Secret wars : covert conflict in international politics

Resource Information

The work Secret wars : covert conflict in international politics represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Waubonsee Community College. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Secret wars : covert conflict in international politics

Title remainder

covert conflict in international politics

Statement of responsibility

Austin Carson

Creator

• Carson, Austin

Author

• Carson, Austin

Subject

• United States -- Foreign relations
• International relations
• World politics
• Official secrets

Language

eng

Summary

Secret Wars is the first book to systematically analyze the ways powerful states covertly participate in foreign wars, showing a recurring pattern of such behavior stretching from World War I to U.S.-occupied Iraq. Investigating what governments keep secret during wars and why, Austin Carson argues that leaders maintain the secrecy of state involvement as a response to the persistent concern of limiting war. Keeping interventions “backstage” helps control escalation dynamics, insulating leaders from domestic pressures while communicating their interest in keeping a war contained. Carson shows that covert interventions can help control escalation, but they are almost always detected by other major powers. However, the shared value of limiting war can lead adversaries to keep secret the interventions they detect, as when American leaders concealed clashes with Soviet pilots during the Korean War. Escalation concerns can also cause leaders to ignore covert interventions that have become an open secret. From Nazi Germany’s role in the Spanish Civil War to American covert operations during the Vietnam War, Carson presents new insights about some of the most influential conflicts of the twentieth century. --

Member of

• Princeton studies in international history and politics

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

VA@

Dewey number

327.73

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

JZ1469

LC item number

.C37 2018

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Princeton studies in international history and politics