Defense Issues Research Articles

Threat Environment for a United Korea: 2010

Threat Environment for a United Korea: 2010

Public-Good Movements and the Dimensions of Political Process

Although nuclear war would have proven equally deadly to all West Germans, only certain people at certain times mobilized against this potential danger. What explains the cyclicity of peace protest, the composition of movement activism, and variations in organizational structure over time? Adopting a political process framework, a three-pronged argument is made. The timing, duration, and size of peace mobilization cycles reflected the mix of opportunities and constraints provided by the public-policy process and other aspects of politics. The framing of defense issues by institutions and extraparliamentary groups strongly influenced the composition of movement activism. Adequate organizational capacities depended on the availability of autonomous extraparliamentary networks. Although the political process framework has usually served to analyze citizenship movements, it is adapted here to a public-good movement.

Affordability, Logistics R&D and Fleet Systems

ABSTRACTThe Fleet continues to require high performance systems that can operate with dependability in the seas' unforgiving environments and under hostile action. Those demands are not new. What has changed is the urgent priority formerly assigned to national defense issues. The arguments for continued superpower military strength are now roiled in politics along with unsettled budgets and uncertain force level projections. Current expectations revolve about indefinite fiscal and operational issues (difficult funding constraints and broadband threats). In the actual event of “doing more with less,” a practical response is to apply the creative power available from sound engineering judgement and the crucible of experience to the immediate needs of the Fleet. The attempt to shorten the path between advanced development effort and Fleet use has been tried occasionally in the past, often, without exemplary results. The Sustainable Hardware and Affordable Readiness Practices (SHARP) program, is a generic R&D effort under OpNav sponsorship that has been working steadily on sensible solutions to product engineering problems. Armed today with fast‐time, large‐scale computation abilities and modern tools for technical problem solving coupled with specialized engineering knowledge, it has been refreshed and is underway satisfying existing Fleet needs. The relationship between fully responsive engineering services and current operational needs is always demanding. The connection between advanced engineering development (6.3 category funds) and immediate Fleet usage brings added complexity and challenge, both technical and organizational. Illustrative examples of affordable engineering solutions to “retain, revise, replace or retire” questions are presented within the context of both Fleet realities and budgetary limitations. The discussion covers legacy system support, civil/military considerations and Fleet maintenance issues. It describes the substantial and critical payoffs in cost, schedule and performance that are possible when product engineering professionals can concentrate their diverse talents upon operational urgencies.

Past British chemical warfare capabilities

Graham Pearson joined the MoD in 1962. He has managed defence research at a senior level, becoming Director General (Research and Development) in the Royal Ordnance Factories. He was Director General of the Chemical Defence Establishment‐when, it became the Defence Support Agency in 1991. In 1995 he was appointed Assistant Chief Scientific Adviser (Non‐Proliferation) in the MoD. Both have writ‐ten extensively on chemical and biological defence issues and continue their interest in the area into retirement.

The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army.

From pike and musket to Challenger tanks, the Napoleonic wars to the Falklands campaign, the Duke of Marlborough to Field Marshal Montgomery, The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army charts the colourful history of the British Army from its medieval origins to the present day. Bringing together familiar campaigns and military commanders - Waterloo and D-Day, the Duke of York and Clive of India - this compelling volume places them within their own times and discusses the politics, military strategy and economic influences of each period. What is the role of the army in peace as well as wartime? How is the army recruited? Is there a pattern to British military policy? These and other relevant questions are raised by this history. The discussions are brought right up-to-date with a look at the army of the future. Complete with over 250 illustrations in colour and black and white, The Illustrated History of the British Army is a highly readable and thorough history which will both entertain and educate. From the Introduction: `One such enduring theme of continuity is perhaps the anti-militarist tradition of the British reflected as much in complaints to the Elizabethan Council about popular pastimes such as bowls preventing regular archery practice as in the relative lack of interest in defence issues in the late Twentieth Century.' `The notion of the army being a projectile fired by the Royal Navy has been an attractive one for many over the centuries.' `The army has been remarkably successful and, over the course of its official existence, Britain has lost only one major war, namely that for American Independence between 1775 and 1783. Indeed, it might be argued that Britain largely possessed a better army than it sometimes deserved.' This book is intended for military historians.

