Outsourcing Small Wars

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Small Wars

Author : Michael Gambone
Publisher : Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN 13 : 1572339233
Total Pages : 425 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (723 download)

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Book Synopsis Small Wars by : Michael Gambone

Download or read book Small Wars written by Michael Gambone and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2013-02-15 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Small Wars is unique in its complexity and breadth. This book would be of great interest to both military and diplomatic historians, and those that teach Recent America.” —Nancy Gentile Ford, author of Issues of War and Peace Today, conventional fighting waged by massed, industrial armies is nearly extinct as a viable means of warfare, replaced by a broad and diverse array of conflicts that consume the modern American military. Fought in sprawling urban areas of the underdeveloped world or in desolate border regions where ethnicity and tradition reign, these “small wars” involve a vast and intricate network of operations dedicated to attacking the cultural, political, financial, and military layers that surround America’s new enemies. In this intriguing study, Michael Gambone explores America’s approach to small wars since Vietnam, providing a fascinating analysis of the basic goals, missions, conduct, and consequences of modern American conflict. Going beyond a simple comparison of Vietnam to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Gambone thoroughly tracks the continuous evolution of U.S. intervention between these events, revealing a dramatic shift in the role of the American military to covert operations that require fluidity, creativity, and ingenuity. He examines in detail the many different forms of military intervention that America has taken in the last forty years, including actions in Central America in the 1980s, the first Gulf War, airstrikes in Kosovo in the 1990s, and the war on terror, as well as the Iran-Contra affair, the drug war in Columbia, and the role of private military contractors such as Blackwater. After the Cold War, Gambone shows, American military missions served a wide variety of tasks—peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, counterterrorism—that significantly departed from conventional missions, a trend that continued and expanded after 9/11. By exploring the history and assessing the effectiveness of the small wars fought since Vietnam, Gambone reveals the importance of these smaller actions in modern military planning and operations and clearly traces the development of American warfare from the massive military machine of World War II into a complex hybrid of traditional and innovative techniques. MICHAEL GAMBONE, a professor of history at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, is the author of The Greatest Generation Comes Home: The Veteran in American Society and editor of Documents of American Diplomacy: From the American Revolution to the Present.

Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies

Author : Alan Axelrod
Publisher : CQ Press
ISBN 13 : 1483364666
Total Pages : 735 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (833 download)

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Book Synopsis Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies by : Alan Axelrod

Download or read book Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies written by Alan Axelrod and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2013-12-27 with total page 735 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mercenaries have been active in battle from the beginning of military history and, as private armies and military support firms, they are a major component of warfare today. Security, military advice, training, logistics support, policing, technological expertise, intelligence, transportation—all are outsourced to a greater or lesser degree in the U.S. military. However, privatization is not a uniquely American phenomenon. Countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Australia rely on privatization in one form or another. Historically, heads of state, politicians, and other administrators have justified use of mercenaries on the basis of their effectiveness, and cost-savings. These reasons and others continue to serve as rationales for use of private military companies in military strategy. Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies provides a comprehensive survey and guide to mercenary forces, entrepreneurs, and corporations active on the international military scene today, including a concise history of mercenaries and private armies on land, sea, and in the air. Narrative chapters are amply supplemented by sidebars including biographies of major figures, key statistics, historical and current documents, contracts, and legislation on private armies and outsourced military services. Each chapter includes a bibliography of books, journal articles, and web sites, and a general bibliography concludes the entire work.

Counterinsurgency

Author : Douglas Porch
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107244897
Total Pages : 449 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (72 download)

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Book Synopsis Counterinsurgency by : Douglas Porch

Download or read book Counterinsurgency written by Douglas Porch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-11 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Counterinsurgency has staked its claim in the new century as the new American way of war. Yet, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have revived a historical debate about the costs - monetary, political and moral - of operations designed to eliminate insurgents and build nations. Today's counterinsurgency proponents point to 'small wars' past to support their view that the enemy is 'biddable' if the correct tactical formulas are applied. Douglas Porch's sweeping history of counterinsurgency campaigns carried out by the three 'providential nations' of France, Britain and the United States, ranging from nineteenth-century colonial conquests to General Petraeus' 'Surge' in Iraq, challenges the contemporary mythologising of counterinsurgency as a humane way of war. The reality, he reveals, is that 'hearts and minds' has never been a recipe for lasting stability and that past counterinsurgency campaigns have succeeded not through state-building but by shattering and dividing societies while unsettling civil-military relations.

