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'Surrender as Defense'
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11234 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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5 / 1986 |
2,402 Words |
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Philip Gold
Philip Gold is senior fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery
Institute and a frequent contributor to the Washington Times.
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NATIONAL SECURITY THROUGH CIVILIAN-BASED DEFENSE
Gene Sharp
Omaha: Association for Transarmament Studies, 1985
93 p.p., $4.95 paper
MAKING EUROPE UNCONQUERABLE
The Potential of Civilian-Based Deterence and Defense
Gene Sharp
Cambridge: Ballinger, 1985
252 pp., $14.95 paper
Professor Gene Sharp is neither doctrinaire pacifist nor a left-wing screamer. He has written significant books, in the past. The issues he addresses now are real and his proposals are grounded in elements of truth. But, in the end, I found it impossible to avoid the conclusion that Sharp is building intellectual cathedrals on sand. And, in the end, I found Professor Sharp's concept of a shift from military to nonmilitary national defense not much more than a form of neo-Hobbesianism--not quite "better red than dead," but something perilously close to it.
In both of his books, Sharp advocates something called "transarmament"--a shift from military to nonmilitary national defense--for example, a new concept of defense based not upon organized technological violence but upon massive civilian nonviolent resistance. According to Professor Sharp, this strategy can be implemented only over a period of decades, and only after entire populations have received extensive training in the tactics and techniques of nonviolent resistance. Further,
... (1995 of 14785 Characters)
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