Secret Wars : : Covert Conflict in International Politics / / Austin Carson.

Secret Wars is the first book to systematically analyze the ways powerful states covertly participate in foreign wars, showing a recurring pattern of such behavior stretching from World War I to U.S.-occupied Iraq. Investigating what governments keep secret during wars and why, Austin Carson argues...

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Bibliographic Details
Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2018 English
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Place / Publishing House:Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2018]
©2018
Year of Publication:2018
Language:English
Series:Princeton Studies in International History and Politics ; 168
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Physical Description:1 online resource (344 p.)
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Other title:Frontmatter --
CONTENTS --
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --
1. Introduction --
2. A Limited- War Theory of Secrecy --
3. The Emergence of Covert Warfare --
4. The Spanish Civil War (1936- 1939) --
5. The Korean War (1950- 1953) --
6. The Vietnam War (1964- 1968) --
7. The War in Afghanistan (1979- 1986) --
8. Conclusion --
Index
Summary:Secret Wars is the first book to systematically analyze the ways powerful states covertly participate in foreign wars, showing a recurring pattern of such behavior stretching from World War I to U.S.-occupied Iraq. Investigating what governments keep secret during wars and why, Austin Carson argues that leaders maintain the secrecy of state involvement as a response to the persistent concern of limiting war. Keeping interventions "backstage" helps control escalation dynamics, insulating leaders from domestic pressures while communicating their interest in keeping a war contained.Carson shows that covert interventions can help control escalation, but they are almost always detected by other major powers. However, the shared value of limiting war can lead adversaries to keep secret the interventions they detect, as when American leaders concealed clashes with Soviet pilots during the Korean War. Escalation concerns can also cause leaders to ignore covert interventions that have become an open secret. From Nazi Germany's role in the Spanish Civil War to American covert operations during the Vietnam War, Carson presents new insights about some of the most influential conflicts of the twentieth century.Parting the curtain on the secret side of modern war, Secret Wars provides important lessons about how rival state powers collude and compete, and the ways in which they avoid outright military confrontations.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9780691184241
9783110604252
9783110603255
9783110604016
9783110603231
9783110606591
DOI:10.1515/9780691184241?locatt=mode:legacy
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: Austin Carson.