steve on Nostr: “Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War” by Robert Pape ...
“Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War” by Robert Pape
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Bob Pape is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. A self-professed realist, he attempts to quantifiably settle long-standing questions on the effectiveness of strategic bombing campaigns. Pape identifies four bombing strategies: denial of an adversary’s military objective, punishment of their population, holding an enemy’s high-value targets at risk, and decapitation of an enemy’s leadership. He then categorizes and analyzes the outcomes of 33 air campaigns and performs a deep-dive on five notable US cases: Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. Pape concludes that in all instances, strategic bombing does not work. In fact, his findings show that only “denial” strategies were effective at all in changing enemy behavior. Pape’s book is still considered controversial, most notably due to his failure to differentiate between the varying degrees of intensity with respect to national interests. Despite the shortfall, his work is compelling and offers insights useful in predicting the effectiveness of current air campaigns in Ukraine and Gaza. While I can’t say that one truly can “bomb to win”, this book certainly makes a good case for and against air power strategies. 🛩️📉
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bob Pape is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. A self-professed realist, he attempts to quantifiably settle long-standing questions on the effectiveness of strategic bombing campaigns. Pape identifies four bombing strategies: denial of an adversary’s military objective, punishment of their population, holding an enemy’s high-value targets at risk, and decapitation of an enemy’s leadership. He then categorizes and analyzes the outcomes of 33 air campaigns and performs a deep-dive on five notable US cases: Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. Pape concludes that in all instances, strategic bombing does not work. In fact, his findings show that only “denial” strategies were effective at all in changing enemy behavior. Pape’s book is still considered controversial, most notably due to his failure to differentiate between the varying degrees of intensity with respect to national interests. Despite the shortfall, his work is compelling and offers insights useful in predicting the effectiveness of current air campaigns in Ukraine and Gaza. While I can’t say that one truly can “bomb to win”, this book certainly makes a good case for and against air power strategies. 🛩️📉