array of complex capabilities??. This is also the approach to external defence taken by Latin
American countries where few alliances exist and forces are developed to deal with an attack
by immediate neighbours as is the case in Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
The second way is to be a deterrent force that may be capable of being defeated by likely
adversaries but at such a considerable cost so as to not be worthwhile. This is an approach
taken by smaller non-aligned countries like Finland and Switzerland where large conscript
based militia forces can mobilise in the event of crisis and inflict significant losses and
casualties on an aggressor. Finland used this strategy to avoid annexation by the Soviet Union
in the Winter and Continuation Wars of the 1940s?". Switzerland mobilized its forces during the
Second World War and despite Hitler having a plan for the conquest of Switzerland called
Operation Tannenbaum it was never implemented, in part because the scale of 11 German
Divisions it would take would be too large an undertaking given Germany's other commitments
at the time”.
The third way is to be a contributing force that provides capabilities as part of a collective
security arrangement. This is the approach taken by NATO countries and those in alliance
relationships with the United States like South Korea, Japan and Australia. This is also the case
for smaller regional security arrangements such as the Regional Security System in the
Caribbean where small states pool small military resources to create a force capable of
meeting the low-level threats that the region presents.
Naturally there are also combinations of the above with the US, UK and France being capable
of fighting alone but they are also a part of NATO and possess nuclear deterrent capabilities.
Estonia and Norway maintain a strategy of militia-based conventional deterrence within the
framework of the NATO alliance.
Each state will make assessments around the nature of the threat posed to it and the tools that
are available to defend against that threat. The relationship between military activity and
6 Mary Kaldor and Joseph E. Stiglitz, Protection Without Protectionism and the Challenge
of Global Governance, in Joseph E. Stiglitz and Mary Kaldor (eds.), The Quest for Security:
Protection Without Protectionism and the Challenge of Global Governance, (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2013), 3-4.
2" Colin S. Gray, War, Peace and International Relations, (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), 147-
148.
?? Vagts, Detlev F. "Switzerland, International Law and World War Il." The American Journal
of International Law 91, no. 3 (1997), 467-469.
29 http://www.rss.org.bb/about-us.html
