CIAO DATE: 10/2013
Volume: 15, Issue: 1
October 2013
What Will Be the Legacy of the War in Afghanistan? (PDF)
Jeff Gimour
The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible outcome of the war in Afghanistan once NATO and U.S. troops depart this country in Central Asia. Did this war become a matter of convenience after 9/11 to find a common enemy? What was the West's rationale for entering this war, in terms of the "clear and present danger" to the U.S. and her NATO allies?
Fighting Doctrines and Revolutionary Ethics (PDF)
Youmi Cormier
The expression ‘Clausewitz connection’ has become the standard go-to term for showcasing how keen many Marxists were in citing and applying ideas from On War to their revolution. That being said, the ‘connection’ has often been exaggerated, and Azar Gat made this case effectively by digging up the original exchanges between Marx and Engels and showing they were by no means devout Clausewitzians, even though they read and commented at least sections of it. Gat’s intervention brings us much closer to reality, but nonetheless overstretches in the opposite direction. Using a similar method to Gat, this essay continues unearthing further details into the relationship, but adds another dimension, by considering the surprising fact that while the Communists were indeed citing Clausewitz, not as much as has been claimed, their Anarchists co-revolutionaries in the anti-bourgeois movement were not citing him at all. This exclusive relationship tells us something about how the two groups understood the ethics of political violence as ‘instrumental’ in the Clausewitzian tradition, or as a ‘right’ in the Hegelian tradition, and how this complicated the integration of Clausewitz into communist doctrine, and made him altogether irrelevant to anarchist doctrine.
Non-Lethal Weapons and Force-Casualty Aversion in 21st Century Warfare (PDF)
Chukwuma Osakwe
Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW) such as humanitarian intervention in peacekeeping operations have been the main arguments for the development and deployment of non-lethal weapons. Such weapons which are spin-offs of the current Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) seek to reduce human casualties in warfare by reducing deaths and neutralising bloodshed. This constitutes a great leap-backward from the destructive arsenals of previous centuries. Previous studies have examined the motivation for the use of non-lethal weapons as being influenced by deterrent capability, civil policing, riot control, and stability and peace support operations. The support for the development and deployment of non-lethal weapons to avert casualties in warfare has been left in relative neglect. This paper argues that the most significant military utility of non-lethal weapons in warfare in 21st century lies in Force-Casualty Aversion (FCA).
The Military as Nation Builder: The Case of the Canadian North (PDF)
P. Whitney Lackenbauer
The Arctic has taken centre stage in not only Canadian political and security thinking in recent years, but internationally as well. Political scientist Rob Huebert, associate director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, has been leading the sovereignty and security charge in Canada for more than a decade at this point. First he warned us to fend off the Americans over the Northwest Passage, followed by the Danes over Hans Island, then the Russians when they planted flags on the seabed at the North Pole or flew close to our airspace, and now the Chinese and the Indians who are clamouring to get into the Arctic Council, access Arctic resources, and use Arctic shipping routes. Huebert perceptively notes that our Arctic policies tend to be reactive rather than proactive. We have debated our respective positions – Huebert serving, in Franklyn Griffiths’ memorable description, as the “primary purveyor of polar peril,” and me as a prognosticator of polar peace and pragmatic preparedness. I have learned a lot from our exchanges. But this is neither the narrative nor the debate that I wish to engage here.1 This paper focuses closer to home, exploring tangible ways that the military has shaped Northern nation-building in Canada – and the peculiar ways that our Northern experience has begun to shape our military.
Brock Reumkens
The Falkland Islands, located 400 miles off the coast of southern Argentina in the South Atlantic, were the site of a bitter conflict from April to June of 1982 between the military forces Argentina and the United Kingdom. The Falklands, having long been claimed by Argentina, were invaded and occupied on 2 April leading to the despatching of a naval Task Force by the United Kingdom to liberate the islands and its pro-British inhabitants. Air power played an integral role in supporting the respective Argentine and British maritime expeditionary operations, but it was ultimately the U.K.'s limited naval aviation capability which proved more effective in this role and eventually contributed towards a British victory by 14 June 1982. The purpose of this paper is to determine why British sea-based air power brought onboard its two small aircraft carriers proved more capable than Argentina's numerically-superior land-based air and naval air forces in assisting ground and naval forces in a maritime expeditionary operation. To determine why this was the case, nine factors influencing the effectiveness of land and sea-based air power will be applied to the aerial campaign of the 1982 Falklands War. Doctrine, training, aerial tactics, military technology, aerial intelligence, serviceability, military interoperability, geography, and logistics are factors applicable to the different forms of military aviation utilized by both combatants. By assessing Argentina and the U.K. in these nine areas, specific considerations and requirements for the effective employment of land and sea-based air power in support of maritime expeditionary operations will be demonstrated.
