Defense 101: Understanding the Military of Today and Tomorrow

Michael O Hanlon provides a concise primer for understanding the US $700+ billion defense budget and rapidly changing military technologies. It covers defense budgeting, gaming and modeling combat, technological change, and the science of war. It is for policy makers, experts, military professionals, students, and citizens.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 264 pages
\n Publication date: 15 May 2021
\n Publisher: Cornell University Press
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In Defense 101, a comprehensive primer for navigating the United States' $700+ billion defense budget and the rapidly evolving military technologies, Michael O Hanlon offers a profound yet accessible analysis of American military power.

After an introductory chapter that surveys the contemporary international security landscape, provides a brief sketch of the history of the US military, its command structure, the organization of its three million personnel, and a review of its domestic basing and global reach, Defense 101 delves into four critical areas of military affairs:

• Defense Budgeting and Resource Allocation: comprehensive budget and cost breakdowns, wartime spending allocations, the economics of overseas basing, military readiness, and the interplay between defense budgeting and US grand strategy.
• Gaming and Modeling Combat: wargaming, micro modeling, nuclear exchange calculations, China scenarios, and assessments of counterinsurgency missions.
• Technological Change and Military Innovation: the use of computers, communications, and robotics, cutting-edge developments in projectiles and propulsion systems.
• The Science of War, military applications of space, missile defense, and nuclear weapons, testing, and proliferation.

For policymakers, experts, military professionals, students, and citizens at large, Defense 101 serves as a valuable resource for gaining a deeper understanding of the US Department of Defense, the fundamentals of war, and the future of armed conflict. It also sheds light on the most defining characteristics of the American military.

\n Weight: 406g\n
Dimension: 150 x 229 x 18 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781501754487\n \n