MACMILLAN Small State Behavior in Strategic and Intelligence Studies: David’s Sling

Small state behavior has been largely ignored by academics in both international relations and strategic/intelligence studies. Yet, when we analyze the root causes of war, insurrections, rebellions, revolutions and general sociological human behavior, it is the small state actors that are usually at the epicenter of the tumultuous event. It is the spark from inside the small state actor – whether it is Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq or Syria -- that seemingly leads to internal and external confrontations that inevitably involve much larger states. To date, a book length analysis like this has yet to be published. The scope of this project is to provide an analysis of a sampling of small state’s behavior in order to build on a unifying theory of security/intelligence studies. This analysis will necessarily survey the breadth of security/intelligence studies from Clausewitz to current applicable United Nations’ Resolutions and international law. In short, if we can understand how political structures affect the behavior of small states, it will be a major contribution to the field of security/intelligence studies enabling policy makers, scholars and the general public to separate fact from myth in analyzing the strategic policies of small states. Review “Coaty argues that American strategic culture has been influenced by inputs from intelligence and other sources, which creates a ‘pseudo-environment’ in the country that then translates into actions in the real environment. He develops a model for the US by using, as mentioned earlier, John Boyd’s OODA loop in which the most important and decisive remains the ‘orient’, where the inputs from domestic structure are received: ruling elite, tradition, genetic heritage, geography and new information. [The book makes] a significant contribution on the role of states, scientists and dangers associated with nuclear weapons and provide a fruitful avenue for further research for policy options.” (Nazir Ahmad Mir, In Awe of the Atom: Proliferation, Threats, and Costs of Nuclear Management, The Journal of Defense Studies) “Building theory in tandem with the case studies, David’s Sling reveals the strategic aspect of small state behavior in response to incentives and constraints.  Long overlooked, this strategic behavior finally gets its due in this work that has implications for preventing a crisis involving a small state from escalating to a broader war, and for re-introducing security and intelligence studies to the academic study of foreign policy.” (Gordon A. Babst, Associate Professor, Chapman University, USA) From the Back Cover Small state behavior has been largely ignored by academics in both international relations and strategic/intelligence studies. Yet, when we analyze the root causes of war, insurrections, rebellions, revolutions and general sociological human behavior, it is the small state actors that are usually at the epicenter of the tumultuous event. It is the spark from inside the small state actor – whether it is Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq or Syria -- that seemingly leads to internal and external confrontations that inevitably involve much larger states. To date, a book length analysis like this has yet to be published. The scope of this project is to provide an analysis of a sampling of small state’s behavior in order to build on a unifying theory of security/intelligence studies. This analysis will necessarily survey the breadth of security/intelligence studies from Clausewitz to current applicable United Nations’ Resolutions and international law. In short, if we can understand how political structures affect the behavior of small states, it will be a major contribution to the field of security/intelligence studies enabling policy makers, scholars and the general public to separate fact from myth in analyzing the strategic policies of small states. Patrick C.