Lawrence Freedman

The Gulf conflict, 1990-1991 : diplomacy and war in the new world order

This is an updated account of the events which led up to and followed Iraqs invasion of Kuwait. The authors aim to answer the many questions that still remain about the events of late 1990 and early 1991 - why did Saddam Hussein invade Kuwait, was a combination of sanctions and diplomacy a viable alternative to war, was the air campaign really precise and how was Saddam Hussein able to survive such a catastrophic defeat?

Rethinking the economics of war : the intersection of need, creed, and greed

Rethinking the Economics of War: The Intersection of Need, Creed, and Greed questions the adequacy of explaining todays internal armed conflicts purely in terms of economic factors and reestablishes the importance of identity and grievances in creating and sustaining such wars. This collection of essays responds to current works asserting that the income from natural resources is the end and not just a means for warring rebel groups. The study puts greed in its place and restores the importance of deprivation and discrimination as the primary causes of armed conflict within states. Countries studied include Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, Colombia, and Afghanistan.

The Geography of War and Peace: From Death Camps to Diplomats

How and why war and peace occur cannot be understood without realizing that those who make war and peace must negotiate a complex world political map of sovereign spaces, borders, networks, and scales. This book takes advantage of a diversity of perspectives as it analyzes the political processes of war and their spatial expression. Topics include terrorism, nationalism, religion, drug wars, water conflicts, diplomacy, peace movements, and post-war reconstruction.

Images of terror : what we can and can't know about terrorism

Knowing about terrorism another mans freedom fighter? the American politics of terrorism motives false flags investigation and intelligence explaining failure terrorism and the mass media Iraq and state terrorism a critical consumers guide to understanding terrorism.

The United States Strategic Bombing Survey

The new relation of air power to strategy presents one of the distinguishing contrasts between this war and the last. Air power in the last war was in its infancy. The new role of three-dimensional warfare was even then foreseen by a few farsighted men, but planes were insufficient in quality and quantity to permit much more than occasional brilliant assistance to the ground forces.

Victims and victors: reflections on the Kosovo War

Both the ‘CNN effect,’ whereby images revealing large-scale suffering push governments into humanitarian interventions, and the ‘bodybags effect’, whereby images of casualties pull them away, were evident in the Kosovo War, as was the ‘bullying effect,’ whereby the use of excessive force risks draining away public support for interventions. Although Serbs deliberately tried to present themselves as victims, however, the harsh methods used to suppress Kosovar Albanian aspirations ensured that it was they who appeared as the victims. The Serb effort was also counter-productive in that it made the KLA harder, instead of easier, to defeat.

Prevention, Not Preemption

It is better to deal with threats as they develop rather than after they are realized, but neither deterrence nor preemption can form the basis of a new strategy. An updated notion of prevention, however, might.

Ukraine and the Art of Limited War

Putins power play in Ukraine was impulsive and improvised, without any clear sense of the desired end state. After many months of effort, Russia has achieved limited gains, but at high cost.

The age of liberal wars

Three different types of arguments were used to justify the 2003 Iraq War. The first was based on the requirements of national security. Iraq was believed to be developing deadly weapons which it might use against neighbouring states or hand over to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. A second argument was based on international security. Iraq was supposed to comply with a series of UN Security Council Resolutions and was failing to do so, thereby undermining the credibility of the leading international institutions. The third argument was based on human security. The Iraqi people had suffered too long under a tyrannical regime and this was an opportunity to overthrow it and replace it with something much better.

Ukraine and the Art of Crisis Management

Crisis management is the most demanding form of diplomacy. So far neither Russia nor the US and its European allies have handled it particularly well.