War as a Strategic Tool of Policy
To what extent did the outcome of the 1978-1989 Soviet-Afghan war serve the political objectives of the principal participants?
Aim
1. As the capstone of the Conflict and the International System (C&IS) Stage, the aim of the Strategy and Policy Case Studies is:
“To analyse the principal political, military and international security issues that influenced the causes of, the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, and the effectiveness in achieving political and strategic objectives.”
2. Introduction. The Strategy and Policy Case Studies examine the political, military and international security issues that influenced the causes of three modern conflicts and their use as strategic tools of policy. The case studies have been chosen to cover a wide range of issues and to develop the ability to understand the strategic context and relationships between the strategic, operational and tactical levels of warfare. The analysis of the conflicts provides the opportunity to determine what major factors contributed to success and failure in each conflict. Many of the issues are covered during the C&IS Stage and students should reflect on the lectures and their own research in formulating their responses to their set question.
a. Strategy and Policy Essay.
(1) Students are to write an essay of no more than 4000 words in which they examine one of the 3 conflicts, addressing a question related to the war as a strategic tool of policy.
Objectives
3. Training Objectives.
TO 1.5 Analyse the execution of strategy and policy within a selected campaign.
TO 5.1 Communicate effectively in speech.
4. Enabling Objectives.
EO 1.5.1 Analyse, depending on the campaign and question allocated, the causes of a selected conflict.
EO 1.5.2 Analyse, depending on the campaign and question allocated, the political success of war as a strategic tool of policy in a selected conflict.
a. Essential reading:
(1) The 1978-1989 Soviet-Afghan War.
Hughes, Geraint. “The Soviet-Afghan War, 1978-1989: An Overview.” In Defence Studies, vol. 8, no. 3 (2008): 326-350.
Afghanistan
“Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan”. CWIHP Virtual Archive.
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/76/soviet-invasion-of-afghanistan
Braithwaite, Rodric, Afgansty: The Russians in Afghanistan. London: Profile Books, 2001 [958.104 BRA]
Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars. n.p.: Penguin, 2005. [958.104 COL]
Cordovez, Diego, & Selig Harrison. Out of Afghanistan: The Inside Story of the Soviet Withdrawal. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. [958.104 COR].
Galster, Steve. “Afghanistan: The Making of US Policy, 1973-1990.” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No.57, October 2001. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB57/essay.html.
Garthoff, Raymond. Détente and Confrontation. Washington DC: Brookings, 1994: 977-1121.
Garthoff, Raymond. The Great Transition. American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War. Washington DC: Brookings, 1994: 721-739.
Kalinovsky, Artemy. “Old politics, new diplomacy: The Geneva Accords and the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.” Cold War History, vol. 8, no. 3 (2008): 381-404.
Kalinovsky, Artemy. “Decision-Making and the Soviet War in Afghanistan: From Intervention to Withdrawal.” Journal of Cold War Studies,vol. 11, no. 4 (2009): 46-73.
Lyakhovskiy, Aleksandr, Gary Goldberg & Artemy Kalinovsky. Inside the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the Seizure of Kabul, December 1979 (Washington DC: Cold War International History Project Working Paper No.51, 2007). online at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/WP51_Web_Final.pdf
Maley, William & Amin Saikal. The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. [958.104 SAI]
Maley, William. The Afghanistan Wars. Basingstoke: Palgrave 2002. [958.104 MAL].
Marshall, Alex, “Managing Withdrawal: Afghanistan as the Forgotten Example in Attempting Conflict Resolution and State Reconstruction.” Small Wars and Insurgencies, vol. 18, no. 1 (2007): 68-89.
Ostermann, Christian Friedrich. “New Evidence on the War in Afghanistan’, CWIHP Bulletin 14/15 (2003-2004). http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/c-afghanistan.pdf.
Prados, John. “US Analysis of the Soviet War in Afghanistan: Declassified.” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No.57, October 2001. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB57/us.html
Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban. Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia. London: I. B. Tauris, 2001. [958.104 RAS]
Rubin, Barnett R. The Fragmentation of Afghanistan. 2nd ed. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2002. [958.104 RUB].
Saikal, Amin. “Islamism, the Iranian revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.” In The Cambridge History of the Cold War. Volume III. Endings, edited by Melvyn P. Leffler & Odd Arne Westad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010: 112-134.
Savranskaya, Svetlana. “The Soviet Experience in Afghanistan: Russian Documents and Memoirs.” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No.57, October 2001. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB57/soviet.html
Westad, Odd Arne. “Prelude to Invasion: The Soviet Union and the Afghan Communists, 1978-1979.” International History Review, vol. 26, no. 1 (1994): 49-69.
Westad, Odd Arne. The Global Cold War. Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005: Chapters 8-10.
Strategy and Policy Case Studies
Conduct of Essay and Presentation
The subject areas to be covered include:
War as a Strategic Tool of Policy. The aim is to develop further an understanding of the political, military and international security issues that influenced the utility of war as a strategic tool of policy in the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
• The nature of power and the levers of power (economic, political/diplomatic and military).
• The nature of the state.
• The international system and limitations on the use of force.
• Foreign policy analysis.
• Concepts of security.
• International law and ethics.
• Leadership.
• Strategic thought.
• Decision-making.
• Role of the international community.
• Role of global security institutions (e.g. the UN).
• Utility of force.
• Conflict termination and conflict resolution.
• Media lessons.
Essay
1. Format/Length. The paper is to be written in accordance with the JBJJCSC Essay Writing Guide (EWG). Students are to complete their essay in not more than 4000 words. The essay is to be typed in the JBJJCSC standard script (Arial 11 pt using 1.5 line spacing). Everything in the essay, including the footnotes and abstract, will be counted towards the word limit. Not included in the word count are:
a. The bibliography.
b. Mandated cover sheets and any disclaimers required by the College.
c. Any tables and/or appendices that are taken verbatim from other sources.
d. For MA dissertations, the ethical approval screening form or ethical approval letter.
Presentations
2. Strategy and Policy Presentations are conducted over 2 days and each should examine and, where appropriate, compare and contrast particular aspects of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, 1991 Gulf War, and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
Students are to give a 20 minute presentation in answer to the Essay question they are allocated. It is to contain a succinct summary of the analysis and conclusions that are at the core of their Strategy and Policy Essay. Students are to be prepared to take questions for a further 20 minutes. The discussion and feedback from ADS may include recommendations for revision of the final essay. The presentations may be supported by PowerPoint if appropriate. The use of video clips is discouraged (if used, they should be a maximum of 2 minutes in length): time is far better spent presenting a summary of the analysis that underpins the essay