Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The authors construct here a comparative framework through which to explore post-Cold War defense policies. In doing so, they outline the readiness that four nation-states - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia - have shown to confront the Russian challenge that has emerged since 2014. The analysis is anchored in the unique historical experience of each of the four countries, whose legacies infuse the overall character of their current defense postures. The book contributes to understandings of the evolution of defense capabilities, foreign policy approaches, and specific policies of the four respective countries since 1989. The key theoretical concept concerns the alternation of the defense themes of convergence and divergence. The four nations share imperial pasts, their establishment of independent statehood after the First World War, submission to Nazi regimes in the late 1930s, the rise of ruling communist parties after the Second World War, and anti-communist revolutions in 1989. However, they have also diverged in many ways relating to defense policies, including the nature of the imperial powers under which they lived before 1914, the divergent political systems that evolved in the interwar period, their diversified challenges to communist rule, and varied responses to Russian advances toward the region that were evident in the 2014 Ukraine-Crimean crisis.

CZECH REPUBLIC--MILITARY POLICY --- HUNGARY--MILITARY POLICY --- POLAND--MILITARY POLICY --- SLOVAKIA--MILITARY POLICY

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Foreign analysts have only begun to explore the contents, drivers, and possible implications of Xi's campaign to restructure the PLA. Many issues remain shrouded in uncertainty and warrant further examination. These include : what impacts the reforms are having on PLA operations, training, and logistics; the prospects for the ground forces as the reforms' nominal biggest loser, as well as the other services; challenges the PLA is facing in cultivating operational commanders; the structure, roles, and missions of the SSF and JLSF; how the downsizing is being carried out, and what impact it might have on social stability; the implications of reform for Party control over, and Xi's influence within, the PLA; whether and how the reforms will improve coordination between the PLA and the civilian science and technology sector; what the implications might be for the defense acquisition process. This volume explores these and other dimensions of China's military reforms as they were planned and implemented between 2013 and 2018.

CHINA--ARMED FORCES--REORGANIZATION --- CHINA--MILITARY POLICY

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

1989 marked the beginning of a short but intense period of thorough geopolitical changes in the eastern part of Europe. The simultaneous weakening and liberalisation of the communist regime in the USSR led by Mikhail Gorbachev, the gradual limitation of Moscow's economic and political support but also its shrinking control over the countries in the Soviet bloc and domestic political crises inside these countries led to a rapid downfall of the communist governments in Central-Eastern Europe. The military, economic and political structures of the Soviet bloc were dissolved within a timeframe of just two years, and the Soviet Union itself ceased to exist in December 1991, to be replaced with fifteen new independent states. The Russian Federation became the main successor to the USSR as it, albeit seriously weakened, inherited a large section of the Soviet empire's resources and had to redefine its interests in the new post-Cold War European and global order that was being formed.

Military policy. --- Military readiness. --- Strategic culture.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

"This book studies strategic narratives from the perspective of ordinary citizens from the bottom up. It examines the stories told by a broad cross-section of British society about their country's past, present, and future role in war, using in-depth interviews with 67 diverse citizens. The open-ended and inductive approach brings to the fore the voices of ordinary people in ways typically absent in existing public opinion research. In this respect, it models a qualitative, narrative methodological approach applicable to a range of countries and foreign policy issues. Compelling narratives are considered integral to successful foreign policy, military strategy, and international relations. Often narrative is conceived so broadly it represents all discourse, making it hard to identify. Thomas Colley separates narrative from other modes of discourse, and the way individual events combine to create overall patterns. Research on 'strategic narratives' has focused overwhelmingly on states, while citizens' narratives are rarely examined. The formation of strategic narratives is informed by the stories governments think their people tell, rather than those they actually tell. One unexpected finding was that rather than perceiving distinct periods between war and peace, its citizens see Britain as so frequently involved in conflict that they consider the country to be continuously at war. At present, public opinion appears to be a stronger constraint on Western defence policy than ever. Always at War complements a small but significant body of quantitative research into British attitudes to war, and presents an alternative case in a field dominated by US public opinion research."

Great Britain --- Military policy --- Public opinion.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Diplomatic relations. --- Military policy. --- 2000-2099 --- Russia (Federation) --- Foreign relations --- Military policy