Evaluating Military Strategies

Good military theory is marked by four characteristics: 1) Clarity of Focus; 2) Operational Use of Definitions; 3) Thorough-ness; 4) Possibility for Generalized Application. In The Sources of Military Doctrine Barry Posen documents how military doctrine is shaped and how it effects grand strategy. In Extended Deterrence and the Prevention of War Paul Huth defines the political and military conditions under which a policy of extended deterrence is likely to succeed or fail. Posen's work is important for establishing a groundwork for the understanding of national security operations which he scrutinizes through the evaluation of French, British, and German national policy between the world wars. In contrast, Huth's study is more narrowly defined in its consideration of how the employment of deterrence policy can prevent military offensives. With a tighter focus, Huth is able to cover his ground more comprehensively than Posen, delineating its sources and conceptualization while offering test cases and implications for crisis management. Narrowly focused, exhaustively detailed and replete with both historical and research applications, Huth's study of extended deterrence offers a more compelling study of military theory than Posen's solid but less forcefully delivered study of military doctrine.

Beginning with an excellent quote on the dangers of escalation, Huth immediately defines deterrence as "the decision to threaten

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s bargaining and signaling, are now often called into question (Huth 200). Yet Huth in his precise and balanced style of presentation insists that "short-term military and diplomatic actions do have a strong impact on crisis outcomes" (Huth 201). Huth contends that deterrence is employed most effectively when a "firm-but-flexible" position in negotiations is used in conjunc-tion with "a policy of tit for tat in military escalation" (Huth 201).  Tackling a much broader topic, Posen analyzes military doctrine's influence upon grand strategy or a country's national security policy. According to grand strategy, a country must identify likely threats to its security and devise political, military or other remedies for these threats (Posen 13). In Posen's attempts to be comprehensive, he divides military operations into its 3 basic categories: offensive doctrines aimed at disarming an adversary; defensive doctrines aimed at denying an adversary the objectives that he seeks; deterrent doctrines aimed at punishing an aggressor. Deterrent policy actively seeks to raise the enemy's costs without reducing one's own strengths (Posen 14). In attempting to explain military doctrine Posen offers a cluster of hypotheses, military do
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Approximate Word count = 1223
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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