Mark Bucknam - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Mark Bucknam
Comparative Strategy, Mar 10, 2023
SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd eBooks, 2019
Weather, Climate, and Society, 2013
Climate change is increasingly recognized as having national security implications, which has pro... more Climate change is increasingly recognized as having national security implications, which has prompted dialogue between the climate change and national security communities—with resultant advantages and differences. Climate change research has proven useful to the national security community sponsors in several ways. It has opened security discussions to consider climate as well as political factors in studies of the future. It has encouraged factoring in the stresses placed on societies by climate changes (of any kind) to help assess the potential for state stability. And it has shown that changes such as increased heat, more intense storms, longer periods without rain, and earlier spring onset call for building climate resilience as part of building stability. For the climate change research community, studies from a national security point of view have revealed research lacunae, such as the lack of usable migration studies. This has also pushed the research community to consider ...
Strategic Insights is a bi-monthly electronic journal produced by the Center for Contemporary
The Power of Data Storytelling, 2019
: The end of the Cold War seems to have ushered in a new age of interventionism for the United St... more : The end of the Cold War seems to have ushered in a new age of interventionism for the United States; using force to further foreign policy ends no longer carries the threat of superpower confrontation. If the dangers of intervening have declined, though, so too have the motivations for doing so. The zero-sum game with America's arch-rival is over, thus the relative importance of world events is no longer calculated by the same win-lose logic that dominated the Cold War. As American policy-makers grapple with the issues of whether and how to best intervene in the post-Cold War world, they may be tempted to call upon lethal forms of airpower. Airpower seems to offer the United States a quick, clean, and cheap means for employing force. In this study, the author explores various types of intervention, the American doctrine for when and how to employ military forces, and the capabilities and limitations of lethal airpower. lie concludes that lethal airpower may indeed be the instr...
: If intelligence constitutes the missing dimension of studies on international relations, then, ... more : If intelligence constitutes the missing dimension of studies on international relations, then, as Martin Alexander noted, the study of intelligence work directed against one's friends and allies could be considered "the missing dimension to the missing dimension." In this essay I will examine one facet of one case of espionage directed at allies and friends Eisenhower's use of intelligence collected against the French and British in the weeks leading up to the Suez crisis of 1956. After a brief overview of the Suez crisis, I will address the different modes of collecting intelligence used by Eisenhower, including imagery intelligence (IMINT), signals intelligence (SIGINT), and human source intelligence (HUMINT). I will then make a few observations about Eisenhower's use of intelligence and offer some hypotheses on targeting one's allies for intelligence collection. Finally, I will illustrate the continuing relevance of an important lesson from the Suez cr...
Abstract : If intelligence constitutes the missing dimension of studies on international relation... more Abstract : If intelligence constitutes the missing dimension of studies on international relations, then, as Martin Alexander noted, the study of intelligence work directed against one's friends and allies could be considered "the missing dimension to the missing dimension." In this essay I will examine one facet of one case of espionage directed at allies and friends Eisenhower's use of intelligence collected against the French and British in the weeks leading up to the Suez crisis of 1956. After a brief overview of the Suez crisis, I will address the different modes of collecting intelligence used by Eisenhower, including imagery intelligence (IMINT), signals intelligence (SIGINT), and human source intelligence (HUMINT). I will then make a few observations about Eisenhower's use of intelligence and offer some hypotheses on targeting one's allies for intelligence collection. Finally, I will illustrate the continuing relevance of an important lesson from the Suez crisis the suddenness with which a state might find itself needing intelligence on its allies and friends.
Abstract : The end of the Cold War seems to have ushered in a new age of interventionism for the ... more Abstract : The end of the Cold War seems to have ushered in a new age of interventionism for the United States; using force to further foreign policy ends no longer carries the threat of superpower confrontation. If the dangers of intervening have declined, though, so too have the motivations for doing so. The zero-sum game with America's arch-rival is over, thus the relative importance of world events is no longer calculated by the same win-lose logic that dominated the Cold War. As American policy-makers grapple with the issues of whether and how to best intervene in the post-Cold War world, they may be tempted to call upon lethal forms of airpower. Airpower seems to offer the United States a quick, clean, and cheap means for employing force. In this study, the author explores various types of intervention, the American doctrine for when and how to employ military forces, and the capabilities and limitations of lethal airpower. lie concludes that lethal airpower may indeed be the instrument of choice in many circumstances. However, airmen will likely be challenged to gain the freedom needed to employ airpower effectively whenever relatively unimportant national interests are at stake. Given the leeway to employ airpower as they see fit, airmen may find that the limitations of their tools present serious impediments to meeting the policy-makers' expectations. This study should be of some value, then, to strategists, air operations planners, and those individuals advising policy-makers on the options for employing military force.
Survival, 2008
The threat of collision from asteroids and comets calls for a three-step approach to mitigating t... more The threat of collision from asteroids and comets calls for a three-step approach to mitigating the risks: first, find and track objects that are potentially hazardous to the Earth; second, study their characteristics so as to understand which mitigation schemes are likely to be effective; and third, test various deflection techniques to ascertain the best way to adjust the orbits of asteroids and comets, and possibly field a planetary-defence system. Each of these steps would benefit from international cooperation or agreement.
