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This book explores the natures of recent stabilisation efforts and global upstream threats. As prevention is always cheaper than the crisis of state collapse or civil war, the future character of conflict will increasingly involve upstream stabilisation operations. However, the unpredictability and variability of state instability requires governments and militaries to adopt a diversity of approach, conceptualisation and vocabulary. Offering perspectives from theory and practice, the chapters in this collection provide crucial insight into military roles and capabilities, opportunities, risks and limitations, doctrine, strategy and tactics, and measures of effect relevant to operations in upstream environments. This volume will appeal to researchers and practitioners seeking to understand historical and current conflict.
List of contents
1. Introduction by Robert Johnson and Timothy Clack.- 2. The Discreet Indispensability of Unpiloted Assistance? Remote Aerial Capabilities in Upstream Preventative Stabilisation Interventions by Paul Schulte.- 3. The Politics of Security Assistance in the Horn of Africa by William Reno.- 4. 'Fighting Out Its Own Complex and Fatal Destiny'? On the Limitations on the Use of Force in Yemen by Aaron Edwards.- 5. Crisis and Intervention: Combating Terrorism in the Sahel by Susanna D. Wing.- 6. Illicit Governance and Impunity: Why Borderlands Matter for Upstream Engagement by Annette Idler.- 7. Future Stabilization Strategy and the Changing Upstream Environment by Robert Johnson.- 8. The Apocalyptic and the Sectarian: Identity, 'Bare Life' and the Rise of Da'ish by Simon Mabon.- 9. The Unintended Consequences of Upstreaming: Western Engagement in Iraq by Gareth Stansfield.
About the author
Timothy Clack is Fellow and Lecturer of St Peter’s College and Senior Research Fellow of the Changing Character of War Centre, University of Oxford, UK.
Robert Johnson is Director of the Changing Character of War Centre and Senior Research Fellow of Pembroke College, University of Oxford, UK.
Summary
This book explores the natures of recent stabilisation efforts and global upstream threats. As prevention is always cheaper than the crisis of state collapse or civil war, the future character of conflict will increasingly involve upstream stabilisation operations. However, the unpredictability and variability of state instability requires governments and militaries to adopt a diversity of approach, conceptualisation and vocabulary. Offering perspectives from theory and practice, the chapters in this collection provide crucial insight into military roles and capabilities, opportunities, risks and limitations, doctrine, strategy and tactics, and measures of effect relevant to operations in upstream environments. This volume will appeal to researchers and practitioners seeking to understand historical and current conflict.
