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1282. Fighting on Borrowed Time: The effect on US military readiness of America's post-9/11 wars
- Author:
- Carl Conetta
- Publication Date:
- 09-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- Considerable controversy surrounds the effects of America's post-9/11 wars on its armed forces – more specifically, their effects on military readiness. And there are grounds enough for concern in the August 2006 admission by General Peter Pace, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, that two-thirds of the US Army's active and reserve combat brigades registered in the two lowest readiness categories.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Defense Policy, and War
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
1283. War and Consequences: Global terrorism has increased since 9/11 attacks
- Author:
- Carl Conetta
- Publication Date:
- 09-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- Since the onset of the US “global war on terrorism”, the operational capacity of the original “Al Qaeda” centered around Osama bin-Laden has been significantly degraded. Hundreds of cadre formerly commanded by bin-Laden have been killed (mostly during the Afghan war). Several top leaders of the organization have been killed or captured – most notably Mohammed Atef, Abu Zubaydah, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – as have several leading regional associates, such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Dozens of third tier operatives have been killed or captured. Nonetheless, the organization continues to function in a more decentralized form.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Terrorism, and War
- Political Geography:
- United States
1284. Mechanized Tube Artillery as an Integral Element of Expeditionary Forces
- Author:
- Lutz Unterseher
- Publication Date:
- 05-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- Somewhat before the demise of the Crusader system, which would have been the world's heaviest mechanized howitzer, a vivid debate on the future of artillery began. This has further intensified in the related debate between the proponents of solid armor and the advocates of 'traveling light'.
- Topic:
- Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Economics, and War
1285. A Few Thoughts on the Evolution of Infantry: Past, Present, Future
- Author:
- Lutz Unterseher
- Publication Date:
- 05-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- During the Seven Years War a young, handsome and daring cavalryman in the Prussian Army was observed taking sexual liberties with his beautiful mare. This indiscretion was brought to the attention of King Frederic II. Advisors fretted as to what would become of the army as a fighting force, and of war in general, if such behavior were to spread across all ranks of mounted personnel. Many expected the king would have this deed punished in the most draconian manner. Frederic decided otherwise and simply ordered : “Transfer that chap to the infantry!”
- Topic:
- Security, Development, and War
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Prussia
1286. QDR 2006: Do the forces match the mission? DOD gives little reason to believe
- Author:
- Carl Conetta
- Publication Date:
- 02-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- As originally conceived the Quadrennial Defense Review was meant to help ensure the internal consistency of mid-and longer-term US defense planning. By “internal consistency” I here mean a concordance of strategy, assets, and budgets. As critics often put it in the past: the point is to show how the force fits the strategy and the budget fits the force. The exercise is supposed to “connect” our military strategy with our force development plans and, in turn, connect these with current and future budgets. In this regard, the 2006 QDR is long on assertion and short on quantification – “short” as in utterly lacking.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Economics, and War
- Political Geography:
- United States
1287. Indivisibility, Fairness, Farsightedness and their Implications for Security
- Author:
- S. Mansoob Murshed
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This paper is concerned with the problems of achieving lasting peace. One dimension includes fairly sharing the post-war economic and political pie or the peace dividend. This requires post-war allocations that are envy free. Many peace agreements that end civil wars are notoriously unstable in that they are often not implemented, or break down after some time. Commitments to the peace treaty are simply not credible. One reason for that could be certain indivisibilities in perceived shares of power and income in the peace settlement, as well as the inability to correctly infer the value of path dependence when future reputation depends on present actions but the future is heavily discounted. The paper also discusses the role of another type of unfairness, namely a deep sense of humiliation, in determining acts of transnational terrorism, where force may not be the answer in attempting to deter deeply motivated persons.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Economics, Peace Studies, and War
1288. How Many Weapons Are There in Cambodia?
- Author:
- Christina Wille
- Publication Date:
- 06-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Small Arms Survey
- Abstract:
- This background paper explains the evidence and logic for the small arms and light weapons stockpile estimates for Cambodia that are presented in the 2006 Small Arms Survey yearbook chapter (Small Arms Survey, 2006) and other Small Arms Survey publications on Cambodia. These state that there are 107,000–188,000 small arms and light weapons presently in government stockpiles, and 22,000–85,000 weapons outside of government control.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Arms Control and Proliferation, and War
- Political Geography:
- Cambodia and Southeast Asia
1289. Islands of Safety in a Sea of Guns: Gun-free Zones in South Africa
- Author:
- Adèle Kirsten
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Small Arms Survey
- Abstract:
- On 27 April 1994, millions of South Africans cast their votes in the country's first fully democratic general elections, signalling an end to more than 350 years of political rule by a white minority over the black majority. South Africa's history is one of colonial conquest, dispossession, segregation, and repression; one in which firearms played an important role in maintaining the border between the oppressed and the oppressor, between the colonized and the colonizer. With the state's implementation of apartheid policies after 1948, which further entrenched white rule, the military expanded its influence into all areas of social life, becoming a pervasive element in South African society. In response to the increased repression by the apartheid state, resistance organizations turned to armed violence as one strand in the strategy for national liberation. Many members of the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC) regarded themselves as soldiers fighting in a people's war. Although many held that South Africa was at war, it was generally accepted that the conflict was a low-level civil war, commonly referred to as 'low intensity conflict' (Cock and Nathan, 1989). As a result of several factors, such as internal mass mobilization against apartheid and increasing international pressure for a political solution to the South African conflict, negotiations for a new political dispensation started in 1990, culminating in a democratic constitution and the 1994 elections.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Arms Control and Proliferation, and War
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Island
1290. The Korean War June-October 1950: Inchon and Stalin in the "Trigger vs. Justification"; Debate
- Author:
- Tan Kwoh Jack
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
- Abstract:
- China's decision to enter the Korean War in 1950 is a historical puzzle: why would China, a much weaker country, enter into a military confrontation with the United States, a superpower? The rationale for Chairman Mao Zedong's intervention in Korea carries strategic lessons for the contemporary crisis on the Korean Peninsula, as well as for Sino-American relations. Utilizing newly declassified Russian documents made available at the Cold War International History Project from 1994- 2004, this paper critically assesses this new evidence concurrently with the existing literature that has emerged so far, and seeks to contribute to the “trigger vs. justification” debate surrounding China'sentry. Three shortcomings of this debate are identified: 1) whether Mao would have intervened had the US military stopped at the 38 th parallel is difficult to determine; 2) Mao' s vacillations up till the very last minute cast doubt on the justification argument i.e. offensive intervention driven by revolutionary ideology and politics; and 3) as a result, this ignores the complex dimensions of decision-making and interaction between Stalin and the Chinese leadership, as well as within the Chinese leadership itself. This paper argues that one significant variable overlooked heretofore is the American landings at Inchon on 19 September 1950. This is followed by in-depth analyses of the following three main interactions that Inchon engendered – 1) the policy shifts within the Truman administration; 2) the Stalin-Mao manoeuvres; and 3) the debates and dilemmas within the Chinese Politburo. This paper concludes that it was Inchon, along with additional pressure from Stalin, and not the crossing of the 38 th parallel, that triggered China's eventual entry into Korea.
- Topic:
- Security and War
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia