Abstract
This book offers a multidisciplinary treatment of targeting. Historically, destruction of enemy forces and equipment has been the primary, albeit not exclusive, means of securing ultimate victory. Today, after a long evolutionary process and enabled by technological developments, the contemporary effects-based approach in targeting aims to achieve specified effects on and beyond the battlefield. It involves ‘affecting’ a variety of intended audiences through a combination of military and other means and methods of warfare which vary from classic military kinetic lethal actions, such as employing bombs, guns or torpedoes, to ‘unorthodox’ non-military, non-kinetic and non-lethal activities like financial actions, lawfare and information operations. This volume comprises three parts. Part I explores the context of targeting, covers the evolution of targeting and explains the current targeting process and characteristics. Part II offers an overview of the legal and ethical constraints on targeting as an operational process. Part III surveys contemporary issues in targeting such as the potential advent of autonomous weapon systems, ‘non-kinetic’ targeting, targeting in multinational military operations and leadership decapitation in counter-terrorism operations. It is intended for use in military training and educational programmes, as well as in Bachelor and Master degree-level courses on topics such as War Studies and Strategic Studies.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the contributors to this volume, all of whom came to the project armed with extensive academic or practical background in targeting … or both. It was our professional and personal pleasure to work with each of them. We would also like to thank Philip van Tongeren and Marjolijn Bastiaans at Asser Press for their valued support of this effort and Sasha Radin at the United States Naval War College for her tireless efforts throughout the editing process.
Finally, we hope this work contributes to the realization of the goal to which every member of every nation’s armed forces must commit him or herself—the effective and efficient achievement of legitimate military objectives in a manner that minimizes the inevitable destruction and suffering that attends warfare.
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© 2016 T.M.C. Asser Press and the authors
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Ducheine, P.A.L., Schmitt, M.N., Osinga, F.P.B. (2016). Introduction. In: Ducheine, P., Schmitt, M., Osinga, F. (eds) Targeting: The Challenges of Modern Warfare. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-072-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-072-5_1
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Publisher Name: T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague
Print ISBN: 978-94-6265-071-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-6265-072-5
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