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1181. U.S. Military Concepts of War and their Impact on Foreign Interventions

Author:
Charles W. Parker III
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
This essay argues that military doctrine shapes the nature of United States foreign interventions. In particular, the U.S. military's concepts of “war” and “Military Operations Other Than War” (MOOTW), and the resulting institutional orientation of the Pentagon towards such contingencies, have had a profound impact on the planning and execution of contingencies around the world since the U.S. became a great power. Before World War II, MOOTW-like military interventions were commonplace and mostly successful in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. Most military interventions such as the Philippines War of 1899-1901 and in the Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Panama, Nicaragua) between 1899 and 1941 were successful limited campaigns that helped consolidate the United States as a regional and global power. U.S. military doctrine and capabilities in counterinsurgency, peace enforcement, and foreign internal defense, were robust. This core competency of the U.S. military was lost in the large scale and conventional struggles against the Axis powers and later the Soviet Union.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and War
Political Geography:
United States, Soviet Union, Cuba, Central America, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Dominican Republic

1182. The Middle East and Religious Fundamentalism as a Source of Identity-Based Conflicts

Author:
Dan Tschirgi
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
An understanding of religious fundamentalism as a source of conflict in the Middle East is significantly furthered by examining "asymmetrical threats" in other areas. This article suggests that a particular form of asymmetrical conflict ("Marginalized Violent Internal Conflict"[MVIC]) was proliferating well before September 11, 2001, and that examples appeared in Mexico and Egypt, as well as possibly in Nigeria, Chile and the Philippines. Arguing that the "War on Terrorism" may be the result of MVIC having been raised to the level of Marginalized Violent International Conflict, the author examines policy implications raised by the goal of global security.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Middle East, Philippines, Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria, and Chile

1183. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 32

Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov raised eyebrows on August 15, when he told journalists that the two wars in Chechnya have killed about 160,000 combatants and civilians, 30,000-40,000 of them Chechen fighters and civilians. He said that the remaining victims were "representatives of various ethnic groups," but that the vast majority of these were Russians, Novye izvestia reported on August 16. Agence France-Presse noted that a large portion of the 400,000-450,000 people who lived in Grozny before the first war were ethnic Russian and that the city was devastated by Russian air and artillery bombardments in 1995 that caused massive civilian casualties. "They never thought they would have bombs dropped on their heads or be shot at by heavy weapons," the news agency quoted Dzhabrailov as saying. Izvestia, meanwhile, reported him as saying that "the figures I have quoted are compiled by collecting together information about all the losses in the republic in the last fifteen years. We obtained information from all those involved: the military, the Interior Ministry, and the districts. Our data for the Ichkeria period are based on official documents that I obtained from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Ministry of Internal Affairs when I was an employee of the republican mufti's press service. The losses at that time were no smaller than they are now or were during the counter-terrorist operation."
Topic:
Security, Ethnic Conflict, and War
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, France, and Chechnya

1184. Observations on Local Insurgents and Foreign Fighters in Iraq: an Interview with Mark Edmond Clark

Author:
Mark E. Clark
Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
CIAO: There has been considerable discussion lately among analysts of U.S. foreign policy on the insurgency in Iraq. Although you have not dealt with the local insurgents or foreign fighters operating in Iraq, previously you managed to observe up close the preparations made by Serbian nationalist groups in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and by Yugoslav military, security services, and Serbian nationalist paramilitary groups in the Kosovo-Metohija province of Serbia for long-term insurgencies against the U.S. and NATO. Using that expertise, and your knowledge of events in Iraq, could you share some thoughts on the insurgency in Iraq?
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Middle East, Arabia, Kosovo, and Serbia

1185. The Use and Perception of Weapons Before and After Conflict: Evidence from Rwanda

Author:
Philip Verwimp and Cécelle Meijer
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Small Arms Survey
Abstract:
The majority of Rwanda's population considers itself Hutu (more than 80 per cent), whereas a smaller group is referred to as Tutsi (about 15 percent). The Twa are the smallest minority. In 1994, after four years of civil war, Rwanda descended into genocide. The Tutsi minority was the main target, but Hutu and Twa who were not willing to participate in the killings were also murdered. In fewer than three months, more than 500,000 people were brutally slaughtered.
Topic:
International Relations, Arms Control and Proliferation, and War
Political Geography:
Africa and Rwanda