Bringing Politics Back in: Defense Policy and the Theoretical Study of Institutions and Processes

In 1960, Morris Janowitz argued publication of Samuel Huntington's landmark study, The Soldier and State, represented the first time since Alexis de Tocqueville American military institutions were being analyzed as an aspect of American political process (1960; 5). A decade later, Robert Miewald criticized scholars in public administration their neglect of military. It is now obvious, he wrote, that few students of public administration have been moved to heed periodic cries military organization be considered an integral part of their field of study. Despite importance of military today, more scholarly care seems to have been lavished on mosquito abatement districts (1970; 129). A more recent assessment argued there were not adequate successors to 1960s classics in defense scholarship, nor was there an authoritative scholarly analysis of U.S. defense buildup in 1980s (Walt, 1991; 227). A recent review of Allison's innovative treatment of Cuban Missile Crisis noted for courses dealing with bureaucracy and foreign policy there are few alternatives to Essence of Decision (Bendor and Hammond, 1992; 301), first parts of which were published a quarter-century ago. We find these observations to be indicative of a long-standing neglect - by both political scientists and defense analysts - of connection between military and study of American political institutions. Although intellectual landscape is not as barren as these critics charge,(1) theoretical and practical literatures on public administration and American institutions typically avoid study of defense policy and military organizations. Few political scientists trained in either American institutions or policy studies focus on defense as their substantive area, leaving field to those trained in defense policy and international relations, who in turn have neglected domestic political aspects of security policy (Nye and Lynn-Jones, 1988; Welch, 1992) despite recognition of domestic-international linkages in other policy areas (Davis, 1993; Chubb, 1983, 1989). Scholars have noted existence of this gap, but our goal in this article is to explain why gap exists and illustrate how it might be bridged. In our view, lack of engagement stems from two assumptions about military policy which discourage scholars from looking at how politics - which we take to mean competition between actors and institutions over control of policy and goals, rather than pork barrel, bureaucratic, or electoral politics - affects defense issues. First, most studies of American politics assume defense and civilian policies are so different they belong in separate fields. Second, most defense analysts adopt normative assumption defense policy making should be above politics. As a result, scholars in both fields avoid thinking about connections between political structures, political relationships, and defense policy outputs. We address these issues and then show effort to depoliticize defense policy is actually part of a broader debate in public administration and public policy studies: striking proper balance between expertise (which is politically neutral) and accountability to elected officials. In virtually every domestic policy arena, as in study of defense policy, analysts bemoan intervention of politics in definition, administration, and evaluation of public policy. Our effort to find some common ground between defense policy and study of institutions led us to recent developments in what is commonly referred to as new economics of organization. Its framework of principals, agents, and transaction costs associated with bringing about compliance has been applied to a number of domestic policy areas (Moe, 1984, 1989; McCubbins, 1985; Weingast, 1984; Wood and Waterman, 1991; Woolley, 1993) but has not yet been used to investigate questions about defense policy. …

Defence and security—a European perspective

The ongoing debate about the future shape of Europe is one which brings out strong feelings in many members of the European Union. The question as to when and to what extent the Union should merge into a single unit, politically and on security and defence issues is now dominating the agenda. Here Dr Peter Schmidt analyses the differing models for development from the European perspective, in particular the structural elements limiting growth towards centralisation and ways in which the EU could deal with the diversities and differences that characterise it. He pleads finally for compromise and balance to create solutions rather than problems for the enterprise of European unity.

