War As Risk Management: Strategy And Conflict In An Age Of Globalised Risks (contemporary Security Studies)

This major new study shows how war can be thought of in terms of proactive risk management rather than in terms of conventional threat response. It addresses why the study of ‘risk management’ has helped fields such as sociology and criminology conceptualize new policy challenges but has made limited impact on Strategic Studies with new case studies of recent Anglo-American military campaigns in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. The author shows how ‘risk' is now a key defining feature of our globalized era, encompassing issues from global financial meltdown, terrorism, infectious diseases, to environmental degradation and how its vocabulary, such as the Precautionary Principle, now permeates the way we think about war, and how it now appears in US and UK defence policy documents, and speeches from both civilian and military staff. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of strategic studies, war studies, international relations and globalization. Book Cover......Page 1 Half-Title......Page 2 Series-Title......Page 3 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Abbreviations......Page 9 1 The reconfiguring of war......Page 10 2 The dawn of a risk age: From cold warriors to risk managers......Page 28 3 Forging the link: Risk management goes to war......Page 49 4 The Kosovo campaign: War as a risk management exercise......Page 69 5 The afghan campaign and the war on terrorism: Risk management vindicated......Page 96 6 War on Iraq: Textbook risk management or flawed strategy......Page 124 7 The rise and fall of war as risk management......Page 153 Notes......Page 171 Select bibliography......Page 204 Index......Page 219 This book is about the reconfiguration of war as risk management in the post-Cold War, post-September 11 era. Confronted with ill-defined 'wars' against complex security risks such as WMD proliferation and terrorism, the main aim is to analyse an innovative inter-disciplinary approach to the 'transformation of war' debate Showing how war can be thought of in terms of proactive risk management rather than in terms of conventional threat response, this study addresses why the study of 'risk management' has helped fields such as sociology and criminology conceptualize new policy challenges but has made limited impact on strategic studies