Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Understanding The Indirect Strategy Moment In Global Affairs, Kumar Ramakrishna

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article argues that policymakers need to better grasp what can best be understood as the “indirect strategy moment” in global affairs. It explains what is meant by indirect strategy in the classical strategic thought, before analyzing how indirect strategy has already been applied in the post-Cold War era. The article will then illustrate how indirect strategy is being applied in the cyber, social media, and telecommunications domains, before arguing that adopting “indirect strategy lenses” appears to be rather important in order to better frame current and ongoing geostrategic developments across a range of issues and domains. A recurring theme …

Us-Russia Foreign Policy: Confronting Russia’S Geographic Anxieties, Caitlin P. Irby

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

The United States must place Russia’s focus on geographic concerns at the center of future strategy development to build a constructive relationship with Russia and achieve US regional goals. This article analyzes Russia’s geography and historical impact on Russian foreign policy, outlines Moscow’s current foreign policy goals, and highlights underlying concerns for US policymakers and military practitioners. By pursuing policies that support Russian goals of economic integration, mitigation of demographic concerns, and security of national borders, the United States can set the foundation for productive engagement on critical issues.

Continuity And Contrast In The Strategic Theories Of Four Classic Strategic Thinkers: Sun Tzu, Thucydides, Machiavelli, And Clausewitz, Morteza Safari

MSU Graduate Theses

The purpose of this research paper is to examine the thinking of four classic strategic theorists, namely Sun Tzu, Thucydides, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Carl von Clausewitz, and explore continuity and contrast in their strategic theories. In doing so, this author has structured the paper based on the fundamental architecture of strategy, that is, ends, ways and means. Since the paper specifically addresses military strategy, it first investigates what the ideas of the four theorists are on war as the military means. Then, the paper will explore the theorists’ thoughts on different strategic approaches as ways. Then, the essay will delve …

The Grand Strategy Of Gertrude Bell: From The Arab Bureau To The Creation Of Iraq, Heather S. Gregg

Monographs, Collaborative Studies, & IRPs

The remarkable life of early-twentieth-century British adventurer Gertrude Bell has been well documented through her biographies and numerous travel books. Bell’s role as a grand strategist for the British government in the Middle East during World War I and the postwar period, however, is surprisingly understudied. Investigating Gertrude Bell as both a military strategist and a grand strategist offers important insights into how Great Britain devised its military strategy in the Middle East during World War I—particularly, Britain’s efforts to work through saboteurs and secret societies to undermine the Ottoman Empire during the war and the country’s attempts to stabilize …

On “The Grand Strategic Thought Of Colin S. Gray” And Author's Response, Phillip Dolitsky, Lukas Milevski

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This commentary responds to Lukas Milevski’s article, “The Grand Strategic Thought of Colin S. Gray,” published in the Winter 2021–22 issue of Parameters (vol. 51, no. 4).

The Coercive Logic Of Militant Drone Use, Austin C. Doctor, James I. Walsh

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

While unmanned aerial systems can serve as a force multiplier for militants, these systems do not embody a transformation in modern insurgent warfare or enable militants to engage regularly in strategic coercion. Instead, drone use is consistent with a militant group’s relative capabilities and broader strategic objectives. Consequently, these groups are likely to employ drones primarily for theater and tactical military purposes.

Jdn 2-19: Hitting The Target But Missing The Mark, Ann Mezzell, J. Wesley Hutto

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Predoctrinal deliberations about the employment of the US armed forces, captured in Joint Doctrine Notes, remain critically understudied. Using comparative text analysis, this article identifies changes in recent Joint Doctrine Note depictions of military strategy. These changes risk distorting the logic of military strategy, sacrificing means-ends integration to organizational impulse, and raising the prospect of future shortfalls in US strategic effectiveness.

The Controversial F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: America's Most Expensive Weapons System And Its Global Impact, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Creative Materials

Presentation describing my 2019 Palgrave Macmillan book Global Defense Procurement and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It describes this aircraft and places particular emphasis on the government information resources from multiple countries used in writing this book.

War As Political Work: Using Social Science For Strategic Success, Matthew J. Schmidt

Political Science Faculty Publications

Army culture favors a quantitative/predictive approach to analyze problems. The author argues, however, that strategic thinking requires the relative subjectivity of a qualitative approach to problem solving.

The Civilian And The War On Terror: Do Norms Shape Strategy?, Sherri Replogle

Dissertations

Despite a growing research agenda centered on issues of civilian immunity, it remains unclear what effect norms protecting civilians have on state behavior, especially democracies. This study asks when and how the civilian immunity norm (CIN) matters, specifically examining how it alters short term strategic choices and even long term doctrines.

Employing a constructivist approach to examine shifting attitudes toward civilians within the military during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, this study argues that democracies will choose strategic outcomes that strengthen compliance with the CIN when they see the constraining normative environment as a key part of the strategic environment. …

A Science Of Context: The Qualitative Approach As Fundamental To Strategic Thought, Matthew J. Schmidt

Political Science Faculty Publications

(from book introduction, pp. 6-7) "Schmidt describes the differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches, research questions, and thought processes. Schmidt argues that quantitative methods are appropriate for tactical engagements and can inform strategic thinking, but a completely different thought process (i.e., qualitative) is necessary for success when asking questions with strategic implications. Schmidt also discusses how time delays can affect the perceived impact of qualitative modes of thinking."

Military Doctrine: A Reference Handbook, Bert Chapman

Libraries Research Publications

This is a 2009 Purdue Libraries brownbag presentation on my book Military Doctrine: A Reference Handbook. It describes how the U.S. and other countries formulate and implement strategies for conducting military operations and publishing literature describing how they conduct military operations. Additional contents include highlighting military strategy objectives of various countries and key military doctrine documents produced by these countries.

From Old Thinking To New Thinking In Qualitative Research, Stephen G. Brooks, William C. Wohlforth

Dartmouth Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Military Strategy In The Indonesian Revolution: Nasution's 'Total People's War' In Theory And Practice, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Analyses the guerrilla strategy of General A.H. Nasution, architect of Indonesia's guerrilla resistance to the Dutch in the late 1940s and finds that his strategy, unlike that of Mao or Giap, involved keeping the mass of the poeple at arm's length from the guerrilla army.

U.S. Air Force Information Resources Management: An Exploratory Study Of Policy, Brian S. Munoz

Theses and Dissertations

Information superiority and dominance is identified as Department of Defense and US Air Force critical success factors for mission effectiveness. Thus, effectively managing information and the resources which support it is a concept in which the Federal Government has a keen interest. Information Resources Management (IRM) was established within the Department of Defense (DoD) in 1983 as a tool for better managing its information in the wake of automated information processing and sharing. Over the past 15 years, numerous changes to law, policy, and other directive or guidance material have made the task of implementing an effective IRM program difficult. …