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4041. John R. Ballard, David W. Lamm, and John K. Wood, From Kabul to Baghdad and Back: The US at War in Afghanistan and Iraq. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2012.

Author:
Megan Johnson
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
From Kabul to Baghdad and Back, written by John R. Ballard, David W. Lamm, and John K. Wood, chronicles the conflicts that the United States undertook in Afghanistan and Iraq following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This book sets out to discuss the strategic and operational actions the United States took in its efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, paying close attention to the critical decisions that wentinto planning each of the combat operations and how those decisions affected the outcomes in each of the respective campaigns. Methodically researched and well written, the authors provide in-depth analysis and valuable insight into the complex nature of fighting a two-front war. While the book is not a complete or all-inclusive study of the successes and failures of America’s decade-long war, the authors present a clear analysis of how conducting a two-front war affected the outcomes in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Their premise is that much would have been different in America’s war in Afghanistan had the choice not been made to simultaneously go to war with Iraq. This book is full of great detail and covers a topic that is massive in scope and complexity, giving the reader much to absorb and ponder. The layout of the book, however, makes it more manageable with each chapter broken down further by subtitles. The selected bibliography and extensive footnoting of the book are valuable assets and ensure the reader access to a plethora of additional resources.
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Iraq

4042. Williamson Murray and Peter Mansoor, eds. Hybrid Warfare: Fighting Complex Opponents from the Ancient World to the Present. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Author:
Bradley Martin
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
In Hybrid Warfare, military historians Williamson Murray and Peter Mansoor edit a volume that seeks to define and discuss the history of hybrid warfare, the idea that conflict includes combinations of conventional and irregular forces. Williamson Murray is a well-regarded military historian who serves as Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University and has completed voluminous works involving military transformation, military adaptation, and grand strategy. Peter Mansoor is a highly respected scholar who currently serves as the Raymond E. Mason Chair in Military History at Ohio State University and also a retired Army Colonel who served as the Executive Officer to General David Petraeus in Iraq. The book presents in depth cases studies, while also providing lessons learned that should be applied to future conflict. The contributors to the volume come from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities and include retired military officers, independent researchers, and academics.
Political Geography:
Iraq

4043. Micah Zenko, Between Threats and War: US Discrete Military Operations in the Post - Cold War World . Stanford, CA: Stanford Security Studies – Stanford University Press, 2010.

Author:
Scott Nicolas Romaniuk
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Over the past century, a gradual shift has taken place in which the conditions for total war have considerably faded. This steady realignment toward full-scale war, however, exposes the many varieties of force that still exist along a continuum bookended by the state of absolute war and that of peace. Much has been written about the occurrence of full-scale war within the international system, yet the level of attention given to what occurs when neither a state of peace nor state of war exists remains somewhat derisory. The last two decades, in particular, can be characterized as a state of threat within which varying degrees of the utility of force have persisted. Such processes and practices with public spheres are slowly being examined but questions of why specific forms of forms have continued to be used despite criticism of their political and military effectiveness are seldom raised. Moreover, they continue to go unanswered even though they have become relatively commonplace and seem to be the preferred policy option of US administrations. Academics addressing issues of evolving military culture and technological base within the 21st century have only begun to delve into the nature of America's discrete military operations (DMOs) but rarely depict them in terms of their implication for the future of military practice.
Topic:
Cold War
Political Geography:
United States

4044. Spencer C. Tucker, ed. US Leadership in Wartime: Clashes, Controversy, and Compromise (2 volumes). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Author:
Bruce E. Stanley
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Spencer C. Tucker is currently a senior fellow in military history at ABC-CLIO Publishing in Santa Barbara, California. Dr. Tucker has written or edited over 30 books and encyclopedias focusing on military and naval history and is the senior editor for the two-volume encyclopedia US Leadership in Wartime: Clashes, Controversy, and Compromise. Tucker, along with ten assistant editors and a vast array of scholars, presents a comprehensive account of United States leadership in war from the American Revolution to the latest conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Iraq

4045. Ending the War in Afghanistan

Author:
Stephen Biddle
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
International forces in Afghanistan are preparing to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan soldiers and police by the end of 2014. U.S. President Barack Obama has argued that battlefield successes since 2009 have enabled this transition and that with it, “this long war will come to a responsible end.” But the war will not end in 2014. The U.S. role may end, in whole or in part, but the war will continue -- and its ultimate outcome is very much in doubt.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Taliban

