Strategy, Doctrine, And The Politics Of Alliance

Download or read book Strategy, Doctrine, And The Politics Of Alliance written by Paul Buteux and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-31 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the processes of nuclear policymaking in NATO and the interaction of alliance strategy with the docrines underlying it. Dr. Buteux focuses on the issue of theatre nuclear force modernisation to illustrate his thesis that NATO's strategic posture results from a political process in which other than purely strategic objectives are sought; agreements on alliance strategy may in fact be related only indirectly to the actual military posture of the alliance and the means available to support it. The book highlights the cumulative effect of strategic and technological change on the strategy and nuclear politics of NATO. Emphasizing that the present strategic environment has called into question many of the strategic and political premises on which NATO's nuclear posture has been based, Dr. Buteux gives special attention to recent proposals to deploy enhanced-radiation weapons (the "neutron bomb") and new intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. He considers the impact of these proposals on NATO's nuclear policymaking process and on the ability of the alliance to continue to base its deterrent posture on the concept of flexible response