After the end of the Cold War, it seemed as if Southeast Asia would remain a geopolitically stable region within the American imperious for the foreseeable future. In the last two decades, however, the re-emergence of China as a major great power has called into question the geopolitical future of the region and raised the specter of renewed of great power competition. As the eminent China scholar David Shambaugh explains in Where Great Powers Meet, the United States and China are engaged in a broad-gauged and global competition for power. While this competition ranges across the entire world, it is centered in Asia, and in this book, Shambaugh focuses the ten countries that comprise Southeast Asia. The United States and China constantly vie for position and influence in this enormously significant region-and the outcome of this contest will do much to determine whether Asia leaves the American orbit after seven decades and falls into a new Chinese sphere of influence. Just as importantly, to the extent that there is a global "power transition" occurring from the US to China, the fate of Southeast Asia will be a good indicator. Presently, both powers bring important assets to bear. The US continues to possess a depth and breadth of security ties, soft power, and direct investment across the region that empirically outweigh China's. For its part, China has more diplomatic influence, much greater trade, and geographic proximity. In assessing the likelihood of a regional power transition, Shambaugh at how ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the countries within it maneuver between the United States and China and the degree to which they align with one or the other power. Not simply an analysis of the region's place within an evolving international system, Where Great Powers Meet provides us with a comprehensive strategy that advances the American position while exploiting Chinese weaknesses.

During her childhood, Lee Summers came to realize what a special father she had in Henry Sonnenfeld, a former US Marine. He instilled discipline and commitment in her, and he taught her about sacrifice, heroism, and patriotism. Best of all, he had wonderful bedtime stories. Never Anticipate the Command is the first in a series to share Henry's remarkable stories of being a US Marine during World War II and the Korean War. As told through his daughter, Henry reveals how, as a young man from New Jersey, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps after Pearl Harbor and fought the Japanese in the brutal Pacific campaign. Henry relates those first few harrowing days as a marine and the grueling training regimen on Parris Island. With remarkably vivid details, he recounts life on the island of Bougainville; tells the tale of his island pet, a womp-cat named Bougie Sam; and describes watching Pappy Boyington's Black Sheep Squadron perform. Never Anticipate the Command recalls an era when men rose to action to protect their country. It shows how one man in particular served God, his country, and his family-in that order.

Does class rank really matter? Q: What do you call the person who's last in their class in medical or law school? A: Doctor or Lawyer. Q: And, what do you call the person who's last in their class at West Point, Annapolis or the U.S. Air Force Academy? A: Lieutenant or Ensign. Same Date of Rank salutes 17 men and three women grads at the top and bottom, representing the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. They range from the "goat" or last man in West Point's Class of 1942, who was the first man in his class promoted to Brigadier General, to a 1999 Annapolis All-American rugby player who has served three tours in Iraq in the Marine Corps. Read about combat leaders, admirals, astronauts, pilots, ship captains, business leaders, an historian, logistics expert, mayor, teacher and software guru. The book also provides class ranks of many famous academy grads from George Pickett and George Armstrong Custer (lasts) to Robert E. Lee and Douglas MacArthur (2nd and 1st) as well as Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, John McCain, and Jim Webb plus athletes like Roger Staubach of the NFL and David Robinson of the NBA. And, it includes timely information about how to apply to each of the three academies, too.

When Howard D. Linson joined the U.S. Army at 18 in 1998, wanting to serve his country, he never could have anticipated the ordeal he would face. During his nine-year career he experienced continuous harassment and violence for being a bisexual soldier, which nearly cost him his life. Throughout Linson's enlistment, the issue of gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) people in the military was governed by the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (DADT), which was repealed in December 2010. It allowed all citizens to join regardless of sexual orientation, as long as they did not reveal their sexual identities. As a result, DADT put Linson and other GLB soldiers in a maddeningly ambiguous situation-they could serve as long as they lived a secret life. And while the law changed the military's policies, it did not change the army's entrenched hatred, ignorance, and bigotry about GLB soldiers. The Untold Truth "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is Linson's harrowing account of surviving a nightmare world of ignorance, paranoia, and oppression, where your greatest enemy is your comrade in arms.

