[PDF] The Anthropo Factor In Warfare eBook

Author : Montgomery McFate
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 503 pages
File Size : 26,16 MB
Release : 2018-05-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0190934948

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In almost every military intervention in its history, the US has made cultural mistakes that hindered attainment of its policy goals. From the strategic bombing of Vietnam to the accidental burning of the Koran in Afghanistan, it has blundered around with little consideration of local cultural beliefs and for the long-term effects on the host nation's society. Cultural anthropology--the so-called "handmaiden of colonialism"--has historically served as an intellectual bridge between Western powers and local nationals. What light can it shed on the intersection of the US military and foreign societies today? This book tells the story of anthropologists who worked directly for the military, such as Ursula Graham Bower, the only woman to hold a British combat command during WWII. Each faced challenges including the negative outcomes of exporting Western political models and errors of perception. Ranging from the British colonial era in Africa to the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Military Anthropology illustrates the conceptual, cultural and practical barriers encountered by military organisations operating in societies vastly different from their own.

Author : Jonathan Haas
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 21,49 MB
Release : 1990-07-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521380423

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The book brings together a group of authors who are addressing the nature and causes of warfare in simpler, tribal societies. The authors represent a range of different opinions about why humans engage in warfare, why wars start, and the role of war in human evolution. Warfare in cultures from several different world areas is considered, ranging over the Amazon, the Caribbean, the Andes, the Southwestern United States, Southeast Asia, Polynesia, and Malaysia. To explain the origins and maintenance of war in tribal societies, different authors appeal to a broad spectrum of demographic, environmental, historical and biological variables. Competing explanatory models of warfare are presented head to head, with overlapping bodies of data offered in support of each.

Author : Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 45,98 MB
Release : 2010-01-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0804773807

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This book studies the impact of cultural factors on the course of military innovations. One would expect that countries accustomed to similar technologies would undergo analogous changes in their perception of and approach to warfare. However, the intellectual history of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) in Russia, the US, and Israel indicates the opposite. The US developed technology and weaponry for about a decade without reconceptualizing the existing paradigm about the nature of warfare. Soviet 'new theory of victory' represented a conceptualization which chronologically preceded technological procurement. Israel was the first to utilize the weaponry on the battlefield, but was the last to develop a conceptual framework that acknowledged its revolutionary implications. Utilizing primary sources that had previously been completely inaccessible, and borrowing methods of analysis from political science, history, anthropology, and cognitive psychology, this book suggests a cultural explanation for this puzzling transformation in warfare. The Culture of Military Innovation offers a systematic, thorough, and unique analytical approach that may well be applicable in other perplexing strategic situations. Though framed in the context of specific historical experience, the insights of this book reveal important implications related to conventional, subconventional, and nonconventional security issues. It is therefore an ideal reference work for practitioners, scholars, teachers, and students of security studies.

Author : Paul R. Turner
Publisher : Praeger
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 13,71 MB
Release : 1989
Category : History
ISBN :

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Drawing parallels between tribal behavior and international relations to demonstrate that societies are not inherently aggressive but are led into conflict when pride or in-group pressures push people to fight, this profound look at the chilling reality of cold war and its arsenal of nuclear destruction offers valuable new insights into how prejudices and stereotypes contribute to what may seem like an inexorable drift to war. Yet the authors conclude that war is not inevitable, as they offer suggestions for an end to the arms race in the nuclear age. Based on original research, this is a long overdue contribution to the study of war and peace in our time and a text for newly emerging courses on the subject.

Author : Keith F. Otterbein
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 35,13 MB
Release : 2004
Category : History
ISBN : 1603446370

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Have humans always fought and killed each other, or did they peacefully coexist until organized states developed? Is war an expression of human nature or an artifact of civilization? Questions about the origins and inherent motivations of warfare have long engaged philosophers, ethicists, and anthropologists as they speculate on the nature of human existence. In How War Began, author Keith F. Otterbein draws on primate behavior research, archaeological research, and data gathered from the Human Relations Area Files to argue for two separate origins. He identifies two types of military organization: one that developed two million years ago at the dawn of humankind, wherever groups of hunters met, and a second that developed some five thousand years ago, in four identifiable regions, when the first states arose and proceeded to embark upon military conquests. In careful detail, Otterbein marshals evidence for his case that warfare was possible and likely among early Homo sapiens. He argues from comparison with other primates, from Paleolithic rock art depicting wounded humans, and from rare skeletal remains embedded with weapon points to conclude that warfare existed and reached a peak in big game hunting societies. As the big game disappeared, so did warfare--only to reemerge once agricultural societies achieved a degree of political complexity that allowed the development of professional military organizations. Otterbein concludes his survey with an analysis of how despotism in both ancient and modern states spawns warfare. A definitive resource for anthropologists, social scientists, and historians, How War Began is written for all who areinterested in warfare, whether they be military buffs or those seeking to understand the past and the present of humankind. --Publlisher.

Author : Franz Boas
Publisher : Kessinger Publishing
Page : 20 pages
File Size : 37,69 MB
Release : 2009-06
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9781104611477

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This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Author : Antulio J. Echevarria II
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 35,29 MB
Release : 2024
Category : History
ISBN : 0197760155

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Military Strategy: A Very Short Introduction adapts Clausewitz's framework to highlight the dynamic relationship between the main elements of strategy: purpose, method, and means. Drawing on historical examples, Antulio J. Echevarria discusses the major types of military strategy and how emerging technologies are affecting them. This second edition has been updated to include an expanded chapter on manipulation through cyberwarfare and new further reading.

Author : Gary E. Machlis
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 303 pages
File Size : 42,22 MB
Release : 2011-05-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 9400712138

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The purpose of this book is specific and ambitious: to outline the distinctive elements, scope, and usefulness of a new and emerging field of applied ecology named warfare ecology. Based on a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, the book provides both a theoretical overview of this new field and case studies that range from mercury contamination during World War I in Slovenia to the ecosystem impacts of the Palestinian occupation, and from the bombing of coral reefs of Vieques to biodiversity loss due to violent conflicts in Africa. Warfare Ecology also includes reprints of several classical papers that set the stage for the new synthesis described by the authors. Written for environmental scientists, military and humanitarian relief professionals, conservation managers, and graduate students in a wide range of fields, Warfare Ecology is a major step forward in understanding the relationship between war and ecological systems.