Military Science: International Defense Profile - Essay Example

Therefore, the chapter explores the concept of national security and the security issues that relate to policy-making and universal defense strategies (Markert & Backer, 2003).
Of critical concern, there has been the technological advancement of military weaponry that are hazardous to global stability and health. Topics of defense policies, weapons superiority, and military paradigms are currently being addressed while the traditional models are set aside (Markert & Backer, 2003). Essentially, the United States is forecasting a situation where it will be forced to battle for power with emerging Third World Powers through the design of weapons and use of contemporary military technologies.

In the Contemporary global society, developing nations are armed with the state of the art armaments. These include increased use of proliferated Chemical Weapons, availability of ballistic and cruise missiles, nuclear weapons capacity, and high-performance aircraft and submarines. It, therefore, shows that more nations are becoming fatal on the battlefields. It is, therefore, critical to ponder the implication of the coming Gulf War, the current terrorism war, and the Russian military resurgence (Markert & Backer, 2003).

International defense policy is evolutionary and dynamic as new sensors, fatal chemical super weapons, smart missiles, and genetically engineered agents are produced daily.
Recently, national security has been used as a justification for enormous government expenditures; therefore, the government has procured and developed weapons systems and armaments. There are various rationales for the establishment and massive investment in new weapons and military forces. First, military forces are used for defense, therefore, need to be a direct investment to reduce damages and prevent attacks by opponents (Markert & Backer, 2003).

In addition, modern nuclear weapons have become highly sophisticated that they can cause massive damage to the enemy. These defensive mechanisms may also involve the employment of counterforce targeting which means aiming at the opponent’s military forces specifically at strategic nuclear forces. It may also involve counter-value targeting that uses a particular program to point at weapons placed at softer targets for instance in industrial facilities, economic enterprises, and populated urban centers (Markert & Backer, 2003). Second, in current situations, the military uses deterrence to convince opponents not to strike or take certain deeds. Third, the government may apply the use of compelling which involve persuading an adversary not to undertake actions. Moreover, the government may use swaggering in the deployment of military forces to improve a nation's pride, prestige, and nation’s ambitions (Markert & Backer, 2003).

In regard, the United States has introduced arms control and nonproliferation strategy to disarm potentially unfriendly nations more so NBC weapons. Department initiatives such as Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) have emphasized on prevention of the acquisition of weapons and promoted arms-control treaties (Markert & Backer, 2003). Consequently, the global environment has drastically changed since the United States and the Soviet Union are planning for undetermined small opponents.

In addition, the Joint vision of 2020, has promoted the transformation of war through the use of advanced weapons and new technological systems. Pentagon's MIC has identified key items such as mobile firepower, high-tech weapons, Command, Communication, Control and intelligence, advanced tactical aircraft, and cluster bombs (Markert & Backer, 2003).