Tracking the evolution of the Red Army through the war against Japan and the Chinese civil war, Wortzel's book provides a comprehensive basic reference focusing on the major events, people, and issues that have produced the historical legacy of the People's Liberation Army. Placing contemporary Chinese military history in the context of China's 19th century clashes with the West and Japan, Wortzel illustrates how the imposition of unequal treaties by foreign powers conditioned China's 20th century defense forces and actions and explains how the Communist military forces developed. It also shows how fractionalization in the Communist military leadership led to the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong's purges.

Drawing on a substantial number of sources available only in Chinese as well as on English-language secondary sources, the book provides a basic reference aimed at orienting the nonspecialist to the significant events and people in China's recent military history. The book will also provide a quick reference for the specialist in Chinese history.

The increasing capacity of states to muster violence, the concomitant rise of military power as a meaningful instrument of foreign policy, and the frequent episodic collapse of that power are considered in this examination of force, order, and diplomacy. Nathan points to periods of relative order and stability in international relations-the time immediately prior to the rise of Frederick the Great, for example, or the half century after the Napoleonic Wars-as times when states have been most vulnerable to "spoilers" and "rogues." Only the power of the Cold War blocs fostered durable order. Now, notwithstanding novel elements of globalization, international relations appear as dependent as ever on the prudent management of force. Students, scholars, and soldiers are frequently exposed to Clausewitz, Westphalia, Napoleon, World War I, and the like. But what makes these events and individuals so important? This book is Clausewitz's successor, insisting that soldiers and statesmen know and master the integrative potential of force. Nathan provides a narrative account of the people and events that have shaped international relations since the onset of the state system. He asserts that an understanding of the limits and utility of persuasion, as well as the corresponding limits and utility of force, will help assure national security in a world filled with more uncertainties than ever in the last 50 years.

The dramatic story of Hitler and Stalin's marriage of convenience has been recounted frequently over the past 60 years, but with remarkably little consensus. As the first English-language study to analyze the development, extent, and importance of the Nazi-Soviet economic relationship from Hitler's ascension to power to the launching of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, this book highlights the crucial role that Soviet economic aid played in Germany's early successes in World War II. When Hitler's rearmament efforts left Germany dangerously short of raw materials in 1939, Stalin was able to offer valuable supplies of oil, manganese, grain, and rubber. In exchange, the Soviet Union would gain territory and obtain the technology and equipment necessary for its own rearmament efforts.

However, by the summer of 1941, Stalin's well-calculated plan had gone awry. Germany's continuing reliance on Soviet raw materials would, Stalin hoped, convince Hitler that he could not afford to invade the USSR. As a result, the Soviets continued to supply the Reich with the resources that would later carry the Wehrmacht to the gates of Moscow and nearly cost the Soviets the war. The extensive use in this study of neglected source material in the German archives helps resolve the long-standing debate over whether Stalin's foreign policy was one of expansionism or appeasement.

Combining practical and theoretical approaches, this book addresses the political, legal and economic implications of maritime disputes in East Asia. The maritime disputes in East Asia have multiplied over the past few years, in parallel with the economic growth of the countries in the region, the rise of nationalist movements, fears and sometimes fantasies regarding the emergence of the People's Republic of China (PRC) as a global power, increasing military expenses, as well as speculations regarding the potential resources in various disputed islands. These disputes, however, are not new and some have been the subject of contention and the cause of friction for decades, if not centuries in a few cases. Offering a robust analysis, this volume explores disputes through the different lenses of political science, international law, history and geography, and introduces new approaches in particular to the four important disputes concerning Dokdo/Takeshima, Senkaku/Diaoyu, Paracels and Spratlys. Utilising a comparative approach, this book identifies transnational trends that occur in the different cases and, therefore, at the regional level, and aims to understand whether the resurgence of maritime disputes in East Asia may be studied on a case by case basis, or should be analysed as a regional phenomenon with common characteristics. This book will be of interest to students of Asian Politics, Maritime Security, International Security, Geopolitics and International Relations in general.

