TY - JOUR
T1 - The return of net assessment
AU - Heng, Yee-Kuang
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - 'Net assessment' of the East-West balance once posed pressing concerns for strategists. Such concerns faded with the Soviet Union, and net assessment faced obsolescence. But its basic premises remain a sound guide to policymaking; it is malleable enough to address new challenges and, with new frameworks, can be re-deployed to understand the proliferation challenge from threatening states. The cognitive lens through which such net assessments are filtered can affect subsequent policy choices, as well as the process of net assessment itself. The dangers of doing strategy based on worst-case scenarios, as tragically played out in Iraq, provide a timely reminder of the continuing importance of net assessment's underlying philosophy: balanced, impartial, rational analysis.
AB - 'Net assessment' of the East-West balance once posed pressing concerns for strategists. Such concerns faded with the Soviet Union, and net assessment faced obsolescence. But its basic premises remain a sound guide to policymaking; it is malleable enough to address new challenges and, with new frameworks, can be re-deployed to understand the proliferation challenge from threatening states. The cognitive lens through which such net assessments are filtered can affect subsequent policy choices, as well as the process of net assessment itself. The dangers of doing strategy based on worst-case scenarios, as tragically played out in Iraq, provide a timely reminder of the continuing importance of net assessment's underlying philosophy: balanced, impartial, rational analysis.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=36148968451&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.iiss.org/publications/survival/survival-summaries/2007---volume-49/2007---issue-4
U2 - 10.1080/00396330701733969
DO - 10.1080/00396330701733969
M3 - Article
SN - 1468-2699
VL - 49
SP - 135
EP - 152
JO - Survival
JF - Survival
IS - 4
ER -