This major comparative study examines the challenges faced by countries of postcommunist Europe in reforming and professionalizing their armed forces. It explores how the interaction of the common challenges of postcommunism and the diverse circumstances of individual countries shape professionalization processes in this changing region. The detailed country case studies in this volume, written by leading experts to a common analytical framework, compare the experiences of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, FRY, Russia, and Ukraine.

According to the Bush administration, the war in Iraq ended in May 2003, when the president pronounced mission accomplished from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Yet, fighting, resistance, and American casualties continue. Stephen Pelletiere argues that it is Iraqi suspicion of the Americans' motives--the belief that the United States is out to tear the state apart--that is fueling the current rebellion. Resistance in Iraq has become a national struggle, tied to the mood of Iraqis generally, as well as to anger fed by experiences of the whole people over the course of the last quarter century. Americans see Iraq as a failed state because they lack knowledge of those experiences and of Iraqi history. That is what Pelletiere has set out to remedy. Chief among his analyses is a brief history of the Iraqi army, focussing on the period of the 1980s and the Iran-Iraq War. The war transformed the army, a change which largely escaped the notice of the United States. Pelletiere also discusses American intelligence about Iraq on the eve of the war, characterizing it as delusory and showing that, even after the invasion, intelligence did not improve. This has led to the deterioration of relations with the Iraqis and precipitated the current revolt. Finally, he discusses the clash between the so-called expatriates and native Iraqis and the part the Islamic Republic is playing under the occupation. Perhaps more critically, Pelletiere relates American behavior in Iraq to the wider sphere of U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf specifically and the Middle East overall. In doing so, he positions the war as part of a larger geo-political struggle that encompasses not just the Iraqis or the Iranians, but the Israelis and all of the other client states of the United States in the Middle East.

International Perspectives on the Gulf Conflict is a collection of important new work on the conflict by the leading authorities in the field. Unusually, this is an international investigation of an international conflict. The result is stimulating, capacious, original, and authoritative - the most complete and up-to-date guide to the subject yet to appear.

These theoretical essays on different dimensions of war, range from strategic surprise achieved at the outbreak of war to the termination of war and the predicted depreciation of the value of using force among nations. Despite the variety of topics with which they deal, these essays share three common denominators - the impact of technology on modern warfare, the political nature of war and the limits of rational analysis in the study of war.

Karen A. Feste examines the history of superpower intervention in domestic conflicts around the world during the Cold War era. The historical significance of the role that superpower intervention has played in shaping issues and strategies for many independent nations is thoroughly explored by Feste. Her unique analysis goes beyond a reexamination of dramatic instances of American and Soviet intervention to present a combination of aggregate event data methodology and historical case studies; general patterns in the nature of superpower intervention throughout four decades are highlighted; and U.S.-Soviet behavior is carefully and consistently compared across the entire period of the Cold War.

This work will be of great interest to scholars and historians in political science, international relations, military studies, and geopolitics.

The end of the Cold War, the Revolution in Military Affairs, 9/11 and the War on Terror have radically altered the nature of conflict and security in the twenty-first century. This book considers how developments in technology could and are effecting the prosecution of war and what the changing nature of warfare means for human rights and civil society.

In this comprehensive study, Gat looks at British policy in the period leading up to the Six-Day War. Although Britain holds center stage in this account, the study discusses in some detail American policy and its effect on the Arab-Israeli conflict. It also focuses on the Middle East water dispute, its impact on future events, and eventually the outbreak of war in 1967. This is a fascinating look at the process by which the Middle East became yet another Cold War playground.

To date, most scholars on the Arab-Israeli conflict have focused on the events of the Six-Day War, rather than on the tumultuous years prior to the war. Gat is the first to examine this turbulent yet decisive chapter in the history of the Middle East within the context of the Cold War, while making extensive use of British, American, and Israeli archives.

Colored by the popular and official mythologies of heroism, the accepted view of mental collapse during combat is that it is a fairly rare occurrence that can be attributed to psychological weakness or simple cowardice. With the advent of each new generation of weapons, however, this view becomes less tenable. The increasingly lethal battlefields of conventional warfare have sharply escalated the numbers of psychiatric casualties, which reached staggering proportions worldwide by the early 1980s. Professor Gabriel, a leading authority on military psychiatry, provides the first systematic examination of the problem, its history and current dimension, the systems developed by the superpowers to counter it, and the far-reaching implications of our continued acceptance of warfare under radically altered conditions.

