A much needed reference aid for the academic and national defense communities, this book provides a framework for the historical and comparative study of the military culture of Arab society. In sections considering warfare in Arab traditions, military roles in medieval Islam, and Arab armies in the modern age, each chapter's bibliography is preceded by a background essay, designed to assist researchers who are unfamiliar with the general outline of Arab history or the thematic bent of Arabic historiography. The work also includes a glossary and tables of Islamic dynasties. Written primarily for professors and students of comparative military history, national and service intelligence analysts, and students of Arab-Islamic or Middle Eastern history, this work will also be of use to the generalist historian.

The US military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan made use of private military and private security companies on an unprecedented scale. In this environment, actions and operations can greatly affect the efficacy of the US military - creating unintended diplomatic and tactical consequences. Lovewine provides a much-needed analysis of the interaction between commercial entities, military operations, and policy objectives.

Combat Medic shares Corporal Vernon L. Parker's first-person account of World War II. Parker, like many other young men drafted in WWII, was transported from a simple, hard-working life in rural America in 1942 to a complex, stressful environment that would forever change his life. Nothing could have prepared him for the experiences he encountered as a combat medic and ambulance driver with the Third Army, led by "Blood and Guts" General George S. Patton, Jr. Parker was part of the D-Day invasion. After landing at Normandy, he spent more than ten months on the front lines, supporting the armored divisions through five major campaigns in France, Luxembourg, and Germany. A gifted storyteller, Parker presents a self-deprecating narrative filled with keen insights and colorful descriptions of day-to-day life with fellow infantrymen, officers, civilians, and enemy soldiers. As his saga unfolds, it describes the transformation of a naive and cocky country boy into a battle-weary survivor struggling to maintain his dignity, compassion, and humanity. In Combat Medic, Parker demonstrates a startling recall of events from decades ago, including detailed descriptions of people, places, and even conversations-indicating just how much of an impact those war years had on him.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more than a local or regional dispute. Its ongoing and escalating nature increases the risk that the violence will spill over its present borders and contribute to both extremism and terrorism. While the Intifada from 1987 to 1993 was largely a popular uprising and a political struggle, the recent clash is a war with a steady escalation between conventional and unconventional forces. It is in the interest of all major powers, the international community, and the United Nations to press both sides to accept a realistic peace plan. Noted Middle East expert Anthony Cordesman details this continuing struggle by explaining the issues at stake for each side; the various combatants (both directly and indirectly engaged); as well as the course of the war in its various incarnations. The situation on the ground is complex and the quest for peace is ever more uncertain. If the Intifada was a struggle for recognition that a peace had to be reached that was just for both sides, the Israeli-Palestinian War has polarized both sides away from peace, convincing them of the justice of their own cause and tactics and the fundamental injustice of the other side's tactics and goals. Each side has used human rights, international law, and civilian casualties as political weapons. The history of a near century of conflict is used to justify war rather than a search for peace.

This work is a doctrinal examination of war termination strategy and conflict resolution as a dependent pair, requiring a plan to achieve both in unison in advance of a fight. The necessity of a plan for conflict resolution should be intuitively obvious for policymakers, yet a survey of recent conflicts, including Afghanistan and Iraq, shows that not to be the case. Beyond Guns and Steel: A War Termination Strategy provides a practical approach to establishing a plan for war termination and conflict resolution before the bullets fly. In explaining the difference between strategy and policy, Colonel Dominic J. Caraccilo clarifies the most important, and often the most constraining, element of a nation's power-its resources. He posits that termination strategy and conflict resolution are interdependent and need to be included in conflict plans from the outset. Caraccilo's book fills a void in current strategy for the development of long-term plans that bring conflicts to timely and acceptable conclusions, providing a methodology that allows interagency requirements and resources for war termination to be defined, allocated, and employed effectively. Examples taken from the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with models of war termination successes and failures to enhance the understanding of scenarios for possible resolution A full array of definitions offering clarity for the reader seeking to grasp the book's methodology for war termination Primary source documentation related to the author's seven combat deployments to the Middle East and over five years of personal involvement in combat and its aftermath. Vignettes from history dating from the Revolutionary War to the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq Sidebars offering relevant charts, graphs, and newspaper articles Examples of conflict resolution to enhance an understanding of war termination outcomes Firsthand accounts from various military officers in the form of Staff College manuscripts A robust listing of books, interviews, documents, and articles on war termination and conflict resolution theories

The war in Afghanistan is considered by most to be America's longest and least talked about war to date. After terrorists attacked the United States on 9/11, less than one percent of America's population answered our nation's call to serve in the Armed Forces. Even fewer Americans made the life choice to become United States Marines.

