1.

Purposes of using military forces:

a. Deter by indicating the ability to retaliate
b. Compel by threatening an attack
2. Conventional Forces: take, hold and defend territories
a. Land Forces:
i. Infantry:
1) Foot soldiers that use light weapons such as
guns and heavy artilleries
2) In open terrains, the army relies on weapons
used rather than human or intelligence
resources
ii. Counterinsurgency:
1) Try to win hearts and minds of the civilians to
that they dont shelter guerillas
2) Costly and labor-intensive: high troops-topopulation ratio
3) Land mines as a result of this type of warfare
b. Naval Forces:
i. Navies:
1) control over the sea passages and land near
the coastlines
2) respond to the issue of piracy, but with
incomplete success because of the size of the
oceans
3) Air craft carrier: power projection-presenting a
threat to use force
4) Emphasizing detection without being detected
itself
ii. Marines
1) Moved through seas but fight on land
c. Air Forces:
i. Increasingly expensive with renewed technologies
ii. Strategic bombing
1) Not effective when the conflict is of low
intensity; involving civilians in a close terrain
2) Weakness nobody surrenders to an airplane
iii. Close air supplies
iv. Interception of other aircrafts
v. Reconnaissance
vi. Airlift of supplies
d. Coordinating Forces:
i. Support: food, fuel, ordnance
ii. Power projection: project military power of a strong
state to every corner of the world and maintain
military presence
iii. Command and coordination: military surveillance

and mapping, communication, weather assessment,

navigation information and warnings
iv. Intelligence gathering
e. Evolving Technologies:
i. More profound costs and consequences for use of
military forces
ii. Military engagements occur across a greater distance
iii. Electronic warfare
1) Use of electromagnetic spectrum in wars
iv. Cyber war
1) Disrupting the enemys control and command
over the computer, probably even hacking into
bank accounts to obtain money
v. Stealth technology: special radar absorbent
materials and shapes to scatter enemy radar
1) Expensive
2) Prone to technological problems
f. Revolutions in military affairs: innovation application of
new technologies and changes in the military doctrine
g. Fog of war: confusion and uncertainty that reduce the
effectiveness of technologies in warfare
3. Weapons of Mass Destruction:
a. Nuclear weapons
i. Nuclear strategy and arm control
b. Biological weapons
c. Proliferation
4. Terrorism: political violence that targets civilians deliberately
and indiscriminately (other definitions can be politically
motivated: one persons freedom fighter can be another
persons terrorist)
a. Some motivated by religions, others class ideologies,
nationalism or ethnic conflicts
b. Usually refer to as an act to demoralize a population to use
it as a political tool
c. Almost always carefully calculated
d. Psychological effects: randomness of victims
e. Gain more international attention recently while attempting
to acquire weapons of mass destruction
f. Mixed record of success: some tactics are effective in some
circumstances but not other
g. Terrorism is not bounded by international norms and laws;
thus, is a political group gains power or legitimacy, its use
of terrorist tactics is likely to decrease
h. Sometimes states use terrorist tactics: state-sponsored
terrorism
5. Counterterrorism:

a. Calls for economic development

b. Apprehend or kill terrorists aiming to break up the group
c. Organized military conflict
6. Weapons of mass destruction:
a. Relatively modest costs but possess great extent of
destruction upon indiscriminate victims
i. For great powers: deter attacks
ii. Middles powers: symbolic equalizer to the great
powers
iii. Terrorist: victimize more people
b. Nuclear weapons
i. Most destructive in terms of sheer degree
ii. Technologies for making fission weapons are within
the ability of non-state actors
iii. Fusion weapons
1) require massive technological knowledge and
money to produce,
2) create heat and radiation
iv. Electromagnetic pulse disrupts electronic equipment
c. Ballistic missiles and delivery systems
i. Strategic weapons: launched into another countrys
territory
ii. Tactical weapons: designed for battle field use
iii. Ballistic missiles: main delivery vehicle for nuclear
weapons
iv. Cruise missile: can be navigated through s
previously investigated terrain
d. Chemical weapons: chemicals that disables or kill people
i. Absorbed through the skin or inhaled
ii. Some are lethal, other are merely irritating
iii. Effective against unarmed human waves
iv. Production is easy to hide
e. Biological weapons
i. Micro-organisms or biologically derived toxins
ii. Viruses of deadly diseases
iii. Nonfatal, but incapacitating diseases
iv. Kill livestock
v. Usually less contagious disease are preferred (highly
epidemic disease are too dangerous)
vi. Production is easy to hide
f. Proliferation
i. Treaties call upon states to make their borders more
vulnerable (realist)
ii. Prevention of proliferation:
1) Covert intelligence
2) Tight security measure

3) safeguarding
g.
7. Nuclear strategy
a. What, how to deliver and how to regulate
b. Mutual assured destruction: neither side can prevent
the usage of such weapons
c. Strategic defense initiative: building up defense against
ballistic missiles
8. Arms control
a. Agreement between/among states regarding the use and
development of nuclear weapons, applying the principle of
reciprocity to achieve mutual benefit
9. States and militaries
a. Military economics: military benefits the economy by
i. providing work opportunities
ii. acquiring territories
b. control of military forces
i. organized: from the highest in the hierarchy to the
lowest
ii. accurate intelligence: appropriate decision making
10.
civil military relations: affects states decision on whether
or not to use military force
a. civilian leaders also determine the use of military forces
b. coup detat: tension between military and the civilian
society becomes too strong
c. convert operations: civilian forces used as military forces