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Us Strategic Culture, Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense, And Mutual Vulnerability, Jacob T. Blank
Us Strategic Culture, Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense, And Mutual Vulnerability, Jacob T. Blank
MSU Graduate Theses
Strategic scholars have long understood the indispensable linkage between culture and security policymaking. By shaping the perceptions through which decision-makers formulate security policy, strategic culture analysis adds vital context to the perilously difficult science of understanding and predicting state security outputs. One area where this analytical framework fails to generate the expected result is American missile defense policy. Salient themes of US strategic culture, including an optimistic and problem-solving mindset, positive role of machines, and ahistorical exceptionalism, are reflected in the American way of war – a technologically driven, leadership casualty averse, moralistic, apolitical, and firepower focused enterprise. These factors …
The Impact Of Nato´S Ballistic Missile Defense Efforts On The Relationship With Russia, Christian Hofmann
The Impact Of Nato´S Ballistic Missile Defense Efforts On The Relationship With Russia, Christian Hofmann
MSU Graduate Theses
Strategic missile defense or anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems are considered deterrence by denial assets. The debate on the question if these systems stabilize or destabilize the balance of power between nuclear powers is still unresolved. This work reviews this impact using the example of the East – West relationship by focusing on NATO´s missile defense efforts. This is done in two parts. The first is a historical part, reviewing the East – West relationship during the Cold War based on strategic arsenals, crisis events and arms control talks related to missile defense developments. The second part reviews the development since …
How Competition Undermines Deterrence, Kayse Jansen
How Competition Undermines Deterrence, Kayse Jansen
MSU Graduate Theses
The re-emergence of great power competition has brought with it a U.S. government-wide initiative to reclaim and strengthen advantage and influence across all elements of national power. Competition is considered necessary to secure American interests and protect the existing liberal international order, as well as uphold deterrence by enhancing the nation’s ability to impose costs and deny benefits. This view, however, neglects a critical factor in deterrence: the cost of restraint, which reflects the acceptability of the status quo. Paradoxically, the more successful the nation is at “competition,” the less likely it may be in important deterrence situations. Successful diplomatic …
Utilizing Strategic Culture As A Tool To Tailor U.S. Deterrence Policy Towards Iran, Ryan P. Taylor
Utilizing Strategic Culture As A Tool To Tailor U.S. Deterrence Policy Towards Iran, Ryan P. Taylor
MSU Graduate Theses
The geostrategic environment since the end of the Cold War has drastically changed the way United States (U.S.) policymakers develop strategies to combat a wide range of hostile threats facing the country, especially in the field of the deterrence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Iran is such an actor, who poses one of the greater proliferation threats in the world and continues to commit hostile actions in the Middle East. In this post-Cold War environment, it is imperative that the United States develop a tailored deterrence strategy to meet this challenge. Past deterrence strategies popular during the bipolar era …
Disaggregating The United States Military: An Analysis Of The Current Organizational And Management Structure Of U.S. National Security Policy As It Relates To Military Operations In Space, Joseph M. Zeman
MSU Graduate Theses
This thesis was written to provide the reader with a comprehensive assessment about the realities of the current organizational and management structure of United States national security policy as it relates to the conduct of military operations in space. To create an encompassing argument, this thesis considers the current organizational structure of United States space policy while acknowledging that space has, in fact, become a warfighting domain. A reorganization of this magnitude has the potential to generate a succinct chain of command for military space operations while condensing the space acquisitions process and ultimately providing military space operations with the …
Midnight In America: Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse And The 21st Century Threat To The United States, Angela Weaver
Midnight In America: Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse And The 21st Century Threat To The United States, Angela Weaver
MSU Graduate Theses
The electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects produced by the detonation of a nuclear weapon at high altitude are capable of causing widespread destruction in the U.S. homeland with few to no immediate casualties. The threat of nuclear EMP attack against the United States was recognized as probable during the Cold War but as time passed, the threat lost consciousness among U.S. policy makers as other issues and threats rose to the forefront. Simultaneously, the United States military and civilian society grew increasingly reliant upon emerging electronic systems and capabilities while adversary nations and rogue states rapidly pursued nuclear weapons capabilities. Today, …
Challenges Of Implementing Defense Policies To Deter Hostile Actors In Space And Cyberspace, Stephan Dwayne Bjerring Powers
Challenges Of Implementing Defense Policies To Deter Hostile Actors In Space And Cyberspace, Stephan Dwayne Bjerring Powers
MSU Graduate Theses
Space and cyber operations have changed national security for both nations and non-state actors worldwide. The low barriers to entry have allowed less sophisticated nations and actors to have an impact on the U.S. and near-peer nations. The lack of attribution and the ability to obfuscate the source of the space or cyber weapon will make the case for wartime retaliation difficult. The highly proactive antisatellite weapons test conducted by China in 2007 and the alleged employment of Stuxnet against Iran's nuclear program by the United States and Israel illustrates the potentially destabilizing effects to high priority national programs. If …
Reversing The Tao: A Framework For Credible Space Deterrence, Christopher Michael Stone
Reversing The Tao: A Framework For Credible Space Deterrence, Christopher Michael Stone
MSU Graduate Theses
This thesis was written to provide the reader with a firm understanding of the realities of the current DoD space deterrence concept, its shortcomings and the threat that these shortcomings pose to the United States and its Allies if a more realistic, credible space deterrence concept is not created and deployed. To highlight these shortcomings, a review of deterrence theory from classical to modern writers were explored to compare and contrast with the DoD's present concept to highlight its lack of deterrence theory. In addition, it was highlighted through an analysis of the Chinese view of deterrence in space, space …