America has been at war for most of the 20th and 21st centuries and during that time has progressively moved towards a vicarious form of warfare, where key tasks are delegated to proxies, the military's exposure to danger is limited, and special forces and covert instruments are on the increase. Important strategic decisions are taken with minimal scrutiny or public engagement. This compelling account charts the historical emergence of this distinctive tradition of war and explains the factors driving its contemporary prominence. It contrasts the tactical advantages of vicarious warfare with its hidden costs and potential to cause significant strategic harm.

A longtime scholar of the Cold War deftly weaves together the tradition of "just war" and an examination of current events to show how the time-honored concepts of jus ad bellum (justice of war) and jus in bello (justice in war) apply to the U.S. military involvement in Iraq. This timely analysis of President George W. Bush's foreign policy deals with the cornerstone of his administrations—the "war on terror"—as implemented in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and at Abu Ghraib prison. The Choice of War: The Iraq War and the "Just War" Tradition discusses NSS 2002, the national security statement that became the blueprint for the Bush Doctrine. It explains the differences and similarities between preventive and pre-emptive war and explores the administration's justification of the necessity of the March 2003 invasion. Finally, it analyzes the conduct of the war, the occupation, and the post-occupation phases of the conflict. In evaluating the Bush Doctrine, both as declared strategy and as implemented, Albert L. Weeks asks whether going it virtually alone in the global struggle against 21st-century terrorism should be incorporated permanently into American political and military policy. Answering no, he suggests an alternative to a doctrine that has isolated the United States and left the world divided.

The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale has been a source of fierce contestation and emotion for decades, but up to now little was known about the Recces’ presence and impact during this controversial battle.

In the last book of the nail-biting trilogy about 1 Recce, the award-winning author Alexander Strachan, himself an ex-Recce, reveals more on the Recces’ involvement there.

Packed with suspense, adrenaline, high drama and unforgettable accounts by ex-Recces who experienced these adventures personally.

1 Recce: Agter vyandelike linies neem die leser tot in die Recces se “binnekamer”. In hul eie woorde vertel Recce-operateurs van die lewensgevaarlike operasies wat hulle onder groot geheimhouding in die laat 1970’s in Angola, Rhodesië en Mosambiek uitgevoer het. Dié wat daar was vertel van die spanning, afwagting, vrees, adrenalien, moegheid, dors en hartseer wat hulle beleef het, maar ook van die humoristiese momente en die hegte vriendskapsbande wat hulle gesmee het.

A New York Times bestsellerA Washington Post bestsellerNamed the top investigative journalism book of 2013 by Nieman Reports Selected as one of Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Books of 2013 [A] courageous and exhaustive examination of the way a number of clandestine campaigns,full of crimes, cover-ups, and assassinations,became the United States' main strategy for combating terrorism." ,Teju Cole, The New Yorker , Best Books of 2013In Dirty Wars , Jeremy Scahill, author of the New York Times best-seller Blackwater , takes us inside America's new covert wars. The foot soldiers in these battles operate globally and inside the United States with orders from the White House to do whatever is necessary to hunt down, capture or kill individuals designated by the president as enemies.Drawn from the ranks of the Navy SEALs, Delta Force, former Blackwater and other private security contractors, the CIA's Special Activities Division and the Joint Special Operations Command ( JSOC), these elite soldiers operate worldwide, with thousands of secret commandos working in more than one hundred countries. Funded through black budgets," Special Operations Forces conduct missions in denied areas, engage in targeted killings, snatch and grab individuals and direct drone, AC-130 and cruise missile strikes. While the Bush administration deployed these ghost militias, President Barack Obama has expanded their operations and given them new scope and legitimacy. Dirty Wars follows the consequences of the declaration that the world is a battlefield," as Scahill uncovers the most important foreign policy story of our time. From Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond, Scahill reports from the frontlines in this high-stakes investigation and explores the depths of America's global killing machine. He goes beneath the surface of these covert wars, conducted in the shadows, outside the range of the press, without effective congressional oversight or public debate. And, based on unprecedented access, Scahill tells the chilling story of an American citizen marked for assassination by his own government.As US leaders draw the country deeper into conflicts across the globe, setting the world stage for enormous destabilization and blowback, Americans are not only at greater risk,we are changing as a nation. Scahill unmasks the shadow warriors who prosecute these secret wars and puts a human face on the casualties of unaccountable violence that is now official policy: victims of night raids, secret prisons, cruise missile attacks and drone strikes, and whole classes of people branded as suspected militants." Through his brave reporting, Scahill exposes the true nature of the dirty wars the United States government struggles to keep hidden.

