You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
European armed forces have frequently had to participate in counter-terrorist operations while abroad. For many, however, counter-terrorist operations in their home country are a relatively new phenomenon. Armed and uniformed soldiers can now be seen doing work which is, in some respects, comparable to that of the civilian security forces. What are the ethical implications of this phenomenon? To what extent does it change the relationship between the soldier and the democratic state? Do emerging technologies encroach on democratic freedoms? Does the phenomenon re-define the relationship between the police and the military? Under what conditions can soldiers be trained to achieve victory by force of arms, be used effectively in crowded city centres? Conversely, do we also risk over-militarising our police?
This book argues that any strategy for dealing with Pakistan requires an understanding of the country’s complex and turbulent history and of the weaknesses of its political and other institutions. It describes how, in the absence of an inherent national identity, successive military and civilian governments have made use of Islam and Kashmir, ‘the unfinished business of Partition’, for political purposes. It also examines the role of the army and of its intelligence service, the ISI, in relation to India, Afghanistan and internal political manipulation. The nature and history of the tribal regions in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which are little understood in the West and which explain mu...
The Politics of Military Force examines the dynamics of discursive change that made participation in military operations possible against the background of German antimilitarist culture. Once considered a strict taboo, so-called out-of-area operations have now become widely considered by German policymakers to be without alternative. The book argues that an understanding of how certain policies are made possible (in this case, military operations abroad and force transformation), one needs to focus on processes of discursive change that result in different policy options appearing rational, appropriate, feasible, or even self-evident. Drawing on Essex School discourse theory, the book develo...
For more than a decade, international troops have been deployed to Afghanistan. Out of all NATO members, this mission was the most difficult for Germany that had thus far never engaged in combat and offensive military activities. This book analyses how Germany's experiences in Afghanistan have changed the country's strategic culture.
In an often violent and dangerous world military defense systems exercise a major role in the ways societies and nations function, develop their aspirations, protect themselves, promote their identities and shape their destinies. As we are only too aware at this time in global history, conflict, war and peace are deeply entangled and often morally ambiguous. This timely volume of essays offers contributions from Europe, Africa and Australia. It raises fundamental issues about the indispensability of the virtues in the military; the relationship between military and the public good; the nature of combatants and a soldier's responsibilities for humanity and peace; moral and spiritual injury; and new challenges for pastoral care in the armed forces.
The Iron Curtain fell over a quarter of a century ago. With it fell also the relatively straightforward Western assumption that war was going to be a bi-polar, symmetrical affair, albeit one with nuclear overtones - an assumption around which the training and education of military officers had hitherto been built. The immediate post Cold War period showed officers wearing a blue, rather than a green helmet, negotiating with opponents whom they ought not to call enemies and keeping the peace in situations where there was no peace to keep. Added to this was the phenomenon of international terrorism, which manifested itself on the strategic, rather than merely the tactical level. Counter-insurg...
On September 5, 2009, the commanding officer of NATO's German troops in Afghanistan ordered a U.S. Air Force fighter to destroy two fuel trucks hijacked by theTaliban. Within hours, he was being investigated by German prosecutors for the murder of innocent civilians--collateral damage. Under German law its forces can only be deployed for peacekeeping; America might be at war in Afghanistan, but Germany is not. Germany is not the only country that sets strict conditions on its NATO troops. Half of the allied forces in Afghanistan operate under restricted battlefield conditions. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower stormed the beaches of Normandy with an Allied army that followed his every command; in Afgha...
Was bewegt Menschen dazu, freiwillig in einem Krieg zu kämpfen, obwohl ihr Heimatland nicht involviert ist? Warum riskieren sie in Konflikten weltweit ihr Leben für eine fremde Sache? Bedeutet das Fehlen institutioneller Strukturen, die den Akteuren klare Regeln und Verhaltensweisen vorgeben würden, immer eine Eskalation von Gewalt? Diese Studie hilft, das Phänomen freiwilliger Kombattanten zu verstehen. Am Fallbeispiel internationaler Kriegsfreiwilliger, die in den Jugoslawienkriegen der 1990er Jahre auf Seiten Kroatiens kämpften, macht Julia Ludwig zudem den Mehrwert einer Analyse kultureller Faktoren in der Gewaltforschung deutlich.
Seit 1957 gibt es die Militärseelsorge in der Bundeswehr. Die deutschen Streitkräfte haben sich seither vielfach verändert, weiterentwickelt und nicht zuletzt auch professionalisiert. Zu den größten Veränderungen der letzten Jahrzehnte zählen, dass die Bundeswehr mittlerweile eine Einsatzarmee ist, dass Frauen in allen Teilbereichen als Soldatinnen dienen dürfen und dass die allgemeine Wehrpflicht ausgesetzt wurde. All dies geht mit neuen Fragen, Aufgaben und Herausforderungen einher, denen sich auch die Militärpfarrerinnen und Militärpfarrer stellen. Sie begleiten Soldatinnen und Soldaten in ihrem Dienst in den heimischen Kasernen, im Rahmen von Manöverübungen, auf den Schiffen ...