The 1640s were one of the most exciting and bloody decades in British and Irish history. This book interweaves the narrative threads in each theater of conflict to provide an "holistic" account and analysis of the wars in and between England, Scotland, and Ireland from the Covenanter Rebellion to the execution of Charles I. Using a wide range of original and secondary sources, the author offers a challenging new interpretation of political structure and dynamics in the warring Stuart kingdoms.

Due to the increase of security challenges in the proximity of Europe, the prominence of the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has augmented. This book is a systematic effort to empirically approach the democratic deficit of CSDP, to understand its social construction and propose ways to remedy it. The book uses Foucault's approach of governmentality to unravel the social construction of this deficit and to illuminate the power relations between the different actors participating in CSDP governance and the constraints upon them. Finally, applying the normative reading of agonistic democracy, the author suggests concrete ways for EU citizens to have a say in the political choices of statesmanship in CSDP governance. The Democratic Quality of European Security and Defence Policy will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of EU foreign and security policy and more broadly of European governance, European Politics and democracy.

Why do the combat capabilities of individual soldiers vary so much? This book seeks to provide an answer to this and other questions about variability in combat performance. Some soldiers flee quickly from the battlefield, while others endure all hardships until the bitter end. Some combat units can perform numerous types of missions, while others cannot keep themselves organized during peacetime. Some militaries armed with obsolete weapons have out fought enemies with the latest weapons, just as some massively outnumbered armies have beaten back much larger opponents. In this first social scientific study of the effectiveness of combat troops, Newsome evaluates competing explanations for the varying combat capabilities and performances. There are four main explanations, each emphasizing the influence of a single factor. The first focuses on material endowments. How well funded are the troops? Do they have the latest protective gear and the most advanced weaponry? Second, some analysts claim that democracies produce better commanders, superior strategies, more motivated personnel, or better-managed personnel; others, however, associated those characteristics with more authoritarian forms of government. Third is the idea that giving more power to the troops on the ground in individual combat units empowers them with decision-making capability and adaptability to fast-changing situations and circumstances. Newsome presents evidence that decentralized personnel management does correlate with superior combat performance. Fourth, soldier capabilities and performance often are assumed to reflect intrinsic attributes, such as prior civilian values. Newsome argues that the capabilities ofcombat soldiers are acquired through military training and other forms of conditioning, but he does not entirely discount the role of a soldier's individual character. In the age-old nature vs. nurture argument, he finds that intrinsic qualities do count, but that extrinsic factors, such as training and environment, matter even more.

Can NATO survive? The stimulating and highly original essays contained in this volume provide important new insights into why the treaty organization was formed, how it developed, and what it has contributed both to the security and to the integration of Europe. The authors examine NATO as a strong and intricate webbing holding together the nations of Europe as well as binding them to the United States as guarantor of free world stability. This book is essential to the re-examination now under way of NATO's role in the radically different post-Cold War world.

Exploring the experiences of children encountering war and armed conflict, this book draws upon history, ethnography, sociology, literature, media studies, psychology, public policy, and other disciplines to address children as soldiers, refugees, and peace-builders within their social, cultural, and political contexts.

"The greatest threat to the U.S.'s homeland security is not a terrorist attack with a dirty bomb; it is an unexpected nuclear Pearl Harbor." - Author "Taiwan's democratic achievement and vision of the future . . . are consistent with the American experience. Will Beijing eventually follow such a course? Decisions are still to be made, and there are limits to how effectively the U.S. can influence these decisions. But we can and we must continue to support Taiwan. Its security is ultimately our security. Of that we can be sure." - the late Congressman Gerald B. H. Solomon Li explains how America's security hinges on Taiwan's survival as an independent democracy.

A discussion of the radical alteration of the character of American society caused by World War II. The war redefined the relationship of government to the individual and of individuals to each other, and it posed questions about the relationship between civilians and the military, between liberty and security, between special interests and national purpose.

