Humans were born armed. Before Homo sapiens first walked the Earth, proto-humans had manufactured spears and other tools not only to hunt and defend themselves but also to attack other humans. The war instinct is part of human nature, but the means to fight war depend on technology. Politics, economics, ideology, culture, strategy, tactics, and philosophy have all shaped war, but none of these factors has driven the evolution of warfare as much as technology. Expanding on this compelling thesis, this book traces the co-evolution of technology and war from the Stone Age to the age of cyberwar and nanotechnology. Alex Roland shines a light on the patterns of interaction between technology and warfare, describing the sensational inventions that changed the direction of war throughout history: fortified walls, the chariot, swift and nimble battleships, the gunpowder revolution, and finally aircraft, bombers, rockets, submarines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and nuclear weapons. In the twenty-first century, scientific and engineering research is constantly transforming war and simultaneously producing countless technological innovations. Yet even now, the newest and best technology cannot guarantee victory. Rather, technology and warfare remain in a timeless dialectic, spurring change without ever stabilizing a military balance of power. New technologies continue to push warfare in unexpected directions, while warfare pulls technology into new stunning possibilities. In an era of computers, drones, and robotic systems, Roland reminds us that, although military technologies keep changing at a precipitous speed, the principles and patterns behind them abide. Brimming with dramatic narratives of battles and deep insights into military psychology, this Very Short Introduction is ultimately an original account of human history seen through the kaleidoscopic lens of war technology. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

In the 1970s, during the ruinous 30-year dictatorship of General Mobutu, periodic rebellions required the hasty insertion once again of Belgian and French paratroops to save European lives. From the mid-1990s the country split again, becoming the battleground for the largest African war in history, as armies and rebel groups from Rwanda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Namibia and other countries crossed into the Congo to support one side or the other, or simply to loot the rich resources. Major operations ended - or paused - in 2002, but the old hatreds and constant lure of the Congo's natural resources continue to boil over into periodic outbreaks. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork and rare photographs, this is the harrowing story of the wars that ravaged the Congo for four decades.

The arrival of the aerostatic balloon at the end of the nineteenth century ushered in a new perspective on the battlefield, taking over from the mount - the hill at the edge of the field of combat - and the fortified tower positioned within it. Since then there has been no perspective more culpable in war, violence and security than the aerial one. From Above explores the aerial view in new depth and clarity. It draws in vivid detail on studies of the aerial perspective today and on rich empirical investigations of the aerial view from the past. Chapters examine a range of case studies and examples, from Vietnam and the balloon prospect, camouflage, colonial policing, to today's drone wars. The contributors draw on perspectives from history, international relations, political geography and cultural studies in order to provide a truly interdisciplinary perspective on the view from above. They also consider the view from above in relation to its technologies, legalities, practices, doctrines, and visual culture. Among the contributors are renowned international experts such as Derek Gregory, Trevor Paglen, Caren Kaplan, Klaus Dodds and Priya Satia. The aerial view is a perspective that can no longer be ignored, one that is of growing significance for those interested in geopolitics, militarism and conflict.

In 1779 Sir Henry Clinton and more than eight thousand British troops left the waters of New York, seeking to capture the colonies' most important southern port, Charleston, South Carolina. Clinton and his officers believed that victory in Charleston would change both the seat of the war and its character. In this comprehensive study of the 1780 siege and surrender of Charleston, Carl P. Borick offers a full examination of the strategic and tactical elements of Clinton's operations. Suggesting that the importance of the siege has been underestimated, Borick contends that the British effort against Charleston was one of the most critical campaigns of the war. Borick examines the reasons for the shift in British strategy, the efforts of their army and navy, and the difficulties the patriots faced as they defended the city. He explores the roles of key figures in the campaign, including Benjamin Lincoln, William Moultrie, and Lord Charles Cornwallis. Borick relies on an impressive array of primary and secondary sources relating to the siege and includes maps that depict the British approach to the city and the complicated military operations that led to the patriots' greatest defeat of the American Revolution.