During this war, two Marine Corps platoon's were selected by their Battalion to fully integrate with two platoons of Afghanistan National Army Soldier's in order to create a Combined Action Company (CAC) capable of conducting sustained Counterinsurgency (COIN) operations throughout their Area of Operation's (AO) and adjacent battlespaces. Inside of this book, you will learn about one of those platoons and how they fought the Taliban during their deployment to the Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

In this memoir, Bodrog recalls how his platoon of Marines, Sailors and Afghan Soldiers lived, operated and fought in the Helmand Province, Afghanistan as part of the Combined Action Company. In doing so and translucently through the men under his command, the author attempts to immortalize every Marine, servicemen and civilian who sacrificed everything they had to ensure the survival of our great nation, while asking for nothing in return. The missions and stories mentioned in this memoir must never be forgotten or become a lost chapter in our nation's history.Discover what it's like to be one of the bold few who still fight for freedom and gain a deeper appreciation of the Marines and Sailors who served this great nation with Second Platoon: Call Sign Hades.

Readers discovered in 1995, with "The Devil's Adjutant" and in 1997 with STEEL INFERNO that Michael Reynolds' experience as a combat veteran and leader of soldiers, from platoon to mechanized division, informs his works with rare insight and realism. A rigorous, exacting researcher with an eye for telling drama, Reynolds is no armchair theoretician or chronicler of the minutes of High Command. He scrutinizes battles as they actually occurred - maelstroms of firepower, courage and flesh in which superior strength and combat skills were the sole, unvarnished factors in success.MEN OF STEEL follows Germany's largest remaining elite formation, 1 SS Panzer Corps, during the last five months of the World War II in Europe. Threatened with massive invasions from both the East and the West, in the last days of the Third Reich, Hitler opted to counter-attack. In December 1944 the Germans launched a last desperate offensive in the west, 1 SS Panzer Corps its cutting edge through the Ardennes in what became the greatest American battle since Gettysburg. After Anglo-American armies under Braadley, Patton and Montgomery had sealed off the Ardennes breakthrough, the panzer corps was transferred to mount an attack against the onrushing Soviets in the East. At Lake Balaton the 1 SS Panzer Corps waded into vastly superior Red Army forces in what became the last German offensive of the war.On both fronts the panzers were finally overwhelmed and the victors exulted in the annihilation of Nazi Germany. By examining in thorough detail the final death throes of Hitler's elite combat formations, Reynolds vividly illustrates the price of Allied victory, and why it was so difficult to achieve. Michael Reynoldsretired from the British Army with the rank of Major General in 1986. His last command was NATO's International Mobile Force, and he subsequently became Director of its Military Plans and Policy Commission. His previous two books, "The Devil's Adjutant" (1995) and "Steel Inferno" (1997) were released to international acclaim.

Huelfer examines the "casualty issue" in American military thought and practice during the years between the World Wars. He argues that Americans exhibited a distinct aversion to combat casualties duirng the Interwar Period, a phenomenon that visibly influenced the military establishment and helped shape strategic planning, force modernization, and rearmament for World War II. In a broad topical approach, Huelfer's main theme--casualty aversion--is woven into discussions about military strategy and policies, doctrinal and technological development, the military education system, and how the American officer corps emerged from World War I and prepared for World War II. As Huelfer makes clear, aversion to combat casualties is not just a post-Vietnam War phenomenon, but rather has long been embedded within the American national heritage. Conventional wisdom link today's exacerbated aversion to combat casualties as fallout from the Vietnam debacle. In fact, this "Vietnam Syndrome" has remained at the forefront of contemporary strategic thinking. Huelfer shows that American political and military leaders have held lasting concerns about risking soldiers' lives in combat, even pre-dating U.S. involvement in World War II. The grim experiences of World War I had a profound impact upon the U.S. officer corps and how it viewed potential future conflicts. The "casualty issue" permeated the officers' strategic culture during the Interwar Period and colored their thinking about improving training, doctrinal evolution, force modernization, and technological development. Even though one cannot find the terms "casualty issue," "casualty aversion," or "sensitivity to casualties" directly stated in thespeeches and writings of the era, this awareness clearly emerged as a subtext for the entire American effort in preparation for World War II. Huelfer highlights how casualty aversion shaped American strategy for World War II by incorporating ideas about the use of overwhelming force, air power, and mechanization--all designed to minimize losses.

Drawing from more than 120 newspapers, published between 1968 and 1970, this study explores the emergence of an anti-militarist subculture within the U.S. armed services. These activists took the position that individual GIs could best challenge their subordination by working in concert with like-minded servicemen through GI movement organizations whose behaviors and activities were then publicized in these underground newspapers. In examining this movement, Lewes focuses on their treatment of power and authority within the armed forces and how this mirrored the wider and more inclusive relations of power and authority in the United States. He argues that this opposition among servicemen was the primary motivation for the United States to withdraw from Vietnam. This first book length study of GI-published underground newspapers sheds light on the utility of alternative media for movements of social change, and provides information on how these movements are shaped by the environments in which they emerge. Lewes asserts that one cannot understand GI opposition as an extension of the civilian antiwar movement. Instead, it was the product of an embedded environment, whose inhabitants had been drafted or had enlisted to avoid the draft. They came from cities and small towns whose populations were often polarized between those who wholeheartedly supported the war and those who became progressively more critical of the need for Americans to be involved in Vietnam.

