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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > General
This book examines the Indian nuclear policy, doctrine, strategy
and posture, clarifying the elastic concept of credible minimum
deterrence at the center of the country's approach to nuclear
security. This concept, Karnad demonstrates, permits the Indian
nuclear forces to be beefed up, size and quality-wise, and to
acquire strategic reach and clout, even as the qualifier minimum
suggests an overarching concern for moderation and economical use
of resources, and strengthens India's claims to be a responsible
nuclear weapon state.
Based on interviews with Indian political leaders, nuclear
scientists, and military and civilian nuclear policy planners, it
provides unique insights into the workings of India's nuclear
decision-making and deterrence system. Moreover, by juxtaposing the
Indian nuclear policy and thinking against the theories of nuclear
war and strategic deterrence, nuclear escalation, and nuclear
coercion, offers a strong theoretical grounding for the Indian
approach to nuclear war and peace, nuclear deterrence and
escalation, nonproliferation and disarmament, and to limited war in
a nuclearized environment. It refutes the alarmist notions about a
nuclear flashpoint in South Asia, etc. which derive from
stereotyped analysis of India-Pakistan wars, and examines India's
likely conflict scenarios involving China and, minorly,
Pakistan.
This volume addresses a timely subject--the question of small
wars and the limits of power from a historical perspective. The
theme is developed through case studies of small wars that the
Great Powers conducted in Africa and Asia during the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. This historical overview clearly shows the
dangers inherent for a metropolitan government and its armed forces
once such military operations are undertaken. Importantly, these
examples from the past stand as a warning against current and
future misapplication of military strength and the misuse of
military forces.
While continuing diplomatic efforts at limiting nuclear weapons,
at reducing stockpiles of conventional arms, and the ongoing
political change in Eastern Europe have lessened the dangers of a
major war between the superpowers, small wars like the Persian Gulf
War still occur. The end of the Cold War has brought more armed
conflict in Europe, albeit in the form of sporadic civil war or
ethnic violence, than during the height of NATO and Warsaw Pact
confrontation. Indeed, it seems that as the risks of nuclear war
between the United States and the Soviet Union have diminished,
political leaders have become more willing to resort to military
force to solve complex international problems before exhausting
diplomatic channels. This study will be of interest to policymakers
and scholars interested in the judicial exercise of power.
Once warfare became established in ancient civilizations, it's hard
to find any other social institution that developed as quickly. In
less than a thousand years, humans brought forth the sword, sling,
dagger, mace, bronze and copper weapons, and fortified towns. The
next thousand years saw the emergence of iron weapons, the chariot,
the standing professional army, military academies, general staffs,
military training, permanent arms industries, written texts on
tactics, military procurement, logistics systems, conscription, and
military pay. By 2,000 B.C.E., war was an important institution in
almost all major cultures of the world. This book shows readers how
soldiers were recruited, outfitted, how they fought, and how they
were cared for when injured or when they died. It covers soldiers
in major civilizations from about 4000 B.C.E. to about 450 C.E.
Soldiers' Lives through History; The Ancient World is divided into
two parts, the first addressing military life and the second the
ancient armies themselves. "Military Life" presents twenty-one
chapters, on significant aspects of military life in the ancient
world. Some of the topics include The physical condition of the
soldier Recruitment Rations The soldier's equipment Camp life
Discipline and punishment Weapons The chariot The cavalry
Siegecraft and artillery Death and wounding Military medical care
Topics are discussed cross-culturally, drawing examples from
several of the cultures, armies, and time periods within each
chapter in order to provide the reader with as comprehensive an
understanding as possible and to avoid the usual "Western-centric"
perspective too common in analyses of ancient warfare. The second
part of the book,"Ancient Armies," seeks to present a detailed
description of eighteen major armies of antiquity. Some of the
armies included are those of Sumer and Akkad Egypt The Mitanni The
Hittites The Philistines The Israelites China India Classical
Greece Republican Rome Carthage The Barbarians The Roman Empire The
book also provides a timeline at the beginning of the book in order
to put some of the events, inventions, and developments into more
context. There are 36 illustrations and 3 maps that help readers
visualize some of the equipment, armor, transport, and formations
that ancient soldiers used, carried, and fought in. Chapter
bibliographies as well as a general bibliography and a
comprehensive index round out the volume.
