Название: Defense 101: Understanding the Military of Today and Tomorrow
Автор: Michael E. O'Hanlon
Издательство: Cornell University Press
Год: 2021
Страниц: 263
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 10.1 MB

Modern warfare is a remarkably technical and complex ­human endeavor. The organ­izations that carry it out are among the largest institutions on earth. Some of the most sophisticated inventions ever fielded undergird the vehicles, weapons, sensors, communications systems, and other key hardware with which wars are fought. Large fractions of government bud­gets around the world provide the resources to build military institutions in peacetime and to conduct combat operations during times of war.

The main focus of this book, the American military, is simply a behemoth. Nearly 3 million ­people work directly for the US Department of Defense (DoD), in uniform or as civilian government employees, across the country and around the world. About 20 million more living Americans have served in uniform in the nation’s armed forces in the past. The US military wields some 5,000 nuclear weapons, though they are built and maintained by the National Nuclear Security Administration within the Department of Energy. The Department of Defense and Department of Energy together run research laboratory systems that continue to invent some of the world’s most cutting-­edge technologies. Together their annual bud­gets for research, development, testing, and evaluation of new technologies easily exceed $100 billion; the total bud­get for US national defense is roughly three-­quarters of a trillion dollars a year. The Department of Defense includes four major military ser­vices, each with its own distinct culture, rank system, and command structure. It now also includes a niche “space force” as a fifth military ser­vice; the US Coast Guard, although administered within the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, is a sixth.

In Defense 101, a concise primer for understanding the United States' $700+ billion defense budget and rapidly changing military technologies, Michael O'Hanlon provides a deeply informed yet accessible analysis of American military power.

After an introduction in which O'Hanlon surveys today's international security environment, provides a brief sketch of the history of the US military, its command structure, the organization of its three million personnel, and a review of its domestic basing and global reach, Defense 101 provides in-depth coverage of four critical areas in military affairs:

• Defense Budgeting and Resource Allocation: detailed budget and cost breakdowns, wartime spending allocations, economics of overseas basing, military readiness, and defense budgeting versus US grand strategy
• Gaming and Modeling Combat: wargaming, micro modeling, nuclear exchange calculations, China scenarios, and assessments of counterinsurgency missions
• Technological Change and Military Innovation: use of computers, communications, and robotics, cutting-edge developments in projectiles and propulsion systems
• The Science of War, military uses of space, missile defense, and nuclear weapons, testing, and proliferation

For policy makers and experts, military professionals, students, and citizens alike, Defense 101 helps make sense of the US Department of Defense, the basics of war and the future of armed conflict, and the most important characteristics of the American military.

"Michael O'Hanlon is one of the top defense analysts in the United States. His book, Defense 101, is an excellent guide to the planning, budgeting, wargaming, modeling, and technology issues that have shaped and continue to shape American defense policy." -Michael Gordon, co-author of Cobra II

"This book is a miracle of exposition that makes arcane topics of military analysis both understandable and highly engaging." -Harold Feiveson, Princeton University