4046. The Rise of the Rest of India

Author:
Ruchir Sharma
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
When Nitish Kumar became chief minister of the dirt-poor Indian state of Bihar in 2005, kidnapping was said to be the leading industry in the capital city of Patna. People searching for stolen cars were advised to check the driveway of a leading politician, who reportedly commandeered vehicles for “election duty.” Although known for his soft-spoken manner, Kumar cracked down hard. He straightened out the crooked police, ordering them to move aggressively against all criminals, from the daylight robbers to the corrupt high officials. He set up a new fast-track court to speed the miscreants to jail. As Biharis gained the courage to go out on the street, even after dark, Kumar set about energizing a landlocked economy with few outlets for manufactured exports. He focused on improving the yields of Bihar's fertile soil and ushered in a construction boom. Within a few years, a state once described by the writer V. S. Naipaul as “the place where civilization ends” had built one of the fastest-growing state economies in India. And Kumar was recognized as a leader in the new generation of dynamic chief ministers who are remaking the economic map and future of India.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
India and Patna

4047. China's Real and Present Danger

Author:
Avery Goldstein
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Much of the debate about China's rise in recent years has focused on the potential dangers China could pose as an eventual peer competitor to the United States bent on challenging the existing international order. But another issue is far more pressing. For at least the next decade, while China remains relatively weak compared to the United States, there is a real danger that Beijing and Washington will find themselves in a crisis that could quickly escalate to military conflict. Unlike a long-term great-power strategic rivalry that might or might not develop down the road, the danger of a crisis involving the two nuclear-armed countries is a tangible, near-term concern -- and the events of the past few years suggest the risk might be increasing.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
United States and China

4048. Africa's Turn

Author:
Macky Sall
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Since it gained independence from France in 1960, the West African country of Senegal has been a bastion of stability and democracy on a continent that has seen relatively little of either. During the presidency of Abdoulaye Wade (2000–2012), however, the Senegalese exception seemed under threat. The elderly Wade grew increasingly authoritarian and corrupt, and he managed to run for a third term even though the constitution prohibited him from doing so. But in March 2012, Senegalese voters dealt Wade a decisive defeat, electing the reformist candidate Macky Sall instead. Trained in France as a geological engineer, Sall had served in a number of government posts under Wade, including prime minister, before publicly breaking with him in 2007. In opposition, Sall created a new political party; served a second term as mayor of his hometown, Fatick; and organized an anti-Wade coalition. Sall spoke with Foreign Affairs senior editor Stuart Reid in Dakar in June, days before U.S. President Barack Obama's arrival in Senegal for a state visit.
Topic:
Governance
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

4049. Elusive Victories: The American Presidency at War

Author:
William G. Howell
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
American wars waged by American presidents have come at such great cost. Repeatedly, our commanders - in - chief have failed to deliver on their inflated promises when deploying troops abroad. The events of war regularly have overtaken even the most - meticulous planning, hemming in the military and frustrating civilian commanders. When choosing and then conducting wars, presidents have either ignored or misinterpreted historical precedents. Fixated on the prerequisites of victory, meanwhile, presidents have not planned adequately for the peace, and have then watched the unraveling of their wartime accomplishments acquired with so much blood and treasure.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
America

4050. Faith Based: Religious Neoliberalism and the Politics of Welfare in the United States

Author:
David K. Ryden
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
American conservatism has long been challenged by the simmering tensions between its libertarian and socioreligious wings. In Faith Based, Jason Hackworth examines the merging of these two strands of conservatism into what he calls religious neoliberalism, and the consequent policy impact on American social welfare provision. His central thesis is that neoliberalism- with its "overwhelming emphasis on the individual," a quasi�religious belief in the market, and the conviction that the state will only impede both-has limited appeal as a stand�alone ideology, and can only affect policy when attached to other movements that legitimize it and amplify its influence. Since the Reagan era, one such vehicle has been American evangelicalism. Hackworth weaves together a variety of methods-a reading of National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) policy resolutions, content analysis of Christianity Today, and select case studies of faith�based welfare provision-to demonstrate how religious rhetoric and theology have been employed to soften the hard�edged anti�statism of neoliberalism, thus sanctifying neoliberal attacks on our social welfare system. Hackworth's ultimate conclusions are nuanced. While neoliberalism and evangelicalism have been mutually reinforcing, Hackworth finds both to be "partial," and suggests that inherent contradictions will test their long�term compatibility and limit the future reach of religious neoliberalism.
Political Geography:
United States