Abstract
In seeking to argue the case for military efficacy of a purely defensive posture, the advocates of ‘Just Defence’ ritually employ two principal arguments: that operationally, strategically and tactically speaking, defence is superior to attack; and that the former has gained a lasting ascendancy over the latter because of the advantages afforded by modern, advanced-technology equipment and weapons. The second of these contentions will be examined in some detail later. For the time being, we can content ourselves with the observation that whereas technological change has, it is claimed, only marginally enhanced the attacker’s capabilities, recent improvements in reconnaissance, target-acquisition and weapon accuracy, particularly over longer distances, are perceived as having brought far greater benefits to the defender. Let us first examine the professed supremacy of the defensive on the operational, strategic and tactical levels of warfare.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
‘Petty geniuses attempt to hold everything; wise men hold fast to the key points. They parry great blows and scorn little accidents. There is an ancient apothegm: he who would preserve everything, preserves nothing. Therefore, always sacrifice the bagatelle and pursue the essential.’
(Frederick the Great in his Instructions For His Generals [1747])
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and References
Clausewitz, On War, p. 84.
Napoleon I of France, The Military Maxims of Napoleon (London: Greenhill, 1987 edition) p. 62.
Clausewitz, On War, p. 380.
Y. Molostov and A. Novikov, ‘High-Precision Weapons Against Tanks’, Soviet Military Review, no. 1 (1988) p. 13.
See, for example, P. Bracken, ‘Urban Sprawl and NATO Defence’, Survival (November-December 1976) pp. 254–60; FM 90–10: Military Operations in Urbanised Terrain (Washington: Army Department, 1979) pp. 1–3.
D. Gates, ‘Area Defence Concepts: The West German Debate’, Survival (July–August 1987) pp. 302–3.
See D. Gates, The British Light Infantry Arm (London: Batsford, 1987) passim.
See J. Erickson, L. Hensen and W. Schneider, Soviet Ground Forces: An Operational Assessment (London: Croom Helm, 1986) p. 43.
See, for examples, Voyenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal: no. 9 (September 1980) pp. 12–21; no. 1 (January 1987) pp. 30–6; no. 2 (February 1982) pp. 33–40; no. 11 (November 1984) pp. 59–67; and no. 4 (April 1986) pp. 52–7. Also see Soviet Military Power (Washington DC: USGPO, 1988) pp. 74–5.
See G. Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973); and A. Roberts, Nations in Arms, pp. 261–7.
R. Aron, Paix et Guerre entre les Nations (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1966) p. 617.
See V. Mastny, The Czechs Under Nazi Rule: The Failure of National Resistance, 1939–42 (Columbia UP, 1971).
See B. Tuchman, August 1914 (London: Macmillan, 1987 edition) pp. 247–9, 307–14.
See Roberts, Nations in Arms, pp. 78–9.
D. Gates, ‘The Spanish Ulcer’: A History of the Peninsular War (London and New York, 1986); and D.W. Alexander, Rod Of Iron: French Counterinsurgency Policy in Aragon During the Peninsular War (Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1985).
A. Boserup, ‘Two Papers On Maritime Defence’, Working Paper, no. 1 (Centre of Peace and Conflict Research, Copenhagen University, 1987).
J. Grin and L. Unterseher, ‘The Spiderweb Defence’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 44, no. 7 (September 1988) p. 30.
H.A. Kissinger, The Troubled Partnership (New York: McGraw Hill, 1965) p. 162.
Afheldt, ‘Friedenspolitik mit militärischen Mitteln in den neunzigern Jahren’, in Sicherheitspolitik, K.D. Schwarz (ed.) (Bad Honner-Erpel, 1978) p. 647.
Afheldt, ‘New Policies’, p. 27.
Afheldt, ‘Friedenspolitik mit militärischen Mitteln’, p. 265 et seq.
