Escalation: A Definition for the 90's

Abstract

The term 'escalation' is widely used but little understood. Past theorists have provided little on the general nature of the process of escalation. The purpose of this paper is to review the theory of the Cold War era. From this theoretical base an analysis and a model of escalation will be developed with relevance to today's international climate. The model is based on axes of planning and control. The analysis is focused on the planning axis in conflicts of intensity up to 'limited war'. Today's planning documents deal with escalation not as a process but as an effect. This is due to the separation of the control of the elements of national power below the National Security Council. There is a need to further coordinate the Departments of State and Defense for many reasons, among which is improved escalation control. However, the decision process of selecting applications of national power is not something that can be delegated down the national organizational structure

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 17, 1994
Accession Number
ADA283709

Entities

People

  • M. C. Fralen

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Bibliographies
  • Business Administration
  • Command And Control
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of State
  • Deployment
  • Dictionaries
  • Governments
  • Lessons Learned
  • Logistics
  • Military Operations
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Organizational Structure
  • Supply Chain Management
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Graph Algorithms and Convex Optimization.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.