Author : Craig Bowser
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781522099024
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (99 download)
Book Synopsis A Strategy for the United States to Engage and Contain Venezuela by : Craig Bowser
Download or read book A Strategy for the United States to Engage and Contain Venezuela written by Craig Bowser and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: U.S. policy toward Latin America has failed to address the region's pressing social and economic problems. This gave rise to the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela. After taking office, former President Hugo Chavez moved to change the Venezuelan constitution, take control of the judicial and legislative branches of government, and politicize the military; in doing so, he eliminated democratic checks and balances and ensured that his Bolivarian revolution would live on after his death. War evolves along with society. Fourth-generation warfare (4GW) is ideologically driven. Max Manwaring says, "This kind of conflict is based on perceptions, beliefs, expectations, and dreams" Those groups and individuals who engage in 4GW lack power in the conventional sense, so they adopt strategies and tactics that do not try to match those of stronger conventional forces with superior military capabilities but instead take advantage of their own particular strengths. 4GW is sometimes difficult to recognize because it is likely to be diffuse and largely undefined in the traditional senses of war and peace. 4GW is a highly political and usually protracted conflict. It is nonlinear and likely to have no traditional battlefields. Chavez created a 4GW framework that allows Venezuela to export direct democracy, socialist propaganda, and asymmetric warfare capabilities easily to friendly governments, radical groups, and insurgents all over the hemisphere, the goal of which is to export instability and generate public opinion in favor of a revolution against the region's stable governments. Venezuela has both the capacity and the will to export instability throughout Latin America. Instability is the foundation for 4GW and the starting point for nation-state failure. This is the strategic threat posed by Venezuela and the challenge that the U.S. faces. Because 4GW is political and deliberately protracted in nature, the U.S. must prepare a strategy that is designed to engage and contain 4GW in order to prevent the spread of instability in Latin America. The strategy must encompass both political and social elements and be designed to last for decades, if necessary. This approach is the opposite of today's dominant U.S. strategy of high-tech, "shock-and-awe," short-term warfare. The status quo is untenable and will not produce the results that the U.S. wants and needs.Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui in their book Unrestricted Warfare say, "These things make it clear that warfare is no longer an activity confined only to the military sphere, and that the course of any war could be changed, or its outcome decided, by political factors, economic factors, diplomatic factors, cultural factors, technological factors, or other nonmilitary factors"
