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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > General
In this unique, interactive story, you are the leader of a U.S. Army M1 Abrams tank platoon. Throughout the text, you will have an opportunity to make life-or-death decisions, and the events that unfold will be dictated by the choices you make. As you progress through the book, you will learn important tactical and operational lessons. Whether or not you are – or want to be – a tank platoon leader you will find this book highly entertaining and instructive. There are two operations to survive – an assault and a counter-reconnaissance mission. In each you must bring your knowledge and judgment to bear on the scenario in order to achieve the objective. If you choose wrong, defeat and even death may be your fate. If you succeed, you can savor the taste of victory and live to fight another day. The scenarios are highly realistic, and there are maps and appendices with detailed specifications of the hardware involved to help you make informed decisions. Written before Operation Desert Storm, and published in 1991, the military technology in Armor Attacks may be dated by today’s standards, but the need for human leadership and effective, rapid decision-making has not changed. Armor Attacks was recognised as an invaluable teaching tool by United States Military Academy, West Point and used to teach cadets the essential skills of leadership, decision-marking and tactics – a decade of USMA leaders trained with this book. To supplement the original text, this new edition includes the West Point instructor reference guide, which explains and amplifies the teaching points of each scenario encountered. Want to know more? Click here to hear John Antal discuss all things gaming - from tabletop war-gaming to WWII video games.
War has always been a central feature of the way in which the
nations of the world interact with one another. Throughout history,
wars have both built and destroyed great nations. Although the
conduct of war is considered to be the exclusive province of the
military, its effects are felt by the entire population of a
nation. When is war the best option? And how is that conclusion
reached?
In this story from the frontlines of the undeclared battlefields of the War on Terror, Jeremy Scahill exposes America's new approach to war: fought far from any declared battlefield, by units that do not officially exist, in thousands of operations a month that are never publicly acknowledged. From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond, Scahill speaks to the CIA agents, mercenaries and elite Special Operations Forces operators. He goes deep into al Qaeda-held territory in Yemen and walks the streets of Mogadishu with CIA-backed warlords. We also meet the survivors of night raids and drone strikes - including families of US citizens targeted for assassination by their own government - who reveal the shocking human consequences of the dirty wars the United States struggle to keep hidden.
The guns fell silent in the Persian Gulf on August 20, 1988, when
Iran and Iraq finally agreed to a ceasefire. One of the longest and
most devastating uninterrupted wars among modern nation states
since 1945, the Iran-Iraq conflict produced neither victor nor
vanquished, yet the domestic, regional, and international
repercussions of the war clearly indicate that "going back" is not
an option.
The battle of Culloden lasted less than an hour. The forces involved on both sides were small, even by the standards of the day. And it is arguable that the ultimate fate of the 1745 Jacobite uprising had in fact been sealed ever since the Jacobite retreat from Derby several months before. But for all this, Culloden is a battle with great significance in British history. It was the last pitched battle on the soil of the British Isles to be fought with regular troops on both sides. It came to stand for the final defeat of the Jacobite cause. And it was the last domestic contestation of the Act of Union of 1707, the resolution of which propelled Great Britain to be the dominant world power for the next 150 years. If the battle itself was short, its aftermath was brutal - with the depredations of the Duke of Cumberland followed by a campaign to suppress the clan system and the Highland way of life. And its afterlife in the centuries since has been a fascinating one, pitting British Whig triumphalism against a growing romantic memorialization of the Jacobite cause. On both sides there has long been a tendency to regard the battle as a dramatic clash, between Highlander and Lowlander, Celt and Saxon, Catholic and Protestant, the old and the new. Yet, as this account of the battle and its long cultural afterlife suggests, while viewing Culloden in such a way might be rhetorically compelling, it is not necessarily good history.
This book is a major reinterpretation of the Iran-Iraq War and is a source for reexamining the U.S. involvement in the Gulf. Pelletiere demonstrates that the war was not a standoff in which Iraq finally won a grinding war of attrition through luck, persistence, and the use of poison gas. Instead, Iraq planned the last campaign almost two years prior to its unfolding. The Iraqis] trained extensively and expended enormous sums of money to make their effort succeed. What won for them was their superior fignting prowess and greater commitment. Gas--if it was used at all--played only a minor part in the victory.' Pelletiere concludes that the key to understanding the war is the Extraordinary Congress of the Ba'th Party held in July 1986. It was there that the initial planning for the final campaign was done, and this campaign is what decided the fate of the conflict. The study centers around the last Iraqi campaign, which Pelletiere argues was based upon World War II blitzkrieg tactics, but he also treats the background, the politics, and the history of the conflict, and analyzes the significance of the war to the Middle East and to the position of the United States there.
