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The evolution of modern grand strategic thought
In strategic studies and international relations, grand strategy is a frequently-invoked concept. Yet, despite its popularity, it is not well understood and it has many definitions, some of which are even mutually contradictory. This state of affairs undermines its usefulness for scholars and practitioners alike. Lukas Milevski aims to remedy this situation by offering a conceptual history of grand strategy in the English language, analysing its evolution from 1805 to the present day in the writings of its major proponents. In doing so, he seeks to clarify the meaning and role of the concept, both theoretically and practically, and shed light on its continuing utility today.
Book
High dispersal ability is related to fast life-history strategies
1. Seed dispersal is an essential, yet often overlooked process in plant ecology and evolution, affecting adaptation capacity, population persistence and invasiveness. A species' ability to disperse is expected to covary with other life-history traits to form dispersal syndromes. Dispersal might be linked to the rate of life history, fecundity or generation time, depending on the relative selection pressures of bethedging, kin competition or maintaining gene flow. However, the linkage between dispersal and plant life-history strategies remains unknown because it is difficult to observe, quantify and manipulate the influence of dispersal over large spatiotemporal scales. 2. We integrate datasets describing plant vital rates, dispersal and functional traits to incorporate dispersal explicitly into the rich spectra of plant life-history strategies. For 141 plant species, we estimated dispersal ability by predicting maximum dispersal distances using allometric relationships based on growth form, dispersal mode, terminal velocity and seed mass. We derived life-history traits from matrix population models parameterized with field data from the COMPADRE Plant Matrix Database. We analysed the covariation in dispersal ability and life-history traits using multivariate techniques. 3. We found that three main axes of variation described plant dispersal syndromes: the fast-slow life-history continuum, the dispersal strategy axis and the reproductive strategy axis. On the dispersal strategy axis, species' dispersal abilities were positively correlated with aspects of fast life histories. Species with a high net reproductive rate, a long window of reproduction, low likelihood of escaping senescence and low shrinkage tendencies disperse their seeds further. The overall phylogenetic signal in our multidimensional analyses was low (Pagel's λ < 0.24), implying a high degree of taxonomic generality in our findings. 4. Synthesis. Dispersal has been largely neglected in comparative demographic studies, despite its pivotal importance for populations. Our explicit incorporation of dispersal in a comparative life-history framework provides key insights to bridge the gap between dispersal ecology and life-history traits. Species with fast life-history strategies disperse their seeds further than slow-living plants, suggesting that longer dispersal distances may allow these species to take advantage of habitats varying unpredictably in space and time as a bet-hedging strategy.
Journal Article
The evolution of strategy : thinking war from antiquity to the present
\"Is there a 'Western way of war' which pursues battles of annihilation and single-minded military victory? Is warfare on a path to ever greater destructive force? This magisterial new account answers these questions by tracing the history of Western thinking about strategy - the employment of military force as a political instrument - from antiquity to the present day. Assessing sources from Vegetius to contemporary America, and with a particular focus on strategy since the Napoleonic Wars, Beatrice Heuser explores the evolution of strategic thought, the social institutions, norms and patterns of behaviour within which it operates, the policies that guide it and the cultures that influence it. Ranging across technology and warfare, total warfare and small wars as well as land, sea, air and nuclear warfare, she demonstrates that warfare and strategic thinking have fluctuated wildly in their aims, intensity, limitations and excesses over the past two millennia\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
The carry-over effects of pollen shortage decrease the survival of honeybee colonies in farmlands
1. Many studies have reported honeybee colony losses in human-dominated landscapes.While bee floral food resources have been drastically reduced over past decades in humandominatedlandscapes, no field study has yet been undertaken to determine whether there is acarry-over effect between seasonal disruption in floral resource availability and high colonylosses.2. We investigated if a decline in the harvest of pollen by honeybees in spring affected managedhoneybee colony dynamics (brood size, adult population and honey reserves) and health(Varroa mite loads and colony survival) throughout the beekeeping season.3. A decline in pollen harvest was associated with a direct reduction in brood production,leading to a negative effect on the adult population size later in the season, and lower honeyreserves before the onset of winter. Furthermore, the decline in pollen harvest negativelyimpacted the health of the colony, resulting in higher Varroa mite loads and higher seasonaland winter colony losses.4. Early-warning signs of these carry-over effects were identified, showing that preferentialinvestment in honey reserves instead of brood production early in the season increased thedecline in pollen harvest and its associated carry-over effects.5. Synthesis and applications. The results suggest that the decline in pollen harvest may havebeen overlooked as a cause of pollen shortage and associated bee colony losses. Strategies toavoid such losses in intensive farmland systems include (i) limiting or avoiding honey harvestsin spring, (ii) monitoring colonies for early-warning signals of colony failure and (iii) increasingthe amount of floral resources available through wise land-use management.
Journal Article
To Kill Nations
\"Edward Kaplan's To Kill Nations is a
fascinating work that packs a thermonuclear punch of ideas and
arguments... The work is suitable for anyone from advanced
undergraduates to experts in the field.\" ― Strategy
Bridge
In To Kill Nations , Edward Kaplan
traces the evolution of American strategic airpower and preparation
for nuclear war from this early air-atomic era to a later period
(1950-1965) in which the Soviet Union's atomic capability,
accelerated by thermonuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, made
American strategic assets vulnerable and gradually undermined
air-atomic strategy.
