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7642. Military Doctrine and Political Participation: Toward a Sociology of Strategy
- Author:
- Yagil Levy
- Publication Date:
- 01-1996
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Studies of Social Change
- Abstract:
- Wars produce contrasting effects on the state's status in the domestic arena: they bolster its internal control but, at the same time, create opportunities for collective action of which domestic groups can take advantage and weaken state autonomy. As the case of Israel suggests, within the confines of geo-political constraints, states modify their military doctrine to balance the two contradictory impacts. The main purpose of the paper is to lay the foundation for a Sociology of Strategy by drawing on the case of Israel.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Government, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Israel
7643. Palestinian Refugees and the Peace Process
- Author:
- Elia Zureik
- Publication Date:
- 05-1996
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- As a discipline, refugee studies is of a recent vintage and very much influenced by the more established tradition of migration studies. Analysis of (voluntary) migration tends to focus on individuals rather than groups. To the extent that groups are considered, they are treated as aggregates of individuals rather than as cohesive social units in the sociological sense of constituting communities with shared common historical experiences (Shami 1993). In contrast with immigrant status, refugee status is the outcome of involuntary forms of migration, in which displacement is often caused by events beyond the control of refugees, such as internal and external wars, state policies of expulsion and exclusion, development projects, and natural disasters.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Migration, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Middle East
7644. Khomeini's Incorporation of Iranian Military
- Author:
- Mark Roberts
- Publication Date:
- 01-1996
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- In her book, States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China (1979), revolutionary authority and sociologist Theda Skocpol states: The repressive state organizations of the prerevolutionary regime have to be weakened before mass revolutionary action can succeed, or even emerge. Indeed, historically, mass rebellious action has not been able, in itself, to overcome state repression. Instead, military pressures from abroad … have been necessary to undermine repression.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, International Law, Nuclear Weapons, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Russia, China, Middle East, and France
7645. The New Great Game in Muslim Central Asia
- Author:
- M.E. Ahrari and James Beal
- Publication Date:
- 01-1996
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- The dismantlement of the Soviet Union also brought about the liberation of six Central Asian Muslim republics—Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (figure 1). Although Azerbaijan is part of the Caucasus region, it is included in this study because: The independence of that country, like that of the Central Asian states, was brought about as a result of the dismantlement of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan, like its Central Asian counterparts, is a Muslim state, and faces similar politico-economic problems. Azerbaijan's conflict with Armenia involving Nagorno-Karabkh reminds one of a number of conflicts in the Central Asian region. These include a seething ethnic conflict in Kazakhstan (involving the Khazaks and the Slavs), the ongoing civil war in Tajikistan "along ethnic, national, and religious lines (since the Russian forces are "also involved in this civil war), and the ethnic conflict in the Fargana valley that cuts across the borders of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Like the economies of its Central Asian neighbors, the Azeri economy was largely dependent on the economy of the former Soviet Union. Consequently, like its other neighbors, Azerbaijan is also busy establishing economic self-sufficiency, along with strengthening its religious political, linguistic, and ethnic identities.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, International Law, Nuclear Weapons, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Central Asia, Middle East, and Soviet Union
7646. Peace Among States Is Also Peace Among Domestic Interests: Israel's Turn To De-escalation
- Author:
- Yagil Levy
- Publication Date:
- 06-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Studies of Social Change
- Abstract:
- Demilitarization and de-escalation of violent conflicts have seemed to prevail during the last decade. The most significant event -- the collapse of the Soviet Union with the end of the Cold War--has stimulated scholars of international relations (IR) to retest the power of major theories to both explain and forecast the shift in the Soviet Union' 5 foreign policy from competition to cooperation with the U.S. (similar to shifts undergone by other states). Scholars generally agree that the economic crisis in the Soviet Union in a world system dominated by the U.S. played a key role in the former superpower's failure to extract the domestic resources needed to maintain its position of rivalry vis-à-vis the U.S., thus propelling it to embark on a new road. Still, scholars have debated with respect to the shift's timing and the origins of the trajectory opted for by the Soviet Union toward cooperation relative to other options, such as further competition as a means of ongoing internal-state extraction and control. This debate also highlights the analytical weaknesses of the realism/neorealism school of thought when taken against the background of the collapse of the bipolar, competitive world system on which this school has staked so much.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Defense Policy, Diplomacy, and Ethnic Conflict
- Political Geography:
- United States, Middle East, Israel, and Soviet Union
7647. How Militarization Drives Political Control of the Military: The Case of Israel
- Author:
- Yagil Levy
- Publication Date:
- 12-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Studies of Social Change
- Abstract:
- Observation of state-military relations in Israel reveals an apparent paradox: Within a period of about seventy years, the more the militarization of Israeli society and politics gradually increased, the more politicians were successful in institutionalizing effective control over the Israel Defence Forces (IDF, and the pre-state organizations). Militarization passed through three main stages: (1) accepting the use of force as a legitimate political instrument during the pre-state period (1920-1948), subsequent to confrontation between pacifism and activism; (2) giving this instrument priority over political-diplomatic means in the state's first years up to the point in which (3) military discursive patterns gradually dominated political discourse after the 1967 War. At the same time, political control over the IDF was tightened, going from the inculcation of the principle of the armed forces' subordination to the political level during the pre-state period to the construction of arrangements working to restrain the military leverage for autonomous action.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Israel
7648. Air Power Promises and Modernization Trends after Operation Desert Storm
- Author:
- Kathy Bloomgarden and Carl Conetta
- Publication Date:
- 12-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- This article first appeared in 1994 in a slightly edited form in Hawk Journal, the annual publication of the Royal Air Force Staff College. The expectation of an airpower revolution began in earnest soon after victory in the first US-Iraq Gulf War, 1990-1991. Drawing extensively on official and outside expert assessment of airpower in “Operation Desert Storm,” this article critically reviews the evidence for an airpower revolution while summarizing a range of contemporary opinions on the issue. Specifically, the article examines three claims advanced by airpower enthusiasts at the dawn of the post-Cold War period: that the Gulf War experience suggests greatly expanded options for limited-aims “raiding missions,” strategic bombing campaigns, and airpower dominance over the ground battle (using improved battlefield interdiction and close air support.) Included are summaries of the extensive Gulf War Air Power Survey and other surveys of the war which provide an unsurpassed view of the war’s dynamics. It also examines the technologies, contemporary and in development, central to the putative airpower revolution.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Conflict, Gulf War, and Air Force
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Middle East, and United States of America
7649. Toward Defensive Restructuring in the Middle East
- Author:
- Carl Conetta, Charles Knight, and Lutz Unterseher
- Publication Date:
- 02-1991
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- Examines the character of force structure and military conflict in the Middle East and outlines a nonoffensive defense posture for nations in the region. It also draws the implications of such a posture for arms transfers and arms control policy. An appendix reviews the pertinent lessons of the 1990-91 Gulf War.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, Military Affairs, Conflict, and Gulf War
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and United States of America