See also H. Afheldt, ‘Kriegsverhütung setzt voraus, dass man in einer Krise warten kann: die Optionen einer defensiven Verteidigung’, in Krieg oder was sonst? NATO: Strategie der Unsicherheit, D. Schröder (ed.) (Manburg, 1984).
See Afheldt, ‘New Policies’, pp. 26–7; and Defensive Verteidigung (Reinbek: Rowohlt Verlag, 1983) p. 107.
See, for instance, J. de Ruiter, Reinforcement of the Conventional Defence and ‘Emerging Technologies’ (Government of the Netherlands Memorandum, June 1985) paragraph 26.
G. Bernhardt, ‘The Military Helicopter’, RUSI Journal Special Supplement (Winter 1989) p. 15.
J. Galvin, ‘A Strategy For The Future’, RUSI Journal, vol. 134, no. 3 (Autumn 1989) p. 18.
See D. Gates, British Light Infantry, p. 140.
W. W. Kaufmann, ‘Nonnuclear Deterrence’ in Alliance Security and the No-First-Use Question, J.D. Steinbruner and L.V. Sigal (eds) (Washington: Brookings, 1983) p. 73.
‘Ogarkov Interview With Krasnaya Zvezda’, 9 May 1984, reproduced in Survival, vol. 26, no. 4 (July–August 1984) p. 186.
Also see Clausewitz, On War, pp. 184–6.
E.A. Shils and M. Janowitz, ‘Cohesion and Disintegration in the Wehrmacht in World War II’, Public Opinion Quarterly (Summer 1948) pp. 280–315.
See D. Irvine, ‘The French Discovery of Clausewitz and Napoleon’, Journal of the American Military Institute, no. 4 (1940) p. 143; and R.H. Sinnreich, ‘Strategic Implications of Doctrinal Change: A Case Analysis’, in Military Strategy in Transition, pp. 42–57.
Shils and Janowitz, ‘Cohesion and Disintegration’, p. 284.
Home, To Lose a Battle, pp. 63–4.
Shils and Janowitz, ‘Cohesion and Disintegration’, p. 289.
See Gates, British Light Infantry, p. 91.
Shils and Janowitz, ‘Cohesion and Disintegration’, p. 290.
D. Gates, ‘Area Defence Concepts’, Survival, vol. 29, no. 4 (July–August 1987) pp. 312–13.
C. Conetta and C. Knight, ‘How Low Can NATO Go?’, Defense and Disarmament Alternatives, vol. 3, no. 2 (February 1990) p. 3.
See Roberts, Nations in Arms, p. 237.
See, for example, The British Maritime League, World Trade, Military Logistics and Merchant Shipping Demand and Supply (London, June 1989); and The General Council of British Shipping, Supply and Demand For Merchant Shipping in Crisis and War (London, 1989).
Conetta and Knight, ‘How Low Can NATO Go?’, p. 3.
Quoted in J. Mendelsohn, ‘Gorbachev’s Preemptive Concession’, Arms Control Today, vol. 19, no. 2 (March 1989) p. 12. Also see A. Akhro-meyev, ‘Doktrina predotvrashcheniya voyny zashchity mira i sotsia-lizma’, Problemy mira i sotsializma, no. 12 (1987).
See Footnote 14 above and Evolyutsiya voennogo iskusstva: etaphy, tendentsii, prinstipy, F. Gayvoronskogo (ed.) (Moscow: Voenizdat, 1987).
S. Covington, The Role of the Defence in Soviet Military Thinking (Soviet Studies Research Centre, RMA Sandhurst, 1987).
E. Warner, ‘New Thinking and Old Realities in Soviet Defence Policy’, Survival, vol. 31, no. 1 (1989).
P. Kunitskiy, ‘Esli oborona prorvana’, Voenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal, no. 12 (1988).
A. Maryshev, ‘Nekotorye voprosy strategicheskoy oborony v Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyne’, Voenno-istorichekoy zhurnal, no. 6 (1986).
