Causal Inferences and the Use of Force: A Critique of Force without War.
Abstract
The book is limited in a final sense. In order to maintain 'objectivity' and permit the statistical analyses to proceed in a feasible way, no attempt was made to examine the propriety of the goals selected by U.S. policymakers. Admittedly, this is a separate issue, and the authors carefully note that this was not their concern. However, one cannot really evaluate the effectiveness of the U.S. armed forces without eventually asking whether or not the effects of their use have been beneficial or detrimental to American interests. In particular, Force Without War does not devote any serious attention to the potential costs of using force, even apart from the economic burdens. The use of force for limited objectives can create adversaries where none existed before, extend commitments beyond the original intentions of the policymakers initiating its use, and provoke increases in the military capabilities of potential foes. While measuring the costs of the political use of the armed forces was not an explicit goal of the authors of Force Without War, omitting any consideration of this factor further weakens the conclusions that can be drawn from the study. Much of this review has been quite critical, and a number of virtues of Force Without War have not been singled out. Attempting to provide both a complete record of U.S. political-military responses and a creative explanatory theory that can help us understand the utility of military force is a quite ambitious task.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA085097
Entities
People
- Stephen M. Walt
Organizations
- Center for Naval Analyses