"Are we shooting?"- Strategic Communications Campaign in a Population-Centric Counterinsurgency. (PDF)
Ariel Garneau
Come 2004, progress in pacifying Iraq following the American-led invasion was not as advanced as hoped. Despite the Iraqi army’s swift defeat, pockets of resistance remained within the country, which served as home-base to suspected Al-Qaeda members and ultimately contributed to prolonging the opening stages of the occupation. For eight months, the city of Al‐Fallujah in the strategic Sunni Triangle of Iraq, stymied progress in pacifying the country. It harbored the most sought-after insurgents and enabled the logistical operations needed to keep the insurgency afloat during the crucial stages of resistance. Two attempts were needed by American-led coalition forces, to seize the city. Between OP VIGILANT RESOLVE in April 2004 and OP PHANTOM FURY in November 2004 the U.S. Department of Defense was forced to modify its approach in the wake of a disastrous first attempt, enabling a more robust strategic communications plan. The inclusion of embedded journalists as a component of a Strategic Communications plan during OP PHANTOM FURY proved crucial to American victory, and heralded the arrival of fifth generation warfare. However, in order to do so, the Pentagon was brought to resolve its long-standing and complicated relationship with the mass media, and new media, by addressing issues of bias, and neutrality in war-time reporting and the faults inherent in their communications plan. The battles for Fallujah illustrate the role and effect of Strategic Communications and DoD media policy as part of Information Operations in a population‐centric counterinsurgency. By shaping perception end‐states - the dimension encompassing the target audiences’ opinions- through embedded journalists enhanced by new media in a Strategic Communications campaign, the U.S. provided the counter-narrative to that of the Iraqi insurgency, allowing the U.S. to maintain the credibility of its actions, and mission.
The Securitization of Child Soldiers by Burmese Insurgent Groups:Preliminary Research from the Field (PDF)
Will Plowright
This paper argues that a process of securitization is occurring between international society and insurgent groups. It seeks to address the puzzle that some insurgent groups are reducing their reliance on child soldiers, even though it is not in their immediate strategic interest to do so. Even though insurgent groups are experiencing a relative decline in power in regards to the state, they are reducing their numbers of recruits while continuing to wage insurgency. In order to establish and demonstrate how the hypothesized process of securitization emerges, a plausibility probe will be used. This will be done in order to demonstrate how the process occurs in the cases of two insurgent groups. Specifically, the two groups here analyzed are the Karenni National Progressive Party and the Kachin Independence Army.
China's New Arctic Strategem: A Strategic Buyer's Approach to the Arctic (PDF)
Timothy Curtis Wright
Since China does not border on the Arctic, it has used alternative approaches to gain access to the region. This paper argues that China has gained a foothold and demonstrated its energy interests in the Arctic by using a strategic buyers approach. China’s SOEs have purchased, invested in, and participated in joint ventures with Arctic-related companies such as Northern Cross and Rosneft. Chinese academics and officials are aware that the Arctic is melting and realize the region’s potential wealth. They are also aware that tapping into the Arctic’s resources, especially through Russia, may soon become the most efficient method for securing China’s energy needs. China’s Arctic approach can be summarized as having consisted of two phases: the rhetoric and culmination of ideas phase and the strategic buyer phase. Regarding the first phase, Chinese scholarly writings, media reports, diplomatic rhetoric, and PLA comments provided a spotlight on, and created an awareness of, China’s interests in the Arctic. These groups fostered important Chinese ideas and debates on how China should approach Arctic issues. The second phase (which we are currently in) has shown that China has made Arctic purchases, investments, and joint ventures with Russia, Canada, and Iceland and also seems to be on the verge of obtaining something more concrete with Greenland in the not-too-distant future. This has made China’s Arctic strategy more apparent and helped differentiate noise from true courses of action. China’s current Arctic moves and approaches over the past several months have made the PRC’s Arctic strategy much less opaque and increasingly more visible and coherent.