War was epidemic in the late Middle Ages. It affected every land and all peoples from Scotland and Scandinavia in the north to the southern Mediterranean Sea coastlines of Morocco, North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East in the south, from Ireland and Spain in the west to Russia and Turkey in the east. Nowhere was peaceful for any significant amount of time. The period also saw significant changes in military theory and practice which altered the ways in which campaigns were conducted, battles fought, and sieges laid; and changes in the leadership, recruitment, training, supply and financing of armies. There were changes in the relationship between those waging warfare, from generals to irregular troops, and the society in which they lived and for or against which they fought; the frequency of popular rebellions and the participation in them by townspeople and peasants; changes in the desire to undertake Crusades, and changes in technology, including but not limited to gunpowder weapons. This collection gathers together some of the best published work on these topics. The first section of seven papers show that throughout Europe in the later Middle Ages generals led and armies followed what are usually defined as "modern" strategy and tactics, contrary to popular belief. The second part reprints nine works that examine the often neglected aspects of the process of putting and keeping together a late medieval army. In the third section the authors discuss various ways that warfare in the fourteenth and fifteenth century affected the society of that period. The final sections cover popular rebellions and crusading.

When the United States goes to war, the nation's attention focuses on the president. As commander in chief, a president reaches the zenith of power, while Congress is supposedly shunted to the sidelines once troops have been deployed abroad. Because of Congress's repeated failure to exercise its legislative powers to rein in presidents, many have proclaimed its irrelevance in military matters.
"
After the Rubicon" challenges this conventional wisdom by illuminating the diverse ways in which legislators influence the conduct of military affairs. Douglas L. Kriner reveals that even in politically sensitive wartime environments, individual members of Congress frequently propose legislation, hold investigative hearings, and engage in national policy debates in the public sphere. These actions influence the president's strategic decisions as he weighs the political costs of pursuing his preferred military course.
Marshalling a wealth of quantitative and historical evidence, Kriner expertly demonstrates the full extent to which Congress materially shapes the initiation, scope, and duration of major military actions and sheds new light on the timely issue of interbranch relations.

An analysis and summary of the events of the Cold War. It discusses the different interpretations and provides a selection of essays on the origins of the Cold War by well-known politicians and scholars, including Averell Harriman, John Gaddis, Thomas McCormick, Radomir Luza, Geir Lundestad, Alan S. Milward, Antony Carew, Michael Hogan, Lutz Niethammer, Marc Trachtenberg and Mark Kramer. The roles of the giants of history, such as Churchill, Stalin and Truman, as well as those of local leaders, are illuminated. Special emphasis is placed on the political economy of the Cold War, the Marshall Plan, and welfare capitalism. This third edition draws upon documentation from Soviet archives that was not previously available, and opens up the role of nuclear strategy in the Soviet-American conflict. The editor's introduction likewise reconsiders the historiography of the Cold War in the light of the archival disclosures.

The Falklands War is an ideal showcase for how British policy evolved in the 1970s and 1980s. The background of the dispute over the island group in the remote south Atlantic (called Las Malvinas by the Argentines) is given first and then the events that precipitated the 1982 conflict and extensive examination of the military aspects of the war is then provided. An overview follows of the many hypotheses offered for the British motivation to recapture the Falklands, showing that only those theories pertaining to the British perception of their national honor and the defense of democratic principles are significant. The Falklands War did not result in a dramatic shift in British defense policy, but did show the importance of external developments and political realism in policy formation, and these considerations are fully detailed here.

In The Costs of War: International Law, the UN, and World Order After Iraq, Richard Falk, brings together some of his recent essays, published and unpublished, examining the impact that the Iraq War has had and will have on international law, human rights, and democracy.

A new introduction provides an overview as well as a sense of the current context and reflects on the internal prospects for Iraq and on the logic of an early U.S. military and political withdrawal.

Having been revised and updated to take account of the march of events, the essays are organized into the following sections:

• Part 1 addresses the effects of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq on the current dimensions of world order
• Part 2 provides a normative inquiry into the larger intentions and consequences of the Iraq War
• Part 3 considers the more fundamental implications of the Iraq War, especially on our understanding of war as an instrument for the solution of conflict.

Falk demonstrates the dysfunctionality of war in relation to either anti-terrorism or the pursuit of a global security system based on military dominance; the historical potential of a realistic Gandhiism as a positive alternative in the setting of global policy in the twenty-first century.

The Costs of War will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, media studies, and politics and international relations in general.