1186. The Role of Small Arms during the 2003-2004 Conflict in Iraq

Author:
Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Les Roberts, and Richard Garfield
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Small Arms Survey
Abstract:
Iraq underwent a particularly deadly war with neighbouring Iran during the 1980s with perhaps a million deaths occurring. Following the Persian Gulf war of 1991, more than 60,000 Iraqis were believed to have been killed by the government in retaliation for perceived support of the US-led coalition during the conflict. The level of violence within Iraq has not been well recorded in recent years and, in fact, no survey or census-based estimate of crude mortality has been made in Iraq since 1997 and the last estimate of mortality in children under five years of age was a UNICEF-sponsored demographic survey of 1999.
Topic:
International Relations, Arms Control and Proliferation, and War
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

1187. The Impact of RMA on Conventional Deterrence: A Theoretical Analysis

Author:
Manjeet S. Pardesi
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:
This research aims to theoretically study if deterrence will prevail if and when states with RMA-ed militaries are faced with the prospect of conventional war. To answer this question, this study analyzes the impact of transformation on conventional deterrence in the event of a military standoff for three theoretical scenarios–(1) RMA capable conventional military vs. RMA-incapable conventional military (with the former state being nuclear or non-nuclear and with the latter being non-nuclear), (2) two RMA-capable conventional militaries (both states non-nuclear), and (3) two RMA-capable conventional militaries (both states nuclear). The study concludes that the current defense transformation is revolutionary simply because it permits the possibility of a limited conventional armed conflict between two nuclear weapons states (including great powers) and as such attempts to resuscitate the role of conventional military power in international politics. On the other hand, analogous to the nuclear revolution, the possession of RMA capabilities by two non-nuclear belligerents is likely to render large-scale conventional armed conflicts with unlimited military objectives between them unthinkable. However, this study warns that deterrence is weakened when only one state in an adversarial dyad is RMA-capable. Moreover, in any dyad involving RMA-capable states, deterrence is weakened when the RMA-capable state contemplates a strategy of limited aims (political and/or military) vis-à-vis its adversary. This tendency is all the more pronounced when it is contemplating a limited war waged with air power and missile strikes (low-cost, low-risk) than a limited war for territorial gains.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Defense Policy, Development, and War

1188. War is no Child's Play: Child Soldiers from Battlefield to Playground

Author:
Lilian Peters
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
An estimated 300.000 children under 18 years of age are recruited and used by armies and armed groups in violent conflicts in almost 30 countries worldwide. The estimated number of 300.000 child soldiers reflects the number of children being used at any one time. As conflict develops and children are killed, wounded or replaced by others, the cumulative number over time is likely much higher. Appendix 1 gives an overview of the countries with child soldiers, as of January 2003.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, United Nations, and War

1189. The War on Terror - Security Sector Governance and Military Implications

Author:
Karl-Heinz Rambke
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The topic of this conference, “The War on Terror and its Impact on Security Sector Governance and Society”, gives us the opportunity to engage in an intensive dialogue with participants from various countries and with different expertise. Let me briefly introduce my approach to this session. Since June 2003 I have been working at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, currently responsible as the Co-Director of the International Training Course on Security Policy training 30 participants from 23 different countries, amongst them two Russian participants. As our objective is to prepare the participants for international and national assignments in security policy branches, we are trying to create a fruitful balance between academic debates, concepts, practitioners' views and experiences and practical hands-on training. I would like to follow this approach today.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Terrorism, War, and Governance
Political Geography:
Russia

1190. Garang's Death: Implications for Peace in Sudan

Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) leadership has acted quickly so far to regroup and reorganise, but the loss in a fatal helicopter crash on 30 July 2005 of John Garang, the only leader the movement has known in its 21 years, creates an opening for spoilers on all sides to exploit any signs of uncertainty. The country is at risk of eventually losing a peace agreement that was already looking somewhat shaky.
Topic:
Government, Human Welfare, and War
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan