Abstract
To a significant extent, professor Gene Sharp’s strategy lay at the heart of the regime change policy deployed by President George W. Bush, in accordance with the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). This strategy consisted in promoting political defiance, a term used by Colonel Robert Helvey, a specialist of the Joint Military Attaché School (JMAS) operated by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), to describe how to overthrow a government and gain control of its institutions by planning operations and mobilizing the population against the sources of power in countries that were hostile to Western interests and values. The objective of President George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda” was precisely what the Directorate of Army Doctrine (DAD) of Canada’s Department of Defense defined as subversion, i.e., the attempt to undermine the stability and economic, political and military strength of a State without resorting to the use of an insurrection, but by provoking violent measures from the state, which could then be denounced as an “overreaction by the authorities and thus discrediting the government.” Propaganda—added this DAD document—was “a key element of subversion” and included the publication of harmful information about the security forces, in addition to spreading true or false rumors to undermine the credibility and trust in government.
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Notes
- 1.
National Defense—Defense Nationale—Land Force—“Counter-Insurgency Operations”—(English)—Published on the authority of the Chief of the Land Staff—Directorate of Army Doctrine, Department of National Defense, a Kingston: Army Publishing Office, 2008—OPI: DAD 2008-12-13-B-GL-323-004/FP-003, p. 2-15. Accessed http://lfdts.army.mil.ca. S. also: https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Canadian_Counter-insurgency_Operations_manual,_13_Dec_2008, accessed 16 Dec 2016.
- 2.
Ibid., pp. 2–15.
- 3.
Galula (2010, p. 43).
- 4.
Sharp (2011, pp. 124–135).
- 5.
Ibid., p. 11, 12, 78–79.
- 6.
Elkhan Nuriyev, “Elections in Azerbaijan. Political Infighting and Strategic Interests of Great Powers”, SWP Comments 2005—C 58, December 2005. Valerie J. Bunce e Sharon L. Wolchik, “Azerbaijan’s 2005 Parliamentary Elections: A Failed Attempt at Transition”, Cornell University—George Washington University, Paper prepared for CDDRL Workshop on External Influences on Democratic Transitions, Stanford University, October 25–26, 2007.
- 7.
Christopher John Chivers, “Crowd Protests Fraud in Azerbaijan Vote”, The New York Times, November 10, 2005.
- 8.
Ali Karimli, “In Azerbaijan, voices for democracy strive to be heard”, The Washington Post, April 2, 2010.
- 9.
Brzezinski (1997, pp. 121, 128–129).
- 10.
Scahill (2007, p. 172).
- 11.
CIA Fact Book, accessed https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/br.html
- 12.
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Western Military Balance and Defense Efforts, A Comparative Summary of Military Expenditures; Manpower; Land, Air, Naval, and Nuclear Forces, Anthony H. Cordesman and Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy with the Assistance of Jennifer K. Moravitz, CSIS January, 2002. Robert S. Norris e Hans M. Kristensen, “U.S. nuclear forces, 2008”, Nuclear Notebook—Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 2008, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp. 54–57, 62. Department of Defence—Active Duty Military Personnel by Rank Grade—August 2007, accessed http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/MILITARY/rg0708.pdf
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Halford J. Mackinder, “The Geographical Pivot of History”, Geographical Journal, Royal Geographical Society, London, April 1904, vol. XXIII, pp. 421–444.
- 15.
“Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force—military force—in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts. (…) We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law. And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, coming increasingly closer to one state’s legal system. One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way. This is visible in the economic, political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other nations.” Speech Delivered by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy Peace through Dialog, February 10, 2007, Munich, Germany (full transcript).
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
La Nación, Buenos Aires, 11/2/2007.
- 18.
“Q&A: U.S. Military Bases in Central Asia”, The New York Times, July 26, 2005.
- 19.
Gazprom is the Russia’s largest energy company, controlled by the State, but with shares being held by the German companies E.On and BASF—Wintershall.
- 20.
Gazprom provides 60% of the natural gas consumed in Austria, 35% in Germany and 20% in France. It also supplies gas to other countries, such as Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland. In 2006, Gazprom cut the supply to Ukraine because of a dispute surrounding a price increase, which affected the countries of the European Union.
- 21.
Olesya Vartanyan and Ellen Barry, “Former Georgian envoy to Moscow puts blame for war on his own country”, International Herald Tribune, 26/11/2008.
- 22.
For more details, see Moniz Bandeira (2006, p. 571).
- 23.
“Russian tanks enter South Ossetia”, BBC News, July 9, 2008. “Lavrov looks beyond army pull-out”, BBC News, October 8, 2008. Jim Nichol, “Russia-Georgia Conflict in South Ossetia: Context and Implications for U.S. Interests”, Congressional Research Service (CRS)—Report for Congress, Order Code RL34618, September 22, 2008. See a map of South Ossetia in: CIA via University of Texas at Austin. Perry-Castaneda Library, Map. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cia14/georgia_sm_2014.gif. Accessed 31.08.2015.
- 24.
Gregor Peter Schmitz, “Hands Tied in Washington. Russia’s Strategy Paralyzes US Government”, Der Spiegel, 8/15/2008.
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Moniz Bandeira, L.A. (2017). The “Cold Revolutionary War” and the NATO Expansion Towards the East. In: The Second Cold War. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54888-3_5
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