Intelligence and Grand Strategy

2021 ◽  
pp. 405-421
Author(s):  
Joshua Rovner
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Covert Action ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
Logical Basis ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the relationship between intelligence and grand strategy. The first section discusses how intelligence informs grand strategy, and describes several factors that limit its influence. The second section introduces the concept of an intelligence posture, which describes how states build and operate their intelligence services. A state’s intelligence posture reflects its choices about how to collect information, how to prioritize what it collects, and whether to employ covert action abroad. These choices depend on the state’s broader approach to national security. Grand strategy guides key decisions about spying and sabotage, just as it provides the logical basis for the use of force. The chapter illustrates this idea by sketching intelligence postures for three grand strategies: restraint, liberal internationalism, and primacy.

The Miracle of Generative Violence? René Girard and the Use of Force in International Law

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
GREGOR NOLL
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
International Law ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
International Community ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Rene Girard ◽  
National Security Strategy ◽  
Divine Violence ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractIn this article, I apply René Girard's theory of generative violence to the international law relating to the use of force. I argue that texts of international law make gestures of referral towards an immanent normativity on the fettering of divine violence. The means to this end is a form of sacrificial violence that seeks to promote the preservation and cohesion of the ‘international community’. The structuring of this violence through international law and its repeated staging reproduces the relationship of prophecy to miracle. Empirically, I draw mainly on excerpts from the 2006 US National Security Strategy.

The Grand Strategies of Small States

2021 ◽  
pp. 489-505
Author(s):  
Anders Wivel
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
National Security ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Small States ◽  
Small State ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Grand Strategies

This article discusses the nature, opportunities and limitations of small state grand strategy. It identifies the similarities and differences between the grand strategies of small states and great powers and unpacks the nature of traditional defensive small state grand strategies hiding and shelter-seeking as well as more recent offensive, influence-seeking small state grand strategies under the heading of smart state strategy. The article argues that while small state grand strategy remains tied to national security and is formulated in the shadow of great power interests, a changing security environment creates both the need and opportunity for small states to use their weakness instrumentally for maximizing interests. The likelihood of success depends on a pragmatic political culture and the willingness and ability to prioritize goals and means to utilize their nonthreatening small state status in “smart” or “entrepreneurial” policies.

Technological Change and Grand Strategy

2021 ◽  
pp. 220-238
Author(s):  
Sophie-Charlotte Fischer ◽  
Andrea Gilli ◽  
Mauro Gilli
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Strategic Competition ◽  
Strategic Goals ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
Complementary Assets ◽  
The Relationship

What is the relationship between technological change and grand strategy? Can great powers promote technological trends that allow them to pursue specific grand-strategic goals? Or is technological change beyond the reach of great powers, and thus it acts like an independent enabler or an independent constraint? This chapter provides a brief introduction to the interconnection between technological change and grand strategy. First, drawing from other social sciences, this chapter summarizes the most relevant direct and indirect effects of technological change on international politics, with particular attention to its long-term generation of wealth, to its distributional implications within and among countries, to the uncertainty that it brings about, and to the complementary assets that it requires. Second, this chapters shows the main channels through which technological change can modify the domestic sources of grand strategy, promote the pursuit of new grand strategic goals, and enhance or undermine existing instruments. Third, this chapter identifies possible intended and unintended technological trends resulting from the adoption of specific grand strategies, and how, in the medium-to-long term, they can strengthen a country in its strategic competition with adversaries.

Culture, Identity, and Grand Strategy

2021 ◽  
pp. 302-321
Author(s):  
David M. McCourt
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
International Politics ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Grand Strategies

What do culture and identity have to do with grand strategy—the task of matching broad national security aims to capabilities? Is grand strategy not the preserve of politics and power, and the timeless wisdom of realpolitik? This chapter argues that culture and identity are essential components of any realistic account of grand strategy, since grand strategies tell a story of who or what a country is, and should be, in world politics. Grand strategies are performative, making the world at the same time as speaking of it, and fashioning an identity for an international actor. The centrality of culture and identity in international politics are key insights from the constructivist approach to IR theory. The chapter outlines the constructivist challenge to mainstream approaches that emphasize material conceptions of power and interests. It then illustrates the ubiquity of culture and identity in the formulation of UK and US grand strategy. It explores recent developments in culturalist theorizing that caution against taking culture and identity as stable entities rather than often contradictory processes. This serves to connect the insights from this chapter to others in the volume on practice, discourse, legitimation, power, and expertise.

