scholarly journals Building Security Forces & Stabilizing Nations: The Problem of Agency

Daedalus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 146 (4) ◽  
pp. 126-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Biddle
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Security Force ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Small Footprint ◽  
Security Force Assistance

After fifteen years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, many now see “small-footprint” security force assistance (SFA)–training, advising, and equipping allied militaries–as an alternative to large U.S. ground-force commitments to stabilize weak states. SFA, however, confronts challenges of interest misalignment between the United States and its typical partners. The resulting agency losses often limit SFA's real ability to improve partners' military effectiveness. For SFA, small footprints usually mean small payoffs.

US-Iraqi offensive against Mosul may begin in mid-2015

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Security Force ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Content Type ◽  
State Security

Significance The United States has sent 3,000 'train and assist' troops to the country, and passed a 1.6 billion dollar assistance package in December 2014 to provide funding for the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), Kurdish peshmerga and a Tribal Security Force (TSF) of Sunni Arabs in Anbar Province. Impacts The Mosul offensive will also depend on Baghdad reaching political accommodation with Sunni Arabs. The rise of Iran-backed Shia militias will challenge the ISF's monopoly over state security. Their deployment also raises the risk of sectarian atrocities during reconquest of Sunni areas. ISG is likely to retain a strong presence in western Iraq so long as it has safe havens in eastern Syria.

B1. PALESTINIAN PM MAHMUD ABBAS, LETTER OF RESIGNATION TO PA HEAD YASIR ARAFAT, RAMALLAH, 6 SEPTEMBER 2003.

2004 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-165
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The United States ◽  
Security Forces

By late August, the crisis that had been brewing between the prime minister and president came to a head; Abbas's government, though backed by the United States, had been undermined during its four months in office by deterioration on the ground and continuing tensions with Arafat, which centered in particular on control of the Palestinian security forces. Abbas's letter of resignation, published in al-Hayat on 9 September, was translated in Mideast Mirror the same day.

Alliances, Military Basing, and Logistics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc C. Vielledent
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Fiscal Constraints ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
National Security Strategy ◽  
The World

The United States has long enjoyed an essentially unopposed ability to project power and sustain its security forces dispersed throughout the world. However, the uncertainty facing the global security environment, including tenuous alliances, fiscal constraints, and a decline in overseas basing, has increased tensions in emerging areas of potential conflict. These factors are driving change regarding the United States’ defense posture and access agreements abroad. While the preponderance of overseas capability outweighs the preponderance of U.S. forces, deterrence continues to underpin the overarching national security strategy. However, deterrence options impacted by the lack of resilience and investment in distributed logistics and sustainment are generating an additional range of variables and conditions for operators on the ground to consider in shared and contested domains.

Responses by the United States to Attacks on the Rohingya in Burma

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-326
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Minority Populations ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Marginalized Populations ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Military Security ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Do So

On November 22, 2017, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released a statement addressing attacks on the Rohingya population in Burma: [T]he key test of any democracy is how it treats its most vulnerable and marginalized populations, such as the ethnic Rohingya and other minority populations. Burma's government and security forces must respect the human rights of all persons within its borders, and hold accountable those who fail to do so.… .These abuses by some among the Burmese military, security forces, and local vigilantes have caused tremendous suffering and forced hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children to flee their homes in Burma to seek refuge in Bangladesh. After a careful and thorough analysis of available facts, it is clear that the situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.

Historical Approaches to Terrorism

2019 ◽  
pp. 193-206
Author(s):  
Brenda J. Lutz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
World War ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Reign Of Terror ◽  
Over Time

While many have considered terrorism to be a uniquely modern phenomenon, a review of terrorism over time indicates it has deep historical roots. Historical cases include violence in the late Roman Republic, the Zealots in Roman Judea, anti-colonial attacks against the British, Dutch, and Spanish in Asia, the prelude to the American Revolution, the Reign of Terror in France, and eventually the more modern manifestations and uses by nationalist or ethnic groups, extremists drawn from most religious traditions, leftist dissidents including the anarchist, and right-wing extremists including the Fascists and Nazis after World War I as well as the Ku Klux Klan in the United States. While terrorism has been present for centuries, there have been significant changes. Police and security forces have increased in quantity and quality, but terrorists have gained access to more lethal techniques and weapons.

scholarly journals Importance of «weak» states during conflicts: Portuguese trade with the United States during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Moreira ◽  
Jari Eloranta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Markets ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Total War ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Peninsular War ◽  
International Trading

AbstractThis paper focuses on the analysis of weak states in the international trading system during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic crises, especially on Portugal's trade relations with the United States. We argue that the previous studies of the trade flows during these conflicts have not paid enough attention on smaller actors. Even though the Peninsular War caused severe disruption of agricultural production in Portugal, the United States, despite its strained relations with an ally of Portugal, Great Britain, became a key supplier for the Portuguese market. Clearly, the threatened position of the peninsula, and the need to supply the troops, awarded the Portuguese some room to manoeuvre in the international markets. Total war was not a constraint for all states — economic necessities trumped political and diplomatic concerns during the era of the first real-world wars. This situation was a temporary one, only to change after the conflict.

US-led air campaign will shape long-term fight in Iraq

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The United States ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Actual Impact ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
External Actors ◽  
Military Campaign

Significance The United States and Iran are both fighting against ISG in Iraq, but their rivalry elsewhere, such as taking opposite sides in Syria and Yemen, and historic enmity has prevented explicit cooperation. They are likely to be the two most significant external actors in helping Baghdad reclaim Iraqi territory from ISG. Impacts The symbolic impact of capturing Tikrit would be significant, but its actual impact on the wider military campaign will be limited. It would provide Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi time to prepare Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) to a greater level of readiness. However, rapid success of militia forces could lead to even more difficult political choices.

Afghan Taliban use violence to hasten US troop exit

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Armed Force ◽  
Bad Faith ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Creation

Significance At the same time as pursuing peace talks with the Afghan government, the Taliban are using calibrated armed force to push the United States into withdrawing all its troops. In an incontrovertible breach of their agreement with Washington, the insurgents launched their largest military offensive in years in October. As though this were not happening, President Donald Trump ordered the US force in Afghanistan to be reduced to 2,500 by the end of his term. Impacts NATO and other coalition allies in Afghanistan will mirror the US exit with proportionate troop drawdowns. Opposition to talks is hardening in Kabul as sceptics claim the Taliban are acting in bad faith. Reverses suffered by the Afghan security forces will focus debate on whether they can cope once US forces leave. The Afghan president is accelerating the creation of the 'Territorial Army', recruited from the militias of former warlords.

The Tyranny of Distance: Assessing and Explaining the Apparent Decline in U.S. Military Performance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Patrick Hulme ◽  
Erik Gartzke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
Intrastate Conflict ◽  
American Military ◽  
Military Performance ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Cost

Abstract There is a growing sense that US military effectiveness has been on the wane in recent years. Is this the case? If so, what are the reasons for the decay in American combat performance? We first examine the available systematic evidence for American military decline, showing that the United States has indeed experienced a drop in the quality of outcomes of its military contests. Observers have offered a number of explanations for declining American military success, most predominantly an increase in intrastate conflict after the Second World War. After showing that a decline in performance is observed even after fully excluding intrastate conflict, we propose an alternative explanation: the increasing distance from home at which the United States has been fighting. Distance is tyrannical: it saps military strength and increases the cost of contests, even as it reduces US expertise and motivations to prevail. We then show that the distance from home at which the United States fights is the best predictor of the outcome of the conflict. We conclude by noting some avenues for future research and policy implications as the world returns to great power competition.

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