Introduction

It is far easier to notice change marked by singular events—the falling of the Berlin Wall, the attack on the World Trade Center—than change that takes place over time. The latter may initially be hard to detect, but such change can profoundly transform societies, influencing a host of social, economic, and political issues. Global warming, industrialization, and the rise of the automobile and the information society have all produced monumental changes, but they did not have memorable before and after dates; their passage is not sharply delineated. While protracted changes are significant in and of themselves, for military