Making Twenty-First-Century Strategy - An Introduction to

Making Twenty-First-Century Strategy - An Introduction to Modern National Security Processes and Problems

This book is about national security strategy: what it is, what its objectives are, what problems it seeks to solve or at least manage, and what kinds of influences constrain and create opportunities for the development and implementation of strategies. The heart of the problem with which national security strategy deals is the series of threatsâ€”normally military, but increasingly semi- or nonmilitary in characterâ€”that the country must confront and somehow overcome or contain. When the original version of this book1 was published in 1988, the set of threats facing the United States was reasonably staticâ€”those problems associated with the Cold War confrontation with a communist world led by the Soviet Unionâ€”even if there were signs of change on the horizon. In the ensuing decade and a half, that configuration of problems largely dissolved, along with the concrete parameters within which we operated. In its place is a much more diffuse, shifting, and controversial set of problems that is simultaneously simple, compelling, and arguable. Making strategy is no longer a simple, straightforward process, if it ever were. The making and implementation of strategy at the national level is largely an exercise in risk management and risk reduction. Risk, at that level, is the difference between the threats posed to our security by our adversaries and our capabilities to counter or negate those threats. Assessing risk and resolving it has two primary dimensions. The first is the assessment of risk itself: what conditions represent threats to our security, and how serious are those threats relative to one another and to our safety? The answers to these questions are not mechanical and obvious but are the result of subjective human assessments based on different political and philosophical judgments about the world and our place in it. The other dimension is the adequacy of resources to counter the threats that we identify. In circumstances of plenty, where there are adequate resources (manpower, materiel, perceived will, etc.) to counter all threats, this is not a problem. In the real world, each of these dimensions presents a real set of issues, which we must acknowledge up front.

Country	USA
Binding	Paperback
EAN	9781478391647
ISBN	1478391642
Label	CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Manufacturer	CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
MPN	black & white illustrations
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	288
PartNumber	black & white illustrations
PublicationDate	2006-08-01
Publisher	CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Studio	CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Making Twenty-First-Century Strategy - An Introduction to Modern National Security Processes and Problems

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