Akhromeyev, ‘Doktrina predotvrashcheniya …’, pp. 26–7. Also see G. Ionin, ‘Osnovy sovremennogo oboronitel’nogo boya’, Voenny Vest-nik, no. 3 (1988) pp. 19–20; and V. Kulikov, Doktrina zashchity mira i sotsializma (Moscow: Voenizdat, 1988) pp. 77–9.
A. Kokoshin and V. Larionov, ‘Kurskaya bitva v svete sovremennoy oboronitel’noy doktriny’, MEMO, no. 8 (1987); Protivostoyanie sil obshchego naznacheniya v kontekste obespecheniya strategicheskoy stabil’nosti’, MEMO, no. 6 (1988).
Akhromeyev, ‘Doktrina predotvrashcheniya …’; M. Gareev, ‘Soviet Military Doctrine: Current and Future Developments’, RUSI Journal, vol. 133, no. 4 (1988).
Napoleon, Maxims, p. 64.
H. Afheldt, Verteidigung und Frieden: Politik mit militärischen Mitteln (Munich: DTV, 1976) p. 238.
First Duke of Wellington, Dispatches of Field Marshall The Duke of Wellington, Col. Gurwood (ed.) (London, 1834–9) vol. VI, pp. 493–4.
See Home, To Lose a Battle, pp. 622–7.
See, for example, G. Herolf, ‘New Technology Favours Defense’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 44, no. 7 (September 1988) pp. 42–4.
See, for instance, Gates, British Light Infantry.
See, for example I. Vorobyev, ‘Novoye oruzhiye i printsipy taktiki’, Sovetskoy Voennoye obozreniye, no. 2 (February 1987), 18.
The Guardian, 16 February 1990.
The Croker Papers, L.J. Jennings (ed.) (London, 1884) vol. III, p. 276.
See, for instance, Vorobyev, ‘Novoye oruzhiye i printsipy taktiki’, p. 18.
See F. Barnaby, The Automated Battlefield (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1986) especially pp. 41–4, 155, 163.
See S.J. Flanagan, NATO’s Conventional Defences (London: Mac-millan/IISS, 1988) pp. 72–3.
ESECS, Strengthening Conventional Deterrence, pp. 230–3.
Y. Kardashevskiy, Voyenniy Vestnik, no. 7 (July 1988) p. 64.
A. Cockbum, The Threat: Inside The Soviet Military Machine (New York: Random House, 1983) p. 109.
L. Martin, ‘Theatre Nuclear Weapons and Europe’, Survival, vol. 14, no. 4 (November–December 1974) p. 272.
See Bamaby, The Automated Battlefield, pp. 7, 41.
See, for example, L. Spector, The Undeclared Bomb (London: Ballinger/Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, 1988); and F. Bamaby, The Nuclear Arms Race In The Middle East (London: Tauris, 1989).
See, for example, Home, To Lose a Battle, pp. 113–16.
See J. Connell, The New Maginot Line (London: Seeker and Warburg, 1986).
Barnaby, Automated Battlefield, p. 166.
See The Conventional Defense Of Europe: New Technologies and New Strategies, A.J. Pierre (ed.) (New York: Council On Foreign Relations, 1986) p. 162.
See Home, To Lose a Battle, pp. 60–2.
See B. Tuchman, August 1914, pp. 163–7, 189–91; Home, To Lose a Battle, pp. 255–9.
Clausewitz, On War, pp. 119–21.
See, for instance, T. Nash, ‘Guns And Missiles For Air Defence’, Armed Forces, vol. 6, no. 12 (1987) p. 556.
See G.W. Goodman, ‘New Army IR-Guided Missile’, Armed Forces Journal International (May 1989) p. 74.
S.L. Canby, ‘The Operational Limits Of Emerging Technology’, Inter-national Defense Review, vol. 8, no. 6 (1985) pp. 875–80; CJ. Dick, ‘Soviet Responses To Emerging Technology Weapons And New Defensive Concepts’, in Emerging Technologies And Military Doctrine, F. Barnaby and M. ter Borg (eds) (London: Macmillan, 1986); and J. Connell, The New Maginot Line.