This book is a telling analysis of the pre-war media debate around the globe, which set the stage for the 2003 Iraq war. Arguably, each country's media represented its opinions for or against the war, giving the viewer insight into the nation's stance on the war and its political reasoning. By concentrating on the pre-war coverage, this group of scholars engages in a more open discussion of the issues that would take place during wartime, and uncovers the implications for each country's position on international concerns.

This is the first book-length study of U.S. naval operations in the Mediterranean from 1945 to 1947, a period that is crucial for understanding the Cold War and its origins. Edward J. Sheehy shows how America assumed the traditionally British role of providing Western naval strength in the area, detailing how an American squadron grew from skeleton size in 1945 into a powerful armada by the end of 1947. His analysis of the cautious, but effective, use of naval power to counter the Soviet Union is intended for students of military and diplomatic history. Using extensive records of the U.S. Departments of Navy and State, Dr. Sheehy examines decisions to assign naval vessels to the Mediterranean, governmental communications, the rationale for the naval presence in the area, and the working relationships between diplomatic and naval officials. The history begins with a brief summary of Western naval activity in the Mediterranean including the final months of World War II. The region witnessed a continual increase in activity from a cruiser's visit to Greece in late 1945 to developments toward a Sixth Fleet at the end of 1947. The naval build-up is thoroughly chronicled with accounts of the battleship Missouri's journey to the area, numerous destroyer and carrier cruises, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal's September 1946 announcement affirming America's permanent presence in the Mediterranean, and President Harry S. Truman's August 1947 directive regarding visits to Greece.

Bimberg provides a military history of the Moroccan Goums, the knife-wielding irregular troops who distinguished themselves, fighting under French command in Tunisia, Italy, France and Germany during World War II. Recruited from the hill tribes of Morocco's Atlas Mountains, the Goums were garbed throughout the war in the traditional djellaba of their homeland and were armed with long sharp knives, in addition to rifles, machine-guns and mortars. They terrified the enemy not only by their ferocity, but by their odd appearance. Their particular skill in mountain warfare prompted General Patton to request their participation in his Sicilian campaign, and they fought brilliantly in this and many other key campaigns.

This account follows these forces from their native North African mountains across the battlefields of World War II to their final triumph in the Austrian Alps. It recounts their tactics and their strange traditions, as remarkable Beau Geste type French officers led them into battle. In Italy, 12,000 strong, they swarmed over the forbidding Aurunci range, which no one thought could possibly be penetrated by any sizable force under combat conditions, to spearhead the French forces in turning the German flank in Operation Diadem, the final drive on Rome. Their later exploits in the capture of Marseilles, in the Vosges Mountains, and on the drive to the Rhine were equally sensational.

This book includes a selection of articles from The 2018 Multidisciplinary International Conference of Research Applied to Defense and Security (MICRADS'18), held in Salinas, Peninsula de Santa Elena, Ecuador, from April 18 to 20, 2018. MICRADS is an international forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, results, experiences and concerns in the various areas of defense and security, together with their technological development and applications. The main topics covered are: Information and Communication Technology in Education; Computer Vision in Military Applications; Engineering Analysis and Signal Processing; Cybersecurity and Cyberdefense; Maritime Security and Safety; Strategy, Geopolitics and Oceanopolitics; Defense planning; Leadership (e-leadership); Defense Economics; Defense Logistics; Health Informatics in Military Applications; Simulation in Military Applications; Computer Networks, Mobility and Pervasive Systems; Military Marketing; Military Physical Training; Assistive Devices and Wearable Technology; Naval and Military Engineering; Weapons and Combat Systems; Operational Oceanography. The book is aimed at all those dealing with defense and security issues, including practitioners, researchers and teachers as well as undergraduate, graduate, master's and doctorate students.

1 Recce: Behind Enemy Lines takes the reader into the ‘inner sanctum’ of the Recces. In their own words, Recce operators recount some of the life-threatening operations they conducted under great secrecy in the late 1970s.

Those who were there give first-hand accounts of the tension, anticipation, fear, adrenalin, exhaustion, thirst and grief they experienced, but also of the humorous moments and the close bonds of friendship that were forged in situations of mortal danger.

The author develops the concept that logistics constitute a bridge between the national economy and the combat forces. He explains the role of the civilian as well as of the professional, and discusses the differences in their modes of thought and methods of operation.

