Political Science 30212
Asymmetric Warfare
Fall, 2010
Instructor: Peter Moody, 534 Flanner
1:30-2:30 MW
9:00-10:00 F
And by appointment
Course requirements:
1. Regular attendance, completion of assigned readings prior to day of discussion, participation in class discussion; where relevant, respond intelligently to e-mail quizzes concerning the assigned readings
2. Students will be assigned to do an analytic write up, in the form of a brief analytic and critical summary for one set of the assigned readings, and will be expected to comment on those readings in class. (The written assignment will be turned in at the class meeting following the discussion of the readings.) These reports will serve as takeoff points for class discussion on the relevant day.
3. Completion of a short paper discussing issues related to questions of justice in the conduct of asymmetric war, whether by the weaker or the stronger party
4. A midterm examination
5. A final examination
(Note: Books marked * have been ordered at the bookstore.)
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
ASYMMETRIC WARFARE: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
August 30. Asymmetric warfare
Rod Thornton, Asymmetric Warfare,* Chapter 1.
Ivan Arreguín-Toft, “How the Weak Win Wars: A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict,” International Security, 26, 2 (Summer, 2001) (Look in Google Scholar under author’s name)
September 1. The older American assumptions
Thornton, Chapter 7.
Kenneth Campbell, “Once Burned, Twice Cautious: Explaining the Weinberg-Powell Doctrine,” Armed Forces and Society, Spring, 1998. (Academic Search Premier)
September 6. Unrestricted warfare
Qiao Liang, Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare, preface, Chs. 1, 5 (download from http://cryptome.org/cuw.htm
September 8. Some classical precedents
Thornton, Chapter 8.
Samuel B. Griffith, Sun-tzu: The Art of War,* pp. 1-44, 57-76, 90-101
September 13. Conventional
asymmetric warfare: land warfare
Thornton, Ch. 6
Griffith, pp. 77-89, 102-143
September 15. Conventional
asymmetric warfare: sea warfare
Thornton, Ch. 5
James Kraska, “New Thinking for an
Old Problem,” Naval War College Review, Autumn, 2009 (Academic Search
Premier)
September 20. Conventional
asymmetric warfare: airpower
Thornton, Ch. 4.
Dag Henriksen, “Inflexible
Response: Diplomacy, Airpower, and the Kosovo Crisis, 1998-1999,” Journal of
Strategic Studies, December, 2008 (Academic Search Premier).
PEOPLE’S WAR
September 22. The general theory
Griffith, pp. 45-56
Lin Biao, Long Live the Victory
of People’s War (Download from:
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/lin-biao/1965/09/peoples_war/index.htm)
September 27. People’s war:
Vietnam
Bernard Fall, The Two Vietnams,
Chs. 15, 16 (electronic reserve)
Douglas Pike, Vietcong,
Chs. 12, 13, 20 (electronic reserve)
September 29. Vietnam:
Counterinsurgency
Robert Thompson, Defeating
Communist Insurgency, Chs. 4, 12 (electronic reserve)
Frank Jones, “Blowtorch: Robert
Komer and the Making of Vietnam Pacification Policy,” Parameters,
Autumn, 2005 (Academic Search Premier)
TERRORISM
October 4. Generic Terrorism
Thornton, Chapter 2
Louis Beam, “Leaderless
Resistance,” The Seditionist, April 1992 http://www.louisbeam.com/leaderless.htm
October 6. Al-Qaeda
The Al-Qaeda Training Manual www.fas.org/irp/world/para/aqmanual.pdf
Calvert Jones, “Al-Qaeda’s
Innovative Improvisers: Learning in a Diffuse Transnational Network,” Cambridge
Journal of International Affairs, December 2006 (Academic Search Premier)
October 11. Midterm examination
October 13. Documentary on
“Phoenix”?
October 25. Does it make sense?
Robert Pape, “The Strategic Logic
of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political Science Review, 97, 3 (August
2003) (JSTOR)
INFORMATION WARFARE AND
INTELLIGENCE
October 27. Problems of
information
Griffith, pp. 144-149
Richard K. Betts, Enemies of
Intelligence: Knowledge and Power in American National Security,* Chapters
1-3
November 1. Cyberwar
Thornton, Chapter 3
Don Stauffer, “Electronic Warfare:
Battlefields without Bloodshed,” Futurist, January-February 2000
(Academic Search Premier)
“Tracking GhostNet: Investigating
a Cyber Espionage Network.” (Use Google to locate a text of this.)
November 3. Preconceptions:
theoretical level
Robert H. Bates, “Area Studies and
the Disciplines: A Useful Controversy?” PS, June 1997 (JSTOR)
Chalmers Johnson, “Preconception Vs Observation, or the Contributions of Rational Choice Theory and Area Studies to Contemporary Political Science,” PS, June, 1997 (JSTOR)
November 8. Preconceptions:
practical level
Nigel R. F. Aylwyn-Foster, “Changing the Army for
Counterinsurgency Operations,” Military Review, November-December 2005 (http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/NovDec05/index.asp)
Kevin Benson, “OIF Phase IV: A
Planner’s Reply to Brigadier Aylwyn-Foster,” Military Review,
March-April 2006.
November 10. Intelligence and
politics
Betts. Chapters 4-5
November 15. Successful
intelligence?
Betts, Chapters 6-8
COUNTERMEASURES
November 17 . Counterinsurgency
Nathaniel Fick, John Nagl, US
Army-Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, Afghanistan Edition (Academic
Search Premier)
Seth Jones, “Counterinsurgency in
Afghanistan” (a RAND Corporation publication, 2008) (Google: Rand
Counterinsurgency Afghanistan; download PDF)
November 22. Still not getting it
right?
Steven Metz, “New Challenges and
Old Concepts,” Parameters, Winter 2007 (Academic Search Premier)
ASYMMETRY AND THE RULES OF WAR
November 29. The weak do what they
must
Colin Flint, Ghazi-Walid Falah,
“How the United States Justified Its War on Terrorism,” Third World
Quarterly, December 2004 (Academic Search Premier)
Virginia Held, “Legitimate
Authority in Non-State Groups Using Violence,” Journal of Social Philosophy,
Summer 2005 (Academic Search Premier)
December 1. The strong do what
they can
Asa Kasher, Amos Yadlin, “Military
Ethics of Fighting Terror: An Israeli Perspective,” Journal of Military
Ethics, April, 2005 (Academic Search Premier)
Jeffrey Whitman, “Just War Theory
and the War on Terror,” Public Integrity, Winter 2006 (Academic Search
Premier)
December 6. General discussion: Is
there a rule of morality governing the behavior of the weaker side in
asymmetrical conflicts? Is there a rule of morality governing the behavior of
the strong side? (Paper due December 8)
December 8. Review and conclusions; research papers due