Strategic Rationality is Not Enough: Hitler and the Concept of Crazy States - Perceptive Analysis of Third Reich Radicalization under Adolf Hitler, Lessons about Modern Rogue Nations with WMD

This important report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction - this is not a print replica, and thus it is suitable for all devices. Was Adolf Hitler truly crazy? What lessons can we learn from the Third Reich and World War II to guide us in understanding the threat posed by rogue states with WMD? In this report the author explores the concept on rogue or "crazy" states in the international community, an important topic in the increasingly multipolar and dangerous world of the post-cold war era. In such an environment, the author concludes, after examining the progressive craziness of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler, the rational basis for strategy breaks down. Strategic rationality is simply not sufficient to gauge the behavior of such states in the international arena--a particularly dangerous turn of events in an era of mass destruction weapons proliferation.

This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Contents: Chapter 1. Introduction * Chapter 2. Rationality and the Means-Ends Connection * Chapter 3. Operational Code and the Cognitive Trail * The Personal Link * The Cultural Link * Cognitive Dissonance and Consistency * Chapter 4. Style * Pragmatism, Technique and Hubris * Personal Styles and the Structure of Decision Making * Chapter 5. Risk * Chapter 6. The Extrarational Factor * The Great Simplifier * Ideology and Charisma * The Rationality of Irrationality * Chapter 7. Goals and Organizations * Crazy Goals * Crazy Reality * Chapter 8. External Action Capabilities * Realization Variables Irrationality in Preparation * Realization Variables Irrationality in Execution * Weapons Of Mass Destruction * Chapter 9. The Way Ahead * The Munich Metaphor * The Vietnam Metaphor * The Summing Up

what if a national leader does not recognize the rational basis of strategy formulation? From a cultural or religious standpoint, for instance, what if national elites are motivated by a success through failure martyrdom outlook? Or equally important, what if leaders promote national goals that are beyond the pale in terms of humanity or sanity and set about achieving them in an instrumental^ rational manner? In all these instances, as this study of the policymakers and the decision-making structure and process of Nazi Germany demonstrates, strategic rationality is not enough to gauge the behavior of such nations in the international arena. From a Western point of view, in fact, such nations are out of strategic control and have become "crazy" states. This concept of crazy or rogue states is important for the post-cold war era, since the breakdown of the superpower bipolar nexus, although reducing East-West tensions, is also mitigating the pattern of client state stability. Historically, most rogue nations have remained isolated, local phenomena. But modern technology offers even the smallest crazy state the potential to build up significant power, particularly with weapons of mass destruction, to influence regional, if not global events. For such a dangerous, interdependent environment, there are many lessons to be drawn from the progressive radicalization of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler.

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