scholarly journals ‘GRAND STRATEGIES’, MILITARY AND POLITICAL DOCTRINES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: TRENDS OF EVOLUTION AFTER THE END OF THE COLD WAR. LESSONS FOR UKRAINE

2016 ◽  
pp. 40-50
Author(s):  
Valentyn Petrov
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
Defense Planning

The conceptual and practical aspects of security policy of the USA in terms of their reflection in the ‘Grand Strategy’, military and political-military doctrines are analyzed. The hierarchy of strategic documents that determine US security and defense policy, together with the approaches towards their development in the context of the domestic policy, global trends and forecasts, are examined. The mechanism of working out various national level strategies and doctrines in the USA can be studied as an example. This world superpower has a definitely clear set of relevant documents. First of all, we are talking about the so-called Grand strategies & High strategies that can be determined as a specific component of the political and defense planning in the US. At the current moment, any other country can hardly challenge the US Power. That is why the American ‘Grand Strategy’ is not only a strategy of the national security, but also a leverage partly influencing the international, global, Euro-Atlantic, Asia-Pacific, etc. security. Taking into account above-mentioned possible implementation of the US experience in Ukraine’s defense planning in respect to actual threats and challenges to national security is studied.

11. The primacy of national security

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
National Security ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Grand Strategies

This chapter focuses on national security, a central concept in foreign policy analysis. A core objective of foreign policy is to achieve national security. However, there is a great deal of ambiguity about the meaning of the concept. Although the traditional meaning of national security is often associated with protecting the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the nation state, this does not exhaust all of the possible meanings. The chapter examines some of the competing conceptions of national security, beginning with the three main assumptions of realism that together help to account for the primacy of national security: statism, survival, and self-help. It then considers the field of security studies before concluding with an assessment of the theoretical controversy about the meaning of national security and how it relates to three American grand strategies: neo-isolationism, liberal internationalism, and primacy.

Covert Action: United States Law in Substance, Process, and Practice

2010 ◽  
pp. 586-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Baker
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Covert Action ◽  
The Third ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Traditional Activity ◽  
The U.S

This article discusses covert action within the context of the U.S. law. The first section describes the main elements of the U.S. legal regime, including the definition of covert action and the “traditional activity” exceptions, the elements of a covert action finding, and the thresholds and requirements for congressional notification. The second section describes some of the significant limitations on the conduct of covert action. The third section discusses the nature of executive branch legal practice in this area of the law. And the last section draws conclusions about the role of national security law within the context of covert action.

C. Sharon Advisor Dov Weisglass, Remarks on Relations with the United States, Disengagement, the Road Map, and the Possibilities of a Palestinian State, Tel Aviv, October 2004 (excerpts)

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-207
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sharp Contrast ◽  
Tel Aviv ◽  
The Road ◽  
Road Map ◽  
The Relationship

Ha'Aretz's lengthy interview with Dov Weisglass, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ““point man”” with Washington and probably his closest advisor, was conducted by Ari Shavit and published first in excerpts and two days later in its entirety. In addition to bringing into sharp contrast the contradiction between Israel's declaratory policies and assurances and its actual policies and intentions——and in so doing eliciting a swift ““clarification”” from the Prime Minister's Office——the interview also conveys a sense of the intimacy and easy camaraderie that characterizes U.S.-Israeli interactions. The full text is available at www.haaretz.com. Tell me about the dynamics of the relationship between you [and U.S. national security advisor Condoleezza Rice], and whether it's an unusual relationship.

Population Aging and Grand Strategy

2021 ◽  
pp. 720-736
Author(s):  
Mark L. Haas
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Demographic Trend ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
A Share

This chapter examines the effects of population aging on states’ grand strategies. Due to major reductions in fertility levels and significant increases in life expectancies over the course of the last century, a majority of countries are growing older, many at fantastic rates and extent. The number of seniors, both absolutely and as a share of states’ overall population, is reaching unprecedented levels. This worldwide demographic trend is likely to affect all dimensions of states’ grand strategies, including in the great powers, which are among the world’s oldest countries. Population aging is likely to reduce states’ military capabilities, push leaders to adopt more isolationist and peaceful foreign policies, reshape states’ core international interests to place greater emphasis on the advancement of citizens’ quality of life and the protection of particular ethnocultural identities, and increase the perceived threat posed by immigration and multicultural ideologies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document