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Pol 101
Ch. 8 Military power and the U.S. force
28
Other
Undergraduate 2
11/03/2013

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Term
Power potential
Definition
the relative capabilities or resources held by a state that are considered necessary to it's asserting influence over others.
Term
Opportunity costs
Definition
the concept in decision-making theories that when the occasion arises to use resources, what is gained for one purpose is lost for other purposes, so that every choice entails the cost of some lost opportunity.
Term
Military-industrial complex
Definition
a term coined by U.S. president Eisenhower to describe the coalition among arms manufactureres, military bureaucracies, and top government officials that promotes defense expenditures for it's own profit and power.
Term
Proliferation
Definition
the spread of weapon capabilites throughout the state system
Term

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

(NPT)

 

Definition
an international agreement that seeks to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons by prohibiting further nuclear weapons sales, acquisitions, or production.
Term

Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles

(MIRVs)

Definition
a technological innovation permitting many nuyclear warheads to be delivered from a single missile
Term
Smart Bombs
Definition
precision guided military technology that enables a bomb to search for it's target and detonate at the precise time it can do the most damage.
Term
Nuclear winter
Definition
the expected freeze that would occur in the earth's climate from the fallout of smoke and dust in the event cuclear weapons were used, blocking out sunglight and destroying plant and animal life that survived the original blast.
Term
compellence
Definition
a threat of force aimed at making an adversary grant concessions against its will
Term
brinkmanship
Definition
internally taking enourmous risks in bargaining with an adversary in order to compel submission
Term
massive retaliation
Definition
a policy of responding to any act of aggression with the ost destructive capabilites available, including nuclear weapons.
Term
Countervalue targeting strategy
Definition
targeting strategic nuclear weapons against an enemy's most valued nonmilitary resources, such as the people and industries located in its cities (sometimes known as countercity targeting)
Term
Counterforce targeting strategy
Definition
targeting nuclearn weapons on the military capabilities of an opponent
Term
Second-strike capability
Definition
a state's capacity to retaliate after absorbing a first-strike attack with weapons of mass destrution
Term
Triad
Definition
the combination of ICBM's, SLBMs, and long range bombers in a second strike nuclear force
Term

Mutual assured destruction

(MAD)

Definition
a system of deterrence in which both sides possess the ability to survice a first strike and launch a devastating retaliatory attack
Term
Nuclear Utilization theory (NUTS)
Definition
a body of strategic thought that claimed deterrent threats would be more credible if nuclear weapons were made more usable
Term
Strategic defense Initiative (SDI)
Definition
Plan conceived by the Reagan administration to deply an antiballistic missile system using space-based lasers that would destroy enemy nuclear missiles.
Term
Preemption
Definition
a quick first-strike attack that seeks to defeat an adversary before it can organize a retaliatory response.
Term

Preventive War

 

Definition
a war undertaken to preclude an adversary from acquiring the capability to attack sometime in the future.
Term
Coercive diplomacy
Definition
the use of threats or limited armed force to persuade an adversary to alter its foreign and/or domestic policies.
Term
Ultimatum
Definition
a demand that contains a time limit for compliance and a threat of punishment for resistance.
Term
Military Intervention
Definition
overt or covert use of force by one or more countries that cross the border of another country in order to affect the target country's government and policies.
Term
Covert Operations
Definition
secret activities undertaken by a state outside it's borders through clandestine means to achieve specific political or military goals.
Term
Economic Sanctions
Definition
the punitive use of trade or monetary measures, such as an embargo, to harm the economy of an enemy state in order to exercise influence over its policies
Term
Ineslastic demand
Definition
a conditions under which the quantity demanded of a good does not decrease as its price increases.
Term
Bush Doctrine
Definition
a policy that singles out states that support terrorist groups and advocates military strikes against them to prevent a future attack on the United States.
Term
Security dilemma
Definition
the propensity of armaments undertaken by one state for ostensibly defensive purposes to threaten other states, which arm in reaction, with the result that their national security declines as their arms increase.
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