Proxy Wars from a Global Perspective

Author : Pawel Bernat
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350369292
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis Proxy Wars from a Global Perspective by : Pawel Bernat

Download or read book Proxy Wars from a Global Perspective written by Pawel Bernat and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-11-02 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proxy warfare is a growing international phenomenon. Although states have used proxies in armed conflicts for centuries, evolving regional and global security architecture is now forcing states to radically change the way contemporary conflicts are fought. Based on ten case studies, this reassesses exactly how these changing global and systemic factors are shaping the ways in which states use non-state actors as proxies in their armed conflicts. Examining the use of proxy warfare worldwide, focusing on the last decade's conflicts, this volume brings together contributions from scholars of international relations and global security studies in order to explore cases of armed conflict of particular regional and global significance. These include recent developments in the conflict in Israel and Palestine, the Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, Central Asia, Syria, Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Brazil and Yemen. By drawing on both theory and practise, it offers a re-evaluation of contemporary understanding of "outsourced warfare", with policy implications for how we understand and negotiate with states using proxy warfare in the future.

Patriots for Profit

Author : Thomas Bruneau
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0804781850
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis Patriots for Profit by : Thomas Bruneau

Download or read book Patriots for Profit written by Thomas Bruneau and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2011-07-18 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops a new approach to the analysis of civil-military relations by focusing on the effectiveness of the armed forces in fulfilling roles & missions, and on their efficiency in terms of cost. The approach is applied to the United States using official documents and interviews with policy-makers. In addition to analyzing the impact of defense reform initiatives over the past thirty years, the book includes the recent phenomenon of "contracting-out" security that has resulted in greater numbers of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan than uniformed military personnel. While the book demonstrates that democratic civilian control of the military in the U.S. is not at issue, it reveals that there is little public control over Private Security Contractors due to a combination of the current restricted interpretation of what is an "inherently governmental function" and limited legal authority. This is despite the fact that PSCs have taken on roles and missions that were previously the responsibility of the uniformed military. Further, despite numerous efforts to redress the problem, current political and institutional barriers to reform are not likely to be overcome soon.

A Little War That Shook the World

Author : Ronald D. Asmus
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 023010228X
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (31 download)

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Book Synopsis A Little War That Shook the World by : Ronald D. Asmus

Download or read book A Little War That Shook the World written by Ronald D. Asmus and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2010-01-11 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The brief war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 seemed to many like an unexpected shot out of the blue that was gone as quickly as it came. Former Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Ronald Asmus contends that it was a conflict that was prepared and planned for some time by Moscow, part of a broader strategy to send a message to the United States: that Russia is going to flex its muscle in the twenty-first century. A Little War that Changed the World is a fascinating look at the breakdown of relations between Russia and the West, the decay and decline of the Western Alliance itself, and the fate of Eastern Europe in a time of economic crisis.

Unlawful Combatants

Author : Sibylle Scheipers
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199646112
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis Unlawful Combatants by : Sibylle Scheipers

Download or read book Unlawful Combatants written by Sibylle Scheipers and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book investigates the emergence and the development of irregular fighters, such as guerrillas, rebels, insurgents, and terrorists throughout the history of modern war. It presents a historically based critique of the twenty-first century notion of the irregular fighter as an 'unlawful combatant'.

Inside War

Author : Fabio Armao
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110471248
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Inside War by : Fabio Armao

