Suchergebnisse

"The modern US Army as we know it was largely created in the years between the two world wars. After World War I, officers in leadership positions were increasingly convinced that building a new army could not take place as a series of random developments, but was an enterprise that had to be guided by a distinct military policy that enjoyed the support of the nation. William J. Woolley argues that the key to the modernization of the army in this period was the National Defense Act of 1920, which provided a blueprint for desired change and demonstrates that the transformation of the army was due to four elements: the creation of the civilian components of the new army (the Citizen's Military Training Camps (CMTC), the Officer Reserve Corps (ORC), the National Guard, and the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC)); the development of the branches as the structural basis for organizing the army as well as creating the means to educate new officers and soldiers about their craft and to socialize them into an army culture; the creation of a rationalized and progressive system of professional military education; and the initial mechanization of the combat branches"--

What determines the strategies by which a state mobilizes resources for war? And does war preparation strengthen or weaken the state in relation to society? In looking at these questions, Michael Barnett develops a novel theoretical framework that traces the connection between war preparation and changes in state-society relations, and applies that framework to Egypt from 1952 to 1977 and Israel from 1948 through 1977. Confronting the Costs of War addresses major issues in international relations, comparative politics, and Middle Eastern studies. The author argues that Egyptian and Israeli war preparation strategies were a function of systemic, state, and societal variables, and that leaders in each state attempted to balance the demands imposed by international conflict with their domestic economic and political objectives. Before 1967 the governments' strategies led to the expansion of state control over society. But contrary to the prevailing wisdom that war and war preparation will generally strengthen the state, the increased security pressures after 1967 were central to the decline of state power in both countries. After that year, Israeli and Egyptian officials ventured on a path that bolstered the state's military preparedness, but at the cost of its control over society and economy

Introduction: The significance of strategic assessment -- Explaining variation in strategic assessment -- Egypt in the mid-1960s -- Egypt in the 1970s -- Britain and Germany and the First World War -- Pakistan and Turkey in the late 1990s -- U.S. postconflict planning for the 2003 Iraq War -- Conclusion: Findings and implications

At the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1920, Mexico's large, rebellious army dominated national politics. By the 1940s, Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was led by a civilian president, and claimed to have depoliticised the army and achieved the bloodless pacification of the Mexican countryside through land reform, schooling, and indigenismo. However, this book argues, Mexico's celebrated demilitarisation was more protracted, conflict-ridden, and incomplete than most accounts assume

The transition from military rule to democracy in Venezuela has been sustained over four decades, during which time civilian control over the armed forces has become markedly institutionalised. This book explores the political forces at work in the country

Tracking the unwarranted influence -- Intellectual origins -- War, peace, and Eisenhower -- Eisenhower's contentious second term -- The speech -- Interpretations and embellishments -- In full fury -- "Eisenhower must be rolling over in his grave" -- Appendix : Eisenhower's farewell address

"The Soldier Image and State-Building in Modern China, 1924-1945 is the first study in English to explore the ways in which the figure of the soldier was employed to advance the ideological and cultural agendas of a variety of citizen groups during the first half of the twentieth century in China. Government authorities, cadets at the Whampoa Military Academy (the "West Point of China"), elites, urban professionals, intellectuals, activists, writers and students resisted, collaborated with, or questioned the heroic ideal of the soldier promoted by the Nationalist government. Author Yan Xu casts a wide net, examining military training records, political propaganda, field reports, newspapers, magazines, government documents, memoirs, and novels. In novels and articles, women and teachers worked against the heroic ideal without openly challenging the military, emphasizing the soldier's suffering, emotional needs, and poor education and thereby promoting their own importance as caretakers and educators. Students and young people urged enlistment and idealized the warrior-hero, but also managed to effectively criticize the government by organizing soldier relief work to combat government corruption. Xu demonstrates how the CCP's strategy of building bonds between soldiers and peasants and humanizing heroes was ultimately a more successful political strategy than the GMD's approach of elevating soldiers as model citizens"--

1. "Know Your Enemy?": American and German Wartime Images -- 2. Crossing the Border: The Breakdown of the Fraternization Ban -- 3. Villains to Victims: The Cultural Feminization of Germany -- 4. Selling Democracy: GIs and German Youth -- 5. Forging a Consensus: Americans, Germans, and the Berlin Airlift

"Analytical narratives examine when and where major powers can work through local proxies rather than commit their own troops. Cases include Denmark under Nazi occupation, the Korean War, El Salvador, Colombia, and present-day Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Most focus on the United States, but Israel's relations with Lebanon and Gaza and the Palestinian Authority are also featured"--