Richard H. Shultz

xxii, 375 p. : 24 cm

"Based on thousands of pages of recently declassified top-secret SOG [Special Operations Group] documents, as well as interviews with sixty officers who ran SOG's covert programs and the senior officials who directed this secret war, including Robert McNamara, Walt Rostow, Richard Helms, William Colby, William Westmoreland, and Victor Krulak". -- Jacket.

Investigates the history and politics of modern asymmetrical warfare. By focusing on four specific hotbeds of instability-Somalia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and Iraq-Shultz and Dew conduct a careful analysis of tribal culture and the value of clan associations. They examine why these "traditional" or "tribal" warriors fight, how they recruit, where they find sanctuary, and what is behind their strategy. Traveling across two centuries and several continents, Shultz and Dew examine the doctrinal, tactical, and strategic advantages and consider the historical, cultural, and anthropological factors behind the motivation and success of the warriors of contemporary combat. Shultz and Dew propose that war in the post-Cold War era cannot be waged through traditional Western methods of combat, especially when friendly states and outside organizations like al-Qaeda serve as powerful allies to the enemy, and they recommend how conventional militaries can defeat these irregular yet highly effective organizations. – from publisher descriptions.

Introduction -- Post-Cold War international security environment -- Non-traditional security challenges and armed groups -- Profiling armed groups -- Key findings and future trends -- Implications for US intelligence and defense agencies.

"This volume contains chapters based on revised and updated presentations from "The Role of Naval Forces in Twenty-First Century Operations," the conference cosponsored by the International Security Studies Program of Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA). Contributors include leading defense analysts, senior military officers, academic specialists, and legislators. The papers describe the dramatic changes that are transforming early twenty-first-century conflict and how they will shape U.S. naval doctrine, training, and procurement in the years ahead." "This collection is a resource for naval strategists, defense scholars, policymakers, and others seeking to deepen and broaden their understanding of the new security setting."--BOOK JACKET.

Are world politics more or less stable, violence prone, and anxiety producing today than in previous eras? How are states and nonstate actors coping with these issues? What new material do the public and especially students of security studies need to understand the security environment of the next century? The editors of this ambitious successor volume to Security Studies for the 1990s approach the subject from national, international, regional, transstate, and comparative perspectives. Each chapter provides an in-depth review of a major security aspect of the subject, providing key concepts, methods, suggested course structure, a bibliography, and a model syllabus. This book is designed primarily for courses at the graduate level, but it can also be adapted for undergraduates.