Item Details
Skip Navigation Links
   ActiveUsers:1177Hits:21143358Skip Navigation Links
Show My Basket
Contact Us
IDSA Web Site
Ask Us
Today's News
HelpExpand Help
Advanced search

In Basket
  Journal Article   Journal Article
 

ID108255
Title ProperVictory in scholarship on strategy and war
LanguageENG
AuthorMartel, William C
Publication2011.
Summary / Abstract (Note)When policy-makers use force to achieve political ends, they use the word 'victory', yet its meaning is frequently left unclear. Policy-makers are using force for new purposes (peace operations, preemption, state-building, democracy promotion, counterinsurgencies and counterterrorism), but the language and thinking on victory in these new situations has not kept pace with the times. The essential problem is that the term 'victory' is an imprecisely defined concept for guiding decisions about military intervention. Everyone, from scholars to policy-makers, should understand that the failure historically to develop a precise concept of victory weakens the ability of policy-makers to use force effectively and contributes to confusion when societies debate whether to use force. This article seeks to make three fundamental contributions towards reducing the ambiguity that surrounds the term 'victory' in the strategic studies literature. First, it establishes the renewed importance of the question: 'what is precisely the meaning of "victory?"' Second, it presents a typology for understanding the nature of victory. Third, it uses this typology to reevaluate the contributions of prominent and lesser-known thinkers in strategic studies whose ideas have contributed to the scholarship on what it means to achieve victory in war.
`In' analytical NoteCambridge Review of International Affairs Vol. 24, No. 3; Sep 2011: p.513-536
Journal SourceCambridge Review of International Affairs Vol. 24, No. 3; Sep 2011: p.513-536
Key WordsStrategy ;  War ;  State - Building ;  Democracy ;  Counterinsurgencies ;  Counterterrorism ;  Military Intervention


 
 
Media / Other Links  Full Text