F. Barnaby, Automated Battlefield, p. 74.
V.G. Reznichenko, Taktika (Moscow: Voyenizdat, 1987) p. 206.
D.T. Yazov, ‘Soviet Military Doctrine’, in RUSIAnd Brassey’s Defence Yearbook (London: Brassey’s, 1990) pp. 28–32.
P.G. Lushev, ‘Soviet And Warsaw Pact Goals And Developments’, RUSI Journal, vol. 134, no. 3 (Autumn 1989) p. 5.
See D. Gates, ‘Non-Offensive Defence: A Strategic Contradiction?’, Occasional Paper No 29 (London: Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies, 1987) pp. 46–7.
See D. Gates, ‘The US Army’s Light Divisions: Power Projection and Strategic Mobility’, Occasional Paper, vol. 3, no. 1 (Georgia: Institute for the Study of Geopolitics, Valdosta State University, 1990).
See K. Hunt, ‘The Alliance And Europe: Part II: Defence With Fewer Men’, Adelphi Paper No. 98 (London: IISS, 1973) p. 37.
See, for example, The Guardian, 1 August 1989, p. 32.
See, for instance, C. Chapman and J. Speight, ‘Problems Of Monitored Storage’, Bulletin Of The Council For Arms Control, no. 47 (December 1989) pp. 5–6.
For a range of views see: W. Sombart, Krieg und Kapitalismus (Munich, 1913); J. Nef, War And Human Progress (London, 1950); H. de
Haan, ‘Military Expenditure And Economic Growth’, in The Economics Of Military Expenditure: Military Expenditures, Economic Growth And Fluctuations, C. Schmidt (ed.) (London: Macmillan, 1987); G. Adams and D.A. Gold, ‘The Economics Of Military Spending: Is The Military Dollar Really Different?’, in Peace, Defense and Economic Analysis,. Schmidt and F. Blackaby (eds) (London: Macmillan, 1987); C. Trebilcock, ‘British Armaments And European Industrialisation, 1890–1914’, Economic History Review, vol. 26 (1973); K. Hartley et al., ‘The Economics Of UK Defence Policy In The 1990s’, RUSI Journal, vol. 135, no. 2 (Summer 1990) pp. 49–54; and M. Chalmers, Paying For Defence: Military Spending And British Decline (London: Pluto, 1985).
See, for example, A. Aganbegyan, ‘The Economics Of Perestroika’, International Affairs, vol. 64, no. 2 (Spring 1988) p. 117.
R. Bova, ‘The Soviet Military And Economic Reform’, Journal Of Soviet Studies, vol. 40, no. 3 (July 1988) pp. 388–9.
Tass Press Release, New York, 15 January 1986.
See D. Herspring, ‘On Perestroika: Gorbachev, Yazov And The Military’, Problems Of Communism (July–August 1987).
Also see J. Eyal and I. Anthony, Warsaw Pact Military Expenditure (London: RUSI/Jane’s, 1988).
See ‘The Soviet Economy’, The Economist, 9 April 1988, p. 13.
See ‘Delikate Fragen’, Der Spiegel, vol. 32 (1990) pp. 34–6.
See, for example, A. Roberts, Nation In Arms, p. 109; and J. Bjork-lund, ‘The JAS 39 Project And Swedish Defence’, in RUSI And Brassey’s Defence Yearbook 1990, pp. 199–216.
See, for example, ACOST, Defence R amp; D: A National Resource (London: Cabinet Office, 1989), which highlights the British experience in this regard.
See J. Fagerberg, ‘International Competitiveness’, Economic Journal, vol. 98 (June 1988) pp. 355–74.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1991 David Gates
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gates, D. (1991). Dimensions of ‘Defensive Defence’. In: Non-Offensive Defence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10585-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10585-4_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-10587-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-10585-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)