In Shaping U.S. Military Forces, D. Robert Worley assesses military force changes that have been made since the Cold War, explains the many changes that have not been made, and recommends changes that must be made—as well as exploring the ways in which political and military forces line up to resist them. For over forty years there was consensus about maintaining large U.S. military forces. Today, as evidenced by the steady decline in defense spending since 1985, that consensus has evaporated, and a new equilibrium is being sought. Yet evidence of transformation is modest. By outward appearances, today's military is principally a smaller version of our Cold War forces, despite the fact that threat, missions, and strategies have changed. There has been no lack of reform effort at the highest levels of the defense bureaucracy. Under the leadership of General Colin Powell, the Joint Chiefs of Staff reexamined the roles and missions of the services. Recommendations followed. But, according to observers, change occurred only at the margins. Worley argues that the highly institutionalized cultures of the uniformed services offer the best explanation for why the American military is not a different force well over a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Significant historical events, primarily from World War II forward, are used to explain belief systems within the individual services and sometimes within specific branches within a single service. Force planners commonly measure military end strength in terms of divisions, wings, and battle groups. Therefore, Worley examines the most important organizational structures—armored and infantry divisions, fighter and bomber wings, and carrier battle groups—and does so in the context of conflicts, including Vietnam, the Gulf War, Panama, Kosovo, and Somalia, and of course the unfinished conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. He highlights problems associated with the clash of service conceptions of war and the requirements of real conflict to examine the shape U.S. military forces have—and the shape they should assume.

Although numerous biographies have been written about Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, none has offered a careful examination of his three-year command of the allied occupation army in France between 1815 and 1818. In this work, Thomas Dwight Veve fully details Wellington's last active military posting, exploring the major role he played not only as an officer but also as a statesman. In doing so, he demonstrates that Wellington's command was not simply the final chapter in a successful military career, but rather an important transition to his future political endeavors. Veve describes the complete history of the allied occupation, from the peace negotiations and establishment of an occupying force, to the Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle and the departure of the allies. The full range of Wellington's duties and accomplishments are examined, including his inspection of the crucial Dutch barrier fortress renovation program and his decisions regarding troop reductions and the final termination of occupation. Also cited is Wellington's extraordinary management of what was the first multinational peacekeeping operation, his ability to maintain neutrality for the army, and the many years of stability and peace that followed his assignment. This book will be an essential reference work for students and scholars of military history, British history, and political science, as well as for college, university, and public libraries.

"The distinguished Pakistani scholar, . . . provides a work that invites comparison with the Turkish situation since before World War II."
--" The Journal of Military History"

"The study sheds light on three domestic pressures facing Pakistan: militarization, secularization, and Islamic fundamentalism."
--"Middle East Journal"

To the north an extended civil war in Afghanistan fuelled by arms from Russia and the US. To the west a fundamentalist Islamic region in Iran with links to international terrorism. To the northeast a secessionist guerilla war in Kashmir. To the east, India, with which Pakistan has fought two wars in forty years. In these volatile circumstances, Pakistan's armed forces continue to play an important role both internally and externally.

Since their creation out of the communal violence of partition at the end of WWII, the armed forces of Pakistan have played a central role in the Pakistan state, periodically usurping the civil authority and ruling in its own right. The Armed Forces of Pakistan describes the nature of Pakistan's defense capabilities and the forces which will shape them in the twenty-first century. It surveys the forces locked in conflict over the nuclear option and examines the three internal pressures Pakistan continues to face--militarization, secularization, and Islamic fundamentalism.

Master Sergeant Gordon L. Ewell is a combat engineer and expert in the tactics and techniques the enemy used in Iraq to assemble, disguise, and detonate deadly improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He became part of the first special two-solider team whose mission was to find and render safe the IEDs, before they could unleash their deadly force upon other soldiers, convoys, civilians, and local civilian commuters during the War in Iraq. He performed fifty-nine dangerous missions, coauthored a first-of-its-kind manual used for the training of special teams that would have the mission of finding IEDs, was "blown-up" six different times, and saved countless lives. He received the Bronze Star Medal for "demonstrating personal courage and conviction on multiple occasions by continually performing his duties while under enemy attack," and the Purple Heart Medal for "wounds received while engaged in combat" during the war. Though permanently disabled, he continues to fight. A Lifetime at War is more than just an incredible and inspiring personal account of his road to recovery. Once again Ewell is using his expertise and experience-this time to help wounded warriors navigate the hell of recovery. He helps us all to understand that while the War in Iraq may have ended on December 15, 2011, for the thousands of soldiers severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, their war will never end.