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The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany Between the World Wars Revised Edition
Contributor(s): Posen, Barry R. (Author)
ISBN: 0801494273     ISBN-13: 9780801494277
Publisher: Cornell University Press
OUR PRICE:   $37.57  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: August 1986
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- History | Military - Strategy
- Political Science | Public Policy - Military Policy
- Political Science | Security (national & International)
Dewey: 355.02
LCCN: 84007610
Series: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs (Paperback)
Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6.32" W x 9.36" (0.96 lbs) 288 pages
 
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Publisher Description:

Barry R. Posen explores how military doctrine takes shape and the role it plays in grand strategy-that collection of military, economic, and political means and ends with which a state attempts to achieve security. Posen isolates three crucial elements of a given strategic doctrine: its offensive, defensive, or deterrent characteristics, its integration of military resources with political aims, and the degree of military or operational innovation it contains. He then examines these components of doctrine from the perspectives of organization theory and balance of power theory, taking into account the influence of technology and geography.

Looking at interwar France, Britain, and Germany, Posen challenges each theory to explain the German Blitzkrieg, the British air defense system, and the French Army's defensive doctrine often associated with the Maginot Line. This rigorous comparative study, in which the balance of power theory emerges as the more useful, not only allows us to discover important implications for the study of national strategy today, but also serves to sharpen our understanding of the origins of World War II.

Contributor Bio(s): Posen, Barry R.: - Barry R. Posen is Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the Security Studies Program at MIT. He is the author of Restraint: A New Foundation for U.S. Grand Strategy, The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany between the World Wars (winner of the Furniss Award and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award) and Inadvertent Escalation: Conventional War and Nuclear Risks, all from Cornell.