A Brief History of (Central European) Time. A "Cosmic" View of the Emerging Atlantic Security Environment and a Proposed "Face Lift" for US/NATO Flexible Response Strategy
Abstract
The concept hit me like a thunderbolt! I had been mulling over a recent guest speaker's "literary" characterization of world events based on oceanographic analogies (i.e., "the tides and currents" of political change), wondering if would-be strategists, like fishermen, should consult their solunar tables before wading into murky political waters. Other conceptual models for visualizing international politics were available for use in the upcoming strategy paper. For example Marxists and other historical Darwinists subscribe to "natural selection" and/or "scientific historical law" as the ultimate determinant of international politics. These dogmatic approaches are no handier than the solunar tables, since recent events in Europe do not fit neatly onto a steady "evolutionary ladder" nor do they reflect the meyer-oscillating but always-ascending pattern of dialectical materialism. Other conceptual devices to render international relations more fathomable include "balance of power" (ballast management) approaches; chess analogies/game theories; abnormal psychology and racial stereotyping; and (usually apocalyptic) religious allegories AFTER HAVING BEEN MOCKED AND SCOURGED BY A PREVIOUS Faculty Seminar Leader for dabbling with the ^moralistic approach, I wasn't anxious to press that particular edge of the academic freedom envelope in my final written requirement. Thus, my predicament was that I had access to an exceptionally lucid, comprehensive, coherent, and practical framework for analyzing military strategy (pp. 7-9 of syllabus), but there were few reliable, intellectually gripping models (telescopes or microscopes) through which to make sense of the discontinuous fits and starts of current events in Europe, nor plot their future trajectories, at least, not using Newtonian mechanics. That is when the apple from the rafters of Arnold Auditorium hit me on the head, so to speak.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 09, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA437206
Entities
People
- Chet Herbst
Organizations
- National War College