ASEAN labour migration: Implications for regional stability

Abstract In the post‐cold war era, transnational migratory forces and trends have greatly re‐configured the globe, making any systematic understanding difficult. This article attempts to induce some clarity in understanding the phenomena by way of relating migration forces and flows with security and stability, especially as these concepts pertain to Southeast Asia in particular and the Asia‐Pacific region in general. It argues that instabilities are likely to persist as long as states and societies in the region continue to view security and migration from a narrow (albeit, compartmentalized) perspective. Changing notions of security now compel nations to re‐think the defence threats and issues that confront them. Security is now increasingly seen from a multi‐dimensional (i.e. developmental) standpoint where labour flows and markets play an important role. At the same time, transnational labour migration causes a number of socio‐cultural, economic and political tensions that highlight the security sensi...

A primer on Bulgarian security and defense issues

A primer on Bulgarian security and defense issues

Security and defence issues of the former Soviet Union and central and eastern Europe

(1994). Security and defence issues of the former Soviet Union and central and eastern Europe. Diplomacy & Statecraft: Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 485-494.

French defence policy after the white paper

As the conflict in the former Yugoslavia has shown, the end of the Cold War has brought both greater instability to Europe and the need for greater cooperation to work towards stability. The mutual interest of France and Britain in European security and defence issues in particular has drawn the countries closer together, as the operational achievements of troops on the ground in the former Yugoslavia has proved. Admiral Lanxade, as Chief of the French Defence Staff, here discusses the recent French White Paper on Defence and outlines French responses to international developments, their policy objectives and how they aim to achieve them, stressing the importance of an evolving European identity working with‐in the Atlantic Alliance to strengthen regional and international security.

‘Nation shall speak peace unto nation'∗: The BBC's response to peace and defence issues, 1945–581

Why did the first nuclear disarmament movement fail to change official policies? Much of the response to this question has focused on the movement's internal divisions and conflicts. Surprisingly, little has been written about the role of external influences such as the media. This article draws on BBC archives to demonstrate that the corporation censored not only peace campaigners but also discussion of nuclear war and its effects. The BBC despite its vaunted independence and impartiality acted as the Establishment's voice, promoting the official line on defence, muzzling or restricting the expression of conflicting views. From 1945 to 1954 the issues posed by nuclear arms were generally avoided; after 1954 the BBC responded to public concern by discouraging controversy. It also participated in an official counter‐campaign against critics of nuclear war. Consequently, a full analysis of the failure of the peace movements of the 1950s must take into account the strength of the state's sophisticated inform...

Presidential Support in Congress: Conflict and Consensus on Foreign and Defense Policy

In a recent article appearing in The Journal of Politics, McCormick and Wittkopf (1990) argue that the Vietnam War did not exercise a significant impact on bipartisan presidential support in the U.S. Congress and that a bipartisan Cold War consensus on foreign policy and defense issues in the House and Senate was not as prominent as many had assumed. I develop a comprehensive model of bipartisan congressional support of presidents from 1947-1988 on foreign policy and defense roll-call votes in the House and Senate that test the impact of many factors, such as presidential influence and legislative processes not accounted for in McCormick and Wittkopf's analysis. Using probit analysis of individual roll-call votes, I show that before the Vietnam War, substantial consensus existed in both the House and Senate and after this conflict, such consensus has become much more infrequent. In addition, I find that forces originating in Congress exercise much more influence over the incidence of bipartisan support than presidential resources.

Cardinal Choices: Presidential Science Advising from the Atomic Bomb to SDI by Gregg Herken

