Strategic Studies A Reader - PDF

Running head: ARTICLE REVIEW
Article Review
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1ARTICLE REVIEW
The book ‘Strategic Studies: A Reader’ by Thomas G. Mahnken and Joseph A. Maiolo
has combined the major essays based on strategic concepts of the leading scholars I the field.
The book has provided an opportunity to gain insight on the major issues of strategic studies by
providing an introduction in the similar field. The section of intelligence will be considered
while providing a review for the same. This book has been helpful in filling the gap in the market
regarding theoretical and practical aspects of the strategic concept. The collection of marvelous
essays and certain works of current scholarship in the book have paved the way for a wide range
of surveys of the major ideas and concepts in the arena of strategic studies.
The six various thematic categories comprise of an editorial introduction and
recommendation for future readings. The use of strategic theories and representation of the
amazing instruments of war such as land, sea, irregular warfare, air power nuclear strategy, small
wars, further warfare and the future strategies have merged the theoretical essay and the real
instances. It has been effective in gaining knowledge and information about the international
security, modern airfare and intelligence process. The review of the chapter, ‘what’s wrong with
the intelligence process?’ by Robert Jervis has shed light on the American intelligence
community. The whole community of political leaders, media persons, scholars and analysts has
wondered about the occurrence of intelligence process in the contemporary world. As it has
transformed significantly therefore each individual were taken aback with the wrong doings.
They have not assumed in their wildest dreams that such wonders can even occur in warfare, as
they had never looked for villains.
It is a matter of concern that the intelligence community was unable to identify the
emerging revolution in Iran, the development of peace movement in Europe and the raging
burden of the attack on Israel by Egypt. However, the review has highlighted that it is unlikely

2ARTICLE REVIEW
for the US intelligence community to predict all the political occurrences, which are often
unrealistic. The nature of the product and the structure of the intelligence community can be held
responsible for the average performance of the intelligence community. The obstacles in
understanding the reality of the world and the defects in the political and organizational structure
often draw wrong conclusions. The primary difficulty faced by the intelligence community is the
unpredictable nature of the world, which has been explicitly depicted in this chapter. Robert
Jervis has very well jotted down that the restrictions of the human intuition and knowledge has
given rise to political unrest and the unpredictable nature of certain occurrence. On the other
hand, he has accepted optimism in the form of more learning opportunities in the future days. He
has mentioned that the human beings must not leave any opportunity of politically contingent
relationships, accidental phenomenon and unavoidable circumstances. His wonderful collection
of words has portrayed the physical world in a more determined way in comparison to the
political world.
Robert Jervis in his book ‘What’s Wrong with the Intelligence Process’ talks about the
American intelligence community at length. In his book he discusses at length the American
intelligence community and how it is taken by surprise whenever the intelligence process falters.
The surprise is not limited to the surprise, but also the political leaders as well as the mass media
commentators are also at the receiving end of this surprise. The American Community tries to
look for grave mistakes that can be given the status of mistakes. The community does not look
for villains who will challenge these steps taken by the American Community. The author talks
about how intelligence is inherently limited in nature. The problem with trying to gauge
intelligence is that our world is a huge place and even there are no defects in organization or the
intelligence process is made clean of politics, the resultant of intelligence will always be flawed.

3ARTICLE REVIEW
He owes this to the vastness of the world because no matter whichever rule is applies, the
process of intelligence will always lead to incorrect conclusions which will never be similar to
the previously achieved result.
The author also questions the strength of human knowledge by saying that humans have
limited knowledge and that makes the world unpredictable. Even though the author says that
humans are blinded by limited knowledge ,which impedes their growth, he looks at the brighter
side of hope saying that due to ever growing changes in the world, humans can incorporate their
knowledge into understanding the world. There is always a chance of exceptional situations or
accidents and politics is contingent on the happening of these incidents in the future. The author
stresses upon the importance of strategy that is relevant in every sphere of life-in understanding
war, calamity, accidents or events beyond our control. Power and war cannot be understood and
read in isolation and therefore it is imperative to understand the fallacies that govern wars and
how intelligence plays an important role in gauging the impact on humans.
The author makes references to the theories of Morgenthau in understanding power as
having the capacity to control another human being. Understanding power in the light of
intelligence can be said to have an important bearing because as he has already mentioned above
that humans are impeded by their limited knowledge. The author therefore stresses on the
importance of strategy and it is important to achieve political means. Without having to politicize
strategy, intelligence is the ability to achieve the means by training the prior events. In trying to
understand nuclear strength, a proper solution cannot be reached because the nuclear strength
turns into a military asset, which is the most decisive in nature thereby giving rise to more scope
for confusion. Having limited knowledge and a vast array of problems to deal, the intelligence
community is faced with the fear of failure. The intelligence community in understanding the

4ARTICLE REVIEW
grey areas has tried to find solutions to ever- increasing problems arising out of politics, war and
strategy failure.

5ARTICLE REVIEW
Bibliography
Jervis, R., 1986. What's wrong with the intelligence process?. International Journal of
Intelligence and Counter Intelligence, 1(1), pp.28-41.
Mahnken, T.G. and Maiolo, J.A. eds., 2014. Strategic studies: a reader. Routledge.