Deck 22: Does Strategic Studies Have a Future, Sir Lawrence Freedman

Question 1

Although it is an intellectual discipline, strategic studies first developed outside the university system.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

After the Second World War, strategic studies was influenced more by experts in the social sciences and humanities than by those working in the physical sciences and engineering.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Which of the following factors create(s) tensions between the academic and policy worlds?

A) Practitioners must study a broader array of issues than academics, and must often make decisions in a hurry.
B) Because practitioners expected to be judged by results, they tend to rely on what they have found works for them even if this amounts to intuition or a hunch. Academics tend to dismiss this approach as inappropriate or relying on overgeneralizations.
C) Practitioners are acutely aware that their decisions place the lives of service personnel and possibly whole societies at risk, while academics are not held accountable for the implications of their models.
D) All the options given are correct.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The focus of strategic studies on individual actors and appreciation of political choice is not problematic from a social science perspective, as both emphasize the importance of individual choices and tend to regard wider patterns of behaviour as unimportant.

Question 5

Which of the following criticisms is (are) made of the realist tradition?

A) That it makes an exaggerated claim of objectivity, as though it is the only accurate reflection of 'reality'
B) That it is preoccupied with armed force and understates the importance of peaceful means of dispute resolution
C) That it disregards domestic and transnational factors
D) All the options given are correct.

Question 6

Which of the following approaches emphasizes 'the importance of the interaction between the way we describe the world and how we act within it', with important implications for conceptions of power?

A) Realism
B) Post-Modernism
C) Neo-Realism
D) Constructivism

Question 7

In chapter 23 of Strategy in the Contemporary World, Lawrence Freedman argues that attempts to develop what might be called a 'non-dogmatic realism' would be counterproductive. This is because power is best understood as a measurable resource and strategy is, in essence, the mechanical expenditure of resources to achieve clearly defined objectives.

Question 8

In chapter 23 of Strategy in the Contemporary World, Lawrence Freedman argues that, because of the changing role of force in the international system, violence should no longer be treated as the ultimate arbiter of political disputes. Thus, the potential for violence should not be used as a starting point in any attempt to create a general theory of strategy.

Question 9

In chapter 23 of Strategy in the Contemporary World, Lawrence Freedman argues that strategy is purely a military concern.

Question 10

War is a military-oriented formulation, whose widespread use as a metaphor is not problematic.