Digital Commons Network^™

Law And War,Edited By Austin Serrat, Lawrence Douglas, And Martha Merrill Umphrey, John Merriam

Naval War College Review

Law and War is a collection of five essays on the role of law in war offered as part of the Amherst Series in Law, Jurispru- dence, and Social Thought. What ties the essays together is their shared interest in “interrogating the assumption . . . that the insertion of law into war is necessar- ily a salutary achievement.” But this con- nection is often loose, and, while several of the essays have a great deal of indi- vidual merit, it is perhaps a weakness of the book that it lacks the degree of overall coherence that one might expect.

Book Reviews, The U.S. Naval War College

Naval War College Review

No abstract provided.

Undersea Lawfare: Can The U.S. Navy Fall Victim To This Asymmetric Warfare Threat?, Michael T. Palmer, J. Michael Johnson

Naval War College Review

As the world’s only superpower, the United States of America finds itself challenged by adversaries who know they cannot confront it directly, toe to toe, on traditional battlefields, or on or under the world’s oceans. In their attempts to follow Sun Tzu’s instruction to “subdue the enemy without fighting,” potential adversaries of the United States continuously assess and probe American strengths and weaknesses to identify vulnerabilities for military, political, and industrial exploitation. It is not fully appreciated, assessed, or addressed by American policy makers and warfighters how vulnerable the U.S. military is to the threat of “lawfare,” both international and …

Systems Of Denial: Strategic Resistance To Military Innovation, Andrew Hill, Stephen Gerras

Naval War College Review

Successful organizations can be extraordinarily persistent and creative in denying the obvious, ignoring signals that suggest a need to challenge key strategic assumptions. The U.S. military has been the world’s unrivaled force for twenty-five years, even lacking a peer competitor in some domains naval operations, for example since 1943. A danger of such sustained success is that the military might come to view these strategic assumptions not as ideas requiring continual reassessment but as enduring laws.

Russian A2/Ad In The Eastern Mediterranean A Growing Risk, Jonathan Altman

Naval War College Review

Much has been written about the challenges posed by the Chinese adoption of what the U.S. military calls “A2/AD” (antiaccess/area-denial) in the western Pacific. Accordingly, the Pacific remains a key focus area for the U.S. Navy and Air Force, and more recently the Army, with the Navy promising to put 60 percent of its forces in that theater as part of the “Pacific pivot.” Yet as focus remains on the Pacific, the rest of the world is not standing still. This is exemplified in the eastern Mediterranean, where the Russians have begun laying the seeds to create an A2/AD zone …

The Evolution Of Interstate Security Crisis-Managementtheory And Practice In China, Alastair Iain Johnston

Naval War College Review

As the frequency and scope of China’s paramilitary and military presence activities in the East and South China Seas have increased in the last few years, officials and analysts inside and outside China have worried more and more about the potential for military crises erupting between China and other actors. Given the perceived high stakes of many of these potential disputes—they touch on sovereignty, territorial integrity, national dignity, and development resources—some observers are concerned about the risks of escalation to military conflict, whether deliberate or accidental.1 Adding to the worries is uncertainty about China’s commitment to crisis management and escalation …

America’S Security Role In The South China Sea, Andrew S. Erickson

Naval War College Review

Allow me to share my assessment of the current situation in the South China Sea, followed by my recommendations concerning how the U.S. government should understand the situation and how it may best work to address it.

President’S Forum, P. Gardner Howe Iii

Naval War College Review

Throughout its history, the U.S. Naval War College has continually adapted its educational and research programs to accommodate the shifting international security environment in order to educate the Navy’s future leaders effectively. From the introduction of war gaming into the curriculum in the 1880s to the “Turner Revolution” in the mid-1970s, the College has responded to the needs of the service by updating its curriculum and teaching methods and by establishing programs and activities designed not only to keep pace with change but to anticipate it.

From The Editors, Robert Ayer

Naval War College Review

No abstract provided.

The Pacific War And Contingent Victory: Why Japanese Defeat Was Not Inevitable, By Michaelw. Myers, Richard J. Norton

Naval War College Review

The Pacific War and Contingent Victory is “an exercise in the elucidation of terms”—an exercise necessary to determine whether the Empire of Japan could have avoided defeat at the hands of the United States and its allies.

The General Vs. The President: Macarthur And Truman At The Brink Of Nuclear War, By H. W. Brands, David L. Teska

Naval War College Review

The relief of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur by President Harry S. Truman remains one of the most controversial and debated wartime command decisions made in the military history of the United States. By April 1951, Douglas MacArthur was at the peak of his game as a military leader.

The Warrior, Military Ethics And Contemporarywarfare: Achilles Goes Asymmetrical, By Paulinem. Kaurin, Thomas E. Creely

Naval War College Review

Pauline Kaurin is associate professor of philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University, specializing in the just war tradition and military ethics. For this volume, Kaurin developed her research during time at the U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Military Academy and in dialogue with academic colleagues in the International Society for Military Ethics.

The Role Of The Royal Navy In South America,1920–1970, By Jon Wise, Angus Ross

Naval War College Review

Although arguably not a very enticing title for American naval professionals, this small, hardback book is nonetheless well worth their time. The author’s aim is to illustrate the contribution that the maritime service can make to a nation’s foreign policy in peacetime, and in particular to the health of its shipbuild- ing and defense exports.

