The Risk Society at War

In the globalised world of the twenty-first century, security policy in Western societies is driven by a wish to prevent future threats from becoming reality. Applying theories of 'risk society' to the study of strategy, this book analyses the creation of a new approach to strategy. The author demonstrates that this approach creates new choices for policy-makers and challenges well-established truths within the study of security and strategy. He argues that since the seventeenth century the concept of strategy has served to rationalise new technologies, doctrines and agents. By outlining the history of the concept of strategy in terms of rationality, Rasmussen presents a framework for studying strategy in a time of risk and uses this framework to analyse how new technologies of war, pre-emptive doctrines, globalisation and the rise of the 'terrorist approach to warfare' can formulate a new theory of strategy.

(Cambridge)

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'In illuminating detail, Rasmussen outlines how strategic thinking in the early twenty-first century has been reshaped by the concept of risk. This is a path-breaking book - original, insightful and uniquely important. I hope that politicians and generals alike will read it - they should.' Christopher Coker, Professor of International Relations, LSE

'At last a book that connects military strategy into the debate on 'risk society'. Rasmussen should be read by everyone concerned with today's strategic dilemmas, as well as by social scientists interested in risk.' Martin Shaw, Professor of International Relations and Politics, University of Sussex

'The overall quality of The Risk Society at War is testimony to the careful research and analysis that underpins the book. Weaving together various theoretical developments on risk research from otherwise disparate disciplines of sociology, criminology and international relations, and demonstrating their explanatory power in contemporary questions of war and question is itself a creditable achievement. ... a valuable contribution to the existing IR literature on strategy and security.' Yee-Kuang Heng, Lecturer in International Relations, University of St Andrews

'... offers a number of intriguing insights about the direction of strategy in the context of risk.' Journal of Politics

' ... useful to any reader interested in the changing aspects of warfare and should be requi]red reading for strategists of the twenty-first century.' International Affairs

(Cambridge)

Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. He is the author of The West, Civil Society and the Construction of Peace (2003).

(Cambridge)

Introduction; 1. Strategy, strategic studies and risk; 2. Technology: the revolution in military affairs; 3. Doctrines: precautionary principles and anticipatory defence; 4. Agents: the UN-approach and the terrorist-approach to warfare; 5. Conclusions.

(Cambridge)