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CONTENTS
Autumn 2001, Vol. LIV, No. 4

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11 September 2001

The World according to Usama Bin Laden    
Ahmed S. Hashim

Usama Bin Laden is a dangerous opponent, and so are those who might succeed him should he be killed. Bin Laden’s ideas and goals, however, remain little explored or understood. To grasp them, it is necessary to examine the regional and historical context, his experiences, and the sources of fundamentalist thought upon which he draws.

Strategic Geography and the Greater Middle East
Robert Harkavy

Daily events in the Middle East, North Africa, the African Horn, South Asia, and ex-Soviet Central Asia offer little encouragement that this region is at the “end of history”—the end of major warfare and security rivalries. Two Gulf wars have been fought in recent memory, as well as Arab-Israeli and Indian-Pakistani wars. In that obvious sense, geopolitics is alive and well in the Greater Middle East.

Defending Taiwan

How China Might Invade Taiwan
Piers M. Wood and Charles D. Ferguson

A determined China could launch an invasion sooner than the five, ten, or twenty years that some have projected, though it would be unlikely to succeed if it made the attempt today. A phased, stepping-stone invasion would force Taiwan to decide whether to absorb casualties fighting in preliminary invasions or to conserve resources for a final stand on the main island.

Defending Taiwan, and Why It Matters
Chris Rahman

The Chinese threat to Taiwan is the primary near-term challenge to the East Asian order. As the Taiwanese are most unlikely to surrender willingly, and as the United States has a vital national interest at stake, a strong case can be made on strategic grounds for defending Taiwan’s de facto independent status, should the need arise. An Australian scholar makes that case.

Jointness

Has It Worked?
The Goldwater-Nichols Reorganization Act 
James R. Locher III

The overall report card is mixed. In the operational dimension of the Defense Department, which its original sponsors considered most pressing, the Goldwater-Nichols Act has been very successful. The act’s “business” reforms, however, have not worked. These concerns, which may have been secondary fifteen years ago, are urgent now. 

After the Storm
The Growing Convergence of the Air Force and Navy
Major General John L. Barry, U.S. Air Force, and James Blaker

Are the services trying to improve their joint operational abilities fast enough? The answer, for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, has its roots in their behavior in the late 1970s and 1980s. In the future, joint operational capabilities will accelerate dramatically because of the growing convergence between service visions and doctrines.

Address to the Naval War College

"A Nation Blessed"
The Honorable George Bush

Was the Gulf War a “preview of coming attractions”? The war made it obvious that the end of the Cold War had not meant the end of threats to American interests or to international peace and security. If we take our security for granted, the former president warned the Naval War College’s 2001 graduates, we do so at our own peril. 

Set and Drift

The Tale of the Red Knight
Rear Admiral James Stavridis, U.S. Navy

In My View

Review Essay

The Past and Future of Nonproliferation 
Best of Intentions: America's Campaign against Strategic Weapons Proliferation
by Henry D. Sokolski
reviewed by Carnes Lord

What Are China's Intentions?
Red Dragon Rising: Communist China's Military Threat to America
by Edward Timperlake and William Triplett II
China, Nuclear Weapons, and Arms Control: A Preliminary Assessment
by Robert Manning, Robert Montaperto, and Brad Roberts
reviewed by Andrew R. Wilson

Battle on the Potomac
This War Really Matters: Inside the Fight for Defense Dollars
by George C. Wilson
reviewed by Thomas C. Hone

Book Reviews

Waging Modern War,
by Wesley K. Clark
reviewed by Patrick C. Sweeney

The Military Use of Space: A Diagnostic Assessment,
by Barry D. Watts
reviewed by Carmel Davis

Future War: Non-Lethal Weapons in Twenty-First Century Warfare,
by John B. Alexander
reviewed by Pauletta Otis

Jolly Roger with an Uzi: The Rise and Threat of Modern Piracy,
by Jack A. Gottschalk et al.
reviewed by James F. Murray

A Nuclear Strategy for India,
by Raja Menon
reviewed by Thomas G. Mahnken

Korea on the Brink: From the "12/12 Incident" to the Kwangju Uprising, 1979-1980,
by John A. Wickham
reviewed by Nicholas Evan Sarantakes

Lewin of Greenwich: The Authorised Biography of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin,
by Richard Hill
reviewed by Tony Johnston-Burt, OBE

America's Overseas Garrisons: The Leasehold Empire,
by C. T. Sandars
reviewed by Charles E. Neu

Keystone: The American Occupation of Okinawa and U.S.-Japanese Relations,
by Nicholas Evan Sarantakes
reviewed by James Ray Carafano

Nuclear Rivals: Anglo-American Atomic Relations, 1941-1952,
by Septimus H. Paul
reviewed by Myron A. Greenberg

Hap Arnold and the Evolution of American Airpower,
by Dik Alan Daso
reviewed by Phillip S. Meilinger

Enigma: The Battle for the Code,
by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
reviewed by William B. Hayler