Here is a much-needed assessment and summing-up on four current strategic situation by B. H. Liddell Hart, the leading military analyst of our time. Taking a clear, hard look at Western defense capabilities and strategic planning, particularly as they are embodied in NATO, he has come up with suggestions for radical but vital revisions in our defense policies. Fifteen years have elapsed since Captain Liddell Hart forecast the consequences of atom-bomb diplomacy. Now, as the NATO powers move uneasily forward in the 1960’s, he shows how the development of the H-bomb—and, indeed, the multiplication in general of nuclear weapons on both sides—has become on the one hand, increasingly self-inhibiting, and, on the other, increasingly precarious as a protective insurance policy, especially in view of the development of log-range missiles. The natural consequences of the current nuclear parity is nuclear nullity. Thus, the nuclear deterrent, in which the West has put so much trust, is fading except as a deterrent to its own kind of action. But the Western powers have not yet come to grips with the problem of finding an adequate and effective replacement for this “fading deterrent.” As a result, the West now finds itself gravely hampered in any attempt to resist the more subtle forms of aggression and pressure. Having carefully analyzed the ailment, the author offers a hopeful cure, demonstrating how the weakness of the West’s present position can be remedied without an intolerable outlay in strain and cost.

In the literature of diplomacy and military strategy, there has long been a gulf between the concepts of deterrence and defense. Glenn Snyder bridges this gulf, offering a systematic analysis of the two ideas, with the aim of integrating them in a framework of theory. He proposes criteria for making rational decisions in national security policy and deals with the critical issue of the balance between deterrence of, and defense against, military attacks. The author augments the scattered literature on the subject with original contributions on this increasingly important facet of international relations. Originally published in 1961. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This is a new release of the original 1960 edition.

This open access volume surveys the state of the field to examine whether a fifth wave of deterrence theory is emerging. Bringing together insights from world-leading experts from three continents, the volume identifies the most pressing strategic challenges, frames theoretical concepts, and describes new strategies. The use and utility of deterrence in today’s strategic environment is a topic of paramount concern to scholars, strategists and policymakers. Ours is a period of considerable strategic turbulence, which in recent years has featured a renewed emphasis on nuclear weapons used in defence postures across different theatres; a dramatic growth in the scale of military cyber capabilities and the frequency with which these are used; and rapid technological progress including the proliferation of long-range strike and unmanned systems. These military-strategic developments occur in a polarized international system, where cooperation between leading powers on arms control regimes is breaking down, states widely make use of hybrid conflict strategies, and the number of internationalized intrastate proxy conflicts has quintupled over the past two decades. Contemporary conflict actors exploit a wider gamut of coercive instruments, which they apply across a wider range of domains. The prevalence of multi-domain coercion across but also beyond traditional dimensions of armed conflict raises an important question: what does effective deterrence look like in the 21st century? Answering that question requires a re-appraisal of key theoretical concepts and dominant strategies of Western and non-Western actors in order to assess how they hold up in today’s world. Air Commodore Professor Dr. Frans Osinga is the Chair of the War Studies Department of the Netherlands Defence Academy and the Special Chair in War Studies at the University Leiden. Dr. Tim Sweijs is the Director of Research at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Military Sciences of the Netherlands Defence Academy in Breda.

Military Strategy: A Very Short Introduction adapts Clausewitz's framework to highlight the dynamic relationship between the main elements of strategy: purpose, method, and means. Drawing on historical examples, Antulio J. Echevarria discusses the major types of military strategy and how emerging technologies are affecting them. This second edition has been updated to include an expanded chapter on manipulation through cyberwarfare and new further reading.