Bakich, Spencer D.

Goldizen, Derrill T.

English

U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons

Naval War College ReviewVolume 69Number 2 Spring Article 162016Success and Failure in Limited War: Information &Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf &Iraq WarsSpencer D. BakichDerrill T. GoldizenFollow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-reviewThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contactrepository.inquiries@usnwc.edu.Recommended CitationBakich, Spencer D. and Goldizen, Derrill T. (2016) "Success and Failure in Limited War: Information & Strategy in the Korean,Vietnam, Persian Gulf & Iraq Wars," Naval War College Review: Vol. 69 : No. 2 , Article 16.Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol69/iss2/16 B O O K  R E V I E WS  1 3 9Readers should note that doing so requires us to maintain both a sufficient number of uniformed armed forces personnel and a treasury sufficient to fund both military operations involving soldiers conducting extended combat operations anywhere in the world and the significant expense of hiring private military contractors to perform the sup-port services necessary to enable them� This economic model, while currently feasible and tenable for the United States as a wealthy nation, may not work for another nation with more-constrained resources� In the future, while the “demand” may be there and the “sup-ply” of contractors may still exist, if a nation does not have the financial resources to pay for those contracted services, this model might not work�Outsourcing Security is a valuable read for military and civilian de-fense professionals� Stanley applies a thoughtful analysis to what many may have thought they understood, and his work brings both depth and academic merit to the topic�NEAL H� BRALLEYSuccess and Failure in Limited War: Information & Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf & Iraq Wars, by Spencer D� Bakich� Chicago: Univ� of Chicago Press, 2014� 344 pages� $35 (paperback)�This groundbreaking treatise by Dr� Spencer Bakich, visiting lecturer in political science at the University of Richmond, endeavors to explain America’s mixed success with limited war since 1950 by way of a new theo-retical approach to analyzing policy-strategy formulation and execution at the highest levels of government� For the purposes of his theory, Bakich char-acterizes limited wars as those fought at a high level of intensity for limited aims but whose outcomes “are of a considerable consequence for the states involved and for the broader interna-tional system�” Furthermore, restraint is necessary to avoid escalation—a tendency of limited wars� Not surpris-ingly, Bakich focuses his analysis on four preeminent case studies from the “American century”: the Korean War; the Vietnam War; the Persian Gulf War (Operation DESERT STORM); and the Iraq war (Operation IRAQI FREEDOM)�The book’s first two chapters are largely theoretical� Bakich points out how estab-lished approaches such as “rationalistic strategic choice theory” and the “foreign policy decision making (FPDM) school” cannot fully explain how information influences strategy, or its outcome, in war� He argues that organizational theory does not capture the true nature of relationships between strategic leaders and national security organiza-tions� As Bakich writes, “A gap remains in our understanding of the sources of strategic success in [limited] war�”To bridge this gap, Bakich confidently posits his “information institutions” approach� Simply put, it is the pattern of information flow between those at the apex of power and their national security organizations that predisposes states to success or failure in limited war� The information institutions approach suggests that top decision makers served by an information-rich and densely networked national security appara-tus should have a better grasp of the strategic environment and experience greater military-diplomatic coordination in planning and execution, significantly NWC_Spring2016Review.indb   139 3/8/16   10:29 AM1Bakich and Goldizen: Success and Failure in Limited War: Information & Strategy in thePublished by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2016 1 4 0  NAVA L  WA R  C O L L E G E  R E V I E Wenhancing the effectiveness of their limited-war strategies� Bakich carefully explains the methodology used to test his theory and introduces two direct competitors: organizational culture theory and democratic civil-military re-lations theory� Key propositions on stra-tegic performance are also tabulated to test each of the three theories against the empirical data (the four case studies)�In the next four chapters, Bakich convincingly demonstrates how only the information institutions approach correctly predicts (or explains) both the military and diplomatic strategic outcomes in all four limited-war cases, with the competing theories falling short in one way or another� For example, in the Persian Gulf War, defeating the Iraqi army without fracturing the international coalition defined strate-gic success for the United States� The information institutions approach alone correctly anticipates military and diplo-matic success in the Persian Gulf War� Organizational culture theory expects both military and diplomatic failure (given the extant organizational culture characterized by a military-dominant conception of war and a Jominian norm of civil-military relations), whereas democratic civil-military relations theory forecasts military success but diplomatic failure (given divergent military and diplomatic strategic prefer-ences)� The book’s final chapter nicely encapsulates the results of the aforemen-tioned analyses and their significance for theory and policy� One finishes the book persuaded that the information institutions approach offers a more satisfactory explanation for America’s mixed military and diplomatic results in limited war than do the alternatives�Interestingly, Bakich’s emphasis on insti-tutional as opposed to organizational re-lationships in ascertaining the pertinent information flows reveals the often- disproportionate influence of key individuals in the decision-making process� In the Korean War, MacArthur’s near stranglehold on strategic intel-ligence available to top policy makers was abetted by John Allison (in charge of the Department of State’s Office of Northeast Asian Affairs) arguing for American intervention north of the thirty-eighth parallel, against the advice of State’s own Policy Planning Staff—with disastrous results� In the Persian Gulf War, President George H� W� Bush’s personal, “hands-on” ap-proach to information gathering, down to the analyst and desk-officer level, was tempered by National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft’s and his deputy Robert Gates’s deft management of the interagency process� These and other anecdotes will keep the reader engaged and enthusiastic about the book�With over eight hundred endnotes gleaned from more than four hundred authoritative sources, this is first and foremost a scholarly work� Those in the international relations community seeking to understand the puzzle of America’s recent strategic performance in limited wars will find this information institutions approach a worthy adjunct to the more established theories� Those who read purely for pleasure will enjoy the four case studies, each offering a unique take on the various policies and strategies crafted and the decisions made at the highest levels of government� In short, the book has much to offer, to the serious reader and dilettante alike�DERRILL T� GOLDIZENNWC_Spring2016Review.indb   140 3/8/16   10:29 AM2Naval War College Review, Vol. 69 [2016], No. 2, Art. 16https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol69/iss2/16

Success and Failure in Limited War: Information & Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf & Iraq Wars

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Success and Failure in Limited War: Information & Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf & Iraq Wars

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