More For Less: Protecting America's Security Interests Through Soft Power Programs

Defense soft power;military education;humanitarian operations;biological engagement;Global Security Studies

McGrath, Amy M.Stout, Mark ;

Johns Hopkins University

关键词: Defense soft power;    military education;    humanitarian operations;    biological engagement;    Global Security Studies;   

Others  :  https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/37260/MCGRATH-THESIS-2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: JOHNS HOPKINS DSpace Repository

【 摘 要 】

The U.S. Department of Defense is engaged in budget cutbacks that will have significant future implications for many defense programs.At the same time, emerging global threats require investment in diverse mechanisms for national defense over the long-term.Within this context, it is important to highlight the effectiveness of less traditional softer approaches to security in comparison to their cost as many of them may best be accomplished by the country’s hard power agency.This thesis explores three different soft power programs either funded and/or managed by the U.S. Military or Department of Defense: educating foreign military officers, deploying U.S. Navy medical ships on proactive humanitarian missions, and funding biological scientific engagement to counter the use of biological weapons of mass destruction.Each chapter analyzes the primary question of the individual program’s substance in comparison to its cost.The thesis acknowledges the difficulties of assessing the less quantifiable concept of soft power but seeks to make a qualitative assessment of each program’s relative value.This assessment is done by applying generated metrics shaped by reviewing literature applicable to each program’s goals to case studies of countries where each program has been implemented.Conclusions on the three programs’ current soft power influence is determined on the basis of existing data as applied to these expressed metrics.Additionally, based on evidence of the measurable metrics, each chapter draws a conclusion about its program’s indeterminable value in the future.Overall, this thesis contends that although modest and somewhat imprecise, measurable increases to U.S. soft power due to these programs can be shown.Furthermore, their relative low costs, along with their potential benefits to American and global security in an uncertain future, make them well worth their investment.