Arriving in Iraq on the eve of the U.S. invasion, unaffiliated with any newspaper and hoping to pick up assignments along the way, Ashley Gilbertson was one of the first photojournalists to cover the disintegration of America's military triumph as looting and score-settling convulsed Iraqi cities. Just twenty-five years old at the time, Gilbertson soon landed a contract with the "New York Times", and his extraordinary images of life in occupied Iraq and of American troops in action began appearing in the paper regularly. Throughout his work, Gilbertson took great risks to document the risks taken by others, whether dodging sniper fire with American infantry, photographing an Iraqi bomb squad as they defused IEDs, or following marines into the cauldron of urban combat. "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" gathers the best of Gilbertson's photographs, chronicling America's early battles in Iraq, the initial occupation of Baghdad, the insurgency that erupted shortly afterward, the dramatic battle to overtake Falluja, and the country's first national elections. No Western photojournalist has done as much sustianed work in occupied Iraq as Gilbertson, and this wide-ranging treatment of the war from the viewpoint of a photographer is the first of its kind. Accompanying each section of the book is a personal account of Gilbertson's experiences covering the conflict. Throughout, he conveys the exhilaration and terror of photographing war, as well as the challenges of photojournalism in our age of embedded reporting. But ultimately, and just as importantly, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" tells the story of Gilbertson's own journey from hard-drinking bravado to the grave realism of a scarred survivor. Here he struggles with guilt over the death of a marine escort, tells candidly of his own experience with post-traumatic stress disorder, and grapples with the reality that Iraq - despite the sacrifice in Iraqi and American lives - has descended into a civil war with no end in sight. A searing account of the American experience in Iraq, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" is sure to become one of the classic war photography books of our time.

Now in paperback From the author of the Navy SEALs Oral History series-an intimate look at the world's most efficient and deadly warriors.
Snipers have a rich history. This fascinating book follows their tasks and techniques from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars through both World Wars, to the Korean War and Vietnam-the genesis of modern sniping-to the current conflicts in the Middle East. Also, readers will see how sniping has evolved on the civilian side in law enforcement. Readers will learn about the tools of the trade, but most importantly, they will hear from the experts themselves: military snipers, as well as civilian police and SWAT snipers. Capturing the suspense and action of the hunt, the words of these men draw readers into the close-knit, little-known world of men who need only one bullet to get the job done.

Although Sparta's early history is not clear, by the end of the 8th century most of the other cities of Lakedaimon had been reduced to subject status. The Lakedaimonians were the only full time army in ancient Greece and were thus truly an elite force. The institutions of the state and the system of education were organised with a view to creating superbly trained soldiers. Nick Sekunda examines this unique military machine in this book describing the organisational systems of the Spartan army through the Hellenistic period, how they were trained, the battles they fought, and the society that produced them.

A chronicle of the wartime experiences of Hungarians published on the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Iron Curtain in Hungary.

Hungary's place in World War II has been woefully documented, because until recently any histories of the war years had to conform to the Communist Party line. Originally allied with Germany to defend itself against Bolshevism, Hungary saw its army decimated in 1943 and was subsequently invaded -- and occupied -- by the Soviets. Now fifty years after the closing of the Iron Curtain, the memories of those who endured those years can finally be shared.

Cecil Eby has compiled a historical chronicle of Hungary's wartime experiences based on interviews with nearly a hundred people who lived through those years. Here are officers and common soldiers, Jewish survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, pilots of the Royal Hungarian Air Force, Hungarian prisoners of war in Russian labor camps, and a host of others. We meet the apologists for the Horthy regime installed by Hitler and the activists who sought to overthrow it, and we relive the Red Army's siege of Budapest during the harsh winter of 1944-45 through the memories of ordinary citizens trapped there.

Most of the accounts shared here have never been told to anyone outside the subjects' families. We learn of a woman, Ilona Joo, who survived in a cellar while German and Russian armies used her house and garden as a battleground, and of the remarkable Merenyi sisters, who trekked home to Budapest after being freed from Bergen-Belsen. Eby has also included a rare interview with a former member of the Arrow Cross, Hungary's fascist party, which sheds new light on its leadership.From these personal accounts, Eby draws readers into the larger themes of the tragedy of war and the consequences of individual actions in moments of crisis.

Skillfully integrating oral testimony with historical exposition, Hungary at War reveals the knot of ideological, economic, and ethnic attachments that entangled the lives of so many Hungarians. The result is an absorbing narrative that is a fitting testament to a nation buffeted by external forces beyond its capacity to control.