Download or read book Inside War written by Fabio Armao and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2016-02-22 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The post-Cold War era was characterised by both the recurrence of state wars and the spread of forms of organised violence other than wars. Asymmetric warfare between alliances led by the USA and groups of insurgents, such as those witnessed in Afghanistan and Iraq, coexist alongside domestic conflicts, such as that of former Yugoslavia and, more recently, Libya and Syria; and still other conflicts involving gangs, mafias or narco-traffickers. The massive military-industrial complexes conceived in the context of the threat of nuclear Armageddon are still there of course, but they now coexist with irregular armies of insurgents carrying out massacres through the use of light weapons and improvised explosives devices. This book oppose the idea that this situation prefigures the return to an anarchical, pre-political condition, by assuming that new wars are rather the product of the blurring of the public-private divide, induced by the end of the Cold War, together with globalisation. As a consequence, also the internal and external factors are blurred; and ever more permeable and elusive is becoming even the border between war and crime. Inside War goes beyond a state-centered analysis and adopts an interdisciplinary and multilayered approach, and is intended to foster the dialogue among researchers from different fields. It places war at the core of analysis, assuming that the reality of war is what we make of it; and that the only insurmountable limit to our comprehension of war is our way of knowing and representing it. Fabio Armao teaches courses in Politics and Globalisation Processes, and Criminal Systems. He has been Visiting Professor at Cornell University, and co-convenor of the Standing Group on Organized Crime, European Consortium for Political Research. Founding member of T.wai (Torino World Affair Institute), he is also member of the Editorial Board of ‘Global Crime’. His research interests and publications focus on international wars and geopolitics, on violent non-state actors and transnational organised crime, and on urban security.

Counterterror Offensives for the Ghost War World

Author : Richard J. Chasdi
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 1461633265
Total Pages : 908 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (616 download)

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Book Synopsis Counterterror Offensives for the Ghost War World by : Richard J. Chasdi

Download or read book Counterterror Offensives for the Ghost War World written by Richard J. Chasdi and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2010-07-06 with total page 908 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Counterterror Offensives for the Ghost War World: The Rudiments of Counterterrorism Policy, Richard J. Chasdi has written a groundbreaking quantitative analysis that provides new insight into which types of counterterror practices work best and which types perform poorly in particular operational environments and circumstances. For Chasdi, "effectiveness" is defined as the capacity of counterterror practices to work with "stealth"-namely, without eliciting high amounts of related follow-up terrorist assaults. He moves beyond individual country analyses to tackle an analysis of counterterror practice effectiveness based on the type of political system of the country carrying out counterterror offensives and the power level of that country within the international political system. Chasdi furthermore provides essential qualitative descriptions of national security institutions, stakeholders, and processes to frame his quantitative results in ways that tie those findings to historical and contemporary political developments.

Transnational Actors in War and Peace

Author : David Malet
Publisher : Georgetown University Press
ISBN 13 : 1626164444
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis Transnational Actors in War and Peace by : David Malet

Download or read book Transnational Actors in War and Peace written by David Malet and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transnational Actors in War and Peace provides a comparative examination of a range of transnational actors who have been key to the conduct of war and peace promotion, and of how they interact with states and each other. It explores the identities, organization, strategies and influence of transnational actors involved in contentious politics, armed conflict, and peacemaking. While the study of transnational politics has been a rapidly growing field, to date, the disparate actors have not been analyzed alongside each other, making it difficult to develop a common theoretical framework or determine their influence on international security. This book brings together a diverse set of scholars focused on a range of transnational actors, such as: foreign fighters, terrorists, private military security companies, religious groups, diasporas, NGOs, and women’s peace groups. Malet and Anderson provide the standard for future study of transnational actors in this work intended for those interested in security studies, international relations, conflict resolution, and global governance.

Effective Civil-Military Interaction in Peace Operations

Author : Gerard Lucius
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319268066
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (192 download)

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Book Synopsis Effective Civil-Military Interaction in Peace Operations by : Gerard Lucius

Download or read book Effective Civil-Military Interaction in Peace Operations written by Gerard Lucius and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-03-24 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains unique, firsthand experiences of both the military and civilian actors involved in civil-military interaction processes. It presents lessons learned from a variety of situations, from both NATO-led operations and UN Integrated Missions, and in different geographical areas, such as the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa. Rather than taking the improvisational approach, these lessons learned will enable military commanders and staff and their civilian counterparts in governments, International Organisations and NGOs to come fully prepared for the challenges of today's multifaceted missions. With a better understanding of the mandates and methods of the various civilian and military actors comes greater respect for each other's comparative advantages. With respect comes smoother cooperation. And with that, efficiency gains and enhanced overall mission effectiveness. Each chapter contains solid analysis and advice, specific to the functions found in military organizations, from Intelligence to Personnel and from Logistics to Engineering. Cross-cutting themes like Gender, Human Rights and Corruption are also included in this work that brings together some of the best that practitioners and academics can offer.