Breaking the Cycle: Recognizing Past Success and Making U.S.-North Korean Reconciliation a Reality (PDF)
Jeffrey J. Chalifoux
Managing nuclear risk is arguably one of the largest contemporary challenges to regional stability in East Asia and the Middle East. Recent efforts by the international community, with the United States at the fore, to prevent nuclear proliferation to Iran and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula have seen few concrete breakthroughs. In the case of North Korea, an effective path forward can be found in the past by taking note of approaches by the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations over the past twenty years. This article will provide an analysis of policy by these two administrations towards North Korea in order to provide insight on what policies are dead ends and which ones offer possible ways forward with regards to the contemporary environment of the Obama administration.
Collaborative Disaster Training For Canadian Forces Bases And Civilian Partners (PDF)
Nicolas Meunier
Managing nuclear risk is arguably one of the largest contemporary challenges to regional stability in East Asia and the Middle East. Recent efforts by the international community, with the United States at the fore, to prevent nuclear proliferation to Iran and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula have seen few concrete breakthroughs. In the case of North Korea, an effective path forward can be found in the past by taking note of approaches by the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations over the past twenty years. This article will provide an analysis of policy by these two administrations towards North Korea in order to provide insight on what policies are dead ends and which ones offer possible ways forward with regards to the contemporary environment of the Obama administration.
Megan Johnson
From Kabul to Baghdad and Back, written by John R. Ballard, David W. Lamm, and John K. Wood, chronicles the conflicts that the United States undertook in Afghanistan and Iraq following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This book sets out to discuss the strategic and operational actions the United States took in its efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, paying close attention to the critical decisions that wentinto planning each of the combat operations and how those decisions affected the outcomes in each of the respective campaigns. Methodically researched and well written, the authors provide in-depth analysis and valuable insight into the complex nature of fighting a two-front war. While the book is not a complete or all-inclusive study of the successes and failures of America’s decade-long war, the authors present a clear analysis of how conducting a two-front war affected the outcomes in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Their premise is that much would have been different in America’s war in Afghanistan had the choice not been made to simultaneously go to war with Iraq. This book is full of great detail and covers a topic that is massive in scope and complexity, giving the reader much to absorb and ponder. The layout of the book, however, makes it more manageable with each chapter broken down further by subtitles. The selected bibliography and extensive footnoting of the book are valuable assets and ensure the reader access to a plethora of additional resources.
Bradley Martin
In Hybrid Warfare, military historians Williamson Murray and Peter Mansoor edit a volume that seeks to define and discuss the history of hybrid warfare, the idea that conflict includes combinations of conventional and irregular forces. Williamson Murray is a well-regarded military historian who serves as Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University and has completed voluminous works involving military transformation, military adaptation, and grand strategy. Peter Mansoor is a highly respected scholar who currently serves as the Raymond E. Mason Chair in Military History at Ohio State University and also a retired Army Colonel who served as the Executive Officer to General David Petraeus in Iraq. The book presents in depth cases studies, while also providing lessons learned that should be applied to future conflict. The contributors to the volume come from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities and include retired military officers, independent researchers, and academics.
Scott Nicolas Romaniuk
Over the past century, a gradual shift has taken place in which the conditions for total war have considerably faded. This steady realignment toward full-scale war, however, exposes the many varieties of force that still exist along a continuum bookended by the state of absolute war and that of peace. Much has been written about the occurrence of full-scale war within the international system, yet the level of attention given to what occurs when neither a state of peace nor state of war exists remains somewhat derisory. The last two decades, in particular, can be characterized as a state of threat within which varying degrees of the utility of force have persisted. Such processes and practices with public spheres are slowly being examined but questions of why specific forms of forms have continued to be used despite criticism of their political and military effectiveness are seldom raised. Moreover, they continue to go unanswered even though they have become relatively commonplace and seem to be the preferred policy option of US administrations. Academics addressing issues of evolving military culture and technological base within the 21st century have only begun to delve into the nature of America’s discrete military operations (DMOs) but rarely depict them in terms of their implication for the future of military practice.
Bruce E. Stanley
Spencer C. Tucker is currently a senior fellow in military history at ABC-CLIO Publishing in Santa Barbara, California. Dr. Tucker has written or edited over 30 books and encyclopedias focusing on military and naval history and is the senior editor for the two-volume encyclopedia US Leadership in Wartime: Clashes, Controversy, and Compromise. Tucker, along with ten assistant editors and a vast array of scholars, presents a comprehensive account of United States leadership in war from the American Revolution to the latest conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.