Military Readiness: Concepts, Choices, Consequences
- ISBN-10
- 0815709064
- ISBN-13
- 9780815709060
- Category
- History / Military / General
- Pages
- 322
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1995
- Publisher
- Brookings Institution
- Author
- Richard K. Betts
Description
Throughout most of American history, U.S. military forces proved unready for the wars that were thrust upon them and suffered costly reverses in early battles. During the Cold War, for the first time, U.S. defense policy tried to maintain high readiness in peacetime. But now, with the Cold War over and defense budgets falling, what will happen to U.S. military forces? Will they revert to a state of unpreparedness or find a new balance? Politicians and military planners alike have found this crucial issue especially difficult to deal with because they have often misunderstood what readiness really means. In this book, security expert Richard Betts surveys problems in developing and measuring combat readiness before, during, and after the Cold War. He analyzes why attempts to maximize it often have counterproductive effects, and how confusions in technical concepts cause political controversy. The book explores conflicts between two objectives that are both vital but work against each other because they compete for resources: operational readiness to fight immediately, and structural readiness--the number of organized units that increase military power, but require time during a crisis to gear up for combat. Betts also discusses the problem brought on by the Cold War and plunging defense budgets: mobilization readiness--the plans and arrangements needed to shorten the time for recreating a large military if it once again becomes necessary. Betts offers new ideas for understanding the dilemmas and tradeoffs that underlie debates on how readiness should be maintained in peacetime, and he explores the strategic consequences of different choices. Richard K. Betts, formerly a senior fellow inthe Foreign Policy Studies program at Brookings, is professor of political science and a member of the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of numerous Brookings books, including Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance (1987), Surprise Attack (1982), and The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked (with Leslie H. Gelb, 1982).
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2011-08
- 40 pages
- Ebook
- DIANE Publishing
-
- 2008-05-01
- 34 pages
- Ebook
- DIANE Publishing
Similar books
-
空间武器地球战
By （美）普雷斯顿（PrestonB.）, （美）达纳·约翰逊（Dana J.Johnson）, （美）肖恩·爱德华兹（Sean J.A.Edwards）外层空间争夺是美国人梦想中一个重要主题，在外层空间部署毁灭性的大规模武器，称霸地球成为美国当局的目标，本书为这一目标作了说明。
-
Civil War Generalship: The Art of Command
By W. J. Wood... 103 , Tuscumbia , Ala . , 197 , 199 , 200 184 Starling , Lyne , 165 Valley Head , Ga . , 105 Steedman , James B. ... 107 , Williams , Alpheus S. , 60 , 61 , 63 , 76 108 , 110 , 120 , 121 , 145 , 146 , 149–151 , Wilson , James H.
-
Chronicles of Border Warfare. New Edition, Edited and Annotated by R. G. Thwaites ... with the Addition of a Memoir...
By Alexander Scott Withers, Lyman Copeland Draper, Reuben Gold ThwaitesThis is a curated and comprehensive collection of the most important works covering matters related to national security, diplomacy, defense, war, strategy, and tactics.
-
Chronicles of Border Warfare. New Edition, Edited and Annotated by R. G. Thwaites ... with the Addition of a Memoir...
By Alexander Scott Withers, Lyman Copeland Draper, Reuben Gold ThwaitesThis work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
-
Anglo-American Shipbuilding in World War II: A Geographical Perspective
By Daniel Todd, Michael LindbergMoss and Hume , p . 352 . 34. The data are described in N. S. Ross , " Employment in Shipbuilding and ShipRepairing in Great Britain , " Journal of the Roval Statistical Society , Series A , 115 , 1952 , pp . 524-533 . 35.
-
Iraq and the International Oil System: Why America Went to War in the Gulf
By Stephen C. PelletiereBut roughly at the same time as Samuel , a British engineer , W. D. Pearson , made the attempt . In 1901 Pearson — while building a railway along Mexico's east coast — espied standing pools of oil at Tampico , and this led him to seek ...
-
On the Banks of the Suez: An Israeli General's Personal Account of the Yom Kippur War
By Avraham AdanMilitary Misfortune by Eliot A. Cohen & John Gooch 296 pages , The Free Press New York , N.Y. , 1990. $ 22.95 ISBN 01-02-906060-5 Why do competent armies fail ? What explains these “ lost victories , ” as Field ...
-
The Ten Cents War: Chile, Peru, and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific, 1879-1884
By Bruce W. FarcauHe installed three 70 - pounders , a 150 - pounder . and a pair of 100 - pound Parrott rifled guns atop the Morro with a 250 - pound French Vavasseur and another four 70 - pounders at a lower battery . He also created two batteries on ...
-
Falcon's Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir
By Michael Donnelly, Denise DonnellyU.S. Air Force Major Michael Donnelly was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease, after his tour of duty in Desert Storm.
-
Οι επτά ηγέτες του Πολέμου
By Marc Ferro257 ― Bergère MarieClaire, Bianco Lucien και Domes J., La Chine au ΧΧe siècle, 2 τόμοι, Παρίσι, Fayard, 19891990. 258 ― Bergère MarieClaire, Sun YatSen, Παρίσι, Fayard, 1994. 259 ― Bianco Lucien, Les Origines de la révolution chinoise, ...