From the "taming of the West" to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the portrayal of the past has become a battleground at the heart of American politics. What kind of history Americans should read, see, or fund is no longer merely a matter of professional interest to teachers, historians, and museum curators. Everywhere now, history is increasingly being held hostage, but to what end and why? In "History Wars," eight prominent historians consider the angry swirl of emotions that now surrounds public memory. Included are trenchant essays by Paul Boyer, John W. Dower, Tom Engelhardt, Richard H. Kohn, Edward Linenthal, Micahel S. Sherry, Marilyn B. Young, and Mike Wallace.

The Falklands War was a turning point in modern British history. On the one hand, it was what some considered to be the 'last of the great Elizabethan adventures', with the Royal Navy pulling off an incredible feat of maritime warfare, under the most appallingly risky circumstances. On the other hand, it was the first war of the modern age, using satellite surveillance, computer-driven missiles, night observation devices, and all the technologically developed power of modern weaponry. It was also a conflict that could so easily have gone terribly wrong for British forces. Instead, it was a resounding military success. And yet, the conflict's significance is often overlooked. Drawing upon the vast resources of the Imperial War Museum's sound archive, which contains thousands of interviews with both soldiers and civilians, both British and Argentinean, Forgotten Voices of the Falkands War redresses the balance, presenting a complete oral history of the Falklands War. From the initial invasion of the islands to the British landings, the sinking of the Belgrano to brutal combat at Goose Green, the Argentinean surrender through to its aftermath, the book is a unique and essential chronicle of the conflict told from all sides and perspectives. It includes the visceral and often terrifying experiences of the combatants as well as the poignant and sometimes surreal recollections of the islanders caught in the middle. Utilising all the qualities that have made the Forgotten Voices series so popular, Hugh McManners, who himself fought in the Falklands War and witnessed its brutality first-hand, has created the definitive oral history on the subject.

Osprey's study of the Normans during the Middle Ages. Despite the small geographic extent of Normandy its people played a crucial role in the history of the medieval world. Ferocity, boundless energy, cunning and a capacity for leadership were their heritage, to which modern scholars would add supreme adaptability and a simple piety. Their amazing military successes resulted from careful planning, speed of movement, decisiveness, daring and sheer ruthlessness. Added to this was a strong business sense and an appreciation of the value of money. Veteran Osprey author David Nicolle describes the history, arms and armour of the remarkable Normans in this fascinating volume.

This compelling book provides the first global history of the evolution of combined operations since Antiquity. Beginning with amphibious warfare in the ancient world of the Romans, Vikings, and Mongols, Jeremy Black advances through the Gunpowder Revolution, the rise of maritime empires and the formation of nation-states, the early Industrial Revolution and the adaptation of modern technology to warfare, the twentieth-century world wars, the Cold War, and concluding with the modern age of irregular and asymmetric conflict. Black's informed and analytical narrative emphasizes conflicts around the world, focusing not only on leading powers but also regional combatants. His case studies include amphibious operations in the Mongol invasions of Japan, the War for American Independence, and the Gallipoli campaign of World War I. He also explores the development and effectiveness of airborne operations as a way to project military power inland. Offering a balanced assessment of strategic, operational, and technical developments over time, Black considers both the potential and limitations of amphibious and airborne warfare-past, present, and future.

Although prominent some would argue pre-eminent within the modern political lexicon, the concept of security is complex and contested. While the meaning and reference point of security was once largely taken for granted within International Relations, the past thirty years or so have witnessed the growth of a range of approaches that refuse to take this concept and its application as self-evident. Instead, serious scholarship, often grouped under the rubric of Critical Security Studies, has sought to question and critique dominant conceptions of security, to introduce new theoretical approaches to the assessment of security discourses and practices, and to expand the range of issues considered within security analysis. This new four-volume collection from Routledge provides a timely anthology of the subdiscipline s best and most influential scholarship to help users make sense of a now dizzyingly large body of literature and a continuing explosion in research output.

Bringing together these major works in one easy-to-use reference resource, the collection illuminates the sometimes complex debates within and between different critical approaches to security, where even the meaning, form, and function of critique is itself contested. And, rather than attempting to impose a unitary or monolithic understanding of Critical Security Studies, the collection editors have instead captured the diversity and vibrancy of critical research on security by grouping the gathered materials into four interrelated themes: defining, deepening, broadening, and extending security.