For Rich Bishop, reporting to basic training for the US Navy was reminiscent of Dorothy leaving Kansas and ending up in Oz. The transition from civilian to navy life overwhelmed Bishop. In "Nuts to Butts," he narrates excerpts of his twenty-two-year career-from basic training to retirement.

In this memoir, Bishop tells of meeting a wide assortment of people and the problems they brought with them. He shares the good and not-so-good times of serving in the fleet, including dealing with the loss of privacy, becoming a team member, and keeping US warships in mission-ready condition and the crews in shape to play the mental games required in an examination- and deployment-laden schedule. "Nuts to Butts" describes living through basic training, working in the scullery of an aircraft carrier, serving duty as shore patrol, visiting exotic ports of call for liberty, climbing a plateau with shear vertical sides in Sri Lanka, living on the naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and making night dives among the sharks.

Bishop provides keen insight into the life of a sailor, delivered with humor. He not only fondly remembers his service, but preserves the stories for all.

"What next?" The Colonel asked. Chief Master Sergeant George T. Graham, Jr. stood beside the Colonel. "This will not be good," he thought. "What next?" The Colonel asked, noting no one had heard him the first time. "He shot her." Sergeant Lucas confessed, abruptly, interrupting the Colonel as if he anticipated the question. He did. He had witnessed the event. "It's that simple. He shot her...she was....very...she was very...pretty." Sergeant Lucas collected himself. Or so we thought. His eyes welled up with emotion. He glanced at Chief Graham. .."..and then he...after a very brief and...very........... quiet....argument," Sergeant Lucas continued in an uncollected tone. "There was an argument. An argument that nearly nobody - nobody - witnessed or in any way took seriously.... Why would we?" The young sergeant took another breath and pressed ahead with his story. "He stood there. Diego Gianelli stood there. He pulled out a large pistol. A LARGE pistol," Lucas emphasized. "And he shot her.....point blank......what a mess " "What next?" The Colonel asked again. "What next?" Lucas repeated. Chief Graham nodded toward Lucas to continue. Lucas continued as ordered.

Firefight is a compilation of Rick Kurelo's personal accounts as a professional firefighter in Canada and as a Canadian Forces soldier in Afghanistan and Bosnia. Ninety-seven stories and forty-five photos document Rick's experiences at scenes of chaos and conflict, where he and his teams encounter one dangerous scenario after another. They convey the deadly tensions, pressures and risks that can arise at any moment, as well as the poignant human connections that often occur. Firefight is a memoir that brings to life the human experience - the tragic, touching and humorous - that we all share.

This Book attempts to deduce regulatory standards that can close the gaps between the Promises made and the Outcomes secured by the United Nations in relation to its use of force. It explores two broad questions in this regard: why the contemporary legal framework relevant to the regulation of force during Armed Conflict cannot close the gaps between the said Promises and Outcomes and how the 'Unified Use of Force Rule' formulated herein, achieves this. This is the first book to coherently analyse the moral as well as legal aspects relevant to UN use of force. UN peace operations are rapidly changing. Deployed peacekeepers are now required to use force in pursuance of numerous objectives such as self-defence, protecting civilians, and carrying out targeted offensive operations. As a result, questions about when, where, and how to use force have now become central to peacekeeping. While UN peace operations have managed to avoid catastrophes of the magnitude of Rwanda and Srebrenica for over two decades, crucial gaps still exist between what the UN promises on the use of force front, and what it achieves. Current conflict zones such as the Central African Republic, Eastern Congo, and Mali stand testament to this. This book searches for answers to these issues and identifies how an innovative mix of the relevant legal and moral rules can produce regulatory standards that can allow the UN to keep their promises. The discussion covers analytical ground that must be traversed 'behind the scenes' of UN deployment, well before the first troops set foot on a battlefield. The analysis ultimately produces a 'Unified Use of Force Rule', that can either be completely or partially used as a model set of Rules of Engagement by UN forces. This book will be immensely beneficial to law students, researchers, academics and practitioners in the fields of international relations, international law, peacekeeping, and human rights.

Being transformed from a civilian life to that of a 'uniform' one never came easy; and when the transformation was in an officer-training institution, only the strongest and the best survived. For a First Term Officer Cadet in the Nigerian Defence Academy during my time, that experience was more like the 'survival of the fittest'.