Kaplan throws into question both the inevitability and
preferability of the strategic doctrine of MAD. He looks at the
process by which cultural, institutional, and strategic ideas about
MAD took shape and makes insightful use of the comparison between
generals who thought they could win a nuclear war and the cold
institutional logic of the suicide pact that was MAD. Kaplan also
offers a reappraisal of Eisenhower's nuclear strategy and diplomacy
to make a case for the marginal viability of air-atomic military
power even in an era of ballistic missiles.
eBook
The grand strategy of the Roman Empire : from the first century CE to the third
\"At the height of its power, the Roman Empire encompassed the entire Mediterranean basin, extending much beyond it from Britain to Mesopotamia, from the Rhine to the Black Sea. Rome prospered for centuries while successfully resisting attack, fending off everything from overnight robbery raids to full-scale invasion attempts by entire nations on the move. How were troops able to defend the Empire's vast territories from constant attacks? And how did they do so at such moderate cost that their treasury could pay for an immensity of highways, aqueducts, amphitheaters, city baths, and magnificent temples? In The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, seasoned defense analyst Edward N. Luttwak reveals how the Romans were able to combine military strength, diplomacy, and fortifications to effectively respond to changing threats. Rome's secret was not ceaseless fighting, but comprehensive strategies that unified force, diplomacy, and an immense infrastructure of roads, forts, walls, and barriers. Initially relying on client states to buffer attacks, Rome moved to a permanent frontier defense around 117 CE. Finally, as barbarians began to penetrate the empire, Rome filed large armies in a strategy of \"defense-in-depth,\" allowing invaders to pierce Rome's borders. This updated edition has been extensively revised to incorporate recent scholarship and archeological findings. A new preface explores Roman imperial statecraft. This illuminating book remains essential to both ancient historians and students of modern strategy\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
War upon the Land
In this first book-length environmental history of the American Civil War, Lisa M. Brady argues that ideas about nature and the environment were central to the development and success of Union military strategy. From the start of the war, both sides had to contend with forces of nature, even as they battled one another. Northern soldiers encountered unfamiliar landscapes in the South that suggested, to them, an uncivilized society's failure to control nature. Under the leadership of Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Philip Sheridan, the Union army increasingly targeted southern environments as the war dragged on. Whether digging canals, shooting livestock, or dramatically attempting to divert the Mississippi River, the Union aimed to assert mastery over nature by attacking the most potent aspect of southern identity and power-agriculture. Brady focuses on the siege of Vicksburg, the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign, marches through Georgia and the Carolinas, and events along the Mississippi River to examine this strategy and its devastating physical and psychological impact. Before the war, many Americans believed in the idea that nature must be conquered and subdued. Brady shows how this perception changed during the war, leading to a wider acceptance of wilderness. Connecting environmental trauma with the onset of American preservation, Brady pays particular attention to how these new ideas of wilderness can be seen in the creation of national battlefield memorial parks as unaltered spaces. Deftly combining environmental and military history with cultural studies, War upon the Land elucidates an intriguing, largely unexplored side of the nation's greatest conflict.
eBook
Successful strategies : triumphing in war and peace from antiquity to the present
\"Successful Strategies is a fascinating new study of the key factors that have contributed to the development and execution of successful strategies throughout history. With a team of leading historians, Williamson Murray and Richard Hart Sinnreich examine how, and to what effect states, individuals and military organizations have found a solution to complex and seemingly insoluble strategic problems to reach success. Bringing together grand, political and military strategy, the book features thirteen essays which each explores a unique case or aspect of strategy. The focus ranges from individuals such as Themistocles, Bismarck and Roosevelt to organizations and bureaucratic responses. Whether discussing grand strategy in peacetime or that of war or politics, these case studies are unified by their common goal of identifying in each case the key factors that contributed to success as well as providing insights essential to any understanding of the strategic challenges of the future\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Density regulation in Northeast Atlantic fish populations: Density dependence is stronger in recruitment than in somatic growth
Population regulation is a central concept in ecology, yet in many cases its presence and the underlying mechanisms are difficult to demonstrate. The current paradigm maintains that marine fish populations are predominantly regulated by density‐dependent recruitment. While it is known that density‐dependent somatic growth can be present too, its general importance remains unknown and most practical applications neglect it. This study aimed to close this gap by for the first time quantifying and comparing density dependence in growth and recruitment over a large set of fish populations. We fitted density‐dependent models to time‐series data on population size, recruitment and age‐specific weight from commercially exploited fish populations in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea. Data were standardized to enable a direct comparison within and among populations, and estimated parameters were used to quantify the impact of density regulation on population biomass. Statistically significant density dependence in recruitment was detected in a large proportion of populations (70%), whereas for density dependence in somatic growth the prevalence of density dependence depended heavily on the method (26% and 69%). Despite age‐dependent variability, the density dependence in recruitment was consistently stronger among age groups and between alternative approaches that use weight‐at‐age or weight increments to assess growth. Estimates of density‐dependent reduction in biomass underlined these results: 97% of populations with statistically significant parameters for growth and recruitment showed a larger impact of density‐dependent recruitment on population biomass. The results reaffirm the importance of density‐dependent recruitment in marine fishes, yet they also show that density dependence in somatic growth is not uncommon. Furthermore, the results are important from an applied perspective because density dependence in somatic growth affects productivity and catch composition, and therefore the benefits of maintaining fish populations at specific densities.
Journal Article