Theo Farrell

Transnational Norms and Military Development: Constructing Ireland's Professional Army

This article examines the impact of transnational norms on military development. In so doing, it combines constructivisms study of systemic norms with culturalist work on unit-level norms. I focus on two transnational norms — norms of conventional warfare and norms of civilian supremacy — and show how they shape military development through a case study of post-revolutionary Ireland. I draw on recent work by constructivists to elucidate the context, process and mechanism whereby transnational norms are diffused and empowered in new national contexts — a process called norm transplantation. Norm transplantation is particularly problematic when transnational norms clash with local norms. Drawing on studies of military culture and military innovation, I identify the conditions necessary for norm transplantation to occur in cases of cultural clash. Returning to the Irish case, I show how transnational norms of military professionalism became encoded in Irish Army culture despite the fact that its predecessor, the Irish Republican Army, practised norms of military sovereignty and unconventional warfare.

Improving in War: Military Adaptation and the British in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, 2006–2009

Abstract War disciplines militaries: it forces them to refine, and sometimes revise, their tactics, techniques and technologies, or risk defeat in battle. Yet there is no theory of how militaries improve in war. This article develops a theory of military adaptation, which it applies to an analysis of the British campaign in Helmand from 2006 to 2009. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources (military plans, post operation reports and interviews), it shows how British brigades adapted different ways of using combat power to try and defeat the Taliban from 2006–07, and how from late 2007, British brigades have adapted a new population-centric approach that has focused more on influence operations and non-kinetic activities.

Culture and military power

Ken Booth and Russell Trood (eds.), Strategic Cultures in the Asia-Pacific Region , Basingstoke, Macmillan, forthcoming Alastair Iain Johnston, Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History , Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1995 Peter J. Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan , Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1996 Peter J. Katzenstein (ed.), The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics , Columbia, NY, Columbia University Press, 1996 Elizabeth Kier, Imagining War: French and British Military Doctrine between the Wars , Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1997

World Culture and Military Power

World culture shapes the way states generate military power: norms of conventional warfare provide the template for military organization, and norms of humanitarian law define what is morally acceptable in military operations. Sometimes, however, local strategic circumstances can challenge these worldwide technical scripts and moral codes for military action. Accordingly, this article advances an approach—cultural adaptation theory—that accounts for the role of power and politics in the worldwide normative structuring of military action. This theory explains how actors may modify their military practices in response to rising threats, in ways that avoid norm violation. Two case studies explore this theory: Irish military organization in the lead up to the Second World War, and NATO air operations in the Kosovo war. Some tentative conclusions are reached regarding suboptimal organization by weak states and operational restraint by powerful states. Overall, the article advances the case for dialogue between constructivist and rationalist approaches to security studies.

Figuring out fighting organisations: The new organisational analysis in strategic studies

Deborah D. Avant, Political Institutions and Military Change: Lessons from Peripheral Wars, Ithaca, New York, and London: Cornell University Press, 1994. Pp.xi + 161, biblio. index; £23.50. ISBN 0–8014–3034–8. Craig M. Cameron, American Samurai: Myth, Imagination, and the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division, 1941–1951, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp.xiii + 297, 19 illus. 9 maps, 2 tables, biblio. index; £25. ISBN 0–521–44168–4. Leonard A. Humphreys, The Way of the Heavenly Sword: The Japanese Army in the 1920s, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1995. Pp.x + 252, 7 illus., biblio. index; £27.50. ISBN 0–8047–2375–3. Jeffrey W. Legro, Cooperation Under Fire: Anglo‐German Restraint During World War II, Ithaca, New York, and London: Cornell University Press, 1995. Pp.xii + 255, 1 table, biblio. index; £27.50. ISBN 0–8014–2938–2. Stephen Peter Rosen, Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military, Ithaca, New York, and London: Cornell University ...

Isms and Schisms: Culturalism versus Realism in Security Studies

Michael Desch’s survey and critique of the new cultural literature in security studies is a welcome addition to the debate about the potential contributions of this research program to the problem of explaining state behavior in the realm of international relations.1 At a minimum, his article should prompt culturalists to make greater efforts to deane their terms as well as to clarify what they have in common and how their individual approaches differ. Nevertheless, Desch’s analysis is marred by six oaws that undermine his contention that “the best case that can be made for these new cultural theories is that they are sometimes useful as a supplement to realist theories” (p. 142). First, Desch mischaracterizes the issues at stake in the debate between realism and culturalism. He repeatedly describes the crucial question as “whether these new theories merely supplement realist theories or actually threaten to supplant them” (pp. 141, pp. 143, 144). This dichotomous characterization, however, needlessly oversimpliaes and distorts the debate, because one can easily imagine a variety of other possible relationships between culturalism and realism. One equally plausible alternative is that neither approach is in any sense superior, but that both may be indispensable to any fully satisfactory understanding of security affairs. Second, Desch employs a double standard in assessing the relative merits of cultural and realist approaches, one that necessarily skews the outcome in favor of realism. He argues that “to make the case that cultural theories should supplant realist theories, the new culturalists would have to demonstrate that their theories outperform realist theories in ‘hard cases’ for cultural theories” (p. 144). If we are to have conadence in

COIN machine: the British military in Afghanistan

Abstract This article examines Britains capabilities and resources in Helmand Province, and assesses the high-level strategy and civilian-military inter-relationships that provide the overarching framework of current operations. In doing so, Theo Farrell and Stuart Gordon analyse the British counter-insurgency approach, arguing that the UKs troops have faced and overcome unique challenges in Afghanistan.

Force and legitimacy in world politics

1. Notes on contributors 2. Introduction David Armstrong and Theo Farrell 3. Legitimacy and the use of force: can the circle be squared? Andrew Hurrell 4. Legality and legitimacy: the quest for principled felxibility and restraint Richard Falk 5. Not yet havoc: geopolitical change and the international rules on military force Michael Byers 6. Liberal hierarchy and the license to use force Christian Reus-Smit 7. The age of liberal wars Lawrence Freedman 8. Force, legitimacy, success and Iraq David Campbell 9. War and international relations: a military historical perspective on force and legitimacy Jeremy Black 10. The judgement of war: on the idea of legitimate force in world politics Nicholas Rengger 11. Discourses of difference: civilians, combatants and compliance with the laws of wars Helen M. Kinsella 12. Fights about rules: the role efficiacy and power in changing multilateralism Martha Finnemore 13. Peacekeeping and enforcement action in Africa: the role of Europe and the obligations of multilateralism Christine Gray 14. Dead or alive: American vengeance goes global Michael Sherry.

International Law and International Relations: The law in world politics

Part I. The Foundations: 1. The nature of international law 2. The evolution of international law 3. Three lenses: realism, liberalism, constructivism Part II. The Law in World Politics: 4. Use of force 5. Human rights 6. International crimes 7. International trade 8. The environment Part III. Conclusions: 9. International law in a unipolar age.

Strategic Culture and American Empire

This article considers the ideational fabric of American empire. Section one discusses why liberal democratic empires are not particularly peaceful. Section two highlights the analytical value of a focus on U.S. strategic culture in explaining U.S. military practice. Section three looks more broadly at the role of identity in giving meaning to the U.S. imperial project and in giving reasons for the use of force in support of it. Throughout, comparisons are made with the British Empire and consideration is given to the meta-theoretical options and methodological challenges for the social science of strategic culture.