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121. Don't Expect Much from Japan in the Indian Ocean

Author:
Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Japan is an Indian Ocean power of long standing. Ten years ago, in a post-9/11 show of solidarity with the United States and to exercise a more muscular foreign policy, Tokyo committed vessels of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF, or MSDF) to the coalition naval contingent supporting combat operations in Afghanistan. JMSDF tankers resupplied coalition warships, while Aegis destroyers guarded against air and surface threats in the Arabian Sea. Japanese seamen posted impressive statistics for this naval enterprise. The Japan Ministry of Defense reported that JMSDF vessels supplied about 137 million gallons of fuel oil and some 2.8 gallons of water to customers from about a dozen countries, including the United States, Pakistan, France, Britain, and Germany. Tokyo spent over $110 million on the logistics mission in its final two years according to Defense Ministry spokesmen, even as demand for such support dwindled.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Britain, Afghanistan, United States, Japan, India, France, Arabia, Germany, and Tokyo

122. The Idea of a Strategist's Education

Author:
Steven Anthony Pomeroy
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
This essay adopted from “Ancient Alexandria, Alexander, and History: The Relevance of Humanistic Thought in the Contemporary Strategic Environment,” a talk the author gave on December 28, 2009, Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colorado. The comments herein are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Unites States Air Force Academy, the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government. The author wishes to thank the following professors: Colonel (Dr.) Thomas A. Drohan, Dr. James R. Titus, and Dr. John Farquhar of the Military and Strategic Studies Department at the United States Air Force Academy. The comments herein are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force Academy, the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government. Bernard Brodie, Strategy in the Missile Age (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959), 406. Contending that nuclear weapons had fundamentally changed the character, if not the nature, of warfare, Brodie emphasized the importance of rigor and a scientific approach to strategic problem solving in the nuclear era.
Topic:
Climate Change, Education, Government, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
United States and Colorado

123. A Role for Effects-Based Planning in a National Security Framework

Author:
Brad Gladman and Peter Archambault
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Modern operations, both domestic and expeditionary, share much with those of the past in that they require the application of both civil and military power to shape the operating environment towards the desired end state. Recently, two related concepts have been developed to codify the best practices related to resolving crises and conflicts through the coordinated use of a variety of levers of power. Of course, the extent to which this process should be considered conceptual is open to question, given that it reflects only what competent civilian and military leaders have always sought to accomplish. Nonetheless, there is broad intuitive acceptance that the Comprehensive Approach (CA) or Whole of Government (WoG) approach is a strategic level framework for the coordination of all elements of national or coalition power, with an Effects-Based Approach to Operations (EBAO) being the military contribution to the larger effort.
Topic:
Government and National Security

124. The Evolving Arctic Operating Environment: Implications for Defence

Author:
Donald A. Neill
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Effective planning for DND/CF activities in the arctic operating environment requires as reliable an understanding as may reasonably be achieved of what that environment is likely to be, and how it is likely to evolve, throughout the planning period in question. This is complicated by the inherently unpredictable nature of climate; as the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has acknowledged, ‚in climate research and modelling, we should recognize that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.‛
Topic:
Climate Change and Environment
Political Geography:
United Nations

125. Decision-Making under Uncertainty: Using Case Studies for Teaching Strategy in Complex Environments

Author:
Dr. Volker Franke
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Today's strategic environment is increasingly characterized by threats that "are both diffuse and uncertain, where conflict is inherently unpredictable, and where our capability to defend and promote our national interests may be restricted by political, diplomatic, informational and economic constraints. In short, it is an environment marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA)." Decision-makers, both civilian and military, who want to operate effectively in this environment must consider a wide range of social, political and cultural factors and demonstrate cognitive flexibility, adaptability and the ability to make decisions "on the fly."
Topic:
Climate Change and Economics

126. The Patrol: Seven Days in the Life of a Canadian Soldier in Afghanistan

Author:
Ryan Flavelle
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Nothing can prepare a person for the reality of bloody, concussive warfare. . . . Those who like war are aptly named warriors. Some, like me, are fated never to be warriors, as we are more afraid of war than fascinated by it. But I have the consolation that I have walked with warriors, and know what kind of men they are. I will never be a warrior, but I have known war.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Canada

127. Martin Kitchen, Rommel's Desert War: Waging WWII in North Africa, 1941-1943. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Author:
Matt Bucholtz
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
While one could be forgiven for wondering if yet another volume concerning the North African campaign in the Second World War was truly needed, Martin Kitchen's book Rommel's Desert War: Waging WWII in North Africa, 1941-1943 is nevertheless a significant and worthwhile contribution to the field. Kitchen states early in his introduction that his aim is to produce a complete and comprehensive account of the desert war, and judged by this standard the author is, on the whole, quite successful. He does not pretend that his is the first, nor the last, work on the topic, but rather seeks to provide a detailed and balanced account of the campaign based on current historiography, examining each of the combatants, and spanning the entire length of the conflict in North Africa.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
North Africa

128. Allies Yet Rivals: International Politics in 18th Century Europe.

Author:
Gavin Weins
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Alliances have, and likely always will have, a common feature of international diplomacy for a number of reasons. First, the primary objective of any government is defence and states will attempt to heighten security through international agreements. Second, military and economic power is unevenly distributed among states and weaker powers will unavoidably gravitate toward stronger powers in search of increased protection and commercial benefits. Third, an alliance can occasionally be the most effective means of tying the hands of a rival. Despite the variety of objectives that encourage the formation of alliances and the numerous forms that international agreements can assume, Marco Cesa argues that international relations theory has consistently recognized the existence of only one type of alliance: those agreements between states that are designed to confront an aggressive and dangerous “common enemy.” Above all, this viewpoint has one-dimensionally characterized alliances as unions of separate forces, policy-coordination organizations, or as takers of joint action against some third party. The “internal” dimensions of alliances, or the complex negotiations between allies, have consequently been overshadowed by the “external” dimensions, or the measures implemented by the allies to confront the threatening power. Nevertheless, states are almost always involved in ambiguous and clandestine diplomatic manoeuvres against not only enemies, but allies as well. Through an examination of this “darker side” of alliances, Cesa attempts to highlight the shortcomings of traditional international relations theory and, at the same time, offer an alternative framework for the examination of inter-ally relations.
Topic:
Economics and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

129. Endings Of Eras

Author:
James Keeley
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Two significant periods seem to be coming to an end for students of security in Canada – one local, relatively brief and certain, while the other is somewhat longer, world-historical in nature, and somewhat less certain.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Canada

130. Canada and 9/11: Ten Years On - Editorial Note

Author:
Gavin Cameron
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
Did, as was frequently claimed in the following months and years, everything change on September 11, 2001? The following four articles focus on parts of Canada's security environment in the ten years since 2001. Each describe significant developments in that time, whether in perceptions of threat or in the responses that were pursued in reply but, for the most part, these changes are best characterized as evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The changes occurred and may have reflected radical shifts in emphasis, but they often represented dynamics that were present before September 2001.
Topic:
Security and Climate Change
Political Geography:
Canada