When diplomacy fails, war steps forward. Tensions may escalate dramatically to war until diplomacy works again. Since war is another political instrument, political outcomes should be the motive for the powerful military states to wage, escalate and terminate wars. But sometimes, and despite its military power, these states struggle to reach its political outcomes due to many factors that stand in the way of achieving political outcomes smoothly. For instance, military power restrictions and fear from escalation , strategic vision and mistakes, war predictability, the balance of power and enemy potentials, history, alliances, civil-military relations and domestic support, type of war, and regime type. In this paper, I will argue why these
…show more content…
The first factor that makes powerful states struggle to achieve the intended political outcomes is military power restriction and the fear of escalation. To clarify, major military powers avoid the escalation to the extent that makes other major powers to interfere directly, or to use a destructive weapon like the atomic bomb. With the innovation of nuclear weapon the Clausewitz concept of “absolute war” is finally achievable. This will generate fear and will restraint powerful state from using maximum power to prevail. Thus the victory as a proper outcome to be expected of the use of American arms was intractable for the duration of the cold war, for the reason of the sensible fear of the escalation of nuclear holocaust. In nuclear age, it is dangerous to compel our enemy to do our will. So, the only kind of conflict that the United States dared to wage in the nuclear era was limited war. For instance, fear was clear during Vietnam War, where nuclear option was expelled from US strategy during the war, although the US was losing the war and nuclear power could be its only way to achieve its political outcome. Fearing that the nuclear escalation in that war will lead to total war with china, who had established nuclear test a year earlier, or USSR who have been already in the nuclear club. Another example, due to the suffering …show more content…
For instance, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 intended to be a duplication to the previous First Golf War in 1990. However, it took only a decision to blow off the operational success of the American forces in the battlefield. Paul Bremer, the governor of the occupation assigned by the US government, took an infuriating and tragic decision to dissolute the Iraqi civil society, leading to the rise of sectarian strife. As a result, the most authoritarian, cruelest, and powerful terrorist organization of all times would born, and comprised at its command level former members of Saddam Hussein’s military that, Paul Bremer disbanded shortly after he banned Baath Party from civil service jobs, creating thousands of angry, armed, trained, and unemployed Iraqis. Another example is the strategic mistake, arrogant Hitler did in the Second World War, in thinking he could sweep through Russia before winter in a reckless endeavor to expand to the East seeking resources and raw materials for his war against the alliances in the West in addition to other political and military reasons. He added a new enemy to his list and opened a new front in a mistake that will cost him to lose the
The first factor that makes powerful states struggle to achieve the intended political outcomes is military power restriction and the fear of escalation. To clarify, major military powers avoid the escalation to the extent that makes other major powers to interfere directly, or to use a destructive weapon like the atomic bomb. With the innovation of nuclear weapon the Clausewitz concept of “absolute war” is finally achievable. This will generate fear and will restraint powerful state from using maximum power to prevail. Thus the victory as a proper outcome to be expected of the use of American arms was intractable for the duration of the cold war, for the reason of the sensible fear of the escalation of nuclear holocaust. In nuclear age, it is dangerous to compel our enemy to do our will. So, the only kind of conflict that the United States dared to wage in the nuclear era was limited war. For instance, fear was clear during Vietnam War, where nuclear option was expelled from US strategy during the war, although the US was losing the war and nuclear power could be its only way to achieve its political outcome. Fearing that the nuclear escalation in that war will lead to total war with china, who had established nuclear test a year earlier, or USSR who have been already in the nuclear club. Another example, due to the suffering …show more content…
For instance, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 intended to be a duplication to the previous First Golf War in 1990. However, it took only a decision to blow off the operational success of the American forces in the battlefield. Paul Bremer, the governor of the occupation assigned by the US government, took an infuriating and tragic decision to dissolute the Iraqi civil society, leading to the rise of sectarian strife. As a result, the most authoritarian, cruelest, and powerful terrorist organization of all times would born, and comprised at its command level former members of Saddam Hussein’s military that, Paul Bremer disbanded shortly after he banned Baath Party from civil service jobs, creating thousands of angry, armed, trained, and unemployed Iraqis. Another example is the strategic mistake, arrogant Hitler did in the Second World War, in thinking he could sweep through Russia before winter in a reckless endeavor to expand to the East seeking resources and raw materials for his war against the alliances in the West in addition to other political and military reasons. He added a new enemy to his list and opened a new front in a mistake that will cost him to lose the