War Over Kosovo: Politics and Strategy in a Global Age

by Andrew J. Bacevich (Editor), Eliot Cohen (Editor)

Overview

More than any other episode since the end of the Cold War, the conflict in Kosovo revealed the distinctive attributes of a new American "way of war." In so doing, Kosovo also brought into sharp focus the military, political, and moral dilemmas confronting a liberal democracy intent on wielding preeminent power on a global scale.

What are the moral implications posed by waging high-tech warfare for humanitarian purposes? Does the precedent set by intervention of this type point toward peace and stability or toward more war? How well suited are the United States military and American society as a whole to the security challenges of the age of globalization?

According to Bacevich and Cohen, gauging the "success" achieved in Kosovo yields important answers to these and related questions. The volume includes a well-crafted historical overview of the war and six essays that place it in a broader context. The contributors explore the conflict's relationship to U.S. grand strategy, the Revolution in Military Affairs, and American civil-military relations, among other topics.

Contributors: William A. Arkin, Andrew J. Bacevich, Eliot A. Cohen, Alberto R. Coll, James Kurth, Anatol Lieven, Michael Vickers

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231500524
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	01/02/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Lexile:	1520L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of international relations at Boston University where he also serves as director of the university's Center for International Relations. He is the author of The Pentomic Era: The U.S. Army Between Korea and Vietnam.Eliot Cohen is professor of strategic studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, where he is also the founding director of the Center for Strategic Education. He is the coauthor of Revolution in Warfare?: Air Power in the Persian Gulf.

Table of Contents

Introduction, by Andrew J. Bacevich and Eliot A. Cohen
Operation Allied Force: "The Most Precise Application of Air Power in History", by William M. Arkin
Kosovo and the New American Way of War, by Eliot A. Cohen
First War of the Global Era: Kosovo and U.S. Grand Strategy, by James Kurth
Hubris and Nemesis: Kosovo and the Pattern of Western Military Ascendancy and Defeat, by Anatol Lieven
Kosovo and the Moral Burdens of Power, by Alberto R. Coll
Neglected Trinity: Kosovo and the Crisis in U.S. Civil-Military Relations, by Andrew J. Bacevich
Kosovo and the Revolution in Military Affairs, by Michael G. Vickers
A Note on Contributors

What People are Saying About This

Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor (USMC

Kosovo was a peculiar war. Waged from the air with one-sided casualties and a victory which failed to achieve its announced objective, it nonetheless was a watershed. It tells us much about the American way of war in the twenty-first century. Andrew Bacevich and Eliot Cohen have pulled together an enlightening set of essays that will provoke thought and argument among all who seek the Rosetta stone for present-day American foreign and military policy.

Richard H. Kohn

Andrew Bacevich and Eliot Cohen have produced the most thoughtful examination of the Kosovo war we are likely to see for some time. By exposing the reality behind the rhetoric, giving careful attention to context, and exploring the meaning in an uncompromising way, the authors show what war has become, and is likely to be, in this age of high tech, low politics, and public inattention. A sensitive and insightful appraisal... chilling in its implications.

Editorial Reviews

Bacevich and Cohen see important problems with [the military model in Kosovo].

Foreign Affairs

The beauty of the book is its insightful analysis of the grand security strategy implications for the United States and the world...It is imperative that all military professionals internalize the book's conclusions. The analyses are prescient, complementary, and well supported. Study of the profession of arms demands that this wise work be included in any professional library.

Military Review - MAJ Michael A. WOrmley