Understanding Western Culture by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-15T10:00:44+00:00

WESTERN MILITARY CULTURE 115

proposed new-century national security strategic thoughts. For example, the USA believed that, before 2015, no single country or group could

rival itself, so there emerged a so-called “period of strategic opportunities.”

According to this judgment, the USA realized that the focus of the new-century strategy was to protect American global economic interests. This was the “Shape, Respond, Prepare Now” strategy in action. “Shape”

means to participate in international affairs and closely combine military action with diplomacy to create an advantageous environment for the

USA; “Respond” is to improve military capabilities by preventing and

coping with a variety of local conflicts; “Prepare Now” is to prepare for unpredictable major challenges. Other Western countries also made

timely strategic adjustments.

Strategic Alliance Thought Playing a Greater Role

During the Cold War, most of the unions established among Western

countries were military–political alliances whose major mission was to guarantee security through military deterrence. But with the end of the Cold War, these unions turned to political-military alliance. Western military thought emphasizes alliance and regional co-operation, joint security responsibilities, rational power use, and group security. NATO proposed the “NATO new strategy” concept, which is a US-led, globally oriented

military strategy. In the new century, Western countries’ alliance strategy is more aggressive, and NATO will become the master of Europe. The

current military forces including Russia cannot compete with it as they did in the Cold War period. In the Kosovo crisis of 1998–1999, NATO took

a tough attitude and upgraded its military presence to the extent of invading a sovereign state, which was unprecedented before the end of the Cold War. This all shows that in the new century the strategy of the Western alliance is more aggressive than before.

Strategic Information Becoming the Focus

In 1995, the US Department of Defense commissioned the famous strate-

gic research think-tank the Rand Corporation to conduct research into

“information war.” The Rand Corporation proposed a “strategic informa-

tion war” in 1996. It affirmed the important role of information domi-

nance in future high-tech wars and new-century military conflicts. This involves the manipulation of the information flow in networks, destroying the enemy’s telephone network, oil and gas pipelines and other power networks, air traffic control system, national fund transfer, bank transfer system, and so on. Because the targets could hold information about a

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