It has long been acknowledged that the study of war and warfare demands careful consideration of technology, institutions, social organization, and more. But, for some, the so-called "war and society" approach increasingly included everything but explained nothing, because it all too often seemed to ignore the events on the battlefield itself. The military historians in Warfare and Culture in World History return us to the battlefield, but they do so through a deep examination of the role of culture in shaping military institutions and military choices. Collected here are some of the most provocative recent efforts to analyze warfare through a cultural lens, drawing on and aggressively expanding traditional scholarship on war and society through sophisticated cultural analysis. With chapters ranging from an organizational analysis of American Civil War field armies to the soldiers' culture of late Republican Rome and debates within Ming Chinese officialdom over extermination versus pacification, this one volume provides a full range of case studies of how culture, whether societal, strategic, organizational, or military, could shape not only military institutions but also actual battlefield choices.

Transformation has become a buzz word in today's military, but what are its historical precursors--those large scale changes that were once called Revolutions in Military Affairs (RMA)? Who has gotten it right, and who has not? The Department of Defense must learn from history. Most studies of innovation focus on the actions, choices, and problems faced by individuals in a particular organization. Few place these individuals and organizations within the complex context where they operate. Yet, it is this very context that is a powerful determinant of how actions are conceived, examined, and implemented, and of how errors are identified and corrected. The historical cases that Mandeles examines reveal how different military services organized to learn, accumulate, and retrieve knowledge; and how their particular organization affected everything from the equipment they acquired to the quality of doctrine and concepts used in combat. In cases where more than one community of experts was responsible for weighing in on decisionmaking, the service benefited from enhanced application of evidence, sound inference, and logic. These cases demonstrate that, for senior leadership, participating in such a system should be a strategic and deliberate choice. In each of the cases featured in this book, no such deliberate choice was made. The interwar U.S. Navy (USN) aviation community and the U.S. Marine Corps amphibious operation community were lucky that, in a time of rapid technological advance and strategic risk, their decisions in framing and solving technological and operational problems were made within a functioning multi-organizational system. The Army Air Corps and the Royal Marines wereunfortunate, with corresponding results. It is characteristic of 20th-century military history that no senior civilian or military leader suggested a policy to handle overlapping responsibilities by multiple departments. Today's policymakers have not learned this lesson. In the present time, while a great deal of thought is devoted to proper organizational design and the numbers of persons required to perform necessary functions, there is still no overarching framework guiding these designs.

China's rise to global economic and strategic eminence, with the potential for achieving pre-eminence in the greater-Asian region, is one of the defining characteristics of the post-Cold War period. This work offers a basic understanding of the military-strategic basis and trajectory of a rising China, provides background, and outlines current and future issues concerning China's rise in strategic-military influence.

The next decade may witness China's assertion of military or strategic pressure on Japan, the Korean Peninsula, India, the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, Central Asia, or even on behalf of future allies in Africa and Latin America. While conflict is not a foregone conclusion, as indicated by China's increasing participation in many benign international organizations, it is a fact that China's leadership will pursue its interests as it sees them, which may not always coincide with those of the United States, its friends, and allies.

Until now, no single volume has existed that provides an authoritative, comprehensive, and concise description of China's evolving geo-strategy or of how China is transforming its military to carry out this strategy. Fisher examines how China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) remains critical to the existence of the Chinese Communist government and looks at China's political and military actions designed to protect its expanded strategic interests in both the Asia-Pacific and Central to Near-Asian regions. Using open sources, including over a decade of unique interview sources, Fisher documents China's efforts to build a larger nuclear force that may soon be protected by missile defenses, modern high technology systems for space, air, and naval forces, and how China is now beginning to assemble naval, air, and ground forces for future power projection missions. His work also examines how the United States and other governments simultaneously seek greater engagement with China on strategic concerns, while hedging against its rising power. Although China faces both internal and external constraints on its rise to global eminence, it cannot be denied that China's government is pursuing a far-reaching strategic agenda.

In volume, an emerging generation of African scholars examines specific states in Africa where instability is the order of the day. Considerations of African instability are highly relevant in today's world, where one examines the types of regimes that were put in place after the Cold War and their effects on Africa. Multiparty systems introduced in Africa, rather than bringing about inclusive governance, allowed for the emergence of religious strife, ethnic conflict, and cronyism inscribed in the continent's "politicalscapes." The economics of exclusivity fueled by globalization have decisively contributed to the emergence of non-state actors claiming sovereignty in sovereign states. From Libya's implosion to the low-key war in Mozambique to the crisis of climate change, there are many variables that make stability a mirage on the continent. Widespread terrorism implies that for the foreseeable future, the continent may be a theater of crises. Regime change, as seen in Libya, Ivory Coast, and Liberia, not only increases instability in the states concerned, but has and will have spill over effects in adjacent states. Boko Haram's activities in Nigeria, which ought to be an internal matter of the Abuja government, for instance, are having negative effects in Chad, Niger, and Cameroon. The effect on food production, disputed access to farmland, and daily challenges faced by food producers are instances of underdevelopment perpetuated by climate change and other challenges considered in this timely book.

