Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T15:09:28.444Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Toward a Redefinition of Military Strategy in International Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Morris Janowitz
Affiliation:
Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago
Get access

Extract

In a period of search for politico-military détente between the major nuclear powers, one cannot avoid the question of whether the theories and categories for the analysis of international relations, especially those involving the role of military force, are appropriate and clarifying. Although they strive to make use of timeless categories, social scientists, especially when analyzing international relations, must take into consideration the changing historical context. In this paper I will attempt to reassess the well-known issue of the limits of military intervention in international relations by advanced industrial societies. I will seek to extend and formulate the ideas which, in The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait, were vaguely expressed in the notion of a constabulary.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Wright, Quincy, A Study of War (Chicago 1942), Vols. I and II.Google Scholar

2 Janowitz, , The Professional Soldier (New York 1971), 418–30.Google Scholar

3 Weber, Max, General Economic History (Glencoe, Ill. 1950).Google ScholarMannheim, Karl, Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction (New York 1940), 4449.Google Scholar See also Goldhamer, Herbert and Shils, Edward A., “Types of Power and Status,” American journal of Sociology, XLV (September 1939), 171–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Mannheim (fn. 3), passim.

5 See for example, Kriesberg, Louis, ed., Social Process in International Relations: A Reader (New York 1968)Google Scholar; Kelman, Herbert, International Behavior: A Social-Psychological Analysis (New York 1965).Google Scholar

6 Brodie, Bernard, Strategy in the Missile Age (Princeton 1959)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tarr, D., American Strategy in the Nuclear Age (New York 1966).Google Scholar

7 Aron, Raymond, A Century of Total War (New York 1954)Google Scholar; Wohlstetter, Albert, “The Delicate Balance of Terror,” Foreign Affairs, XXXVII (January 1959), 211–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Frankei, Joseph, International Politics: Conflict and Harmony (London 1969).Google Scholar

8 Schelling, Thomas C., Arms and Influence (New Haven 1966).Google Scholar Despite the audior's language and particular style, this volume contains valuable materials on the actual pattern of communication and interaction between die U.S. and the Soviet military force.

9 Emerson, Rupert, From Empire to Nation (Cambridge, Mass, 1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Geertz, Clifford, ed., Old Societies and New States: The Quest for Modernity in Asia and Africa (Glencoe, Ill. 1963).Google Scholar

10 Janowitz, , The Role of the Military in the Political Development of New Nations (Chicago 1964)Google Scholar; Finer, S. F., The Man on Horseback (London 1962)Google Scholar; Schmitter, Philippe C., Military Rule in Latin America (Beverly Hills 1973).Google Scholar

11 For an analysis of the changed political meaning of nationalism in international relations, see Herz, John, International Politics in the Atomic Age (New York 1959)Google Scholar; Hinsley, F. H., Power and the Pursuit of Peace (Cambridge 1963).Google Scholar

12 The concept of “stabilizing” versus “destabilizing” military systems does not necessarily assume the idea of equilibrium in international relations, but is compatible with the analysis of historical change.

13 Garthoff, Raymond L., Soviet Military Policy: A Historical Analysis (New York 1966)Google Scholar; see esp. chap. 2.

14 Snyder, Richard C., “Some Recent Trends in International Relations Theory and Research,” in Ranney, Austin, ed., Essays on the Behavioral Study of Politics (Urbana 1962), 103–71.Google Scholar

15 Bernard, Jessie, “The Theory of Games as a Modern Sociology of Conflict,” American Journal of Sociology, LIX (March 1954), 411530CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rapoport, Anatol, “Lewis F. Rich ardson's Mathematical Theory of War,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1 (September 1957)Google Scholar; Schelling, Thomas C., The Strategy of Conflict (Cambridge, Mass. 1963)Google Scholar; Guetzkow, Harold S. and others, Simulation in International Relations: Developments for Research and Teaching (Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1963)Google Scholar; Russett, Bruce M., Peace, War, and Numbers (Beverly Hills 1972)Google Scholar, in particular Rummel, R. J., “U.S. Foreign Relations: Conflict, Cooperation, and Attribute Distances,” 71115Google Scholar; Burton, J. W., International Relations: A General Theory (Cambridge 1965).Google Scholar

16 Kolko, Gabriel, The Roots of American Foreign Policy (Boston 1969)Google Scholar; Joyce, and Kolko, Gabriel, The Limits of Power: The World and United States Foreign Policy: 1945–1914 (New York 1972)Google Scholar; see also Maier, Charles S., “Revisionism and the Interpretation of Cold War Origins,” Perspectives in American History, IV (1970), 313–47.Google Scholar

17 (New York 1927, 1938).