"It would have been inconceivable," wrote Henry Kissinger in his best-selling book "Diplomacy, ""that the architects of NATO would have seen as the end result of victory in the Cold War greater diversity within the Alliance." In "Twilight of the West, " Christopher Coker offers an interpretation of why the Western Alliance is in serious trouble and why it may have entered the twilight of its collective life.Divided into three parts, the book first looks at the cultural forces that brought the Western powers together in 1941 and prompted them to build an Atlantic Community. Where the Alliance failed, however, was in taking hold where it counted most--in the European imagination. The second part addresses the present-day consciousness of both Europe and the United States as they prepare for the twenty-first century. In the final section, Coker examines two key questions: whether the West can escape the undertow of violence that marks the end of the millennium and whether the challenges from East Asia and the Islamic world are of such magnitude that the West will have to reinvent itself.Throughout, Coker draws on a wide-ranging discussion of Western culture to understand the changes that are taking place in the Western world. Particular emphasis is placed on the changes in philosophy that helped shape the Alliance and its view of the rest of the world.

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.

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.

This book is a critical study of the concept of sovereignty and its relationship to responsibility. It establishes a clear distinction between empirical and normative definitions of sovereignty and examines the implications of these concepts in relation to intervention, international law, and the world state.

When in Henry II of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine of France in 1154 A.D., he became at once the reigning sovereign over a vast stretch of land extending across all of England and half of France—and yet, according to the feudal hierarchy of the times, a vassal to the King of France. This situation, which placed French and English borders in such a tenuous position, solidified the precarious ground on which the Hundred Years War was to be fought 183 years later. This epic border conflict—which was contemporaneous with the age of popular uprisings and the Bubonic Plague, fought according to enduring notions of chivalry and the budding pride of nationality, and which numbered among its participants Richard II, the Black Prince of Wales, Henry IV, Henry V, and Charles of Navarre—ultimately depended upon a peasant woman, Joan of Arc, to reinforce the French ideal of a sacred kingdom, swing the pendulum once more in the direction of the French, and bring this perennial conflict to an end. When in 1154 A.D. Henry II of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine of France, he became at once the reigning sovereign over a vast stretch of land extending across all of England and half of France, and yet, according to the feudal hierarchy of the times, a vassal to the King of France. This situation, which placed French and English borders in such a tenuous position, solidified the precarious ground on which the Hundred Years War was to be fought 183 years later. This epic border conflict—which was contemporaneous with the age of popular uprisings and the Bubonic Plague, fought according to enduring notions of chivalry and the budding pride of nationality, and which numbered among its participants Richard II, the Black Prince of Wales, Henry IV, Henry V, and Charles of Navarre—ultimately depended upon a peasant woman, Joan of Arc, to reinforce the French ideal of a sacred kingdom, swing the pendulum once more in the direction of the French, and bring this perennial conflict to an end. Topics of the theme essays have been selected to show the diversity of this complex war, and include discussions of: the origins of the war; the age of popular rebellion; chivalry's effect on 14th and 15th century warfare; the religion of the monarchy and the role of sacred kingship in the building of the French monarchy; and Joan of Arc's understanding of the war. An annotated timeline and a chronology of French and English Kings provide readers with an easy-to-follow overview of the Hundred Years War and the rulers who presided over it. Nineteen biographical sketches of key French and English figures lend a human aspect to historic names; and 14 annotated primary documents breathe fresh life into the topic, and provide students and readers with a new look at the period. The book concludes with an annotated bibliography and index.

A Platoon Leader's Tour (The PL Book): This book is an on-the-ground view of U.S. Army combat in Iraq sourced from in-country interviews of this generation's Platoon Leaders from 2003-2008. The combat vignettes of former Platoon Leaders flow along the arc of a "typical" 12-month tour in Iraq. The authors selected stories that reflect the common challenges of young combat leaders, including: -Taking Charge -Making First Contact with the Enemy -Engaging the Local Populace -Interacting with Indigenous Forces -Use of Force -Operating in a Complex/Chaotic Environment -Facing Personnel Challenges -Making Moral/Ethical Decisions -Leading in Battle -Dealing with Death -Sustaining the Will to Fight -Leading Emotionally-Charged Soldiers -Adapting to Unfamiliar/Non-Standard Missions The book was developed by the U.S. Army's Center for Company-level Leaders at West Point in conjunction with the U.S. Army Studies Program and U.S. Army Research Institute. Interviews, writing, and editing of the stories was conducted by Pete Kilner, Nate Allen, Nate Self, and Anthony Lupo.