This book fills an important gap in the literature of modern warfare by focusing on random elements in warfare often overlooked in both the planning and execution of military operations—factors that can turn certain success into devastating failure. By definition, the unforeseeable cannot be seen, but one way to bring more variables under consideration when planning a military action is to review those instances where the unforeseeable changed everything. For professionals and enthusiasts alike, Imponderable But Not Inevitable: Warfare in the 20th Century does just that, reviewing specific instances in 20th-century warfare when things did not go according to plan. Imponderable but Not Inevitable uses case studies to expose the "Inevitability Syndrome," exploring the role of luck, fate, and randomness in influencing both victory and defeat. In essays drawn from World War II, Konfrontasi, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War, a distinguished set of military experts looks at real scenarios of inexplicable losses, illustrating why nothing—nothing—should be taken for granted in war.

Routledge Library Editions: Revolution in England examines the turbulent times that led to the English revolution and civil war as new political and religious ideas led to the overthrow of the king and establishment of a republic. Modern ideas of democracy were established then, and are analysed here in a series of books that look at the various radical sects such as the Nonjurors and Levellers that espoused new political thought and ways of living.

Detailing the life and legacy of one of America's highest profile military commanders, this biography looks at how Ridgway maintained his corporatist ideals through the critical days of World War II and the Cold War. The qualities that Ridgway honed on the battlefields of Europe and Korea were the same that he would draw upon in more politicized jobs as NATO commander and US Army Chief of Staff, and in retirement as the leading military critic of American intervention in Vietnam. The global scope of Ridgway's involvement, in wartime and peacetime, from Europe to Latin American to the Far East, provides a unique opportunity to examine the policy and ideological issues of the day. Early chapters chronicle Ridgway's younger life and early postings from West Point to China to Sandino's Nicaragua, and his participation in various campaigns during World War II, from Sicily to Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge and on into Germany. Later chapters cover his work as a military diplomat under President Truman, including his work on arms control and the Inter-American Cooperation Act. Soffer then examines Ridgway's key role in the Korean War and his ability as a theater commander, and then considers his actions under President Eisenhower and beyond, as well as Ridgway's active support for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. This work will prove valuable to students of military history and the Cold War.

Based on a decade of research in Indonesia, this book provides an in-depth account of the military's struggle to adapt to the new democratic system after the downfall of Suharto's authoritarian regime in 1998. Unlike other studies of the Indonesian armed forces, which focus exclusively on internal military developments, Mietzner's study emphasizes the importance of conflicts among civilians in determining the extent of military involvement in political affairs. Analysing disputes between Indonesia's main Muslim groups, Mietzner argues that their intense rivalry between 1998 and 2004 allowed the military to extend its engagement in politics and protect its institutional interests. The stabilization of the civilian polity after 2004, in contrast, has led to an increasing marginalization of the armed forces from the power centre. Drawing broader conclusions from these events for Indonesia's ongoing process of democratic consolidation, the book shows that the future role of the armed forces in politics will largely depend on the ability of civilian leaders to maintain functioning democratic institutions and procedures.

The Peninsular War and Waterloo told in an ordinary British infantryman's own words
Young Dorset-man William Lawrence had no appetite to be apprenticed to an abusive builder. He attempted to sign on as a sailor bound for Newfoundland, but when that failed he launched himself into a military career in the 40th regiment of foot. He was now a red-coated infantryman of the British Army at a time when there would be years of continual war-first with Spain during the River Plate Expedition in South America and then in the Iberian peninsula fighting under the command of the Duke of Wellington against Napoleon's invading French army. Lawrence adapted well to the life of a soldier and was no angel. He stole, looted and absconded and had the marks of the lash on his back to show for it. Yet he was also the consummate soldier-a typical, tough, hard-fighting component of the army that could 'go anywhere and do anything'. He fought in most of the famous engagements of the Peninsular War including it's most bloody assault at Badajoz. After Napoleon's abdication Lawrence sailed to America, only to return in time for the momentous battle of Waterloo of which he gives us an often quoted account. This are Lawrence's entire recollections told in his own simple dispassionate style-essential as a memoir of the quintessential British infantryman on campaign during the Napoleonic Age.

After his graduation in 1941 from Canoga Park High School, Harry Carter wanted a career in aviation. He was accepted into the United States Navy as an aviation cadet and upon completion of flight training, became a commissioned officer in the US Navy thus beginning his thirty-one-year career as a naval aviator and a commanding officer of three warships and service in a diplomatic post as the Naval Attache to Pakistan.

Full of vivid historical details and anecdotes, The Life and Loves of a Untied States Naval Aviator charts Carter's professional and personal journey in the air and on the sea and in foreign lands. Carter shares his experiences of flying out of England and the Azores during World War II and hurricane hunting in the Caribbean. He takes you through his wartime days as a surface line officer operating off the coast of Korea and Vietnam in destroyers, a carrier, and a fleet oiler.

Carter, never one to turn down a pretty girl, met his match when, while attending a Navy program at the University of Southern California, he met and married the love of his life, Ellie. Carter returned to sea in command of the destroyer Durant and continued to have a career full of foreign intrigue and adventure-minus the ladies---until his retirement in 1973. Through four wars, several countries, and a lot of romance, Carter lived life to the fullest.

The Life and Loves of a United States Naval Aviator combines history, humor, and reflection to reveal one man's extraordinary life.