This updated edition of Professor Paul Moorcraft s timely and controversial book examines the international and domestic threats to the West from Jihadism. It joins the dots in the Middle East, Asia and Africa and explains what it means for the home front, mainly Britain but also continental Europe and the USA. More Brits are trying to join the Islamic State than the reserve forces. Why? It puts the whole complex jigsaw together without pulling any punches. After briefly tracing the origins of Jihadism from the time of the Prophet, The Jihadist Threat analyses the fall-out from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and how far these fuelled the rise of the self-styled Islamic State and other terror groups and the extent these pose to European society. Finally, the Author offers suggestions for defeating this existential threat to the Western way of life. This well-illustrated book is written from the inside. Professor Moorcraft, currently the Director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Analysis, London, has long worked at the heart of the British security establishment and has operated as a war correspondent in over thirty conflict zones since Afghanistan in the 1980s, often alongside frontline Jihadists. Arguably no-one is better qualified to write on this subject and his knowledge coupled with forthright views cannot be ignored. This claim is borne out by his predictions in the original edition which have proved prescient. This is an important work that fully deserves the acclaim it has attracted.

A systems engineering-level introduction to the field of Information Warfare (IW), this text provides an overview of threats to commercial, civil and military information systems, and shows how these threats can be identified and systems protected.

This book, first published in 1955, collects together accounts of some of the men and women who served as members of the remarkable S.O.E. This organisation was set up by Britain to encourage, help and organise resistance movements in occupied countries, and this book provides a valuable record of the types of people involved, and the work that they undertook.

The author of the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind looks at covert operations and assassination plots in the medieval period, matching anything to be found in our own era. Alongside the familiar pitched battles, regular sieges, and large-scale manoeuvres, medieval and early modern wars also involved assassination, abduction, treason and sabotage. These undercover operations were aimed chiefly against key individuals, mostly royalty or the leaders of the opposing army, and against key fortified places, including bridges, mills and dams. However, because of their clandestine nature, these deeds of "derring-do" have not been studied in any detail, a major gap which this book fills. It surveys a wide variety of special operations, from the eleventh to the sixteenth century. It then analyzes in greater depth six select and exciting operations: the betrayal of Antioch in 1098; the attempt to rescue King Baldwin II from the dungeon of Khartpert in 1123; the assassination of Conrad of Montferrat in 1192; the attempt to storm Calais in 1350; the "dirty war" waged by the rulers of France and Burgundy in the 1460s and 1470s; and the demolition of the flour mill of Auriol in 1536. "A portrait of espionage, covert operations, assassination squads, and the deep penetration of seemingly invulnerable fortresses or security systems matching anything to be found in the war stories of the modern era." MATTHEW BENNETT, SANDHURST. Professor YUVAL NOAH HARARI teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

This study is one of the rare contributions to the very small library of genuine strategic studies. Strategy here covers all military activity. The broad purpose is to show how strategy works, using air power and special operations as substantial case studies, but also addressing sea power, nuclear deterrence, and information warfare. Although this book says interesting things about the future of air power, the reliability of non-nuclear deterrence, the true character of joint warfare, the utility of special warriors, and the limitations of excellence in information warfare, the primary intention is to deepen the understanding of the nature and working of strategy and strategic effect.

A neglected war in the history of the United States, the Korean conflict played a key role in greatly expanding America's commitments worldwide and contributed to the U.S. decision to engage in direct military action in Vietnam fifteen years later. This up-to-date, readable analysis and ready-reference guide to the Korean War is designed to help students and interested readers understand the causes, events, and implications of the War and to provide a wealth of material for student research. Materials include a detailed timeline of events, six topical essays on various aspects of the war and its impact, seventeen lengthy biographical profiles of key players, the text of fifteen important primary documents, a glossary, and a comprehensive annotated bibliography.

Following an introductory essay that explains the causes and history of the war, five topical essays examine the Western Alliance and, in particular, our relations with Great Britain over the War, an analysis and new insights on the role of the Soviet Union and China, the Chinese Communist intervention, the prisoners of war issue, and the meaning and implications of the Korean conflict. Primary documents include the text of speeches, memoranda, telegrams, and official government reports. Biographical sketches provide thorough discussion of the role of major players in the conflict. A section of photographs complements the text. Because it is based on the most recent scholarship and written for the high school and college student researcher, it is the ideal companion to a study of the Korean conflict and its implications for post-World War II America.