Extrait de l’ouvrage : Gene SHARP (1985), National Security Through National-Based Defense, Association for Transarmament Studies, Omaha, Nebraska; 93 p.
Pour consultez l’ouvrage complet, veuillez cliquer sur National Security Through Civilian Based Defense
Now, more than ever, we need to question some of our basic assumptions about defense, security, and peace, and to examine possible new policies that might help achieve those goals. The dangers and limitations of modern military means – conventional, nuclear, and chemical-biological – are too obvious to need repetition. What has not been clear is what alternative we have. This essay is focused on one alternative system of defense, which is called « civilian-based defense. » This policy may prove to be a superior way to provide national security – safety from attack – by dissuading and deterring potential attackers, and, if needed be, waging effective defense against them.
The oft-posed choice between the acceptance of tyranny and the waging of war has been aggravated by developments in weapons technology, communications, and transportation. The technological changes in methods of war have brought about the concentration of large-scale military power in the hands of a few countries which possess scientific know-how, a technological and industrial base, and vast resources. In particular, the supremacy of the United States and the Soviet Union in capability for large-scale conventional and nuclear warfare has not yet been seriously challenged.
