Shaping Strategy

Shaping Strategy

Author: Risa Brooks

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-06-05

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0691188289

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Good strategic assessment does not guarantee success in international relations, but bad strategic assessment dramatically increases the risk of disastrous failure. The most glaring example of this reality is playing out in Iraq today. But what explains why states and their leaders are sometimes so good at strategic assessment--and why they are sometimes so bad at it? Part of the explanation has to do with a state's civil-military relations. In Shaping Strategy, Risa Brooks develops a novel theory of how states' civil-military relations affect strategic assessment during international conflicts. And her conclusions have broad practical importance: to anticipate when states are prone to strategic failure abroad, we must look at how civil-military relations affect the analysis of those strategies at home. Drawing insights from both international relations and comparative politics, Shaping Strategy shows that good strategic assessment depends on civil-military relations that encourage an easy exchange of information and a rigorous analysis of a state's own relative capabilities and strategic environment. Among the diverse case studies the book illuminates, Brooks explains why strategic assessment in Egypt was so poor under Gamal Abdel Nasser prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and why it improved under Anwar Sadat. The book also offers a new perspective on the devastating failure of U.S. planning for the second Iraq war. Brooks argues that this failure, far from being unique, is an example of an assessment pathology to which states commonly succumb.


Strategic Assessment in War

Strategic Assessment in War

Author: Scott Sigmund Gartner

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780300080698

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How do military organizations assess strategic policy in war? In this book Scott Gartner develops a theory to explain how military and government leaders evaluate wartime performance, how much they change strategies in response to this evaluation, and why they are frequently at odds when discussing the success or failure of strategic performance. Blending history, decision theory, and mathematical modeling, Gartner argues that military personnel do reevaluate their strategies and that they measure the performance of a strategy through quantitative, "dominant" indicators. But different actors within a government use different indicators of success: some will see the strategy as succeeding when others see it as failing because of their different dominant indicators. Gartner tests his argument with three case studies: the British shift to convoys in World War I following the German imposition of unrestricted submarine warfare; the lack of change in British naval policy in the Battle of the Atlantic following the German introduction of Wolf Packs in World War II; and the American decision to deescalate in Vietnam after the Tet Offensive. He also tests his approach in a nonwar situation, analyzing the Carter Administration's decision to launch the hostage rescue attempt. In each case, his dominant indicator model better predicts the observed behavior than either a standard-organization or an action-reaction approach.


Strategic Environmental Assessment

Strategic Environmental Assessment

Author: Riki Therivel

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-07-04

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1134161301

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a new approach to environmental assessment, global in scope, which considers the environmental impacts of policies, plans and programmes. It is already in use in a number of countries and is rapidly being adopted by those involved with environmental management and regulation, including governments, official and voluntary sector agencies, academic courses and consultancies. This text defines and analyzes SEA within the overall context of environmental assessment. It introduces and reviews the current state of SEA, evaluates its application in a number of countries with a range of detailed case studies, provides a critique of its techniques and an analysis of its importance for the future.


Operation Iraqi Freedom

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Author: Thomas Donnelly

Publisher: American Enterprise Institute

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 9780844741956

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This study argues that the George W. Bush administration charted the correct strategy in Iraq, but has failed to match its military means to its strategic ends.


Strategic Environmental Assessment

Strategic Environmental Assessment

Author: Barry Sadler

Publisher: Earthscan

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 1849772630

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This unique sourcebook provides a global, state-of-the-art review of the rapidly evolving field of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) that is intended to serve as a baseline for the work of an OECD Task Team on SEA and a UNEP initiative on integrated planning and assessment. It describes trends in application and experience in different contexts worldwide, providing in-depth coverage of the status of SEA systems, and practice in developed, transitional and developing countries by a range of development agencies. The book draws on a large body of published and unpublished material, and contributions from a wide range of individual experts, organizations and agencies. It provides an unparalleled and invaluable understanding of the emerging scope and potential of SEA and describes how, when and where it is being used. The sourcebook includes a probing review of concepts, terminology, approaches and tools of SEA, and a comparative analysis of the different types of existing SEA systems. The volume also contains many case examples illustrating SEA practice in different countries and contexts, a full set of references and a number of appendices containing source materials.


