The United States spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined. And Western nations in general spend far more than developing nations around the globe. Yet when Western nations have found themselves in conflicts in recent decades, their performance has been mixed at best. In his fully updated new edition of The Art of Military Coercion, Rob de Wijk presents a theory on the use of force. He argues that the key is a failure to use force decisively, to properly understand the dynamics of conflict and balance means and ends. Without that ability, superiority of dollars, numbers, and weaponry won't necessarily translate to victory.
- Cover
- Contents
- Introduction (Second and Revised Edition)
- Introduction (First Edition)
- Introduction: Understanding Coercion
- Military coercion, coercive diplomacy and political culture
- Instruments of coercion
- How this book is organized
- Part I: Political Culture: Why the West Coerces
- 1. A Western Civilization of Warriors?
- Two cases: Iraq and Somalia
- Realism, Idealism, and interventions
- Western civilization
- A universal and superior civilization?
- The international legal order
- Transatlantic differences in political culture
- Conclusion
- 2. Liberal Democracies and Interventions
- Democracy and the justification of interventions
- Democratization and war
- Democracies and interventions: the Cold War period
- Democracies and interventions: the post-Cold War era
- The decay of the non-intervention principle
- America’s primacy
- Conclusion
- 3. The Strategic Efficacy of Power Instruments
- The theoretical foundation of coercion
- Decision making
- The instruments of coercion
- The dynamics of coercion
- Two strategies of coercion
- Applications of military force in coercion strategies
- Strategies and Opponents
- Policy implications
- Part 2: Strategic Culture: How the West Coerces
- 4. The Evolution of Modern Military Doctrine
- Flexible response
- Active defense
- Interoperability
- Attrition warfare versus maneuver warfare
- The debate on active defense
- The European reactions
- AirLand Battle and NATO tactical doctrine
- Follow-on Forces Attack
- Doubts about the feasibility of AirLand Battle
- The doctrinal mess of the 1990s
- Lessons learned: the development of joint doctrine
- New capabilities for full spectrum dominance
- Two strategic cultures
- Conclusion
- 5. Premodern Challenges and the Modern and Postmodern World
- Trends explained
- Interstate conflicts
- Intrastate wars and complex contingencies
- Non-state actors and the use of black holes
- Religious anti-systemic terrorism
- Biological and chemical threats
- Nuclear and radiological weapons
- Missile proliferation
- Conclusion
- 6. Dealing with Complex Security Challenges
- Western preoccupations
- Savage warfare
- Revolutionary warfare
- Planning an operation
- Special forces and intelligence
- The Chechen wars
- Operation Defensive Shield
- Operation Cast Lead
- Afghanistan: Operation Enduring Freedom
- Afghanistan: the stabilization phase
- Unified Protector (2011)
- New doctrines
- Operation Iraqi Freedom
- Stabilization operations: reinventing population-centric COIN
- Field Manual 3-24
- NATO Doctrine
- Measuring success in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan
- Postmodern warfare
- Conclusion
- 7. The Art of Military Coercion
- The successful application of force
- The principles of military operations
- The timing of an intervention
- Coalition warfare
- Political preconditions
- Public support
- Concept of operations
- Balancing means and ends
- Military aid
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- About the author
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