Twenty-First Century Military Innovation

Author : Marcus Schulzke
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472220411
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (722 download)

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Book Synopsis Twenty-First Century Military Innovation by : Marcus Schulzke

Download or read book Twenty-First Century Military Innovation written by Marcus Schulzke and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2022-09-07 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary war is as much a quest for decisive technological, organizational, and doctrinal superiority before the fighting starts as it is an effort to destroy enemy militaries during battle. Armed forces that are not actively fighting are instead actively reengineering themselves for success in the next fight and imagining what that next fight may look like. Twenty-First Century Military Innovation outlines the most theoretically important themes in contemporary warfare, especially as these appear in distinctive innovations that signal changes in states’ warfighting capacities and their political goals. Marcus Schulzke examines eight case studies that illustrate the overall direction of military innovation and important underlying themes. He devotes three chapters to new weapons technologies (drones, cyberweapons, and nonlethal weapons), two chapters to changes in the composition of state military forces (private military contractors and special operations forces), and three chapters to strategic and tactical changes (targeted killing, population-centric counterinsurgency, and degradation). Each case study includes an accessible introduction to the topic area, an overview of the ongoing scholarly debates surrounding that topic, and the most important theoretical implications. An engaging overview of the themes that emerge with military innovation, this book will also attract readers interested in particular topic areas.

New Middle Ages

Author : Bohumil Doboš
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030586812
Total Pages : 166 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis New Middle Ages by : Bohumil Doboš

Download or read book New Middle Ages written by Bohumil Doboš and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-21 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents a world-system study based in neomedieval thinking. By utilizing this stream, it frees itself from the Westphalian lens while keeping itself firmly rooted in an empirical analysis. The book divides the world into three ideal-type geopolitical settings that interact among each other, which, in turn, affects geopolitical actors located inside them. It allows the reader to obtain an alternative understanding of the dynamic geopolitical environment of the contemporary world. The three main sections of the book contain the development of the theoretical model, empirical analysis of the global political map, and analysis of the impacts of the application of the theoretical model for the understanding of the global system. The book raises the question of conceptualization of the contemporary global order and answers it by dividing the map of the world into the three spheres and analyzing the impact of such an understanding of the world system. Spatial analysis is utilized to present the consequences of the analytical division of the global system into three ideal-types. The case studies are selected not to test the theory at hand, but to better illustrate the impacts as to make the case as clear to the readers as possible.

The New Dogs of War

Author : Ward Thomas
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501758918
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The New Dogs of War by : Ward Thomas

Download or read book The New Dogs of War written by Ward Thomas and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Ward Thomas details in The New Dogs of War, militias and paramilitary groups wield greater power than national governments in many countries, while in some war zones private contractors perform missions previously reserved for uniformed troops. Most ominously, terrorist organizations with global reach have come to define the security landscape for even the most powerful nations. Across the first decades of the twenty-first century we have witnessed a dramatic rise in the use of military force by these nonstate actors in ways that have impacted the international system, leading Thomas to undertake this valuable assessment of the state of play at this critical moment. To understand the spread of nonstate violence, Thomas focuses on the crucial role played by an epochal transformation in international norms. Since the eighteenth century, the Westphalian model of sovereignty has reserved the legitimate use of force to states. Thomas argues that normative changes in the decades after World War II produced a "crisis of coherence" for formal and informal rules against nonstate violence. In detailed case studies of nonstate militias, transnational terrorist networks, and private military contractors, Thomas explains how forces contesting state prerogatives exploited this crisis, which in turn reshaped international understandings of who could legitimately use force. By considering for the first time all three purveyors of nonstate violence as aspects of the same phenomenon, The New Dogs of War explains this fundamental shift in the norm that for centuries gave states the monopoly on military force.

