Reflections on Territorial Defense.

Abstract

A territorial defense posture is a system that (1) is defensive, unsuited to attack across borders and unlikely to be perceived as a threat by other states; (2) relies principally on latent rather than standing forces, involving many citizens; (3) relies on weapons and technologies different in type and composition from those of intervention and bombardment systems; (4) relates the military resources of a society so closely to the defense of its own territory and institutions that it constrains the country's participation in an international military alliance, especially one that calls for an integration of alliance forces. A territorial defense doctrine goes with a military function or type of force that plays a greater or smaller role in a country's total military establishment, besides other functions or force types that have doctrines of their own. Aside from international political and strategic conditions, domestic political factors may increase forces in a country's military system. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1980
Accession Number
ADA082489

Entities

People

  • Horst Mendershausen

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil Defense
  • Corporations
  • Defense Systems
  • Doctrine
  • Europe
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military Operations
  • National Security
  • Observers
  • Security
  • United States
  • Warfare
  • West Germany
  • Western Europe
  • Yugoslavia

Readers

  • Strategic Security Studies