Military Forces in 21st Century Peace Operations: No Job for a Soldier? (Contemporary Security Studies)

A major new study of the realities of contemporary warfare, which presents a range of fresh insights and is essential reading for all students and professionals engaged in the field.

This book clearly shows us that:

• neither military nor civilian agencies can act effectively alone in resolving modern conflicts
• joint civil-military efforts are needed, and those efforts must be deliberately planned from the outset of an operation; they cannot be added on as afterthoughts when all else has failed
• the record of our efforts over nearly a decade and a half since the end of the Cold War demonstrates that we are doing badly at creating civil-military partnerships, and that we are not getting better.

James V. Arbuckle shows how these issues are neither structural nor organizational - they are cultural. They involve attitudes, beliefs, perceptions – positive and negative, true and false. The solutions will involve changing attitudes, moving beyond prejudices, replacing competition with cooperation. The principal mechanisms for this will be common civil-military training and education.

James V. Arbuckle