18 For an exception, see Pike, Douglas, Viet Cong: The Organization and Techniques of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (Cambridge, Mass. 1966).Google Scholar

19 See Shils', Edward introduction to Sorel, Georges, Reflections on Violence (Glencoe, Ill. 1950).Google Scholar

20 (Princeton 1960); (New York 1965).

21 On the other hand, the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, which sought to assess the economic and sociopolitical consequences of strategic air warfare during World War II, constitutes an important large-scale tour de force, based on empirical efforts. In this case, the fact that it was sponsored by U. S. military authorities is irrelevant; the investigators' conclusions were at variance with the operational logic of the U. S. Air Force. Likewise, the fact that its findings had no impact on U. S. military policy is unfortunate, but its intellectual worth makes it a central contribution to the field of international relations. U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Morale Division, The Effects of Strategic Bombing on German Morale, March-July, 1945, I (Washington, D.C. 1947)Google Scholar; U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Reports, Pacific War, The Effects of Strategic Bombing on Japanese Morale (Washington, D.C. 1945).Google Scholar

22 Duncan, Otis Dudley, Toward Social Reporting: Next Steps (New York 1969).Google Scholar

23 Kaplan, , System and Process in International Politics (New York 1957).Google Scholar

24 Kahn, Herman and Wiener, Anthony J., The Year 2000: A Framework for Speculation on the Next Thirty-Three Years (New York 1967).Google Scholar

25 The pioneer effort was Lasswell, Harold D., World Politics and Personal Insecurity (New York 1965)Google Scholar; see also Strachey, Alex, The Unconscious Motives of War (New York 1957)Google Scholar; Farber, Maurice L., “Psychoanalytic Hypotheses in the Study of War,” Journal of Social Issues, XI, No. 1 (1955), 2935.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 See, for example, Tawney, Richard H., The Acquisitive Society (New York 1920).Google Scholar

27 Mannheim, (fn. 3), 109–29.Google Scholar

28 Dahrendorf, Ralf, Class and Class Conflict in Industriai Society (Stanford 1959)Google Scholar; Moore, Barrington, Reflections on the Causes of Human Misery and Upon Certain Proposals to Eliminate Them (Boston 1972).Google Scholar

29 Hinsley, F. H., Sovereignty (New York 1966).Google Scholar

30 Speier, Hans, Social Order and the Risks of War (Cambridge, Mass. 1969).Google Scholar

31 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, World Armaments and Disarmaments, SIPRI Yearbook 1973 (Stockholm 1973)Google Scholar; see also SIPRI Yearbooks for 1968–69, 1969–70, and 1972; United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency,. World Military Expenditures, 1971 (Washington, D.C. 1972).Google Scholar

32 Lieberson, Stanley, “An Empirical Study of Military-Industrial Linkages,” in Sarkesian, Sam C., ed., The Military-Industrial Complex: A Reassessment, Sage Research Series on War, Revolution, and Peacekeeping, Vol. II (Beverly Hills 1972), 5394.Google Scholar

33 Kris, Ernst and Leites, Nathan, “Trends in Twentieth Century Propaganda,” Psychoanalysis and the Social Sciences, 1 (1947), 393409.Google Scholar

34 For an evaluation of the impact of violence on television on social personality, see U. S. Public Health Service, The Surgeon-General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior, Television and Growing Up: The Impact of Televised Violence (Washington, D.C. 1972).Google Scholar

35 The main outlines of “classical” military strategy in terms of which contemporary conceptions can be assessed are to be found in Craig, Gordon, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy (Princeton 1963).Google Scholar

36 See Uyehara, Cecil H., “Scientific Advice and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty” in Lakoff, Sanford A., ed., Knowledge and Power (New York 1966), 112–61Google Scholar; Gilpin, Robert, American Scientists and Nuclear Weapons Policy (Princeton 1962)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lyons, Gene M. and Morton, Louis, School for Strategy: Education and Research in National Security Affairs (New York 1965).Google Scholar

37 In assessing the marked difference in the success of U. S. foreign policy as between Western Europe and Southeast Asia, a reading of Kennan, George, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” Foreign Affairs, XXV (July 1947), 566–82Google Scholar, is most helpful. First, there is no meaningful reference to nuclear weapons in his analysis. Second, he speaks of the need for “adroit and vigilant application of counter force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points.” However, Kennan writes essentially about foreign policy in Europe, and does not draw the implication of his position for the Middle East or the Far East.

