The war for the liberation of Kuwait following the Iraqi invasion in 1990 rekindled the international community's geopolitical interest in the Gulf and helped define a new regional order. This book analyzes the political, strategic, and economic dimensions of the second Gulf War, with particular focus on military aspects. An international roster of experts treats issues of strategy, weapons technology, arms transfers, and the impact on the Arab state system. Of special interest is the exploration of the implications of the war for Japan, Germany, Russia, and Europe.

War, as Clausewitz reminds, is the most uncertain of human political and social activities. It also imposes burdens. In an alliance among states for the promotion of collective defense or security, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), burdens have to be shared. This study looks at the experience of the United States and other member states of NATO in four situations of multinational military intervention - Lebanon, the Persian Gulf, the Balkans, and South Asia - and considers the implications of nuclear arms reductions and nonproliferation for the US and NATO. Each case study represents an important period in the distribution of power, interest, and values, amounting to more than a sequential consideration of incidents of military intervention and/or conflict prevention. These politico-military challenges include a major coalition war, a traditional peacekeeping operation, an exercise in peace enforcement, and a conflict that combines counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism with stability and security operations.

This book investigates challenges to the U.S. military’s gender regime of hetero-male privilege. Examining a broad set of discursive maneuvers in a series of cases as focal points—integration of open homosexuality, the end of the combat ban on women, and the epidemic nature of military sexual assault within its units—Stephanie Szitanyi examines the contemporary link between gender and military service in the United States, and comprehensively analyzes forms of gendering produced by the military as an institution. Using feminist interpretivist methods to analyze an impressive combination of visual, textual, archival, and cultural materials, the book argues that despite policy changes since 2013 that may be positioned as explicit episodes of degendering, military officials have simultaneously moved to counteract them and reinforce the institution’s gender regime of hetero-male privilege. Importantly, these (re)gendering processes continue to prioritize certain forms of service and sacrifice, through which a specific version of masculinity—the masculine warrior—is continuously promoted, preserved, and cemented.

The end of the Cold War has brought about significant changes in the political, economic, social, and cultural structure of the international system. Absent a distinct enemy and the threat of global thermonuclear war, the United States today faces a host of new security challenges that require policymakers to make difficult decisions with significant domestic and international implications. The range of conflicting goals, expectations, and capabilities demands fresh solutions to international conflicts and civil unrest, new strategies for conducting peace support operations, and the preparation of America's forces for completing operational assignments under increasingly uncertain conditions. The case studies and exercises constructed for this book examine some of the most pertinent management, leadership, and accountability issues related to U.S. national security. Each case places readers at the center of difficult decisions, illustrates more general policy dilemmas, and is designed to stimulate discussion of those issues beyond the classroom. Cases highlight dilemmas at two levels: pertaining specifically to the case and pertaining to its larger policy implications. The absence of a one-sided argument, specific policy recommendations, or logical conclusions, enables readers to recognize the importance of the issues at hand and their greater policy implications and to discern lessons that might apply more generally to public policy, administration, and management. Particularly useful in courses dealing with national security, international relations, public/policy administration, civil-military relations, and organizational management. An instructor's manual is available upon request.

" ... the story of the all-volunteer force, from the draft protests and policy proposals of the 1960s through the Iraq War"--Jacket.

The Persian Gulf conflict was the first major combat test for U.S. military forces since the nation ended conscription two decades ago. As hundreds of thousands of American troops were dispatched to the Middle East, the nation realized, seemingly for the first time, that the composition of its armed forces was far removed from any that the nation had previously sent to war. The deployment of unprecedented proportions of minorities and women and the prominent role of reserves and national guard troops aroused considerable interest, widespread debate, and some worry. The prospect that African Americans could bear a disproportionate share of military casualties generated a socially diverse debate that threatened to reopen old racial scars; the reality that American women were exposed to perils from which, by long and deep tradition, they had previously been shielded inspired calls for them to be admitted to combat specialties; and controversy surrounding the readiness of the Army's combat reserves led to an internecine struggle over the future shape of the U.S. Army. In this book, Martin Binkin addresses each of these issues in order to provide a better understanding of the composition of America's fighting forces, to prompt an assessment of attitudes toward who should fight in future wars, and to delineate the choices for influencing the social distribution of peril. Binkin argues that the time for public involvement is now, while the memories of the Persian Gulf conflict are still reasonably fresh and while a fundamental rethinking of the post-cold war military is under way.