Write a 250-word response for each theatre of war activity in a 2000 word essay.
THEATRE OF WAR ACTIVITY 1
• Read Bruce Thornton’s “Why Should We Study War?”, then answer one of the following sets of questions:
1. Define the following two terms: “preventive war” and “preemptive war.” Use historical case studies to explain the differences between the two.
2. Thornton’s “Why Should We Study War?” draws on the lessons of the past to argue that preemptive war is a “necessity.” On what historical lesson does he draw? How can we be sure he was drawing on the right lesson of the past? Are there any historical instances in which a preemptive war failed miserably? Might such a historical instance be used to argue precisely the opposite, i.e., that preemptive war is a mistake?
3. Compare Thornton’s insistence on the “necessity” of preemptive war to Ernest May and Richard Neustadt’s insistence (in Thinking in Time, p. xv) that “caution is a virtue.”
THEATRE OF WAR ACTIVITY 2-
Complete the following reading: Pasi Loman, “No Women, No War: Women’s Participation in Ancient Greek Warfare,” Greece and Rome, vol. 51 no. 1 (April 2004): pp. 34-54., answer the following question:
What, according to the author, were the “active roles” which women played in ancient Greek warfare? Do those “active roles” differ substantially from the roles played by Australian women in war in the 21st Century? How do you account for the similarities/differences?
THEATRE OF WAR ACTIVITY 3
Read this attempt at applying Clausewitz’s trinity to the war in Syria. Then, make your own attempt at applying Clausewitz’s trinity to a war with which you are familiar (there is only one restriction: DON’T choose the war in Syria). Be sure to use at least another two scholarly sources.
THEATRE OF WAR ACTIVITY 4-
Walter LaFeber, in the assigned reading about the Powell Doctrine, outlines what is known as the Weinberger Doctrine. What was the Weinberger Doctrine? And how did it relate to the Powell Doctrine?
THEATRE OF WAR ACTIVITY 5-
US President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 commented that “war no longer has any logic whatsoever.” Explain what Eisenhower meant by this comment
THEATRE OF WAR ACTIVITY 6-
Do all of Augustine’s criteria for a just war continue to inform just war theory in the twenty-first century?
THEATRE OF WAR ACTIVITY 7-
• In late June 1950, U.S. President Truman regarded the North Korean invasion of South Korea in the context of what historians have labeled the “Munich analogy” (c.f., lecturepod 7.1). For example, Truman later said of the invasion: “Communism was acting in Korea just as Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese had acted… If we let Korea down, the Soviets will keep right on going and swallow up one piece of Asia after another… the Near East would collapse and no telling what would happen in Europe”
Was Truman correct to draw on the Munich analogy? Or was he mistaken? What should have he done in response to the North Korean invasion?
THEATRE OF WAR ACTIVITY 8 –
Prepare a 250-word statement, arguing either for or against military intervention in Syria. Be certain to reference the assigned Blight and McNamara reading (listed under the subheading, “21st Century War”).