Understanding Battlefield Coalitions (Cass Military Studies)

This volume examines battlefield coalitions, providing novel theoretical and empirical insight into their nature and capabilities, as well as the military and political consequences of their combat operations. Despite their increasing presence in war, scholars have overlooked battlefield coalitions, focusing instead on alliances and wartime coalitions, or political and strategic arrangements between partners created to align war aims and military objectives that may or may not result in members taking the extra step and having their forces share battlespace. To help concentrate scholarly attention on and inspire further investigation, this edited volume brings together a group of experts whose essays lay the theoretical and empirical foundation for a new avenue of research. Part I introduces battle coalitions as an object of study, demonstrating how they are distinct from other wartime collectives. Using a novel dataset of actors fighting in 492 battles during interstate wars waged between 1900 and 2003, it provides, for the first time, a comprehensive portrait of the universe of battlefield coalitions. Part II explores processes and dynamics involved in the formation of battlefield coalitions, addressing how potential coalition members prepare for future battles in peacetime (as well as the consequences of such preparations), the dynamics of mission design, and when we should expect rebel and terrorist groups to work together on the battlefield. Part III focuses on how battlefield coalitions are organized and fight when combat ensues, notably their decision-making rules and practices, command structures, and learning capacities. Part IV addresses two pathologies of battlefield coalitions: the tendency of partners to under-provide effort in combat and to defect from the collective. Part V concludes with a chapter outlining for future researchers what we know about battlefield coalitions and what remains to be understood. This book will be of much interest to students of military and strategic studies, defence studies and International Relations.

• | Author: Rosella Cappella Zielinski, Ryan Grauer
• | Publisher: Routledge
• | Publication Date: Sep 11, 2023
• | Number of Pages: 272 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 103250837X
• | ISBN-13: 9781032508375