38 Blackett, P. M. S., Atomic Weapons and East-West Relations (New York 1956).Google Scholar

39 For an analysis of the “intelligence” dimension in U. S. decision making, see Hilsman, Roger, Strategic Intelligence and National Decisions (Glencoe, Ill. 1956).Google Scholar

40 Hoopes, Townsend, The Limits of Intervention: An Inside Account of How the Johnson Policy of Escalation in Vietnam Was Reversed (New York 1969)Google Scholar; Clark, Clifford, “A Vietnam Reappraisal,” Foreign Affairs, XLVII (July 1969), 601–22.Google Scholar For an early assessment of the requirements for negotiating the end of the Indochina War, see Lloyd A. Fallers, Clifford Geertz, and Janowitz, Morris, “The Policy Proposals: A Negotiated Stalemate” in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: A Journal of Science and Public Affairs (June 1965), 4245.Google Scholar

41 Brodie, Bernard, “Nuclear Weapons: Strategic or Tactical,” in Foreign Affairs, XXXII (January 1954), 217–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Escalation and the Nuclear Option (Princeton 1966); Kissinger, Henry A., Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy (New York 1957).Google Scholar

42 Dinerstein, Herbert S., War and the Soviet Union: Nuclear Weapons and the Revolution in Soviet Military and Political Thinking (New York 1959)Google Scholar; Wolfe, Thomas W., Soviet Strategy at the Crossroads (Cambridge, Mass. 1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43 Foreign Affairs, LI (January 1973), 267–85.

44 It remains to be explained why the U. S. military did not follow its own professional judgment. The appropriate form of dissent would have been token resignation of the Chief of Staff, particularly the Chief of Staff of the ground forces, when he was assigned a task that he believed could obviously not be achieved with the resources placed at his disposal. The publication of the Pentagon Papers has probably postponed an analysis of this central issue, since the answer lies not in examination of specific documents but in the analysis of the workings of a military bureaucracy which in effect has become “overprofessionalized”—more prepared to follow orders than to exercise independent professional skill and judgment.

45 Halperin, Morton, China and Nuclear Proliferation (Chicago 1966).Google Scholar

46 Garthoff, Raymond L., Sino-Soviet Military Relations (New York 1966).Google Scholar

47 Janowitz, , “Volunteer Armed Forces and Military Purpose,” Foreign Affairs, L (April 1972), 427–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hackel, Erwin, “Military Manpower and Political Purpose,” Adelphi Papers No. 72 (London 1970).Google Scholar

48 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Prevention of Incidents on the High Seas (Agreement signed at Moscow 1972).Google Scholar

49 Janowitz, (fn. 2), 418.Google Scholar

50 Erickson, John, “Soviet Military Power,” Strategic Review (Spring 1973).Google Scholar

51 Lasswell, Harold D., “The Garrison State,” American Journal of Sociology, XLVI (January 1941)Google Scholar; Mills, C. Wright, The Power Elite (New York 1956).Google Scholar

52 Erickson, John, Soviet Military Power (London 1972).Google Scholar

53 Erickson, John and Wolfe, J. N., eds., The Armed Services and Society (Edinburgh 1970).Google Scholar

54 The concern to maintain combat readiness also pervades the Russian forces. Their leaders are deeply concerned that they have had no combat experience for a quarter of a century; in their own terms, the occupation of allied socialist nations is not considered war. Their response has been to conduct frequent large-scale maneuvers, with which they are obsessed. The threat of a Sino-Soviet confrontation supplies a realistic stimulant. Russian military leaders cannot engage in candid discussion of these issues, and very litde is known of the scope and quality of their thinking on these points. They must accept the insistence of political leaders that ideological training is a device for maintaining combat readiness—although, of course, they are fundamentally aware of its limitations.

55 Abrahamsson, Bengt, Military Professionalization and Political Power (Beverly Hills 1972)Google Scholar; Lovell, John P., “The Professional Socialization of the West Point Cadet” in Janowitz, , ed., The blew Military: Changing Patterns of Organization (New York 1964), 119–43Google Scholar; Hackel, Erwin, “Military Manpower and Political Purpose,” 59Google Scholar; Lebby, David E., “Professional Socialization of the Naval Officer: The Effect of the Plebe Year at the U. S. Naval Academy,” unpub. Ph.D. diss. (University of Pennsylvania 1970).Google Scholar

56 Nelson, Paul D., “Personnel Performance Prediction” in Little, Roger W., ed., Handbook, of Military institutions (Beverly Hills 1971), 91122.Google Scholar

57 Janowitz, (fn. 2), 2137.Google Scholar

58 Huntington, Samuel P., Soldier and State (Cambridge, Mass. 1957).Google Scholar

59 Janowitz, , “The U. S. Forces and the Zero Draft,” Adelphi Papers No. 94 (London 1973).Google Scholar

60 For one of the earliest sociological explications of the norms required for an international order, see Cooley, Charles Horton, Social Process (New York 1918), 256Google Scholar: “A ripe nationality is favorable to international order for the same reason that a ripe individuality is favorable to order in a small group. It means that we have coherent, self-conscious, and more or less self-controlled elements out of which to build our system. To destroy nationality because it causes wars would be like killing people to get rid of their selfishness…”