462 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE The “outer space” envisioned by pre-20th-century writers and illus­ trators had more in common with Amerigo Vespucci’s frontier than with Neil Armstrong’s. Space enthusiasts’ reliance on the metaphors of the Adantic and North American reconnaissance betrays more than an ig­ norance of (or indifference to) the harsher realities ofglobal conquest. It reveals as well an inability to come to terms with the profoundly limited experiences for human touch, sound, smell, movement, and contact with other living things to be had by space voyagers. Second, the rhetorical insistence that “humanity’s destiny” both accounts for and demands more space exploration is highly problem­ atic. Thus far the vanguard of this “human destiny” has been led by two countries: one in total political and economic disarray, and the other boasting a lower voting rate than France, Portugal, the Neth­ erlands, Denmark, Italy, and Turkey; more murders per capita than Denmark, France, Spain, Great Britain, and Finland; more rapes per capita than Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Japan; a lower percentage of middle-class households than Japan, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia; and producing more pounds of garbage per capita than Denmark, Great Britain, Spain, and Austria. Third, no author grapples head-on with the most stubborn challenge to the future exploration ofspace. This next frontieris unlikely to become a “land ofopportunity” for the new world’s “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” That is why, to so many, the space program seems more costly than, in fact, it is. The “blueprint for space” still needs a lot ofwork. Sylvia K. Kraemer Dr. Kraemer is director of the Office of Special Studies at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She is the author of NASA Engineers and the Age of Apollo, published under the surname Fries. Cardinal Choices: Presidential Science Advisingfrom the Atomic Bomb to SDI. By Gregg Herken. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp· xiv + 317; notes, bibliography, index. $24.95. Gregg Herken’s Cardinal Choices is a meticulously researched, comprehensive, and readable volume on an important subject. He describes the history of science advising at the White House from the decision to build the atomic bomb through the end of the Reagan administration. It is the most detailed historical account available; it admirably covers virtually everything written about the subject from formal reports to memorabilia and draws as well on numerous interviews with key participants and policymakers. Regrettably, the publisher chose not to include a valuable compendium of documents that were in an earlier draft. But there is an extensive bibliography and very detailed and useful notes. Herken has rendered great TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 463 service by going over the history of presidential science advising with such depth and care. I was constantly enriched and surprised to learn many new details on episodes that I thought I knew well. The book is less successful at an analytical or conceptual level when one starts to grapple with such questions as the “proper” role of scientists in the policy process, the relation of the expert to the politician, and why the golden age of presidential science advising passed and whether it could or should be revived. An initial problem lies with the concept of “cardinal choices.” What, exactly, is a cardinal choice? Evidently, mostly national security issues, following the loose and unsatisfactory definition of C. P. Snow as those “choices that in the broadest sense determine whether we live or die.” This concept provides a serviceable peg on which to hang the analysis for the World War II years and the initial postwar phases; scientists had, if not a monopoly, at least a leading position in knowledge of the technical dimensions of major defense issues. However, the scientists’ position eroded significantly as other presidential staff units gained in impor­ tance and as political differences within the scientific community and between scientists and politicians intensified in the 1960s. By the middle of the 1960s the president’s science advisers were largely excluded from national security policy-making. This presents some problems for the logic and structure of the book. If the presidential science advisers no longer...

Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates

We investigate the origins of voters' expectations of greater female competency on issues, such as dealing with poverty or the aged, and greater male competency on military and defense issues. We contrast two alternative explanations: gender-trait stereotypes, emphasizing a candidate's gender-linked personality traits; and gender-belief stereotypes, placing greatest importance on the differing political outlooks of male and female candidates. We test contrasting predictions from these two approaches with data from an experiment in which 297 undergraduate participants were randomly assigned to hear about a male or a female candidate with typically masculine or feminine traits. Overall, there was stronger support for the trait approach. Warm and expressive candidates were seen as better at compassion issues; instrumental candidates were rated as more competent to handle the military and economic issues. Moreover, masculine instrumental traits increased the candidate's perceived competence on a broader range of issues than the feminine traits of warmth and expressiveness. Finally, there was some limited support for the belief approach with gender-based expectations about the candidates' political views affecting their rated competency on compassion but not other types of political issues.

