Robert Pape

Robert Anthony Pape, Jr. (born 1960), is an American political scientist known for his work on international security affairs, especially strategic air power and suicide terrorism. He is currently a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.

Academic career

Pape graduated "" and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982 [http://political-science.uchicago.edu/faculty/pape.shtml] where he was a Harry S. Truman Scholar from the state of Pennsylvania, majoring in political science, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1988 in the same field. During his doctoral program he was a teaching assistant for a class taught by the high-profile realist international relations scholar John Mearsheimer. He taught international relations at Dartmouth College from 1991 to 1999 and air power strategy at the United States Air Force's School of Advanced Airpower Studies from 1996 to 1999. Since 1999, he has taught at the University of Chicago, where he is now tenured. [http://political-science.uchicago.edu/faculty/pape.shtml] He defines the focus of his current work as "the effect of technological change on conflict and cooperation among major powers and the theory and practice of suicide terrorism."Fact|date=February 2007 After presenting preliminary data on his research into suicide terrorism in the "American Political Science Review" in 2003, Pape founded the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, which he directs. The project is funded by the Carnegie Corporation, the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the University of Chicago, and the Argonne National Laboratory. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/09/AR2005070901425_pf.html "A Scholarly Look at Terror Sees Bootprints In the Sand" By Caryle Murphy] "Washington Post", July 10, 2005; D01]

On air power

Pape's writings criticize the idea that wars can be won through air power alone. He argues that the use of air power for punishment, that is, attacking civilian and economic targets (such as in Operation Rolling Thunder or the firebombing of Japan in 1945), has almost universally failed in coercing targets. Instead, Pape suggests that successful usage of air power has come when it is used against conventional military targets and denies the target the ability to achieve their aims (such as in Operation Linebacker).

Pape also argues that air power and land power should be used together in a "hammer and anvil" fashion. In Pape's model, enemy land forces faced with both air and land power will be forced to either mass and therefore be vulnerable to attack from the air, or will be forced to scatter and therefore be vulnerable to being mopped up by land power. Pape cites certain battles in Afghanistan as examples of a hammer and anvil approach.

On suicide terrorism

Pape's "" (2005) controverts many widely held beliefs about suicide terrorism. Based on an analysis of every known case of suicide terrorism from 1980 to 2005 (315 attacks as part of 18 campaigns), he concludes that there is "little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world’s religions... . Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland" (p. 4). "The taproot of suicide terrorism is nationalism," he argues; it is "an extreme strategy for national liberation" (pp. 79-80). Pape's work examines groups as diverse as the Basque ETA to the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers. Pape also notably provides further evidence to a growing body of literature that finds that the majority of suicide terrorists do not come from impoverished or uneducated background, but rather have middle class origins and a significant level of education.

References

elected publications

Books by Robert A. Pape

*"Coercive Air Power". University of Chicago, 1988. (Dissertation)
*"Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War". Cornell University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8014-3134-4 (hardcover). ISBN 0-8014-8311-5 (paperback). Debated in Security Studies 7.2 (Winter 1997/98) p.93-214 and 7.3 (Spring 1998) p.182-228.
*"". New York: Random House, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-6317-5 (hardcover). London: Gibson Square 2006 (updated). ISBN 1903933781 (hardcover).

Book [s] about Robert A. Pape

*"Precision and Purpose: Debating Robert A. Pape's Bombing to Win", edited by Jonathan Frankel. Frank Cass Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0-7146-8108-3 (not yet published)