Comparative Strategy, Mar 10, 2023
SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd eBooks, 2019
Weather, Climate, and Society, 2013
Climate change is increasingly recognized as having national security implications, which has pro... more Climate change is increasingly recognized as having national security implications, which has prompted dialogue between the climate change and national security communities—with resultant advantages and differences. Climate change research has proven useful to the national security community sponsors in several ways. It has opened security discussions to consider climate as well as political factors in studies of the future. It has encouraged factoring in the stresses placed on societies by climate changes (of any kind) to help assess the potential for state stability. And it has shown that changes such as increased heat, more intense storms, longer periods without rain, and earlier spring onset call for building climate resilience as part of building stability. For the climate change research community, studies from a national security point of view have revealed research lacunae, such as the lack of usable migration studies. This has also pushed the research community to consider ...
Strategic Insights is a bi-monthly electronic journal produced by the Center for Contemporary
The Power of Data Storytelling, 2019
: The end of the Cold War seems to have ushered in a new age of interventionism for the United St... more : The end of the Cold War seems to have ushered in a new age of interventionism for the United States; using force to further foreign policy ends no longer carries the threat of superpower confrontation. If the dangers of intervening have declined, though, so too have the motivations for doing so. The zero-sum game with America's arch-rival is over, thus the relative importance of world events is no longer calculated by the same win-lose logic that dominated the Cold War. As American policy-makers grapple with the issues of whether and how to best intervene in the post-Cold War world, they may be tempted to call upon lethal forms of airpower. Airpower seems to offer the United States a quick, clean, and cheap means for employing force. In this study, the author explores various types of intervention, the American doctrine for when and how to employ military forces, and the capabilities and limitations of lethal airpower. lie concludes that lethal airpower may indeed be the instr...
: If intelligence constitutes the missing dimension of studies on international relations, then, ... more : If intelligence constitutes the missing dimension of studies on international relations, then, as Martin Alexander noted, the study of intelligence work directed against one's friends and allies could be considered "the missing dimension to the missing dimension." In this essay I will examine one facet of one case of espionage directed at allies and friends Eisenhower's use of intelligence collected against the French and British in the weeks leading up to the Suez crisis of 1956. After a brief overview of the Suez crisis, I will address the different modes of collecting intelligence used by Eisenhower, including imagery intelligence (IMINT), signals intelligence (SIGINT), and human source intelligence (HUMINT). I will then make a few observations about Eisenhower's use of intelligence and offer some hypotheses on targeting one's allies for intelligence collection. Finally, I will illustrate the continuing relevance of an important lesson from the Suez cr...
Abstract : If intelligence constitutes the missing dimension of studies on international relation... more Abstract : If intelligence constitutes the missing dimension of studies on international relations, then, as Martin Alexander noted, the study of intelligence work directed against one's friends and allies could be considered "the missing dimension to the missing dimension." In this essay I will examine one facet of one case of espionage directed at allies and friends Eisenhower's use of intelligence collected against the French and British in the weeks leading up to the Suez crisis of 1956. After a brief overview of the Suez crisis, I will address the different modes of collecting intelligence used by Eisenhower, including imagery intelligence (IMINT), signals intelligence (SIGINT), and human source intelligence (HUMINT). I will then make a few observations about Eisenhower's use of intelligence and offer some hypotheses on targeting one's allies for intelligence collection. Finally, I will illustrate the continuing relevance of an important lesson from the Suez crisis the suddenness with which a state might find itself needing intelligence on its allies and friends.
Abstract : The end of the Cold War seems to have ushered in a new age of interventionism for the ... more Abstract : The end of the Cold War seems to have ushered in a new age of interventionism for the United States; using force to further foreign policy ends no longer carries the threat of superpower confrontation. If the dangers of intervening have declined, though, so too have the motivations for doing so. The zero-sum game with America's arch-rival is over, thus the relative importance of world events is no longer calculated by the same win-lose logic that dominated the Cold War. As American policy-makers grapple with the issues of whether and how to best intervene in the post-Cold War world, they may be tempted to call upon lethal forms of airpower. Airpower seems to offer the United States a quick, clean, and cheap means for employing force. In this study, the author explores various types of intervention, the American doctrine for when and how to employ military forces, and the capabilities and limitations of lethal airpower. lie concludes that lethal airpower may indeed be the instrument of choice in many circumstances. However, airmen will likely be challenged to gain the freedom needed to employ airpower effectively whenever relatively unimportant national interests are at stake. Given the leeway to employ airpower as they see fit, airmen may find that the limitations of their tools present serious impediments to meeting the policy-makers' expectations. This study should be of some value, then, to strategists, air operations planners, and those individuals advising policy-makers on the options for employing military force.
Survival, 2008
The threat of collision from asteroids and comets calls for a three-step approach to mitigating t... more The threat of collision from asteroids and comets calls for a three-step approach to mitigating the risks: first, find and track objects that are potentially hazardous to the Earth; second, study their characteristics so as to understand which mitigation schemes are likely to be effective; and third, test various deflection techniques to ascertain the best way to adjust the orbits of asteroids and comets, and possibly field a planetary-defence system. Each of these steps would benefit from international cooperation or agreement.