Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) - Hardcover

Pape, Robert A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801431344 ISBN 13: 9780801431340

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1996

Synopsis

"Bombing to Win is a critically important book." Navel War College Review

From Iraq to Bosnia to North Korea, the first question in American foreign policy debates is increasing: Can air power alone do the job? Robert A. Pape provides a systematic answer.

Analyzing the results of over thirty air campaigns, including a detailed reconstruction of the Gulf War, he argues that the key to success is attacking the enemy's military strategy, not its economy, people, or leaders. Coercive air power can succeed, but not as cheaply as air enthusiasts would like to believe.

Pape examines the air raids on Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq as well as those of Israel versus Egypt, providing details of bombing and governmental decision making. His detailed narratives of the strategic effectiveness of bombing range from the classical cases of World War II to an extraordinary reconstruction of airpower use in the Gulf War, based on recently declassified documents.

In the first major book since the Vietnam War on the theory and practice of airpower and its political effects, Robert A. Pape helps policy makers judge the purpose of various air strategies, and helps general readers understand the policy debates. 

About this title

About the Author

Robert A. Pape is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.

From the Back Cover

Can air bombardment break the morale of an enemy and force it to capitulate or does it strengthen the enemy's determination to resist? In the first major book since the Vietnam War on the theory and practice of airpower and its political effects, Robert A. Pape helps policy makers judge the purpose of various air strategies, and helps general readers understand the policy debates. Pape examines the air raids on Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq as well as those of Israel versus Egypt, providing details of bombing operations and governmental decision making. His detailed narratives of the strategic effectiveness of bombing range from the classical cases of World War II to an extraordinary reconstruction of airpower use in the Gulf War, based on recently declassified documents. Pape argues convincingly that airpower is no "magic bullet" nor a way to win inexpensively. His conclusions will provoke debate from the highest military circles to the armchair generals in academia and Congress and have ramifications for questions from defense budget cuts to international policy in Bosnia. The wealth of systematically collected evidence should be a source of scholarly debates for years to come.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0801431344
• ISBN 13: 9780801431340
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 277