Peacemaking and Peacekeeping for the New Century
This overpriced book is edited by two distinguished authors, one the head of the International Peace Academy, the other a professor at Princeton. The authors are a mixture of big names (Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan, Brian Urquhart), carefully selected to represent continents and the spectrum of opinion from enthusiastic supporters of U.N. peacekeeping to carefully considered sympathizers of the same. Skeptics and opponents do not put in much of an appearance, although Adam Roberts and a few of the others display considerably more caution than their colleagues. Yet throughout there is considerable awareness of the limits of the United Nations as an effective institution, even as its role in containing or even suppressing internal war has grown. A curious assumption in most of the essays appears to be that peacekeeping requires the action of a major multinational organization (preferably the United Nations); peacekeeping by one or two countries, or an ad hoc coalition, receives less attention.
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The tools and techniques for waging war never stand still, but these are the early days of a revolution in military affairs as momentous as those wrought by the railroad and the airplane. This newest transformation is a consequence of developments in civilian society including the information revolution and postindustrial capitalism. Its satellite imagery and smart bombs will change the forms of combat and armies. Personnel and politics, as always, will be as crucial as technology.
The United States may be an uncontested military superpower, but it remains defenseless against a new mode of attack: information warfare. As the military, the private sector, and Washington grow increasingly dependent on computers and information networks, they also grow more vulnerable to cyber-attack. Cyberspace is becoming the new front line of warfare, and private citizens are the new prime target. U.S. policymakers and technology entrepreneurs must wake up to this threat and build a wall of defense -- now.
The Cold War induced caution in nations that feared uncontrollable escalation. Now that confrontations are less likely to careen out of control, a new season of bellicosity is here. The U.S. military, trapped in a Cold War mindset, has failed to realize this. It is spending far too much on casualty-prone units in all the services, in an age when political opposition to casualties effectively makes these units unavailable for combat. The military should recalibrate its priorities and shift funds to weapons such as high-tech lasers, stealth aircraft, and cruise missiles that can make warfare less lethal for Americans.

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