Huntingdon
College | Political Science |
Courses
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What's
New?
Terrorism
Index &
Notes | 9/11
Report: Lewis's &
Arnett's
Outlines | World Affairs Council
PSC
307: Public Policy Analysis
PSC
303: International Relations | PSC
371: World Politics and Terrorism
Strategic Concepts: a
Primer for PSC 307
Students reading Dye's
chapter on Defense Policy.
revised 20 Feb. 2006 by Jeremy
Lewis:
For PSC 307, Dye's text on Defense
policy leaves out some concepts that are necessary to understanding the
choices made by the US in defense reviews.
Clausewitz's dictum: war is
an extension of politics, resolving conflicts by other means.
War to be fought on a rational
basis, limited to rational goals.
Levels of analysis:
grand strategy
strategy
operations
tactics
Actors in world anarchical society
Nation states
superpower vs hyperpower
clash of civilizations
imperial overstretch
regional powers
supranational organizations
empires
Non Governmental Organizations,
both peaceful and deadly
spheres of influence: Monroe
doctrine covered Latin America
alliances such as NATO and Warsaw
Pact
international law: treaties
and executive agreements, plus customary law.
Forces needed are a result of
our strategy
Top down QDR:
Strategy serves grand strategy
operational planning serves
strategy
tactics serve operational plans
Nuclear weapons and triad
Conventional forces
reduced by alliance partners
filling in gaps
US carries heavier burden of
alliance leader, hyperpower.
1 and half ocean naval war,
win-hold-win land war.
drawdown of forces in 1990s
across West, especially of cold war forces.