Strategy & Entailments: The Enduring Role of Law in the U.S. Armed Forces

Daedalus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 146 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Ford Savarese ◽  
John Fabian Witt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
Internal Dynamic ◽  
Laws Of War ◽  
American Military ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Strategic Value ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law

This essay aims to redescribe key moments in the history of American military engagements to account for a persistent role that law has played in these conflicts. The law of war tradition has persisted since the War of Independence, we argue, because of an internal dynamic that makes it both strategically useful and costly for the United States to commit itself to rule-bound warfare. Invoking the laws of war to advance the strategic interests of the United States, American soldiers and statesmen have found, entails consequences beyond their control, making reversals in position more costly and enabling critiques in the language of the law. These entailments, we argue, are built into the enduring strategic value of the laws of war. The law has remained useful not because it can claim perfect neutrality, but because it has force independent of the interests for which it is mobilized.

Land Crabs, Land Ironclads, Landships

2019 ◽  
pp. 26-45
Author(s):  
Jon B. Mikolashek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Army ◽  
Military History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early History ◽  
American Military ◽  
Land Crabs ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation

The chapter covers the early history of what will become known as the tank and the creation of the United States Tank Corps. Patton is the first “tanker” in American military history. After leaving the staff of John J. Pershing, Patton embarks on an educational journey to learn about tanks. He attends tank school in France and tours the Renault tank factory. It is here that he learns to drive a tank and selects the Renault light tank for use by the United States Army. The Renault tank is covered in detail, and Patton prepares to establish the American light tank school in France.

Conclusion: The armed forces and perennial problems

2020 ◽  
pp. 123-126
Author(s):  
Joseph T. Glatthaar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
American Military

Since the 1970s, the United States has struggled to accept that its economic and military powers are finite. The Conclusion looks at ways the American military might make progress while acknowledging these limitations. The American military could be reinvigorated by better communication between politicians and military leaders, a return to traditional values of prudence and circumspection, and greater support during wartime. Technology may have transformed warfare, but enemies often find low-cost means of reducing their impact. The United States possesses the world’s most sophisticated military force, but sometimes the task is greater than it can fulfill, or the results are not worth the price.

Mexico, Gilberto Bosques and the Refugees

2000 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich Katz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Military ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
North Americans ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

In the eyes of many North Americans, Mexico is above all a country of immigration from which hundreds of thousands hope to pass across the border to find the promised land in the United States. What these North Americans do not realize is that for thousands of Latin Americans and for many U.S. intellectuals, Mexico after the revolution of 1910-1920 constituted the promised land. People persecuted for their political or religious beliefs—radicals, revolutionaries but liberals as well—could find refuge in Mexico when repressive regimes took over their country.In the 1920s such radical leaders as Víctor Raúl Haya De La Torre, César Augusto Sandino and Julio Antonio Mella found refuge in Mexico. This policy continued for many years even after the Mexican government turned to the right. Thousands of refugees from Latin American military dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay fled to Mexico. The history of that policy of the Mexican government has not yet been written.

scholarly journals The Secret Life of Statutes: A Century of the Trading with the Enemy Act

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Coates
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Economic Sanctions ◽  
The United States ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
American Power ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
National Emergency ◽  
American State

In 1917 Congress passed the Trading with the Enemy Act to prevent trade with Germany and the Central Powers. It was a wartime law designed for wartime conditions but one that, over the course of the following century, took on a secret, surprising life of its own. Eventually it became the basis for a project of worldwide economic sanctions applied by the United States at the discretion of the president during times of both war and peace. This article traces the history of the law in order to explore how the expansion of American power in the twentieth century required a transformation of the American state and the extensive use of executive powers justified by repeated declarations of national emergency.

American Military History: A Very Short Introduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph T. Glatthaar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Military History ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
American Military ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Strong Position ◽  
The Military

American Military History: A Very Short Introduction outlines the forces shaping the American military for the past 400 years. Since the colonial period, the United States has struggled to balance standing armed forces with citizen soldiers and sailors. Technological developments and two world wars forced the military to embrace professionalism and its increased obligations. The United States emerged from World War II in a strong position but failed to recognize the limits of its power, a legacy that some might say continues. Recent wars highlight some of the problems of a volunteer-dominated force. To succeed, the American military needs improved communication, understanding, and support.

The Law of Commerce and Trade

2019 ◽  
pp. 241-262
Author(s):  
Lawrence M. Friedman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marine Insurance ◽  
Commercial Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commercial Paper ◽  
International Body ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law Merchant

This chapter discusses the history of American commercial law covering the admiralty and general commerce, sale of goods, bankruptcy and insolvency, and contract. American commercial law was deeply and persistently in debt to England. Theoretically, even national sovereignty was no barrier. The laws of admiralty, marine insurance, commercial paper, and sale of goods were not, supposedly, parochial law, English law; they were part of an international body of rules. The law of sales of goods developed greatly in the first half of the nineteenth century. Many, if not most, of the leading cases were English and were adopted in the United States fairly rapidly. Two strains of law—contract and the law merchant—each with a somewhat different emphasis, were more or less godparents of the law of sales.

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