Vietnam Narratives And The Collective Memoryof The Vietnam War, By John A. Wood, Breanne Robertson

Naval War College Review

More than forty years after the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam in 1973, the conflict looms large in Ameri- can popular culture and memory. Vivid depictions of guerrilla warfare, antiwar protests, and psychologically troubled veterans proliferate in print and film.

Warring Navies: India-Pakistan; Indian Navy’Srole In The Indo-Pak Wars, By Ranji Rai And Joseph Chacko, Patrick Bratton

Naval War College Review

Ranji Rai and Joseph Chacko’s book,Warring Navies, is a welcome addition to the scant coverage of the naval history of South Asia.The authors area retired Indian navy commodore and a defense journalist, respectively, and the book draws heavily on Commodore Rai’s experiences in the navy. The book itself crosses the boundaries between memoirs and popular history, covering the history of the Indian navy’s operations from independence through theend of the Cold War.

A Military History Of Japan: From The Age Of The Samurai To The 21st Century, By John T. Kuehn, J. Overton

Naval War College Review

Japan is at an inflection point. Depending on how particular peoples and nations view this enigmatic country, it now either is turning away from rightly enforced demilitarization and back toward the more martial and expansionist policies of its past, or is working to become a security provider concomitant with its economic power.

Torch: North Africa And The Allied Path To Victory, By Vincent P. O' Hara, Richard J. Norton

Naval War College Review

In the literary mountain of scholarship, research, and writing devoted to World War II, the story of Operation TORCH, the Allied landings in North Africa in November of 1942, is presented often as something of an overture to the massive amphibious symphonies that followed.

Summer 2017 Full Issue, The U.S. Naval War College

Naval War College Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Reading, John E. Jackson

Naval War College Review

In late February 2017, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) launched his more comprehensive and digitally focused CNO Professional Reading Program (CNO- PRP). The revised program comprises over 140 books, which are arranged in categories that align with the “Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority.”

Book Reviews, Patrick Bratton, Thomas F. Creely, Charles Edel, Nicholas Murray

Naval War College Review

No abstract provided.

Foundations Of Moral Obligation, Thomas J. Gibbons

Naval War College Review

In these times of ethical uncertainty, especially among senior Navy leaders amid the ongoing “Fat Leonard” fiasco, we need to look to our roots. The Foundations of Moral Obligation elective, otherwise known as “The Stockdale Course,” has been a mainstay at the Naval War College (NWC) for most of the past forty years.

Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale, USN, the fortieth President of the College, collaborated with Dr. Joseph Brennan, a professor emeritus from Columbia University’s Barnard College, to develop the elective shortly after Stockdale assumed the presidency. Little did they know how popular the elective would become and the …

Epictetus Vs. Aristotle, Mark N. Jensen

Naval War College Review

The virtue theoretic approach to ethics locates moral value primarily in the character of the agent rather than in the rules governing an act or the con- sequences that follow from it. Concerns about the character of the agent long have been a central preoccupation of military organizations.

Organization And Innovation, Greg Smith

Naval War College Review

In 2015, the Secretary of the Navy asserted that the F-35 likely would be the last manned fighter aircraft the Navy would buy, and the Department of Defense (DoD) embarked on a Third Offset Strategy that plans to leverage unmanned and autonomous systems (UASs) and human-machine teams to ensure technologi- cal superiority over potential adversaries.

Impacts Of The Robotics Age On Naval Force Design, Effectiveness, And Acquisition, Jeffrey E. Kline

Naval War College Review

The twenty-first century will see the emergence of maritime powers that have the capacity and capability to challenge the U.S. Navy for control of the seas. Unfortunately, the Navy’s ability to react to emerging maritime powers’ rapid growth and technological advancement is constrained by its own planning, acquisition, and political processes. Introducing our own technology advances is hindered as well.

Tactics Of Strategic Competition, Van Jackson

Naval War College Review

Defense analysts and policy makers now refer routinely to the challenges of operating in a “gray zone” of conflict, which coincides with recent scholarly efforts to analyze more rigorously conflicts short of traditional coercion or war. Yet despite its frequent contemporary usage, the term gray zone does not seem to describe anything new.

Maritime Trade Warfare, Christopher J. Mcmahon

Naval War College Review

Maritime trade warfare, also called commerce warfare, is a naval/military strategy that has been followed since ancient times. 1 The idea of maritime trade warfare is to attack or neutralize the commercial shipping of one’s enemy in an effort to disrupt the enemy’s economy, make it more difficult for the enemy to continue waging war by disrupting the enemy’s military supply chain that uses the sea, or both.

President’S Forum, Jeffrey A.. Harley

Naval War College Review

Since assuming my position as Naval War College (NWC) President last July, I have identified four broad elements of a vision under which the institution will Operationalize, Navalize, Futurize, and Internationalize its education and research efforts, with an overall goal of contributing to the professionalism and capabilities of the nation’s future leaders.

Previously I addressed aspects of the vision’s operationalization component in the Naval War College Review’s Winter 2017 issue and navalization in the Spring 2017 issue. In this issue I will outline the actions we are taking on futurization.

From The Editors, The United States Naval War College

Naval War College Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Reading, John E. Jackson

Naval War College Review

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing A Shattered Egyptian Army: War Minister Gen. Mohamed Fawzi’S Memoirs, 1967–1971, Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, Richard J. Norton

Naval War College Review

No abstract provided.