Volume I ( Defining Security ), collects a variety of critical perspectives on the meaning of the concept of security. Volume II ( Broadening Security ), meanwhile, presents arguments for and against the broadening of security to include issues such as environmental degradation, migration, and health. The third volume ( Deepening Security ) in the collection gathers assessments of the appropriate point of reference for security that range from the individual to the global level, while Volume IV ( Extending Security ) brings together materials that have sought to extend existing critical approaches, and to expand further the disciplinary boundaries of Security Studies.

The collection is fully indexed and includes a comprehensive introduction that places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is destined to be valued by students, teachers, and researchers of Security Studies as well as those working in contiguous fields as a vital and unique resource.

Of the many tales of conflict and warfare between the UK Government and the Indian tribes, perhaps none is more dramatic or revealing than the story of the Apache wars. Those wars were the final episode in the US government's subjugation of the indigenous peoples; the surrender of Geronimo in 1886 effectively ended the Indian wars. Once They Moved Liked the Wind is the epic story of the battles between the Apaches and the US Army for land and freedom. The larger-than-life characters of Cochise, Geronimo and General Cook move dramatically through these pages, illuminating the history behind the Apache wars.

From the moment the Civil War began, partisans on both sides were calling not just for victory but for extermination. And both sides found leaders who would oblige. In this vivid and fearfully persuasive book, Charles Royster looks at William Tecumseh Sherman and Stonewall Jackson, the men who came to embody the apocalyptic passions of North and South, and re-creates their characters, their strategies, and the feelings they inspired in their countrymen. At once an incisive dual biography, hypnotically engrossing military history, and a cautionary examination of the American penchant for patriotic bloodshed, The Destructive War is a work of enormous power.

"This is an inspiring story of courage and sacrifice--one hell of an exciting true war story!"
--Kenn Miller
Author of Tiger the Lurp Dog
On 17 June 1970, in Mondol Kiri Province, Cambodia, the five men of Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) Team 5-2 were about to halt for the day. Night was coming, the skies were dark, and so were the men's thoughts--they'd just found freshly dug NVA bunkers inside a scrub-brush tree line and their position was not secure.
As they carefully searched for better night lager, they learned the hard way that they had walked into an ambush kill zone: NVA fire quickly downed two men and wounded two others. In minutes, Team 5-2 had been transformed from the hunters to the hunted. They had no radio comms with their headquarters and had just two rifles and fifteen magazines of ammunition.
Two men were down, but the team was not out. MIA RESCUE is the story of Team 5-2 and the heroic and ultimately successful attempts to rescue them despite extraordinarily bad weather and an angry and aware enemy.
"Seldom can an author stimulate emotions, from the taste of fear to sweaty palms to the feeling of relief when the mission is over, but Jorgenson does and much more. If the reader was never in combat, he will feel like a Nam vet when he finishes this book."
--Jerry Boyle
Author of Apache Sunrise

The Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BCE) convulsed Greece, Asia Minor and the Near East for half a century. Through a series of bloody invasions and pitched battles, the mighty Persian Empire pitted itself against the smaller armies of the Greeks, strengthened through strategic alliances. This epic conflict also brought together two different styles of warfare: the Greek hoplite phalanx and the combined spear and projectile weapon-armed Persian infantry.

Analysing the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae and Plataea from the eyes of a soldier, this study explores the experience of front-line combat during the first two decades of the Greco-Persian Wars. Fully illustrated with modern photographs and archival images, and drawing directly on primary sources and the most authoritative recent research, this is the enthralling story of the fighting men of Greece and Persia and the tactics and technologies they employed.

At once an in-depth history of this pivotal war and a guide to the historical sites where the ambushes, raids, and battles took place, King Philip's War expands our understanding of American history and provides insight into the nature of colonial and ethnic wars in general. Through a careful reconstruction of events, first-person accounts, period illustrations, and maps, and by providing information on the exact locations of more than fifty battles, King Philip's War is useful as well as informative. Students of history, colonial war buffs, those interested in Native American history, and anyone who is curious about how this war affected a particular New England town, will find important insights into one of the most seminal events to shape the American mind and continent.