Gatchel, Theodore L.

Koplow, David A.

English

U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons

Naval War College ReviewVolume 63Number 4 Autumn Article 172010Death by Moderation: The U.S. Military’s Quest forUseable WeaponsTheodore L. GatchelDavid A. KoplowFollow 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 CitationGatchel, Theodore L. and Koplow, David A. (2010) "Death by Moderation: The U.S. Military’s Quest for Useable Weapons," NavalWar College Review: Vol. 63 : No. 4 , Article 17.Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol63/iss4/17steam-driven fleet being built in Ameri-can shipyards.The result was a grudging British retreatfrom the New World. Then as now, his-torical, political, and cultural affinitieslubricated the gears of Anglo-Americandiplomacy. If London and Washingtonfound it hard to manage their relations,how much harder must the challenge bethat lies before liberal America and au-tocratic China—how to sort out theirdifferences without undue rancor. Thetype of regime matters. How Sino-American relations will unfold in thecoming years is far from clear.For me the most forward-looking andthus most interesting chapters are con-centrated toward the book’s end.Schmitt, for example, examines theprospects for multilateralism in Asia, aregion long typified by a hub-and-spoke alliance system centered on theUnited States. Schmitt downplays thepotential for an Asian NATO but main-tains that the region is halfway to anAsian variant of the Helsinki Accords,which set the rules for the late ColdWar. If this is so, Asian multilateralismcould possibly enfold Beijing, fosteringregional concord. AEI demographicsexpert Nicholas Eberstadt observes thatthe Chinese nation is graying and thatBeijing’s one-child policy is taking itstoll on the most productive age groups.Taken together, the essays gatheredhere suggest that straight-line projec-tions of China’s rise are apt to mislead.This book is strongly recommended fornewcomers to China studies, as well asto old hands who want a refresher onrecent developments.JAMES R. HOLMESNaval War CollegeKoplow, David A. Death by Moderation: The U.S.Military’s Quest for Useable Weapons. New York:Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010. 263pp. $28.99Death by Moderation is a focused, aca-demic work that starts with the premisethat conditions in today’s world haveshown the limitations of increasinglypowerful weapons in achieving U.S. na-tional goals. In response to that prob-lem, the U.S. military is attempting todevelop weapons that are less powerfuland more accurate—and thereforemore “useable,” in the author’s words.After several chapters that set thestage—issues involving revolutions inmilitary affairs, deterrence, and the lawof armed conflict—a series of chaptersdeal with particular types of usableweapons. The author has chosen fivesuch weapons: precision-guided muni-tions, low-yield nuclear weapons, smartantipersonnel land mines, antisatelliteweapons, and nonlethal weapons. Thereis also a discussion on cyber war, al-though not in a separate chapter. Thebook ends with the chapter “What toDo about Useability,” in which Koplowprovides answers to his many questions.The chapters begin with a scenario, ei-ther historical or hypothetical, as aframework for the following discussion.Given the constraints of space, Koplowdoes an excellent job of describing thetechnical details of the weapons underreview. When applicable, he reviewstheir actual uses in combat. He placesparticular emphasis on whether or notmore usable weapons will reduce whathe calls “self-deterrence” and result inthe increased likelihood of conflictB O O K R E V I E W S 1 5 3NWCR_Autumn2010-BR.pSC:\Documents and Settings\john.lanzieri.ctr\Desktop\NavalWarCollege\NWC_Review_Autumn2010\NWCR_Autumn2010.vpThursday, August 19, 2010 1:29:12 PMColor profile: Generic CMYK printer profileComposite  Default screen1Gatchel and Koplow: Death by Moderation: The U.S. Military’s Quest for Useable WeaponPublished by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2010using such weapons. Each chapter is aself-contained unit that ends with a sep-arate bibliography and a list of applicabletreaties. This approach is particularlyvaluable for a reader who wants to re-view quickly only one of the subjectscovered.The author does a good job presentingboth sides of the issues surroundingthese weapons. He clearly views theseissues from a legal, arms-control per-spective, as opposed to that of someonewho might have actually to employ theweapons in combat. This is hardly sur-prising, given the author’s background.Koplow is a professor of law at George-town University Law Center and direc-tor of the Center for Applied LegalStudies. He has the added credentials ofservice in both the Arms Control andDisarmament Agency and the Depart-ment of Defense.A quick look at chapter 6, on smartantipersonnel mines, illustrates thebook’s strengths (which are major) andits weaknesses (which are minor). Thescenario is hypothetical and involves acountry called “Kafiristan.” In my view,such cases are less powerful than hishistorical ones, such as the use ofprecision-guided bombs against heavilydefended bridges in North Vietnam.This chapter provides a useful primeron land-mine warfare, including im-portant definitions explaining self-destructing, self-neutralizing, andself-deactivating mines. It also discussesthe two current, but competing, treatieson the subject: the 1980 United NationsConvention on Certain ConventionalWeapons, which was signed by theUnited States, and the more restrictive1997 Ottawa Treaty, which the UnitedStates did not sign.Whether one agrees or not withKoplow’s conclusions, Death by Moder-ation is a valuable addition to the litera-ture because it forces the reader tothink about a number of important is-sues that will be around for the predict-able future.THEODORE L. GATCHELNaval War CollegeThies, Wallace J. Why NATO Endures. New York:Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009. 321pp. $90The study of alliances is central to ourunderstanding of international rela-tions. Wallace Thies, a reputable NATOscholar, argues that the “iron law of co-alitions”—that alliances are formed toresist enemies and do not outlastthem—must be rethought because ofNATO’s record-breaking performanceover the past six decades. The title, WhyNATO Endures, therefore understatesthe sweeping conclusion of this conciseand readable essay.Thies’s rhetorical technique is to docu-ment how contemporaneous observershave characterized six tumultuous inci-dents in NATO’s existence as life-threatening crises, then to evaluate withthe clarity of hindsight the alliance’sself-healing tendencies. In each case,NATO emerges as a stronger alliancewith improved vitality.The analysis draws from both historicalsources and political-science research tocontrast traditional alliances withNATO. Thies’s principal points areboth simple and profound. The Euro-pean alliances of past centuries were cutfrom different cloth than was the North1 5 4 N A V A L W A R C O L L E G E R E V I E WNWCR_Autumn2010-BR.pSC:\Documents and Settings\john.lanzieri.ctr\Desktop\NavalWarCollege\NWC_Review_Autumn2010\NWCR_Autumn2010.vpThursday, August 19, 2010 1:29:12 PMColor profile: Generic CMYK printer profileComposite  Default screen2Naval War College Review, Vol. 63 [2010], No. 4, Art. 17https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol63/iss4/17

Death by Moderation: The U.S. Military’s Quest for Useable Weapons

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Death by Moderation: The U.S. Military’s Quest for Useable Weapons

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