Growing up in Da' Harbor, a rough steel town with more than its
share of notorious criminals passing through, a young boy seemed
destined to a life of crime or, at best, a hazardous life in the
steel mill. In Harbor Knight: From Harbor 'Hoodlum' to Honored CIA
Agent, Ralph Garcia reflects on "pivotal moments" when his life in
East Chicago, Indiana might have taken a horrible turn for the
worse. Harbor Knight follows Garcia through his tumultuous
childhood, to fatherhood at age sixteen...and to a bunker in
Vietnam, where an unconventional message to the CIA gains him an
exciting career in covert defense of the United States.
With much humor (and a few other emotions), the author shares
incidents from his life of espionage and speaks frankly of how this
career has affected his family life. In retirement, Garcia
describes how he has been given a second, unexpected opportunity at
fatherhood. Keeping one foot in the spy business, he also assists
veterans and youth on a variety of fronts and has become involved
in politics.
..".an account of the life of that guy next door, the average
American, doing his best overseas and at home to defend US national
security."
-Michael J. Sulick, former CIA Director of National Clandestine
Service
Over the past thousand years, the bloodiest game of the
king-of-the-hill has been for supremacy on the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem, the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon. This book
recounts the stirring saga of the Knights Templar, the Christian
warrior-monks who occupied the sacred Mount in the aftermath of the
butchery of the First Crusade. Recruited to a life of poverty,
chastity and obedience intended to lead only to martyrdom on the
battlefield, they were totally dedicated to the pious paradox that
the wholesale slaughter of non-believers would earn the eternal
gratitude of the Prince of Peace. The Templars amassed great
wealth, which they used to finance their two hundred years of war
against Muslims on the desert, in the mountains, and up the broad
sweep of the Nile valley. The Templars' reward for those two
centuries of military martyrdom was to be arrested by pope and
king, tortured by the Inquisition, and finally decreed out of
existence. But their legend and legacy just would not die. In
telling the incredible story of the Knights Templar, the author's
clear explanation of the cultural and religious differences among
the Templars' enemies and friends in the Middle East gives fresh
understanding of the people who populate this restless region. Here
are the Sunnies and the Shiites, the Kurds and Armenians, the Arabs
and Turks, who figure so prominently in today's headlines. The
similarity of their antagonisms today and those of eight hundred
years ago are often so striking as to be eerie. Dungeon, Fire &
Sword is a brilliant work of narrative history that can be read as
an adventure story, a morality play, or a lesson in the politics of
warfare.
The '82 Kenyan Military Coup is a summary of events that took place
in Kenya from the eyes of a victim.It starts with the dreams of a
young man aspiring to be a soldier. It talks about the challenges
he underwent through in the recruitment process, and in military
training. The author talks about how he participated in an
attempted Military Coup, and narrowly escaping death. Whereas the
book deals with personal experiences and survival in prison, it is
a testament of inner strength and triumph over adversity relying on
mental toughness.
Do the news media have any role in the transformation of war and
warfare? A constellation of labels by academics and practitioners
have been coined in the last twenty years to describe the new forms
of a phenomenon as old as the human race. However, this book claims
that it remains to be fully understood what the specific role of
the news media is in this process. It argues that the news media,
old and new alike, alter the cognitive and strategic environment of
the actors of war and politics and change the way these interact
with one another. Building on a four-dimensional definition of
power and focusing on the role of television, this book recognises
the importance of interactions upon the understanding of any social
phenomenon. It suggests that the nature of war is changing partly
because it is no longer just a matter of linear strategic
interactions but also, and mainly, of 'mediated' ones.
This book deals with the impact of the French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic wars on the British Isles. Previous work has
concentrated on the ideological formations associated with the
French conflict, especially anti-revolutionary loyalism and ideas
of Britishness. Here, Dr Cookson provides a new perspective on the
social response to the demands of war, through a detailed
examination of the mobilization of armed force for the regular
army, militia, and volunteers in response to the French
encirclement of Britain and Ireland. Dr Cookson's study sheds
interesting light on the nature of the British state and the extent
of its dependence on society's self-organizing powers. He uses the
evidence on mobilization to show the differences in the nature of
state and society in various parts of the British Isles, and
examines the impact on Scottish and Irish identities within the
unions. In England, he shows how mobilization often owed more to
working-class pragmatism and the `town-making' interests of urban
rulers than to national defence patriotism. The result is a
fascinating `war and society' study which is also a significant
contribution to urban history.
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