The vicious urban battle for the insurgent-controlled city of Fallujah in November 2004 was a turning point in the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq. It demonstrated the resolve of the Iraqi government to fight terrorists domestically, using both multinational and Iraqi forces, and its results included a returning population willing to vote in national elections held in January 2005. Ballard tells the story of the Fallujah campaign, beginning with the horrific deaths of the American Blackwater contractors in March 2004 and continuing through the battle, the painstaking reconstruction of the city, and the precedent-setting elections that followed. Based on first-person accounts, interviews, and official documents, this book gives readers rare insight into the significant actions and innovative techniques of the year-long fight for the city. Opening with a historical overview of the initial crisis in Fallujah and the similar coalition battle in Najaf, the book includes a detailed account of the planning and execution of the operation to retake the city. Finally, it describes the political and military lessons proven in Fallujah, including coalition force integration, information operations, urban combat techniques, interagency coordination and innovative reconstruction procedures. This is the story of real combat in Iraq--told in a way every American should understand.

This book examines the complex and under-researched relationship between recruitment experiences and reintegration outcomes for child soldiers. It looks at time spent in the group, issues of cohesion, identification, affiliation, membership and the post demobilization experience of return, and resettlement.

Initiated into Latin America via the revolutionary turmoil of the Dominican Republic in 1965, Sewall ("Stu") Menzel began an adventure into Latino politics and the struggle for power, wealth and influence throughout the region, which would further take him from one trouble-spot to another. Whether it was confronting revolutionaries in the Caribbean, multiple guerrilla threats in Central America, drug traffickers in the Andes Mountains, or recalcitrant dictators, the author brings the reader onto the stage of Latino politics as he experienced it from 1965 to 1989. In this unvarnished presentation of conflict and revolution in the Americas, Colonel Menzel offers a succinct critical analysis of U.S. policy and operations against a historical backdrop of the times. While the United States has always maintained a special relationship with Latin America, the region has been a difficult milieu to deal with in its complexity. Washington's Cold War experience in Latin America amply demonstrates this truth as its attempts to influence regional politics constantly ran up against competing and countervailing values and cultures. As such, the author points out how U.S. national security interests constantly butted heads with and often worked at cross-purposes with the need for human rights-based socio-economic and political reforms. The primary lesson learned from the overall experience is that America needs to know not only what it is against, but also what it is for if it wants to have a lasting positive impact on Latin America. Colonel Menzel's personal experiences and observations involving the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Panama amply illustrate the point.

Warfare in the exotic world of the early days of Britain's Indian Empire. In the early years of the nineteenth century as Napoleon's French Army dominated Europe the British empire continued with its expansion of power on the Indian Sub-Continent. There, a young general-Arthur Wellesley-who would soon become the Duke of Wellington fought his formative battles-including the one which he would always cite as his hardest fought victory at Assaye. The enemy were the formidable Marathas-one of the pre-eminent martial races of India. Wellington was not alone in this pivotal war for Indian domination. His rising, bright star has always overshadowed the campaigns of Gerard Lake-an accomplished fighting leader of British soldiers now close to the end of his career. Often neglected by historians and students alike, Lake's Indian campaign was fought against a resourceful and ruthless enemy-almost always superior in numbers to his own forces. Commanding an army of a few British regular cavalry and infantry regiments, together with elements of the Honourable East India Company's own army, Lake fought hard battles and invested strongly held fortresses. In this book the reader will discover the mighty strongholds of Aligarh, Agra and Deeg, Lakes own Assaye-Laswari, and the slaughter which was the attempt on the nearly impregnable stronghold of Bhurtpur. Lake appears with a host of colourful supporting characters-Perron and other mercenary 'freelancers', James Skinner and his 'Yellow Boys' irregular cavalry, the incompetent Colonel Monson and Holkar-the despotic and cruel Maratha leader himself.

THE AUTUMN MAN The spell binding memoirs of Albert Slugocki. Displaced from his native Poland because of his hatred of the communist government. He served his adopted country faithfully with honor and distinction for 21 years in peace and war as a combat arms soldier obtaining the rank of Sargeant Major - an acheivement of its own. Albert fought in Korea and Vietnam and participated in other clandestine missions in Southeast Asia and Europe. Wounded several times, he continued to serve until his retirement. Albert met his wife Margaret, a sister of a fellow Special Forces soldier and a good friend while both were recovering from combat wounds at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. After being medically discharged from the U.S. Marshal's Service, he began to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.). Albert seeks refuge in the Amazonian jungles of South America - Peru. He gave of himself both physically and mentally by devoting his life's time and efforts helping the native Indians who live near the banks of the mighty Amazon River and in the remote jungle villages with medical aid. Their latest ambition is the building and staffing of a clinic-hospital that will provide the only medical services in these remote areas. Project Amazonas continues to actively recruit Medical Doctors and Dentists and other medical professionals to volunteer their services with the organization in Peru Albert continues to support Project Amazonas and a percentage of the procedes from the sale of his book will be dedicated to the Project.

Intellectual historians generally view the Enlightenment as a pacifist or anti-war movement. Military historians typically consider 18th century military thinkers as backward-looking and inept. Speelman challenges the views of both groups through a consideration of the writings of Henry Lloyd, a soldier and Welsh "philosophe" who combined enlightened thought and military experience to distill a distinct theory of war. Based on previously unused or underutilized primary materials, this is the first biography of this key enlightenment thinker who advanced the general understanding of war as it existed in his day.

