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    Afghanistan And Beyond: Reflections On The Future Of Warfare
    Afghanistan And Beyond: Reflections On The Future Of Warfare
    Afghanistan And Beyond: Reflections On The Future Of Warfare
    Ebook54 pages42 minutes

    Afghanistan And Beyond: Reflections On The Future Of Warfare

    By Dr Stephen J. Blank

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Many military analysts believe or fear that the wars of the 1990s will be akin to the wars in the former Yugoslavia: small-scale but long-lasting and recurrent ethnic wars that also elude easy international resolution. There are consequently well-founded concerns about prospects for deployment of U.S. forces there in a unilateral or U.N. capacity. Some of the lessons of this kind of war were already apparent in the wars of the 1980s. They were known then as low-intensity conflicts and now as operations other than, or short of, war.
    This report focuses mainly on lessons from one of the most crucial of these wars, i.e., in Afghanistan as a result of the Soviet invasion in 1979, and attempts to draw lessons that are relevant for current wars, like those in Yugoslavia or the ex-Soviet Union. The purpose is to stimulate analysis and reflection on the strategic and operational, if not also tactical nature of these wars by both analysts and policymakers so that all interested groups can more easily come to terms with a form of warfare that promises to be both deeply destructive and deeply rooted in longstanding political and social antagonisms that cannot be easily or quickly resolved.
    Naturally some of the lessons drawn from Afghanistan and other wars may either only apply to Russian and Soviet forces or conversely may apply to war in general. But our primary intention is to make a contribution to the study of future wars particularly of the ethnic and small-scale type that promise to continue in many parts of the globe lest we devise better ways for averting and then resolving them.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTannenberg Publishing
    Release dateAug 15, 2014
    ISBN9781782897668
    Afghanistan And Beyond: Reflections On The Future Of Warfare

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      Book preview

      Afghanistan And Beyond - Dr Stephen J. Blank

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 2000 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      AFGHANISTAN AND BEYOND: REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE OF WARFARE

      by

      Stephen J. Blank

      FOREWORD

      This report provides an historical analysis of lessons from one of the most important wars of the 1980s, the war in Afghanistan. After reading this study, you will better understand the nature of operations other than war in multiethnic states. Many fear that these wars will set the paradigm for wars in the 1990s and will exert pressure on U.S. forces to conduct peacekeeping, peace-enforcement and humanitarian assistance operations in especially dangerous areas. Yugoslavia and Somalia, each in their own way, bear out the ubiquity of these wars and the pressures on the United States to act.

      This report will, of course, contribute to the body of material dealing with the war in Afghanistan. More importantly, it increases understanding of future wars, particularly these types of wars, so that policymakers and analysts alike will better appreciate their military and political aspects. In turn, we may devise mechanisms either to forestall and avert them, or to bring them to the speediest possible conclusion. Alternatively, should those mechanisms fail and troops have to be committed, this and future analyses will enable commanders to have a better grasp of the nature of the war they will fight. In either case, understanding the war and the theater should facilitate a solution more in keeping with U.S. interests and values.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

      BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR 6

      EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7

      AFGHANISTAN AND BEYOND:  — REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE OF WARFARE 8

      The Initial Period of the Afghan War and Low-Intensity Conflict. 8

      Soviet Failure and the Lessons of That War. 13

      Lessons for the Wars of the 1990s. 18

      Operational and Strategic Lessons for the U.S. Forces. 20

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 29

      BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR

      STEPHEN J. BLANK has been an Associate Professor of Russian/Soviet Affairs at the Strategic Studies Institute since 1989. Prior to this appointment Dr. Blank was Associate Professor for Soviet Studies at the Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research, and Education of Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base. Dr. Blank’s M.A. and Ph.D. are in Russian history from the University of Chicago. He has published numerous articles on Soviet military and foreign policies, notably in the Third World, and is the author of a forthcoming study of the Soviet Commissariat of Nationalities and editor of books on Soviet foreign policies in Latin American and

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