Features of Academic Writing and Related Jobs

What is Academic Writing

Academic writing is a formal style of writing used in universities and scholarly publications.  In journal articles and books on academics use academic writing. You will be expected to write essays, research papers, and dissertations in the academic style.  

Academic writing follows the same writing process as other types of texts, but it has specific conventions in terms of content, structure, and style.  

Subjects of Academic Writing 

• Essay 
• Research Paper 
• Thesis/dissertations 
• Research Proposal 
• Literature Review 
• Technical Report Writing

Process of Academic Writing 

Unlike personal blogs, academic writing needs mandator research. It must include credible information. So after shortlisting the topic, read the relevant literature and research the topic using reliable sources. Outline and plan your topic as academic writing is structured. After completing your work, you must give it a review. 

Academic Writing Process

Features of Academic Writing 

Writing assignments can sometimes become a cause of anxiety for students. The following tips designed to aid you to create more polished written responses.

Academic writing is clear, concise, structured, and backed by evidence. 

Academic writing is                                             Academic Writing is not 

Deterrence, Compellence, and Coercion

Understanding Coercion, Deterrence, and Compellence

Coercion is threatening to harm an enemy or pledging to benefit the enemy if the enemy complies with the demands of an assailant. Deterrence is a tripwire to avoid war and compellence is threatening to start one if victims do not subdue. 

 Outline: 

1. Coercion 
2. Deterrence and Compellence 
3. Analysis 

Coercion: 

Coercion is to do our bidding without destroying the enemy. Coercion is the threat of the use of force to overcome an enemy. The ultimate motive is to achieve goals under conflict without going to war. Force can simply use to hurt, if we uncover the point where it would hurt most, a threat to do so can motivate our opponent to avoid it. We shall call this coercive use of force. The use of coercion is to Open up room for bargaining.

Nuclear weapons states use the threat of use of nuclear weapons to quash an enemy. 

Strategic coercion:

Strategic coercion is what analysts call when larger armies are involved in conflicting parties. 

Examples from History: 

Mongols used brute force to terrorize the opponents. Usually massacred the whole city to show what they do to those who do not surrender. Sometimes, they left the city without damage as people surrender.

Coercion vs. Undue Influence

Roman people did the same. They slaughtered the whole city population along with animals. 

Two Methods of Coercion: 

1. A threat is a pledge to impose costs if the opponent acts contrary to one’s wishes. 
2. A promise is a pledge to provide benefits to the opponent if he acts by one’s wishes.                                                                                                                                                 Both threats and promises are intended to influence the expectations of the opponent and cause him to change his behavior. Both threats and promises are costly to the one making them although threats are costly if the player fails to influence the opponent, and promises are costly if the player succeeds

Coercion and Compellence

Brute Force:

Coercion mostly do the trick, however, often it is necessary to use brute force to make the threat of further violence more credible. The threat is necessary and had to perform if the enemy does not comply.

High school bully uses brute force to take away lunch money. Force is used indeed. 

Salami Tactics is taking small steps that do not deter response from the enemy. 

Deterrence and Compellence: 

 Schelling defined compellence as “a threat intended to make an adversary do something,”

While deterrence is defined as "one sets up the tripwire and then leaves things up to the opponent without any time limit".

Deterrence 1        Conservative and passive 2        Protects status quo 3        Persuade the enemy not to initiate its action 4        We make the demand, explain the consequences, and wait for action 5        If opponent crosses the line, we take punitive action 6        It is difficult to judge whether it was a success or not. 7        Best achieved by threat (sanctions, embargoes) 8        Can be passive and static. Sets up the tripwire and then leave it up to the enemy to cross it.  9        Punishment if the status quo disturbed

Compellence            Compellence is active          Seeks to change the status quo                                Persuade the enemy to change its behavior           We make a demand of action and then initiate our own, continue doing so until opponent ceases          To persuade the opponent to change its behavior or government,            Success is easy to see in form of change of government, or halt of ongoing behavior.            Best achieved by promise (to invest in the country, economic aid, military aid, USAID, infrastructure development)            Compellence must have a deadline.            Progressively worse if not compliant, reward if comply          Like offensive strategy, it takes the initiative and engages the opponent until the later relents.

 

 

Deterrence and Deniability

 Analysis: 

The difference is in timing, initiative, and monitoring. A deterrent can be passive and static. One sets up the tripwire and then leaves things up to the opponent without any time limit. As we shall see, stationing American troops in Europe provided a trip-wire (or plate glass) that performed these functions. If the Soviets ever decided to attack, they have to do it in a strength that would be sufficient to overcome these forces.

