we also analyze two different effects that have been predominant in the literature: the sorting effect and the tenure effect. Using our comprehensive data set, from 1983-1996, we find that both effects do exist. Moreover, older congressmen (those closer to retirement) had lower residuals. For the years 1983 to 1992, the two effects counteracted each other and caused no net impact on the first-year residual. For the years 1993-1996, the sorting effect dominated the tenure effect and showed that members with higher tenures had lower first-year residuals.
Topic:
Defense Policy and Government
Political Geography:
United States

1213. Strategy, Revisited Analyzing the Shift from a Threat-Based to Capabilities-Based Approach to US Strategic Planning

Author:
Isaiah Wilson III
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
Making the best strategic and force choices in a free society is a difficult and lengthy process. The strategist and force planner must consider numerous international and domestic factors, including political, economic and military influences. [B]ecause planning involves preparing for the future, there is considerable uncertainty and much room for disagreement about preferred strategy and how forces should be structured, organized, and equipped. [E]qually valid arguments are often made for widely different choices, each depending on the objectives sought and the assumptions made about threats, challenges, opportunities, technological advances, and future political and economic conditions. This tendency is exacerbated by various advocates who focus on the single factor most important to them, such as the threat or budget, without a balanced attempt to explore the full dimensions of the problems.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

1214. Organizing "Virtuality": Facilitating Effective Homeland Security through DoD's JC4I System

Author:
Isaiah Wilson III
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
The quest for ensuring a secure, but free society in the United States continues to this day. The attacks on the American homeland on September 11, 2001 shine a particularly stark light on the issue. The attacks on the homeland have shaken America's sensibilities regarding what is and what is not proper use of the active military within the territorial boundaries of the national state. In fact, the new sensibility is that DOD must have a direct role in executing the six functions of homeland security iterated by President Bush in Executive Order 13228 – detection, preparation, prevention, protection, response, and recovery. The fledgling Office of Homeland Security (see figure 1 in appendix ) continues to struggle with the implementation of the policy. The office, empowered to 'coordinate and facilitate' rather than command and control federal, state, and local HLS efforts, has left the office and its Director, Governor Tom Ridge, hamstrung.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

1215. The Shape of Postwar South Asia

Author:
Jon P. Dorschner
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
The low priority that the United States placed on South Asia, led to the creation of a Taliban ruled terrorist safe haven in Afghanistan. To prevent such disasters in the future, the US must end its neglect, play an active role in the region, and commit sufficient energy and resources. The US must devise and implement an effective, well-funded, long-term strategy aimed at encouraging cooperation and regional integration. The strategy should stress clearly enunciated issues. These include: nonproliferation, demilitarization, regionally oriented economic development, poverty reduction, preservation of the environment, settling the Kashmir dispute, ending communal politics, and vitalizing the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, South Asia, and Kashmir

1216. Postwar Afghanistan – The Road From Here

Author:
Jon P. Dorschner
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
This is a short evaluation of the prospects for postwar reconstruction in Afghanistan. It will conclude with a number of policy recommendations regarding the possible role that the United States can play in the establishing of a viable Afghan state. It reflects my experience in the region and as an intelligence analyst and Foreign Service Officer.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Central Asia

1217. Democratic America in Northeast Asia: U.S. Strategy, Theater Missile Defense, and Allied Defense Relationships

Author:
Sonya L. Finley
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
With the proliferation of ballistic and cruise missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), American political leaders have embarked on a long-term plan for deploying Theater Missile Defense (TMD) as a means to protect the United States, US forces abroad, and allies. Effective on 13 June 2002, the United States is no longer party to the 1972 ABM Treaty and missile defense is a priority with "prominence in policy, funding, and organization." TMD essentially is a family of military weapon systems whose purpose is to intercept hostile missiles that have been launched, whether intentionally or unintentionally. However, the question remains whether Theater Missile Defense is, and will be, an integrated and effective tool in achieving overall US national security goals in Northeast Asia, namely enhancing regional security and reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
United States, China, America, and Asia

1218. Today's Profits, Tomorrow's Losses: The Commercialization of US Arms Export Reform and its Implications on National and Regional Security

Author:
Isaiah Wilson III
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
Changes in the global arms market during the 1990s heralded a global downsizing of national military establishments, shrinkage of national defense industries, and a domestic loss of appetite for conventional weaponry in the United States. One of the many results has been the increased significance of foreign exporting. Through enhanced exporting, advanced arms producing states, namely the United States, have been able to assist their defense industry and military establishments survive the post-cold war downturn in domestic demand for conventional arms. These international level changes also led to second-order domestic efforts to reform the arms export processes within the United States.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
United States

1219. The Discourses of St. Petersburg and the Shaping of a Wider Europe: Territory, Space and Post-Sovereign Politics

Author:
Viatcheslav Morozov
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
St. Petersburg enjoys the image of being the most European of Russia's cities. The stories about the past and the present of Russia's northern capital resonate with such concepts as 'the new Hansa', the Baltic Rim or the Northern Dimension of the EU. However, the image of St. Petersburg – the capital of imperial Russia – might also be conducive to processes preserving or (re)creating dividing lines in the Baltic Sea region and in Europe as a whole. The present-day St. Petersburg certainly finds itself in search of new discursive departures that could show the way out of the present situation, which is generally regarded as unsatisfactory. This search is developing along various paths, some of which remain embedded in 'traditional' discourses, whilst others dare to step into the unknown.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:
Europe

1220. Conditional Legitimacy, Reinterpreted Monopolies: Globalisation and the Evolving State Monopoly on Legitimate Violence

Author:
Anna Leander
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The article argues that globalisation is altering the nature and meaning of the state monopoly on legitimate violence. It is accentuating the tensions around the meaning of “legitimacy”. The relativism implied in the idea that states can define which use of violence is “legitimate” (and which is not) is increasingly contested both by the international society of states and in a world society of transnational actors. At the same time a profound redefinition of what it means to have a “monopoly” of violence is going on. Increasing the private ownership and allocation of the means of coercion are blurring the responsibility of states beyond their own borders and, for some states, even within them. As a consequence the differentiation among states is growing, private actors are central to war and peace, and the system of national states might be undergoing a fundamental change.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Globalization, Peace Studies, and War