Top Research Papers on Defence and Strategic Studies

This paper questions whether the Chinese anti-satellite test in 2007 risks creating an arms race in space. It fi nds that while other countries and regional groupings have their own space programmes, these are largely civilian, money-making enterprises. The USA currently has the pre-eminent military presence in the space domain, and has a range of options to continue to develop these programs without them being seen as threatening to other states. Despite being alarmed by the Chinese tests, and having stated an unwavering determination to retain its space assets and its superiority in space, t...

Students concentrating in Strategic Studies (STRAT) must take a minimum of 5 courses (20 credits) within this program. One of these courses must be Strategy and Policy (SA.660.740) and this course must be taken in the first semester. Students must receive a Bor better in Strategy and Policy in order to meet the concentration requirement. Courses in the curriculum cross-listed with Strategic Studies may be counted toward the concentration requirement.

Strategic communications has vaulted to the top of the agenda for governments in the West in the vain hope that it might solve a seemingly intractable conflict with jihadist groups, an adversary whose ideology seems to be an essential part of its life-force. However, these governments have failed to grasp why these groups are more adept at using stories to animate their adherents toward the achievement of strategic ends. Unlike Western governments, jihadists use communication to support their use of force. They treat strategic communications as an intrinsic element of war. Consequently, the in...

During the last decade, ‘information warfare’ has become a much-politicised term in Russian domestic and foreign affairs. This article sheds light on the conceptual roots that have been shaping this idea in the Russian academic, political, and public discourse. Moreover, the article points to the major actors leading the politicisation of this idea by promoting narratives describing the so-called ‘Western information war against Russia’. In the context of Russia’s contemporary attempts to re-establish itself as a global power and Western fear and distress associated with Russian activities in ...

Political science attends to causes and consequences of war but only fitfully welcomes study of its conduct, because few grasp how much the dynamics of combat shape politics. Bernard Brodie called for development of strategic studies on the model of the discipline of economics, because neither the military nor academia treated the subject rigorously. His call was answered in the early cold war, with mixed results. Theories about nuclear deterrence burgeoned while empirical studies of war lagged. The late—cold war impasse in nuclear strategy, rooted in NATO doctrine, shifted attention to conven...

It is shown how one player out of line can make the difference between a sack or a touchdown, or in the case of the immune system, a localized versus systemic infection.

Overview This volume commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC). The Centre is Australia’s largest body of scholars dedicated to the analysis of the use of armed force in its political context and one of the earliest generation of post-World War II research institutions on strategic affairs. The book features chapters replete with stories of university politics, internal SDSC activities, cooperation among people with different social and political values, and conflicts between others, as well as the Centre’s public achievements. It also details the evo...

An anniversary, particularly a silver one, calls for both reflection and expectation. The 25th anniversary of the founding of this journal is an occasion not only to contemplate what has occurred over the past quarter century, but also to anticipate what lies ahead. John Gooch's essay examines where we have been; my charge is to explore where we may go. My aim is to provide a few tentative suggestions as to the topics that bear scrutiny over the next quarter century.

Dr Hesketh's picture of the joint Institute of Physics and British Pugwash Group meeting (Physics Bulletin July 1986 p280) cannot go unchallenged. He asks 'Does (the report) register any opposition to SDI from within the USA?'.

In the era of globalisation, where opening of borders is being advocated all over the world, there is one issue over which no nation-state is ready to compromise with its territorial borders. The issue of migration and refugees is considered so sensitive that states have often linked it with their sovereignty, independence and even existence. The problem of migration and refugees between India and Bangladesh started as early as the formation of Pakistan as a separate state in 1947. The endless flow of migrants from erstwhile East Bengal, later East Pakistan and now Bangladesh to India has gene...

The article explains the recent decline of the cyber warfare fashion in academia and discusses its implications for strategic studies.