World View: The 1995 Strategic Assessment from the Strategic Studies Institute

World View: The 1995 Strategic Assessment from the Strategic Studies Institute

Author:

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13: 1428915303

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Each January the regional analysts at the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), U.S. Army War College assess global trends that are likely to determine the state of the world through the next decade. From these assessments study proposals are devised which focus on those issues and trends impacting on the requirements for maintaining America's Army as a strategic force during the coming years. In 1995, the analysts at SSI estimate that 14 major determinants will significantly influence the Army's posture, U.S. interests, and national military strategy:" The debate between the services pertaining to roles admissions will continue. Fiscal constraints will necessarily exacerbate the competition over roles and missions as each service tries to define its parameters in the wake of political change, an uncertain and constantly evolving international situation, and the ongoing Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)." The Army will articulate and refine its vision as a strategic force for the 21st century as it re-engineers itself into Force XXI." Fiscal constraints will also continue to drive national priorities. Added to the budgetary restraints will be the uncertainties accompanying the changes in the political leadership in Congress where Republicans have replaced Democrats as chairs of all committees in both the House and Senate." U.S. forces will continue to be used in Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW). However, ongoing emphasis on peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations in consonance with United Nations and other coalition partner swill cause the debate on the efficacy of this kind of use of U.S. force to intensify." The Caribbean will remain troublesome as the political and economic crisis in Cuba deepens. In Haiti, rising expectations will not be matched with socioeconomic progress and frustrations could well foster violence as the time for withdrawal of U.N. peacekeeping forces nears.


The Theory and Practice of Strategic Environmental Assessment

The Theory and Practice of Strategic Environmental Assessment

Author: Thomas B Fischer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-09-23

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1136535713

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Anyone serious about integrating environmental factors into planning and policy making will gain new insights and ideas from Fischers book on SEA; and students, teachers and practitioners of the subject will find the book essential. Leonard Ortolano, Professor at Stanford University, USA Fischers book demystifies the process and substantive analytical dimensions of SEA. Offering solidly documented empirical evidence of the value of SEA to development, the knowledge captured in this book is a great contribution to the practice. Linda Ghanime, Environmental Operations and Policy Adviser, United Nations Development Program This book is an invaluable reference text for SEA practitioners. I recommend it to everyone! Xu He, Professor and Director of the Strategic Environmental Assessment Center at Nankai University, China Fischer gives a concise and wellstructured account of SEA as it is used today. Readers thus will gain important insights into SEA: why it is important, how it works, and what it can and should achieve. Professor Thomas Bunge, Federal Environment Agency, Germany Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a fast-growing and rapidly evolving professional field driven by both advances in theory and practice and by regulatory requirements in Europe, North America, Australasia, South Africa and increasingly across Asia. However, to date, analysis of existing practice and associated reporting has remained far from systematic and there has been a clear need for a comprehensive textbook to facilitate teaching, learning and practice in this burgeoning field. This textbook, the first of its kind, provides for a state-ofthe-art review of SEA theory and practice and promotes a more systematic approach to SEA. It is written for a wide student, professional and academic audience and aims particularly at supporting the development of SEA modules in undergraduate and postgraduate planning, environmental assessment, engineering and law courses. It provides an overview of the fundamental principles and rules of SEA, reports systematically on international SEA practice and theory and pushes the envelope by developing the theory. Supporting material includes boxed examples and case studies from around the world, extra reading suggestions and a glossary of terms. This is the essential book for all students, professionals and academics in SEA and EIA and follow-up worldwide.


Strategic Environmental Assessment and Land Use Planning

Strategic Environmental Assessment and Land Use Planning

Author: Michael Short

Publisher: Earthscan

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1849772649

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'A wonderfully international and up-to-date perspective on strategic environmental assessment of land use plans by leading experts in the field. Strategic Environmental Assessment and Land Use Planning covers not only how much such SEAs are carried out and in what context, but whether they are effective and why. It provides invaluable insights for practitioners and researchers in this rapidy evolving field'Riki Therivel, author of Strategic Environmental Assessment in ActionStrategic Environmental Assessment and Land Use Planning provides an authoritative, international evaluation of the SEA of land use plans. The editors place the SEA of land use plans in context, and uniquely qualified contributors then evaluate systems in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and the World Bank. These chapters provide a description of the context in each country, a case study of the use of SEA in land use planning and an evaluation of each SEA system against a set of generic criteria specially designed to anlayse different aspects of SEA. The contributors critically review each SEA system, SEA process and SEA outcome, and conclude by summarizing their findings. The editors draw the various national perspectives together in a final chapter and derive widely applicable conclusions about SEA and land use planning.This book is a core text for all students in environmental assessment, land use planning, environmental science, environmental management, development studies, geography, landscape design and law and engineering. It is also essential reading for all governments and environmental regulators, academics, researchers and environmental and planning consultants worldwide who are involvedin SEA research, practice and training.