The House Divided: Ideological Polarization over Aid to the Nicaraguan "Contras"

This study analyzes voting patterns in the House of Representatives on aid to the Nicaraguan contras during the 98th, 99th, and 100th Congresses, in order to examine three theoretical issues: the importance of ideology as a determinant of congressional voting behavior, the relative importance of conversion and member replacement in explaining congressional policy shifts, and the impact of changes in contextual factors on members' voting decisions. As in many recent studies of defense and foreign policy issues, the member's ideology proved to be the predominant factor in explaining contra aid votes. Party and region were also significant, but the constituency's ideology and the electoral vulnerability of members were not. Though membership replacement was a key factor in the shifting balance between the pro-contra and anti-contra blocs, replacement alone was not sufficient to explain changes in the House majority. Conversion was equally important and proved to be a function of President Reagan's standing in the polls and of events in central America that altered the political atmosphere of the debate. Public opinion on the contra aid issue and the content of aid proposals showed no effect. The war in Vietnam shattered the bipartisan consensus that had supported U.S. foreign policy since World War II, inaugurating a period of renewed congressional activism (Franck and Weisband 1979; Holsti and Rosenau 1984; Crabb and Holt 1988). During Ronald Reagan's presidency, no issue better exemplified the tension between Congress and the executive than did policy toward Nicaragua. Convinced that vital U.S. security interests were at stake, President Reagan was determined to aid so-called contra rebels in their bid to overthrow the Sandinista government. Liberal Democrats, especially in the House of Representatives, were determined to stop the war. The debate over Nicaragua helped define a new balance of power between Congress and the executive branch in foreign policy. Over seven years, neither side in that debate was able to win a definitive victory. To opponents of contra aid, it seemed that, no matter how many times they voted the program down, it always managed

The Approach of British Political Parties to a Defence Role for the European Community

THE ISSUES OF DEFENCE AND EUROPE DID NOT PLAY A prominent part in the UK general election campaign of March-April 1992. One of the reasons was that public opinion polls throughout the campaign indicated consistently that domestic issues came first with the electorate. Secondly, with the disappearance of the Soviet threat and the restoration of consensus between the parties on nuclear weapons, defence was not a sufficiently contentious subject for it to be a central topic in the campaign. It was no surprise, however, that the Conservative Manifesto claimed that defence would not be safe in the hands of the opposition parties and that their policies would result in huge job losses in the defence sector.

The human resource dimension of Defence and Peace Economics: An introduction

Economists have neglected the human resource dimension of defence issues. The one major exception is conscription. But this misses numerous other fields of application. Trends in modern public policy and in corporate management ensure a shift towards an enhanced human resource focus as does the long-term pressure of Baumol's “cost-disease”. This should spill over to defence. Also the new institutional labour economics has an excellent laboratory awaiting it in this field of defence human resources.

Testing the Parochial Hypothesis: Congress and the Strategic Defense Initiative

Conventional wisdom holds that members of Congress vote the economic interests of their constituencies on defense issues. Previous studies for the most part have failed to find evidence of parochial voting, but these studies are open to a variety of methodological criticisms. This paper reexamines the parochial hypothesis by analyzing congressional voting on the Strategic Defense Initiative. Even though the methodological problems of earlier studies are addressed and constituency benefit is measured in several different ways, this study finds little evidence of parochialism. Moreover, like previous studies this analysis finds that members' general defense views best predict voting. The persistent finding that ideology and not economics explains defense voting in Congress suggests the need to develop our understanding of the connection between the policy views of individual members and legislative behavior

Psychopathic disorder: a category mistake? A legal response to Colin Holmes.

Holmes is concerned with a conflict between law and medicine about the problem of psychopathy, in particular as it relates to homicide. He looks for a consistent set of legal principles based on a variety of medical concepts and in doing so criticises the court for its commonsense approach, its disregard for medical evidence and for employing lay notions of responsibility and illness. This commentary explores how Holmes's notions fit into existing legal rules and explains how the court seeks the assistance of medical evidence when looking at the evidence as a whole to enable it to decide upon issues of defence, which involve legal and not medical concepts.