Lloyd wrote a multivolume history of the Seven Years' War from which he derived the Principles of War; a treatise on economics that prefigured the liberal theories of Adam Smith; a rhapsody on the invasion and defense of Great Britain; and finally an anonymous critique of the English constitution that he used to demand political and electoral reform. Overall, he argued for the reform of military institutions and practices through breaking from custom and traditional norms. In his works, Lloyd examined warfare within the larger context of secular philosophy and human society; and, thus, he personified the link between the military society and the Enlightenment that historians often ignore or discount.

Ten years after the end of the Gulf War, the conflict continues with unresolved questions about economic sanctions and IraQ's participation in the oil export system. A specialist in Middle Eastern politics and an intelligence officer, Pelletiere covered the Iran-Iraq War as well as the subsequent Gulf conflict. He argues that IraQ's victory over Iran in 1988 gave the nation the capability of becoming a regional superpower with a strong say in how the Gulf's oil reserves were managed. Because the United States could not tolerate an ultranationalist state with the potential to destabilize the world's economy, war then became inevitable.

This study examines the rise of the international oil system from the 1920s when the great cartel was formed. Comprised of seven companies, it was designed to ensure their continued control over the world's oil supplies. When the companies lost control with the OPEC revolution in 1973, the United States moved into the realm of Gulf politics with the goal of protecting the world economy. Pelletire details how Saddam Hussein unwillingly precipitated the Gulf crisis and why the conflict is not likely to be resolved soon-or peacefully.

After the Cold War, Africa earned the dubious distinction of being the world's most bloody continent. But how can we explain this proliferation of armed conflicts? What caused them and what were their main characteristics? And what did the world's governments do to stop them?

In addressing these and other questions, Paul Williams offers the first comparative assessment of more than two hundred armed conflicts which took place in Africa between 1990 and 2009 - from the continental catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the environmental disaster in the Niger Delta and mass atrocities in the Sudan. Taking a broad comparative approach to examine the political contexts in which these wars occurred, he explores the key ingredients that provoked them and the major international responses undertaken to deliver lasting peace.

Part I, Contexts provides an overview of the most important attempts to measure the number and scale of Africa's armed conflicts and provides a conceptual and political sketch of the terrain of struggle upon which these wars were waged.

Part II, Ingredients analyses the role of five widely debated features of Africa's wars: the dynamics of neopatrimonial systems of governance; the construction and manipulation of ethnic identities; questions of sovereignty and self-determination; as well as the impact of natural resources and religion.

Part III, Responses, discusses four major international reactions to Africa's wars: attempts to build a new institutional architecture to help promote peace and security on the continent; this architecture's two main policy instruments, peacemaking initiatives and peacekeeping operations; and efforts to develop the continent.

"War and Conflict in Africa" will be essential reading for all students of international peace and security studies as well as Africa's international relations.

This reference work provides sources on national service and AmeriCorps from a wide range of perspectives and disciplines, including education, public policy, political science, and public administration. Part 1 deals with background information on national service from the 1960s to 1992, including the 1992 presidential campaign. The crucial year 1993, when national service legislation was proposed and passed and AmeriCorps was named, is covered in Part 2. The implementation of the National Community Service Trust Act in 1994 is covered in Part 3. Part 4, covering 1995, reflects a reassessment of the program by the new Republican majority in Congress. Each section of the work includes books, dissertations, government documents, and, primarily, serial literature. A brief appendix accessing resources on the Internet is also included.

What is the role of peace support operations in managing non-traditional crises? This is the central focus of Sloan's analysis of peacekeeping and the changing nature of the international community's involvement in Bosnia following the outbreak of civil war in 1992. The key players in this drama are three institutions-the European Union, NATO, and the United Nations-and five major powers, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States. Sloan examines their actions and undertakings through the prism of several perspectives, including the peacekeeping, peacemaking, peace enforcement, and peace building dimensions. This study advances current thinking on peacekeeping and related operations by distinguishing key characteristics of the forms of operation and indicating how they best relate to one another. It also challenges the notion that the international response to conflict in Bosnia was haphazard or confused, suggesting instead that the international community's actions can be readily understood as a reflection of the evolution of great power interests. The overall effect is to shed light on two timely, complex, and interrelated subjects. The reader comes away with a clear understanding of what went wrong (and right) and why in Bosnia, and what lessons the experience holds for the future. This is must reading for military and peacekeeping planners and for scholars and researchers in the fields of strategic studies, international security, and international relations.

Rogel, a leading U.S. specialist on Yugoslavia and the war in Bosnia, examines the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, the war in Bosnia, the peace settlement, and the problems that continue to exist in Bosnia and Serbia today. She provides information and analysis to help students understand the collapse of Tito's Yugoslavia, the causes and effects of the ensuing war, and the aftermath of the conflicts. Seven essays analyze the crisis, including two that focus on the aftermath of a decade strained with conflict and war, and the current conditions in the former Yugoslavia. Ready reference features include: A timeline of events Lengthy biographical sketches of Yugoslav leaders and Western diplomats Primary documents A glossary of selected terms An annotated bibliography of recommended further reading, films, documentaries, and Web sites

This volume examines the state of the art in modern military history, and the utility of the subject as a training, educational, and policy-relevant tool for professional armed forces. Part 1 explores the state of military historical writing in Britain and the United States, and on specific topics, such as air warfare, naval warfare, intelligence, low-intensity conflict, and the most recent trends in the New Military History. Part 2 illustrates the utility of the historical method in analyzing command decisions, providing an institutional memory for a wide range of policy, command, and operational problems, and its application in specific subjects such as naval strategy, and by certain countries (the US, Germany, and the Soviet Union) in the search for lessons and fundamental principles. The contributing authors represent an impressive cross-section of prominent academic and official historians recognized as leading scholars in the study of military history. The Foreword is written by Anne N. Foreman, Undersecretary of the United States Air Force.

This book will be of interest to the academic and the official historian (and their students) and to military professionals.