A War of a Different Kind: Military Force and America's Search for Homeland Security

By Stephen M. Duncan

Book Overview

The radically new homeland security, military, and legal strategies developed by the United States in the months following the terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon are given comprehensive treatment in this book by a former senior Pentagon official, combat veteran, and criminal prosecutor. Stephen M. Duncan draws on a lifetime of military and legal experience to examine the many questions relating to the role of the armed forces in homeland security, including elements of constitutional and criminal law, foreign policy, tradition and custom, federal-state and inter-agency relations, and politics, as well as military strategy and operations. Among the diverse subjects the author discusses are military tribunals and the International Criminal Court, the statute governing the use of military personnel in law enforcement, defense transformation, the constitutional power of the president, and the reorganization of the government to meet the terrorist threat. Duncan also discusses the strategy and tactics used in Afghanistan and Iraq and critically evaluates the nation's political leadership before and after the 9/11 attacks. His book gives readers access to a wealth of information essential to an understanding of the full picture and at the same time puts them in the midst of policy debates to grasp the immediacy of the situation. This important and absorbing historical narrative will attract general readers as well as those with experience in national security issues, politics, and the law.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591142202
• ISBN13: 9781591142201
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Length: 366 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Superb look into military's new role in the War on Terror

The attacks of September 11, 2001, fundamentally altered America's national security paradigm. Among their many newly assigned tasks, policy-makers were forced to rethink the appropriate role of the armed services in bolstering homeland security, as well as fighting a global war on terror. In A War of a Different Kind: Military Force and America's Search for Homeland Security, Stephen Duncan provides thoughtful analysis of these issues, with particular attention paid to the military's place in defending the homeland. As a former federal criminal prosecutor, assistant secretary of defense, and decorated war veteran with over forty years of service, Duncan is able to provide first-hand knowledge of the inadequacies that led to September 11, as well as the difficulties that now lie ahead. A War of a Different Kind is a well-documented, thoughtful and timely analysis of the complexities of transforming the military to meet the challenges of homeland defense and the larger war on terror.

A War of a Different Kind

Steve Duncan has written a book that is truly important. His perspective is that of a former Assistant Secretary of Defense responsible for Reserve Affairs in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, the Pentagon official responsible for pulling together the Defense Department's counterdrug efforts, a prcticing attorney, and the former CEO of a high tech company. Today, he is the Director of the Institute for Homeland Security Sudies at the National Defense University. With such a background - and writing before the release of the report of the 9/11 Commission - he has captured the fog of this strange new war. His approach, while historical, is a unique case study of the national security politics in their bureaucratic and substantive aspects. As such, it takes its place with such works as James Locher's study of the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, Victory on the Potomac. Unlike that book, Duncan has given more attention to the substantive issues of the Global War on Terrorism from the time before America knew it was at war until the present. His analysis is superb and he bends over backwards to be fair to all the participants. In this case, it is fair to say the facts he presents show an America that was simply asleep in its own dream world. It woke up on September 11, 2001 and, as Duncan shows, demonstrated what Americans are made of.

Frank Gordon

"A War of a Different Kind" addresses the issue of protecting America's interests and providing homeland security from terrorism. While the evening news and the "911 Commission Report" provide information on events leading up to and surrounding September 11, 2001, this book provides a thoroughly referenced, in-depth understanding of the complex issues including historical background, military doctrine, foreign policy, constitutional and criminal law, and the role of the armed forces relative to other federal, state, and local jurisdictions. These subjects come alive in context with the events of 9/11, allowing the reader to develop a comprehensive understanding of the challenges we face. This book will be of interest to the general public and should be required reading for anyone involved in homeland security including the military, elected officials, and law enforcement personnel.