Reassessing the Revolution in Military Affairs: Transformation, Evolution and Lessons Learnt

192 Pages·2015·0.8 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Collins

Reassessing the Revolution in Military Affairs
Initiatives in Strategic Studies: Issues and Policies
James J. Wirtz
General Editor
Jeffrey A. Larsen
T.V. Paul
Brad Roberts
James M. Smith
Series Editors
INITIATIVES IN STRATEGIC STUDIES provides a bridge between the use of force or diplo-
macy and the achievement of political objectives. This series focuses on the
topical and timeless issues relating to strategy, including the nexus of political,
diplomatic, psychological, economic, cultural, historic and military affairs. It
provides a link between the scholarly and policy communities by serving as the
recognized forum for conceptually sophisticated analyses of timely and impor-
tant strategic issues.
Nuclear Transformation: The New U.S. Nuclear Doctrine
Edited by James J. Wirtz and Jeffrey A. Larsen
Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East: Directions and Policy
Options in the New Century
Edited by James A. Russell
The Last Battle of the Cold War: The Deployment and Negotiated Elimination of
Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces in Europe
Maynard W. Glitman
Critical Issues Facing the Middle East: Security, Politics and Economics
Edited by James A. Russell
Militarization and War
Julian Schofield
Global Politics of Defense Reform
Edited by Thomas Bruneau and Harold Trinkunas
Perspectives on Sino-American Strategic Nuclear Issues
Edited by Christopher P. Twomey
Strategic Culture and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Culturally Based Insights into
Comparative National Security Policymaking
Edited by Jeannie L. Johnson, Kerry M. Kartchner, and Jeffrey A. Larsen
Terrorist Financing and Resourcing
Jodi Vittori
The India-Pakistan Military Standoff: Crisis and Escalation in South Asia
Edited by Zachary S. Davis
Responding to Catastrophic Events
Edited by Jeffrey A. Larsen
Reassessing the Revolution
in Military Affairs
Transformation, Evolution and
Lessons Learnt
Edited by
Jeffrey Collins
Researcher, Carleton University, Canada
and
Andrew Futter
Senior Lecturer in International Politics, University of Leicester, UK
Editorial selection and content © Jeffrey Collins and Andrew Futter 2015
Individual chapters © Respective authors 2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-51375-5
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First published 2015 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-57069-0 ISBN 978-1-137-51376-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137513762
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Collins, Jeffrey, 1985–
Reassessing the revolution in military affairs : transformation, evolution
and lessons learnt / Jeffrey Collins, Researcher, Carleton University, Canada ;
Andrew Futter, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, University of
Leicester, UK.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Military art and science – Technological innovations. 2. Military art
and science – History – 20th century. 3. Military art and science –
History – 21st century. 4. Military policy. I. Futter, Andrew, 1983– II. Title.
U42.C565 2015
355—dc23 2015021452.
To Jenny, for the patience, love and support
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Contents
Notes on Contributors v iii
Introduction: Reflecting on the Global Impact of the RMA 1
Jeffrey Collins & Andrew Futter
1 The United States and the RMA: Revolutions do
Not Revolutionize Everything 16
Keith L. Shimko
2 A Peculiarly British Revolution: Missing the Point or
Just Avoiding Change? 33
Andrew M. Dorman
3 The Perpetual Search for Efficiency: The Canadian
Approach to the RMA and Military Transformation 5 1
Jeffrey Collins
4 The Interruption and Evolution of Australia’s RMA 7 1
Rachael Bryson
5 The Israeli Revolution in Military Affairs and the Road
to the 2006 Lebanon War 92
Raphael D. Marcus
6 The Russian Response to the RMA: Military Strategy
towards Modern Security Threats 112
Andrey Sushentsov
7 RMA and India: Nothing Revolutionary about It 1 32
Harsh V. Pant & Yogesh Joshi
8 RMA, European Militaries and the Limits of Modernization 156
David J. Galbreath
Conclusion: Reflecting on the RMA Concept 175
Andrew Futter
Index 1 81
vii
Notes on Contributors
Rachael Bryson holds a Master’s from the Centre for Military and
Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, and a BA from the
University of Ottawa in Political Science and Communications. She is
a PhD candidate in Carleton University’s Political Science department.
Her research interests include civil–military relations, Canadian defence
policy, comparative studies in defence policy formation, and institu-
tional change within armed forces.
Jeffrey Collins is a research associate with the Atlantic Institute for
Market Studies and a PhD candidate in Carleton University’s Political
Science department, Ottawa, Canada. His thesis examines Canadian
defence transformation and procurement. His other research interests
include Israeli military history and defence policy, international law,
Canadian energy politics, and Australian defence policy. A former policy
advisor on defence and foreign affairs for the Government of Canada,
Collins’s work has appeared in numerous journals including F oreign
Policy Analysis, Canadian Naval Review, Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic
Policy , SITREP: Journal of the Royal Canadian Military Institute and the
national Canadian daily, the National Post .
Andrew M. Dorman is Professor of International Security and an
associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham
House. His research focuses on decision-making and the utility of force,
utilizing the case studies of British defence and security policy and
European Security. He has held grants with the ESRC, British Academy,
Leverhulme Trust, Ministry of Defence and US Army War College. He
trained as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, qualifying in 1990,
before returning to academia. He has previously taught at the University
of Birmingham, where he completed his Master’s and doctoral degrees,
and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
Andrew Futter is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the
University of Leicester, UK. His work focuses mainly on contemporary
nuclear weapons issues, including ballistic missile defence, proliferation,
the changing nature of deterrence, and new challenges to the utility and
perception of nuclear forces. He has published two books, B allistic Missile
viii
Notes on Contributors ix
Defence and US National Security Policy in 2013 and The Politics of Nuclear
Weapons in 2015, and written widely for numerous peer-reviewed and
professional publications. He is currently working on an ESRC-funded
Future Research Leaders project looking at how cyber weapons and the
advent of a new information age are challenging, transforming and
impacting the role, efficacy and thinking that underpin nuclear weapons
and strategy.
David J. Galbreath is Professor of International Security at the
University of Bath and Director of the Bath Centre for War and
Technology. His work focuses on drivers of military reform in Europe
with a particular focus on the US influence on European militaries. He
is also working on the role of changes in science and technology and
their influence on emergent warfare. His work is currently funded by the
ESRC and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. He is editor-
in-chief for the academic journals European Security and Defence Studies .
Yogesh Joshi is a doctoral candidate at the Center for International
Politics, Organisation and Disarmament, School of International Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. He has been a fellow at Sigur Center
for Asian Studies, George Washington University and is currently an
international PhD partnering fellow in Defence Studies Department,
King’s College London. His PhD dissertation examines the interaction
between political ideologies and international political structure in
the making of Indian foreign and national security policy during the
Bharatiya Janata Party-led government from 1998 to 2004.
Raphael D. Marcus is currently completing his PhD in the Department
of War Studies, King’s College London, where his doctoral research
focuses on military innovation and insurgency adaption in the Israel–
Hezbollah conflict. He also holds an MA (with High Merit) with a focus
in terrorism and security from the Department of War Studies, and a
joint BA in Islamic Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science from
Brandeis University. He has held research assistant positions at Jane’s, the
United Nations, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
focusing on Middle Eastern affairs, terrorism, and military preparedness.
Raphael is a member of the Insurgency Research Group at King’s College
London.
Harsh V. Pant is Professor of International Relations at King’s College
London. He is also a non-resident fellow with the Wadhwani Chair in
U.S.–India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, Washington, D.C. His current research is focused on Asian