CENTER for STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP and DEVELOPMENT The United States Army War College educates and develops leaders for service at the strategic level while advancing knowledge in the global application of Landpower. The purpose of the United States Army War College is to produce graduates who are skilled critical thinkers and complex problem solvers. Concurrently, it is our duty to the U.S. Army to also act as a " think factory " for commanders and civilian leaders at the strategic level worldwide and routinely engage in discourse and debate concerning the role of ground forces in achieving nati...

General introduction PART I: The uses of strategic theory Introduction 1. Strategic studies and the problem of power, LAWRENCE FREEDMAN 2. What is a military lesson?, WILLIAM C. FULLER, JR. 3. Why Strategy is Difficult, COLIN S. GRAY PART II: Interpretation of the classics Introduction 4. Who's Afraid of Carl von Clausewitz?: A Guide to the Perplexed, MICHAEL I. HANDEL 5. "The Art of War", SUN TZU 6. Strategy: the indirect approach, BASIL LIDDELL HART 7. Arms and Influence, THOMAS C. SCHELLING PART III: Instruments of war: land, sea, and air power Introduction 8. Some principles of maritime st...

ISSN 0976-1004 print © 2012 Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses Journal of Defence Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4, October 2012, pp. 249–256 The Rise of China: Implications for India by Harsh V. Pant (ed.), New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp. 272, INR 795 Chinese and Indian Strategic Behavior: Growing Power and Alarm by George J. Gilboy and Eric Heginbotham, New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp. 376, INR 995 A Resurgent China: South Asian Perspectives by S.D. Muni and Tan Tai Yong (eds), New Delhi: Routledge, 2012, pp. 348, INR 845

Strategic management of defense science and technology(SMDST) is an important guarantee of effective implementation of developing strategy of defense science and technology.The paper studies the relevant theoretical problems of SMDST,including connotation of SMDST,development status of SMDST,basic process of SMDST,several major problems of SMDST in China,it is of important meaning to work out Chinese developing strategy of defense science and technology and speed development of defense science and technology.

In response to President Reagan's speech related to the objective for putting an end to the threat of nuclear ballistic missiles, an intensive study was conducted by the Dept. of Defense regarding the technologies applicable to ballistic-missile defense. It was concluded that emerging technologies do hold substantial promise for achieving the President's long-term ballistic-missile defense goal. The committee recommended a long-term program to bring the new technologies to a point of readiness where a decision could be made whether to enter full-scale development. Based on the results of the s...

The civilian strategic analysts who now constitute a distinct profession in the Western world have from the first been subject to criticism that has called in question the validity of their methods, their utility to society, and even their integrity of purpose. Some of it is directed at particular strategists or at particular techniques they employ, but much of it purports to expose deficiencies that are characteristic of the genre. Some of this is of so scurrilous a nature as not to deserve a reply, but some raises issues of real importance. What are in fact the distinguishing features of the...

N ational and international security now involves nonstate actors to an extent unprecedented in modern history. Transnational movements and substate groups have tremendous power both to contribute to the greater good and to bring about violence, death, and repression. The most prominent such threat arises from transnational Salafi jihadism, of which al Qaeda is the standard bearer. Al Qaeda and the larger movement that presently command America’s attention remain serious threats for two primary reasons. First, this movement threatens the use of weapons of mass destruction, though its ability t...

1. Introduction 2. The politics of strategic studies 3. What nuclear revolution? 4. Millennial liberalism and dual militarization 5. Deterrence as a social practice 6. The West of all possible worlds.

Defence planning attempts the impossible – to meet ‘requirements’ that can only be known in the light of events that have yet to occur. Ways in which the prospect for defence planning can be improved include (1) distinguishing the most important defence decisions, and getting them right enough; (2) developing a sufficiently flexible planning capability and dynamic military posture; (3) balancing short- and long-term investments; (4) insisting upon education in general strategic theory as a qualification for the practice of strategy; (5) appreciating that a country can afford to spend on securi...