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On Flexibility presents a force planning concept that will enable armies to cope with the growing diversity of battlefield requirements, and especially with technological and doctrinal surprises, through applied adaptability and flexibility, minimizing the over dependence on intelligence and prediction involved in this process today.
The commander, or chief of staff, of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is a prominent public figure in Israel. His decisions, advice, and persona are held in high regard by Israel's public and leadership, and have indirect impacts on social, economic, and foreign affairs. But until now, an in-depth study on the role and performance of the IDF's chiefs of staff has been sorely absent. In this study, Meir Finkel offers a robust and original comparative perspective on the IDF chiefs of staff throughout modern Israel's history, examining their conduct in six key areas: identifying change in the strategic environment, developing familiarity with all military domains, managing crises with wartime ge...
“An outstanding work. Inculcating adaptability, flexibility, and responsiveness to surprise is the chief preoccupation of the major armies of the world.” —David Betz, Department of War Studies, King’s College London This book addresses one of the basic questions in military studies: How can armies cope effectively with technological and doctrinal surprises—ones that leave them vulnerable to new weapons systems and/or combat doctrines? Author Meir Finkel contends that the current paradigm—with its over-dependence on intelligence and an all-out effort to predict the nature of the future battlefield and the enemy’s capabilities—generally doesn’t work. Based on historical case ...
The need to quickly enter into conflict and succeed in the initial engagements is an enduring demand on militaries around the world. Given today's dynamic geopolitical environment, the concept of successful, rapid transition or organizational and mental readiness is more relevant than ever. Using the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as a case study, Meir Finkel explores four important but generally neglected challenges of a swift transition from peace to wartime operations. He investigates the challenging mental transition from peace or routine security employment to a higher-intensity mode of action in combat. Then, Finkel explains that militaries must be capable of rapidly resolving debated pre...
The need to quickly enter into conflict and succeed in the initial engagements is an enduring demand on militaries around the world. Given today's dynamic geopolitical environment, the concept of successful, rapid transition or organizational and mental readiness is more relevant than ever. Using the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as a case study , Meir Finkel explores four important but generally neglected challenges of a swift transition from peace to wartime operations. He investigates the challenging mental transition from peace or routine security employment to a higher-intensity mode of action in combat. Then, Finkel explains that militaries must be capable of rapidly resolving debated pr...
The ongoing conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is now in its fourth decade and shows no signs of ending. Raphael D. Marcus examines this conflict since the formation of Hezbollah during Israel’s occupation of Lebanon in the early 1980s. He critically evaluates events including Israel’s long counterguerrilla campaign throughout the 1990s, the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, the 2006 summer war, and concludes with an assessment of current tensions on the border between Israel and Lebanon related to the Syrian civil war. Israel’s Long War with Hezbollah is both the first complete military history of this decades-long conflict and an analysis of military innovati...
How Jewish responses during the Holocaust shed new light on the dynamics of genocide and political violence Focusing on the choices and actions of Jews during the Holocaust, Ordinary Jews examines the different patterns of behavior of civilians targeted by mass violence. Relying on rich archival material and hundreds of survivors' testimonies, Evgeny Finkel presents a new framework for understanding the survival strategies in which Jews engaged: cooperation and collaboration, coping and compliance, evasion, and resistance. Finkel compares Jews' behavior in three Jewish ghettos—Minsk, Kraków, and Białystok—and shows that Jews' responses to Nazi genocide varied based on their experiences...
This textbook provides a thorough grounding in the vocabulary, concepts, issues and debates associated with modern land warfare. The second edition has been updated and revised, and includes new chapters on non-western perspectives and hybrid warfare. Drawing on a range of case studies spanning the First World War through to contemporary conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, and Nagorno-Karabakh, the book explores what is unique about the land domain and how this has shaped the theory and practice of military operations conducted upon it. It also looks at land warfare across the spectrum of its conduct, including conventional campaigning, counterinsurgency, and peace support and stabilisation operati...
International politics have become ever more volatile over the last decade, increasing the risk of large-scale military violence. Yet the precise character of future war will depend on a range of factors that relate to adversaries, allies, technology, geographical scope and multiple domains of warfighting. Few would question that land forces will be important also in the foreseeable future. However, given that the battlefield is in a state of transformation, so is the mission, purpose and utilization of land forces. Indeed, the future conduct of land warfare is subjected to serious and important questions in the face of large and complex challenges and security threats. Advanced Land Warfare...
Fighting in the Dark is a new book about naval combat at night; the title also, however, signifies the overarching theme of the book, of moving from dark to light: in short, the process of mastering technological change during war. The authors start with the proposition that it is hard to hit an invisible target, particularly one in motion. In the nineteenth century, when ships relied upon visual signaling and vessels beyond hailing range were deaf and mute in the dark, night battles at sea were rare and largely accidental. Three inventions changed this: the torpedo, the searchlight, and the radio. These inventions at the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth centuries transformed...