The Risk Society at War
Terror, Technology and Strategy in the Twenty-First Century

This book applies theories of 'risk society' to formulate a new theory of security strategy.

Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen (Author)

9780521687317, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 December 2006

234 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.32 kg

' … useful to any reader interested in the changing aspects of warfare and should be requi]red reading for strategists of the twenty-first century.' International Affairs

In the globalised world of the twenty-first century, security policy in Western societies is driven by a wish to prevent future threats from becoming reality. Applying theories of 'risk society' to the study of strategy, this book analyses the creation of a new approach to strategy. The author demonstrates that this approach creates new choices for policy-makers and challenges well-established truths within the study of security and strategy. He argues that since the seventeenth century the concept of strategy has served to rationalise new technologies, doctrines and agents. By outlining the history of the concept of strategy in terms of rationality, Rasmussen presents a framework for studying strategy in a time of risk and uses this framework to analyse how new technologies of war, pre-emptive doctrines, globalisation and the rise of the 'terrorist approach to warfare' can formulate a new theory of strategy.

Introduction
1. Strategy, strategic studies and risk
2. Technology: the revolution in military affairs
3. Doctrines: precautionary principles and anticipatory defence
4. Agents: the UN-approach and the terrorist-approach to warfare
5. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Business & management [KJ], Economics [KC], International relations [JPS], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Military history [HBW]