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3101. U.S. Military Power: Strong Enough to Deter all Challenges?

Author:
Barry R. Posen
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
How strong is the U.S. militarily? Recent history would suggest very strong indeed—the U.S. armed forces are undefeated in two stand-up fights with Saddam Hussein, and one each with Slobodan Milosevic and the Taliban. The Grand Strategy of the Bush administration seeks to improve this already impressive position. “Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States.”
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States and Taliban

3102. Why U.S. National Security Requires Mideast Peace

Author:
Stephen W. Van Evera
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Two myths have important, distorting effects on the Bush administration's policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. First is the optimistic belief that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only a minor obstacle to American foreign policy—a modest hindrance that will not prevent the United States from achieving its main foreign policy goals. Second is the pessimistic belief that a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians is infeasible, so a forceful U.S. push for peace will only waste effort on a fool's errand. These two assumptions have led the administration to adopt a passive policy toward the conflict, declining to offer firm U.S. leadership toward peace.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States, America, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

3103. Strategic Adaptation or Identity Change? An analysis of Britain's Approach to the ESDP 1998-2004

Author:
Kristin Marie Haugevik
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
In this working paper, Kristin Marie Haugevik seeks to analyse the nature of the changes in Britain's approach to the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) after 1998. Ever since the beginning of the European integration process in 1951, Britain's approach to European security and defence cooperation has been characterized by anti-federalism and transatlanticism. Hence, it was unexpected when Tony Blair, together with Jacques Chirac, took the initiative to frame a common security and defence policy for the EU in Saint Malo in 1998. This paper discusses to what extent Britain's new approach to the ESDP after 1998 can be explained as the result of a strategic adaptation, and to what extent it can be seen as a result of more profound changes in the British identity and security interests. These two accounts are tested by analysing Britain's approach to some of the most important ESDP documents since 1998: the Saint Malo declaration, the Laeken declaration, the Nice Treaty, the European Security Strategy, and the Constitution Treaty.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Britain, United Kingdom, and Europe

3104. 2005 Conference Proceedings: Expanding and Enhancing the Partnerships: Further Steps after Istanbul

Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
I am delighted that you have chosen to participate in the 8th Annual Conference of the Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes. It is my hope that this conference, focusing on expanding and enhancing partnerships, will broaden your perspectives on the many complex issues associated with this endeavor, help us better understand how to achieve these goals, and stimulate discussion on how the Consortium can contribute to the broader efforts of NATO and other international and national actors in the field of security and defense.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:
Europe

3105. Defence Conversion - The Disposal and Demilitarization of Heavy Weapon Systems

Author:
Adrian Wilkinson
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:
At the South Eastern Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP) Ministers of Defence meeting in Bucharest on 31 March 2005, the Ministers of Defence reaffirmed their commitment to enhance cooperation and dialogue in SEE, and also with international partners, on specific defense conversion related processes. This included an exchange of views on the conversion of redundant military facilities. A necessary precursor to the conversion of military facilities is the disposal of the equipment contained within those facilities, including heavy weapons.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
Europe

3106. "Biting the Bullet" - Ammunition Stocks: Promoting Safe and Secure Storage and Disposal

Author:
Owen Greene, Sally Holt, and Adrian Wilkinson
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:
The 2001 United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA) and other associated Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) international commitments and measures are widely understood to encompass not only the weapons but also their ammunition. Unfortunately, progress in implementing the PoA in relation to ammunition remains particularly patchy and inadequate. This is partly because it has too often been considered as a residual category. But control and reduction of ammunition raise their own distinct and challenging issues. This relative neglect is resulting in large numbers of avoidable deaths and injuries.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe

3107. Overcoming the Security Council Reform Impasse: The Implausible versus the Plausible

Author:
Thomas G. Weiss
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, City University of New York
Abstract:
Anniversaries are a typical time to take stock and think about change. The United Nations (UN) roller coaster ride has been severe in the post-Cold War era – from the euphoria surrounding Security Council decision-making to use military force against Iraq in 1990-1991 when "renaissance" was the common multilateral refrain, to the current morass after severe divisions over the decision by the United States (U.S.) and United Kingdom (UK) to go to war in Iraq in 2003 with a return to the "dark ages" of unilateralism.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Development, and International Organization
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, and United Kingdom

3108. Kim Jong Il's Nuclear Winter

Author:
Nicholas Eberststadt
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
North Korea recently announced that it had “manufactured nukes,” that “these weapons” would be kept “for self-defense under any circumstances,” and that Pyongyang would immediately suspend its participation in further six-party denuclearization talks for an indefinite period. So much for probing North Korea's nuclear intentions. That game is now over. With the illusions of the international community's engagement theorists suddenly and nakedly exposed, the rest of us are obliged to face some unpleasant truths about the unfolding proliferation spectacle in the Korean peninsula.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
Asia and North Korea

3109. Should Americans Save More?

Author:
John H. Makin
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Alarmists who call for American households to save more point to a steady drop in the conventionally measured U.S. saving rate to about 1 per- cent at the end of last year and to a rise in household debt to a level well over 100 percent of personal disposable income. The current account deficit, our external deficit, measures national dis-saving at close to 6 percent of GDP. The federal government's budget deficit contributes about 4 percentage points to national dis-saving and it, too, is the subject of considerable hand-wringing by those who point to a need for higher U.S. saving at both the household and national levels.
Topic:
Security, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
United States and America

3110. The New Bolsheviks: Understanding Al Qaeda

Author:
Frederick W. Kagan
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Victory in war, and particularly in counterinsurgency wars, requires knowing one's enemy. This simple truth, first stated by Sun Tsu more than two millennia ago, is no less important in the war on terrorism today. It has become almost common wisdom, however, that America today faces an enemy of a new kind, using unprecedented techniques and pursuing incomprehensible goals. But this enemy is not novel. Once the peculiar rhetoric is stripped away, the enemy America faces is a familiar one indeed. The revolutionary vision that undergirds al Qaeda's ideology, the strategy it is pursuing, and the strategic debates occurring within that organization are similar to those of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism at various periods. What's more, the methods that led to the defeat of that ideology can be adapted and successfully used against this religious revival of it.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
America