War, States, and Contention

Author : Sidney Tarrow
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801456231
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis War, States, and Contention by : Sidney Tarrow

Download or read book War, States, and Contention written by Sidney Tarrow and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-21 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the last two decades, Sidney Tarrow has explored "contentious politics"—disruptions of the settled political order caused by social movements. These disruptions range from strikes and street protests to riots and civil disobedience to revolution. In War, States, and Contention, Tarrow shows how such movements sometimes trigger, animate, and guide the course of war and how they sometimes rise during war and in war's wake to change regimes or even overthrow states. Tarrow draws on evidence from historical and contemporary cases, including revolutionary France, the United States from the Civil War to the anti–Vietnam War movement, Italy after World War I, and the United States during the decade following 9/11.In the twenty-first century, movements are becoming transnational, and globalization and internationalization are moving war beyond conflict between states. The radically new phenomenon is not that movements make war against states but that states make war against movements. Tarrow finds this an especially troublesome development in recent U.S. history. He argues that that the United States is in danger of abandoning the devotion to rights it had expanded through two centuries of struggle and that Americans are now institutionalizing as a "new normal" the abuse of rights in the name of national security. He expands this hypothesis to the global level through what he calls "the international state of emergency."

National Security Law

Author : Stephen Dycus
Publisher : Aspen Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1543821006
Total Pages : 1408 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis National Security Law by : Stephen Dycus

Download or read book National Security Law written by Stephen Dycus and published by Aspen Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 1408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the last 30 years, National Security Law has helped create and shape an entire new field of law. It has been adopted for classroom use at most American law schools, all of the military academies, and many non-law graduate programs. The Seventh Edition of this leading casebook provides an up-to-date, user-friendly survey of this extremely dynamic field. Relying heavily on original materials and provocative notes and questions, this book encourages students to play the roles of national security professionals, politicians, judges, and ordinary citizens. And by showing the development of doctrine in historical context, it urges them to see their responsibility as lawyers to help keep us safe and free. Like earlier editions, the new book deals with basic separation-of-powers principles, the interaction of U.S. and international law, the use of military force, intelligence, detention, criminal prosecution, homeland security, and national security information — more than enough to provide teachers with a rich menu of readings for classes. New to the Seventh Edition: Latest developments on U.S. military involvement in Syria and Iran President Trump’s Border Wall and appropriations power Carpenter v. U.S. and recent FISA developments and FISC decisions Trump travel ban “Defending forward” in cyberspace New chapter on nuclear war Professors and students will benefit from: Carefully curated and edited original materials Extensive notes and questions to fill in the blanks Read-ins and chapter summaries to provide perspective Frequent references to historical and political context

The War on Small Business

Author : Carol Roth
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0063081423
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (63 download)

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Book Synopsis The War on Small Business by : Carol Roth

Download or read book The War on Small Business written by Carol Roth and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-06-29 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years, government bureaucrats have been looking for ways to destroy small businesses. With coronavirus, they finally had their chance. In 2020, the American economy suffered the biggest financial collapse in history. But while Main Street suffered like never before, the stock market continued to reach new highs. How could this be?The answer is that government had slapped oppressive restrictions on small businesses while propping up Wall Street and engineering a historic consolidation of power and wealth. This isn’t a new problem. During the last financial crisis, Washington bailed out large banks, saying they were “too big to fail.” When the federal government finally pushed out the CARES Act in 2020, it clearly favored the wealthy and well-connected, showing that small businesses were too small to matter. People across the political spectrum constantly complain about the tyranny of big business, and they’re not wrong. However, too many think government is the solution. In reality, government is the problem. In The War on Small Business, entrepreneur Carol Roth unveils the many abuses of power inflicted on small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Small business owners were thrown in jail for trying to make a living. Individual rights were discarded. Big government did what it does best—intentionally protect the rich and powerful. This is the most underreported story coming out of the pandemic. The government chose winners and losers, who would thrive and who would fight to survive, based on not data or science, but based on clout and connections. This enabled the government, with the aid of the Federal Reserve, to oversee the largest wealth transfer in history from Main Street to Wall Street. The issues started long ago and continue today with a highly tilted playing field that favors those “in the club” to the detriment of the average Americans. This book is about the Davids vs. the Goliaths and the decentralization that can help the small, independent businesses and individuals participate in wealth creation. If Americans don’t wake up and stop it, politicians will continue to produce policies that intensify their war on small business and individuals and all that stands in the way of centralized power and control.