A senior expert in national security matters provides the first comparative analysis of unconventional conflicts, using Malaya and Vietnam as lessons for devising new U.S. strategie to counter Third World strife and "drug wars" in the future. This is a provocative text for classes in U.S. foreign policy and military studies.

Grappling with the constraints and opportunities the US Army faces in designing policy and strategic options for the post-INF era, the contributors to this book outline the current strategic posture of the army, the challenges of the future and the steps needed to meet those challenges.

This brand new edition of The US Military Profession into the Twenty-First Century re-examines the challenges faced by the military profession in the aftermath of the international terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001. While many of the issues facing the military profession examined in the first edition remain, the 'new war' and international terrorism have compounded the challenges. The US military must respond to the changed domestic and strategic landscapes without diminishing its primary function—a function that now many see that goes beyond success on the battlefield. Not only has this complicated the problem of reconciling the military professional ethos and raison d’etre with civilian control in a democracy, it challenges traditional military professionalism. This book also studies the notion of a US military stretched thin and relying more heavily on the US Federal Reserves and National Guard. These developments make the US military profession increasingly linked to public attitudes and political perspectives. In sum, the challenge faced by the US military profession can be termed a dual dilemma. It must respond effectively to the twenty-first century strategic landscape while undergoing the revolution in military affairs and transformation. At the same time, the military profession must insure that it remains compatible with civilian cultures and the US political-social system without eroding its primary function. This is an invaluable book for all students with an interest in the US Military, and of strategic studies and military history in general.

This new handbook provides a wide-ranging overview of the current state of academic analysis and debate on insurgency and counterinsurgency, as well as an-up-to date survey of contemporary insurgent movements and counter-insurgencies. In recent years, and more specifically since the insurgency in Iraq from 2003, academic interest in insurgency and counterinsurgency has substantially increased. These topics have become dominant themes on the security agenda, replacing peacekeeping, humanitarian operations and terrorism as key concepts. The aim of this volume is to showcase the rich thinking that is available in the area of insurgency and counterinsurgency studies and act as a further guide for study and research. In order to contain this wide-ranging topic within an accessible and informative framework, the Editors have divided the text into three key parts: Part I: Theoretical and Analytical Issues Part II: Insurgent Movements Part III: Counterinsurgency Cases The Routledge Handbook of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency will be of great interest to all students of insurgency and small wars, terrorism/counter-terrorism, strategic studies, security studies and IR in general, as well as professional military colleges and policymakers.

Terrorism is one of the forces defining our age, but it has also been around since some of the earliest civilizations. This one-of-a-kind study of the history of terrorism — from ancient Assyria to the post-9/11 War on Terror — puts terrorism into broad historical, political, religious and social context. The book leads the reader through the shifting understandings and definitions of terrorism through the ages, and its continuous development of themes allows for a fuller understanding of the uses of and responses to terrorism. The study of terrorism is constantly growing and ever changing. In Terrorism: A History, Randall Law gives students and general readers access to this rich field through the most up-to-date research combined with a much-needed long-range historical perspective. He extensively covers jihadism, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Northern Ireland and the Ku Klux Klan plus lesser known movements in Uruguay, Algeria and even the pre-modern uses of terror in ancient Rome, medieval Europe and the French Revolution, among other topics.

The Malayan Emergency lasted from 1948 to 1960. During these tumultuous years, following so soon after the Japanese surrender at the end of the Second World War, the whole country was once more turned upside down and the lives of the people changed. The war against the Communist Party of MalayaA*s determined efforts to overthrow the Malayan government involved the whole population in one form or another. Dr Comber analyses the pivotal role of the Malayan PoliceA*s Special Branch, the governmentA*s supreme intelligence agency, in defeating the communist uprising and safeguarding the security of the country. He shows for the first time how the Special Branch was organised and how it worked in providing the security forces with political and operational intelligence. His book represents a major contribution to our understanding of the Emergency and will be of great interest to all students of Malay(si)aA*s recent history as well as counter-guerrilla operations. It can profitably be mined, too, to see what lessons can be learned for counterinsurgency operations in other parts of the world.

The purpose of this study is to determine what actions can be taken by American military forces to set conditions for conducting effective Military Information Support Operations (MISO) campaigns in counterinsurgency (COIN) conflicts. To find these actions, hypotheses built upon tenets found in American military Psychological Operations (PSYOP) doctrine were compared to empirical observations of PSYOP conducted in three COIN case studies from the 1950s and 1960s. Because COIN literature is ripe with assertions, such as Dr. Kalev I. Sepp’s, that “effective, pervasive psychological operations (PSYOP) campaigns” are inherent in successful COIN operations, it is ironic that few works discuss specific recommendations regarding the design and conduct of such campaigns. This study begins filling this literature gap by showing that MISO relationship to other operations holds greater significance in effective MISO campaign design than internal details such as the level of centralization. This finding supports contemporary calls for a more unified group of inform and influence practitioners within the United States military, as well as calls for the United States government to draft a National Information Strategy to better leverage this important element of national power.

This volume examines US Army Special Forces efforts to mobilize and train indigenous minorities in Vietnam. Christopher K. Ives shows how before the Second Indochina War, the Republic of Vietnam had begun to falter under the burden of an increasingly successful insurgency. The dominant American military culture could not conform to President Kennedy’s guidance to wage 'small wars', while President Diem’s provincial and military structures provided neither assistance nor security. The Green Berets developed and executed effective counterinsurgency tactics and operations with strategic implications while living, training, and finally fighting with the Montagnard peoples in the Central Highlands. Special Forces soldiers developed and executed what needed to be done to mobilize indigenous minorities, having assessed what needed to be known. Combining Clausewitz, business theory and strategic insight, this book provides an important starting point for thinking about how the US military should be approaching the problems of today's ‘small wars’. US Special Forces and Counterinsurgency in Vietnam will be of much interest to students of the Vietnam War, Special Forces operations, military innovation and strategic theory in general.

The responses of governments and international institutions to terrorism raise some of the most controversial issues of the twenty-first century. In particular, attempts to balance the desire to achieve security with the safeguarding of human rights and other aspects of the rule of law have proved to be highly contentious. This book is unique, not only in terms of its multinational, multidisciplinary nature, but also due to its truly comprehensive approach. It reviews, and examines, the interrelationship between the four principal elements of the international rule of law framework (international human rights, humanitarian, criminal, and refugee/asylum law) within in which counter-terrorism responses should occur. It focuses primarily on some of the most pressing, emerging, and/or under-researched issues and tensions. These include policy choices associated with meeting security imperatives; the tensions between the criminal justice, or preventive, approach to counter-terrorism and the military approach; the identification of lacunae within existing legal frameworks; and tensions between executive, judicial, and legislative responses. These matters are examined at the national, regional, and international levels. The book addresses a wide spectrum of issues, including analysis of key legal principles; emergency and executive measures; radicalization; governmental and institutional impunity; classification, administration and treatment of battlefield detainees; the use of lethal force ; forms of, and treatment in, detention;non-refoulement; diplomatic assurances; interrogation versus torture; extraordinary rendition; discrimination; justice and reparations for victims of terrorist attacks and security responses; (mis)use of military courts, commissions, and immigration tribunals; judicial and institutional developed and emerging rule of law norms on terrorism; non-judicial oversight by means of democratic accountability; and the identification and analysis of best practices, including inter-regional judicial and other forms of cooperation, and developed practices for the handling and use of sensitive information. Drawing together an impressive spectrum of legal and non-legal, national and institutional, practitioner, policy, and academic expertise, this book is an essential and comprehensive reference work on counter-terrorism policy, practice, and law-making.