Example: 

Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. constantly worried about the possibility of the USSR attacking Western Europe. The problem was that in conventional armaments, the Red Army was much, much stronger than what NATO could muster against it. A general war over Western Europe almost invariably meant that the U.S. would have to resort to nuclear weapons. The Americans could say “If you ever attack Western Europe, we shall fight back with all we’ve got, including nukes.” Then they could sit back, wait, and watch. Only if the Soviets ever invaded would the Americans have to do anything.

 

 Salami-Slice Tactics and Deterrent: 

The deterrent can be eroded by salami tactics, a strategy that takes steps that are small enough not to activate the threatened action, yet that brings the player closer to his goal.

Choose with Objective: 

Generally, if deterrence is the goal, you would do best by choosing a status quo such that if your opponent acts contrary to your wishes, what you do is punishment. This usually involves making the status quo sufficiently pleasant and threatening to make it much worse if he disrupts it. You can also promise to make it progressively better as long as he persists in compliance. If compellence is the goal, you would do best by choosing a status quo such that what you do if the opponent complies with your demand becomes a reward. This usually requires that you make the status quo sufficiently unpleasant and promise to improve it if he complies. You can also threaten to make the status quo progressively worse if he persists in non-compliance. 

Understanding Hybrid Warfare

Hybrid Warfare

War is to crush the enemy to attain objectives that a conquering nation cannot get through peaceful means. 

As Clausewitz stated: 

 War is simply the continuation of poilitical intercourse with the addition of other means.  

 Hybrid warfare uses unconventional methods along with conventional methods of wars to subdue the enemy. Repress the will to fight back, make the enemy surrender and subjugate the enemy, hybrid warfare uses all means at its disposal. So hybrid warfare includes all means at its disposal to quash the enemy. 

Wikipedia defines hybrid warfare as follows: 

Hybrid warfare is military strategy which employs political warfare and blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare and cyberwarfare with other influencing methods, such as fake news, lawfare and electoral intervention.   

Concept of Hybrid Warfare 

 Border management and state-on-state wars have long remained a part of history. Therefore, it is considered conventional warfare. Whereas, irregular warfare invented unconventional means to thrash the enemy. Irregular warfare includes terrorism, asymmetric warfare, attacks on the industrial base of enemy countries, and so on. Hybrid warfare merges both, conventional and irregular warfare, to conquer tone down the enemy. 

 

Hybrid: Fusion of Irregular and Conventional War

Domains of Hybrid Warfare 

Hybrid warfare counts on multiple elements to the compliant enemy. Strategist device means to subdue enemy after analyzing the weaknesses of the targeted country. 

Gerasimov is the strategist alleged to have conceived the "Gerasimov doctrine" – combining military, technological, information, diplomatic, economic, cultural, and other tactics for the purpose of achieving strategic goals. 

Domains of Hybrid Warfare

 

Hybrid warfare employs all means and methods at its disposal to engage the enemy at multiple levels. Hybrid warfare strategizes to engage the enemy at many smaller fronts rather than one of two big spheres. By this, hybrid warfare increases the cognitive load on the targeted country with the aim to exhaust its resources. The belligerent party can use cyberattacks, diplomacy, disinformation warfare propagandas, support of local unrest, irregular forces, regular military forces, economic warfare, hydropower, and many other means at its conveyance. 

 Asymmetric warfare, in which non-state actors wage a war against the state or state institutions using guerilla warfare tactics, could be a part of the hybrid strategy. Asymmetric warfare is the mean by which a target country attacks specific areas of the targeted country rather than expanding into total war. 

Symmetric and Asymmetric Warfare 

Asymmetric warfare is a war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly. This is typically a war between a standing, professional army and an insurgency or resistance movement militias who often have the status of unlawful combatants.

Hybrid warfare like its name depicts uses multiple means to sabotage an enemy. It is a blend of different methods to compliant the enemy. Therefore, the most apposite step is to recognize the threat. 

Recognition of Threats 

It is not necessary that hybrid war must use all its domain. It can work in limited and specified domains, therefore, the most important step is to recognize the threat. If a targeted country could not realize timely at what point it will be targeted, failure is certain in that condition. 

 

Recognition of Threat

 

Defense of state and country, in today's complex world, must be comprehensively materialized. Developing nations should continue to struggle for peace and stability. To keep pace with progressing world, realizing the threat, blocking and eliminating it must be fulfilled without compromising at developmental projects. This stands true for all states and countries of the world.