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51. Clandestine Communication in Historic China

Author:
Ralph D. Sawyer
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
As military forces grew in strength, tactics evolved, and warfare became more lethal in ancient China, the need for communication between the political authorities and leaders in the field, as well as among commanders and their subordinates, was increasingly recognized. Vestiges in Shang dynasty (1650-1045) oracle scripts and Western Zhou dynasty (1045-771) bronze inscriptions show written commands were already being issued to field commanders. Furthermore, according to the earliest historical writings, the Chun Qiu, Zuo Zhuan, and Guo Yu, written and verbally transmitted reports were being routinely furnished to the ruler and directives frequently received by the seventh and sixth centuries BCE.
Topic:
Military Strategy
Political Geography:
China

52. Chasing Sunflowers: Personal Firsthand Observations of the Student Occupation of the Legislative Yuan and Popular Protests in Taiwan, 18 March –10 April 2014

Author:
David Curtis Wright
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Sometime around 7:00 pm on the evening of Tuesday 18 March 2014, a group of several hundred Taiwanese students, civic group members, activists, and other protestors stormed through the outer gates and walls of the Legislative Yuan (Taiwan's legislature) in Taipei, forced their way through police cordons into the buildings of the legislature's compound, and finally broke into the Legislative Chamber itself. They quickly barricaded themselves in the chamber where Taiwan's laws are made by piling up the legislators' swiveled chairs in front of all entrances to the chamber and binding them together with ropes into large clumpy bulwarks. Police forces unsuccessfully attempted on several occasions to push their way through these barriers. Several hundred protestors (mostly young students) occupied the chamber overnight, and the police tried several other tactics to oust them, including shutting off the building's water, switching off its electricity, turning off its air conditioning, and locking its washrooms (restrooms). Aware of public opinion strongly against harshly treating the students, the police soon backed off and restored the utilities. Within 24 hours the occupation grew into massive street rallies in support of the students, and these in turn grew into the Sunflower Movement, so named after a supportive florist who handed out a thousand or more sunflowers to protesters outside the Legislative Yuan. The sunflower quickly came to symbolize the hopes of the protestors for openness, as to sunlight, in contrast to the perceived dark backroom legerdemain of the ruling KMT (Kuomintang; Chinese Nationalist) government, which had a majority in the legislature and struck many people in Taiwan as preferring to operate out of public view and beyond opposition party scrutiny.
Political Geography:
Taiwan

53. Sheldon M. Stern, The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths Versus Reality, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012.

Author:
Matthew Wiseman
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 remains one of the most highly contested episodes of the Cold War. Both academic and general historians alike continuously attempt to reconstruct the events that occurred during those harrowing two weeks as well as the subsequent aftermath. Historical examinations have unravelled some of the mystery which emerged from questions asked of the crisis and the subsequent period following its closure, but an abundance of scholarship on the topic has produced historical fallacies as well. It is for this reason that Sheldon Stern, official historian at the John F. Kennedy Library from 1977 to 1999, wrote The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths versus Reality.
Topic:
Cold War
Political Geography:
America

54. Scott Fitzsimmons. Mercenaries in Asymmetric Conflicts. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Author:
Kai Chen
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The history of mercenaries can be tracked back to the Greek mercenaries that fought for the Persian Empire during the early classic era. The decades after World War II have witnessed the re-emergence of mercenaries around the world. It's worth noting that academia pays little attention to mercenaries involved in asymmetric conflicts, and leaves several critical questions unanswered. So how do we measure the outcome of the asymmetric conflicts involving mercenaries? Why do some mercenaries prevail in front of materially superior opponents, while other mercenaries fail? Are there any testable theoretical explanations for predicting mercenaries' military performance in future asymmetric conflicts? In Mercenaries in Asymmetric Conflicts, Scott Fitzsimmons provides well-supported answers to the questions above, explores the causal relations between military culture and effectiveness, and highlights that culturally-determined military effectiveness has more influence on mercenaries' military performance in asymmetric conflicts than the materially-determined military effectiveness.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution
Political Geography:
Persia

55. Chad C. Serena. It Takes More than a Network: The Iraqi Insurgency and Organizational Adaptation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014.