Articles

*"Coercive Air Power in the Vietnam War," "International Security" 15.2 (1990) p.103-146.
*"Coercion and Military Strategy : Why Denial Works and Punishment Doesn't," "Journal of Strategic Studies 15.4 (1992) p.423-475.
*"Why Japan Surrendered," "International Security" 18.2 (1993) p.154-201.
*" [http://mearsheimer.uchicago.edu/pdfs/A0019.pdf The Answer (A Partition Plan for Bosnia)] ," "New Republic" 208.24 June 14 (1993) p.22-28. (With John J. Mearsheimer)
*"A Surgical Strike that Could Backfire," "New York Times" April 27, 1996, p.23.
*"Why Economic Sanctions Do Not Work," "International Security" 22.2 (Fall 1997).
*"Partition : an Exit Strategy for Bosnia," "Survival" 39.4 (1997/98) p.25-28.
*"The Limits of Precision Guided Air Power," "Security Studies" 7.2 (Winter 1997/98) p.93-114.
*"The Air Force Strikes Back : a Reply to Barry Watts and John Warden," "Security Studies" 7.2 (Winter 1997/98) p.191-214.
*"Why Economic Sanctions Still Do Not Work," "International Security" 23.1 (Summer 1998).
*"A Workable Policy on Iraq," "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" 54.3 (1998) p.6.
*"Correspondence: Evaluation Economic Sanctions," with David A. Balwin "International Security" 23.2 (Fall 1998) p.189-198.
*"The Determinants of International Moral Action," "International Organization" 53.4 (Autumn 1999).
*"Explaining Costly International Moral Action : Britain's Sixty-year Campaign Against the Atlantic Slave Trade," "International Organization" 53.4 (1999) p.631-668. (With Chaim D. Kaufmann).
*"Our Iraq Policy is not Working," "New York Times" February 24 (2001) p.A-13.
*" [http://www.unknownnews.net/011004911.html Show the Evidence] ," "New York Times" October 4 (2001) p.A-27. (With Chaim Kaufmann)
*"The Wrong Battle Plan," "Washington Post" October 19 (2001) p.A-29.
*" [http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citations/03/030321.pape.html Wars Can't Be Won Only From Above] ," "New York Times" March 21 (2003) p.A-19.
*" [http://www.danieldrezner.com/research/guest/Pape1.pdf The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism] ," "American Political Science Review" 97.3 (August 2003) p.343-361.
*" [http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citations/03/030922.pape-nyt.html Dying to Kill Us] ," "New York Times" September 22 (2003).
*"The True Worth of Air Power," "Foreign Affairs" (March/April 2004) p.116-130.
*" [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040901faresponse83516/merrill-a-mcpeak-robert-a-pape/hit-or-miss.html Hit or Miss," an exchange with Merrill A. McPeak] ," "Foreign Affairs" (September/October 2004)p.160-163.
*"Soft Balancing Against the United States "International Security" 30.1 (2005) p.7-45.
*" [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/09/opinion/09pape.html?ex=1278561600&en=4d4820441cdc4464&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss Al Qaeda's Smart Bombs] ," "New York Times" July 9 (2005) p.A-13.
*" [http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_051805F.shtml Blowing Up an Assumption] ," "New York Times," May 18, 2005. (Summarizes the ideas of "Dying to Win.")
*" [http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citations/06/060803.pape-nyt.html Ground to a Halt] ," "New York Times" August 3 (2006) p.A-21.
*" [http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citations/06/060911.pape-ct.html The Growth of Suicide Terrorism] ," "Chicago Tribune" September 11 (2006).
* [http://antiwar.com/radio/2008/10/02/robert-pape/ Interview with Robert Pape, "The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism"] , Antiwar.com, October 2, 2008.

Articles about Robert A. Pape

*Watts, Barry D. "Ignoring Reality : Problems of Theory and Evidence in Security Studies," "Security Studies" 7.2 (Winter 1997/98) p.115-171.
*Warden, John A. "Success in Modern War : a Response to Robert Pape's Bombing to Win," "Security Studies" 7.2 (Winter 1997/98) p.172-190.
*Mueller, Karl. "Strategies of Coercion : Denial, Punishment, and the Future of Air Power," "Security Studies" 7.3 (Spring 1998) p.182-228.
*" [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/09/AR2005070901425_pf.html A Scholarly Look at Terror Sees Bootprints in the Sand] ," "Washington Post," July 10, 2005.