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The future of war : a history / Lawrence Freedman.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Public Affairs, 2017Copyright date: ©2017Edition: First editionDescription: xxi, 376 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 1610393058
  • 9781610393058
Subject(s):
Contents:
Decisive battle -- Indecisive battle -- The house of strife -- Victory through cruelty -- Failures of peace -- Total war -- The balance of terror -- Stuck in the nuclear age -- A surprise peace -- A science of war -- Counting the dead -- Democracy and war -- New wars and failed states -- Ancient hatreds and mineral curses -- Intervention -- Counter-insurgency to counter-terrorism -- From counter-terrorism to counter-insurgency -- The role of barbarism -- Cure not prevention -- Hybrid wars -- Cyberwar -- Robots and drones -- Mega-cities and climate change -- Coming wars -- The future of the future of war.
Summary: Questions about the future of war are a regular feature of political debate, strategic analysis, and popular fiction. Where should we look for new dangers? What cunning plans might an aggressor have in mind? What are the best forms of defense? How might peace be preserved or conflict resolved? From the French rout at Sedan in 1870 to the relentless contemporary insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lawrence Freedman, a world-renowned military thinker, reveals how most claims from the military futurists are wrong. But they remain influential nonetheless. Freedman shows how those who have imagined future war have often had an idealized notion of it as confined, brief, and decisive, and have regularly taken insufficient account of the possibility of long wars--hence the stubborn persistence of the idea of a knockout blow, whether through a dashing land offensive, nuclear first strike, or cyberattack. He also notes the lack of attention paid to civil wars until the West began to intervene in them during the 1990s, and how the boundaries between peace and war, between the military, the civilian, and the criminal are becoming increasingly blurred. Freedman's account of a century and a half of warfare and the (often misconceived) thinking that precedes war is a challenge to hawks and doves alike, and puts current strategic thinking into a bracing historical perspective.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 355.02 F853 Available 33111008861987
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An award-winning military historian, professor, and political adviser delivers the definitive story of warfare in all its guises and applications, showing what has driven and continues to drive this uniquely human form of political violence.

Questions about the future of war are a regular feature of political debate, strategic analysis, and popular fiction. Where should we look for new dangers? What cunning plans might an aggressor have in mind? What are the best forms of defense? How might peace be preserved or conflict resolved?

From the French rout at Sedan in 1870 to the relentless contemporary insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lawrence Freedman, a world-renowned military thinker, reveals how most claims from the military futurists are wrong. But they remain influential nonetheless.

Freedman shows how those who have imagined future war have often had an idealized notion of it as confined, brief, and decisive, and have regularly taken insufficient account of the possibility of long wars-hence the stubborn persistence of the idea of a knockout blow, whether through a dashing land offensive, nuclear first strike, or cyberattack. He also notes the lack of attention paid to civil wars until the West began to intervene in them during the 1990s, and how the boundaries between peace and war, between the military, the civilian, and the criminal are becoming increasingly blurred.

Freedman's account of a century and a half of warfare and the (often misconceived) thinking that precedes war is a challenge to hawks and doves alike, and puts current strategic thinking into a bracing historical perspective.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-361) and index.

Decisive battle -- Indecisive battle -- The house of strife -- Victory through cruelty -- Failures of peace -- Total war -- The balance of terror -- Stuck in the nuclear age -- A surprise peace -- A science of war -- Counting the dead -- Democracy and war -- New wars and failed states -- Ancient hatreds and mineral curses -- Intervention -- Counter-insurgency to counter-terrorism -- From counter-terrorism to counter-insurgency -- The role of barbarism -- Cure not prevention -- Hybrid wars -- Cyberwar -- Robots and drones -- Mega-cities and climate change -- Coming wars -- The future of the future of war.

Questions about the future of war are a regular feature of political debate, strategic analysis, and popular fiction. Where should we look for new dangers? What cunning plans might an aggressor have in mind? What are the best forms of defense? How might peace be preserved or conflict resolved? From the French rout at Sedan in 1870 to the relentless contemporary insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lawrence Freedman, a world-renowned military thinker, reveals how most claims from the military futurists are wrong. But they remain influential nonetheless. Freedman shows how those who have imagined future war have often had an idealized notion of it as confined, brief, and decisive, and have regularly taken insufficient account of the possibility of long wars--hence the stubborn persistence of the idea of a knockout blow, whether through a dashing land offensive, nuclear first strike, or cyberattack. He also notes the lack of attention paid to civil wars until the West began to intervene in them during the 1990s, and how the boundaries between peace and war, between the military, the civilian, and the criminal are becoming increasingly blurred. Freedman's account of a century and a half of warfare and the (often misconceived) thinking that precedes war is a challenge to hawks and doves alike, and puts current strategic thinking into a bracing historical perspective.

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