This edited volume explores and analyses strategic thinking, military reform and adaptation in an era of Asian growth, European austerity and US rebalancing. A significant shift in policy, strategy and military affairs is underway in both Asia and Europe, with the former gaining increasing prominence in the domain of global security. At the same time, the world’s powers are now faced with an array of diverse challenges. The resurgence of great power politics in both Europe and Asia, along with the long term threats of terrorism, piracy and sustained geopolitical instability has placed great strain on militaries and security institutions operating with constrained budgets and wary public support. The volume covers a wide range of case studies, including the transformation of China’s military in the 21st century, the internal and external challenges facing India, Russia’s military modernization program and the USA’s reassessment of its strategic interests. In doing so, the book provides the reader with the opportunity to conceptualize how strategic thinking, military reform, operational adaptation and technological integration have interacted with the challenges outlined above. With contributions by leading scholars and practitioners from Europe and Asia, this book provides a valuable contribution to the understanding of strategic and operational thinking and adjustment across the world. This book will be of much interest to students of military and strategic studies, security studies, defence studies, Asian politics, Russian politics, US foreign policy and IR in general.

Military Strategy of Middle Powers explores to what degree twenty-first-century middle powers adjust their military strategies due to changes in the international order, such as the decline in US power. The overarching objective of the book is to explain continuity and change in the strategies of a group of middle powers during the twenty-first century. These strategies are described, compared, and explained through the lens of Realism. In order to find potential explanations for change or continuity within the cases, as well as for similarities and differences between the cases, the strategies of 11 ‘middle’ powers are analysed (Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, India, Japan, and South Korea). This group of countries are considered similar in several important aspects, primarily regarding relative power capacity. When searching for potential explanations for different strategic behaviours among the middle powers, their unique regional characteristics are a key focus and, consequently, the impact of the structure and polarity, as well as the patterns of amity and enmity, of the regional context are analysed. The empirical investigation is focused on security strategies used since the terrorist attacks 9/11 2001, which was one of the first major challenges to US hegemony. This book will be of much interest to students of military and strategic studies, foreign policy, and International Relations in general.

"This book, written by members of the Chief of Staff of the Army's Strategic Studies Group, takes an innovative approach to determining how the United States can counter extremist groups and engage in great power competition in the twenty first century. After proposing that the answer lies in switching the focus of current US strategy from the physical domain on which conflict occurs to the social, political, and cultural networks that comprise the human domain in which it occurs, it develops a new operating concept for conducting operations within that domain. This is an important book for those in security studies and international relations."--Provided by publisher.

The purpose of this research paper is to introduce a new national security strategy and military force structure for the 21st century. The strategy, called 'Dynamic Response', is based on defending clear and unequivocal national interests which are defined in the paper's discussion of America's 'national security estate'. The authors contend that decisions on the size and shape of the US forces must rest on an enduring logic which is both clearly understood and endorsed by government institutions and the public. Without this logic--provided by the strategy of Dynamic Response--support for the military could erode, contributing to the gradual hollowing out of American forces and fostering an international environment that invites aggression. The proposed strategy of Dynamic Response is placed firmly within the context of the evolving geopolitical landscape. The paper examines four of the most significant post Cold War forces that are fundamentally reshaping this landscape: the demise of ideology; the impact of the domestic economy on military power; the cartelization of geopolitical structures; and the acceleration of global socio-cultural change. To deal with these forces. a new national security strategy is required, grounded in the defense of the 'national security estate'. This estate is made up of those regions of the world which are necessary to the survival of the US as a free and economically viable nation.

CONTENTS: Foreword Transformation and Professional Military Education: Past as Prologue to the Future Balancing Tyche: Nonlinearity and Joint Operations The Best Offense Is a Good Defense: Preemption, Its Ramifications for the Department of Defense U.S. Army Europe 2010: Harnessing the Potential of NATO Enlargement Creating Strategic Agility in Northeast Asia The War in Afghanistan: A Strategic Analysis Adaptability: A New Principle of War Direct and Indirect Fires in the 21st Century Maritime Prepositioning: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow Homeland Security: The Department of Defense, The Department of Homeland Security, and Critical Vulnerabilities Integrated Emergency Management: The Roles of Federal, State, and Local Government with Implications for Homeland Security Is There Space for the Objective Force? Expanding Nuclear Arms Control: DoD Imperatives in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001 About the Authors

"This new work defines national security strategy, its objectives, the problems it confronts, and the influences that constrain and facilitate its development and implementation in a post-Cold War, post-9/11 environment. The authors note that making and implementing national strategy centers on risk management and present a model for assessing strategic risks and the process for allocating limited resources to reduce them. The major threats facing the United States now come from its unique status as "the sole remaining superpower" against which no nation-state or other entity can hope to compete through conventional means. The alternative is what is now called asymmetrical or fourth generation warfare. Drew and Snow discuss all these factors in detail and bring them together by examining the continuing problems of making strategy in a changed and changing world."-- AU Press web site.