Author:
Danny Garrett-Rempel
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
In his book, It Takes More than a Network: The Iraqi Insurgency and Organizational Adaptation, Chad C. Serena attempts to analyze the organizational inputs and outputs of the Iraqi insurgency in an effort to arrive at a better understanding of what part these features played in both its initial success and eventual failure. The thesis of Serena's book is that the Iraqi insurgency failed to achieve longer-term organizational goals due to the fact that many of the insurgency's early organizational strengths later became weaknesses that degraded the insurgency's ability to adapt (4). Serena employs a blend of technical analysis, in his assessment of the inner workings of complex covert networks, and empirical examples, which he draws from the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. This approach is successful in providing insight into the nature of the organizational adaptation of the Iraqi insurgency as well as in laying a framework for the future study of similarly organized martial groups.
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Iraq

56. Mike Martin. An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict. London, UK: C. Hurst Co., 2014.

Author:
Rebecca Jensen
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The historians of the Annales School developed an approach that emphasized long-term regional histories based upon social structures and worldviews, in part because they believed the narrowness of political and diplomatic history to be reductive. The first half of Mike Martin's An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict, adapted from his doctoral research at King's College and drawing on his experience as an army officer in Afghanistan, evokes this approach, while the second half explores how the absence of such a grounding in the local dynamics of Helmand province resulted in a profound misunderstanding of parties to the conflict and their goals, and thus a flawed and sometimes counterproductive approach to military and political efforts there. An Intimate War makes a solid argument that the narratives driving the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) were largely mistaken, and that misperception accounted for poor policy and misguided operations; it also raises questions for future research, including why organizations and individuals adopted and hewed to inadequate models, and implicitly how this might be avoided in future military engagements.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and War
Political Geography:
London

57. Thomas H. Henriksen. America and the Rogue States. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
In America and the Rogue States, Thomas Henriksen lays out the relationships that exist, and have existed, between America and the states that made up George W. Bush's 'Axis of Evil.' Henriksen outlines the history of the interactions between the United States and North Korea, pre-invasion Iraq, and Iran, and through this draws out a number of themes. He also shows that the ways the relationships have played out are highly situational and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. In the last chapter, Henriksen explores American relationships with a number of states that were either once considered rogue or could become rogue, like Libya, Syria, and Cuba, referring to them as either “lesser rogues” or “troublesome states.” These states have remained “a puzzle for US foreign policy” (1) and are characterized by three things: autocratic governance, sponsorship of terrorism, and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). There is no clear definition provided by Henriksen for what can be considered a rogue state, making it difficult to judge what other states, if any, could be considered rogue. Henriksen seems to arbitrarily decide who is rogue and who is not: Cuba is a rogue state, while Myanmar is merely troublesome. Instead of synthesizing a clear definition of the term, something that could then be applied to other states in order to judge their 'rogueness,' Henriksen uses the Bush administration's criteria (the term itself was coined by President Bill Clinton in a 1994 speech in Brussels), which was outlined in the National Security Strategy of 2002 (NSS-2002). These were “brutality toward their own people; contempt for international law; determination to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD); advanced military technology; sponsorship of terrorism; rejection of human rights values; and hatred for the United States and 'everything it stands for'”. The use of the NSS-2002 definition allows for the 'Axis of Evil' to fit neatly into the term, which constitutes a problem of tautology, at least for the Bush administration. Further compounding this was that, according to Henriksen at least, the administration was set on going to war in Iraq prior to assuming office. This creates a situation in which it is hard to determine whether the idea of rogue states was created to justify this desire, or it informed the desire prior to the administration taking office.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States, America, North Korea, and Libya

58. Stefano Recchia and Jennifer M. Welsh, eds. Just and Unjust Military Intervention: European Thinkers from Vitoria to Mill. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Author:
Matt Preston
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Stefano Recchia and Jennifer Welsh have brought together in this tome a number of authors intending to essentially see what can be learnt from early modern political philosophers about just war and humanitarian intervention. They attempt to have all works in the volume discuss three themes and answer two essential questions. The first theme centers on the issues concerning jus ad bellum (the legitimate reasons for going to war). In this, the editors identify the main question of when intervention is permissible.
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Europe

59. Arctic Security Order: Collective Security, Collective Defense, or Something New?

Author:
Sten Rynning
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The melting of ice in the Arctic has mobilised considerable analytical interest in the region. New resources such as minerals, fisheries, and oil and gas, as well as new sea lines of communication become available, promising to connect Asia and the Atlantic more intimately and efficiently. On this, there is widespread agreement. The implications are more difficult to gauge, though, as the underlying order is in flux. It is not clear what kind of era this opening of the Arctic is heralding.
Topic:
Communications
Political Geography:
Asia and Atlantic Ocean

60. Arctic Security - An Equation with Multiple Unknowns

Author:
Rear Admiral Nils Wang
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
In May 2008, the five Arctic coastal states - the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and the Kingdom of Denmark, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands - signed the Illulissat Declaration. The declaration established that the 'Arctic Five' will lay claim to the sea territorial rights awarded to them by the 1982. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and that they will settle disputes within the framework of existing international law. This was a very strong message to NGOs and external state actors, arguing that a protective treaty should govern the Arctic, just like the Antarctic.
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Japan, China, Canada, India, Norway, Denmark, United Nations, and Italy