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.
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.
Modelscapes are clusters of miniature architectural models that represent entire environments. They're frequently found in museums as representations of heritage, architecture, and collective identity. This book offers a critical analysis of modelscapes, using case studies from Israel, to show how miniature representations of contested physical space participate in the construction of a sense of national identity and appropriation of the land and its history. What, Yael Padan asks, is the meaning of such models, and what role do they play within the context of an ongoing violent conflict over territory and history?
The Seven Years' War (1754 1763) was a pivotal event in the history of the Atlantic world. Perspectives on the significance of the war and its aftermath varied considerably from different cultural vantage points. Northern and western Indians, European imperial authorities, and their colonial counterparts understood and experienced the war (known in the United States as the French and Indian War) in various ways. In many instances the progress of the conflict was charted by cultural differences and the implications participants drew from cultural encounters. It is these cultural encounters, their meaning in the context of the Seven Years' War, and their impact on the war and its diplomatic settlement that are the subjects of this volume. Cultures in Conflict: The Seven Years' War in North America addresses the broad pattern of events that framed this conflict's causes, the intercultural dynamics of its conduct, and its profound impact on subsequent events most notably the American Revolution and a protracted Anglo-Indian struggle for continental control. Warren R. Hofstra has gathered the best of contemporary scholarship on the war and its social and cultural history. The authors examine the viewpoints of British and French imperial authorities, the issues motivating Indian nations in the Ohio Valley, the matter of why and how French colonists fought, the diplomatic and social world of Iroquois Indians, and the responses of British colonists to the conflict. The result of these efforts is a dynamic historical approach in which cultural context provides a rationale for the well-established military and political narrative of the Seven Years' War. These synthetic and interpretive essays mark out new territory in our understanding of the Seven Years' War as we recognize its 250th anniversary."
Tens of thousands of US soldiers and untold millions of Koreans died in this war the first major arena of the East-West conflict. This concise international history of the war offers a new approach to its understanding, tracing its origins and dynamics to the interplay between modern Korean history and twentieth century world history. The narrative also uniquely examines the social history of the conflict, and includes material on the newly racially integrated US fighting forces, war and disease, women and war and life in the Prisoner of War camps. While most surveys stop at 1953, with the signing of the armistice, Steven Hugh Lee carries the story through to the Geneva Conference in the spring of 1954 the last major international effort before recent years to negotiate a permanent peace for the Korean peninsula.
Border Fury provides a fascinating account of the period of Anglo-Scottish Border conflict from the Edwardian invasions of 1296 until the Union of the Crowns under James VI of Scotland, James I of England in 1603. It looks at developments in the art of war during the period, the key transition from medieval to renaissance warfare, the development of tactics, arms, armour and military logistics during the period. All the key personalities involved are profiled and the typology of each battle site is examined in detail with the author providing several new interpretations that differ radically from those that have previously been understood.
Sheffer deals with some of the oldest continuing constitutional problems confronting the American government: the judicial development of presidential war powers, potential constitutional dictatorship, and a wartime constitution. What enhances these problems is the very cryptic language presented by Article II itself. First, the generalities of Article II are read expansively enough to cover specific presidential actions, while a theory of inherent powers tends to justify the means. This combination of action and theory, Sheffer asserts, presumes that ends and means are determined only by the president. The end result is that presidential action takes on the characteristics of constitutional power. As this casebook demonstrates, in times of grave national emergency--especially war--the president acts as a constitutional dictator. There is a tacit understanding that nothing will be permitted to block the winning of the war. What is necessary, as determined by the chief executive, is done. The president must insure the national survival. Legal niceties are given little attention. Congress does not interfere with the manner in which the president conducts a war; it is a ready ally in almost everything he does, so long as he continues to be successful. As the cases demonstrate, the courts seek to avoid having to rule on the president's conduct, but, when they do rule, they usually uphold the president.
For five years, Meredith Davenport has photographed and interviewed
men who play live-action games based on contemporary conflicts,
such as a recreation of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden that took
place thousands of miles from the conflict zone on a campground in
Northern Virginia. Her images speak about the way that trauma and
conflict penetrate a culture sheltered from the horrors of war.
A collection of original works covering all aspects of insurgency and counterinsurgency through a multinational lens, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Modern War addresses the need to look beyond the United States and other prominent counterinsurgency actors in the contemporary world. It also reassesses some of the latent and burgeoning insurgent organizations and networks around the globe and suggests alternative approaches to understanding insurgency, counterinsurgency, and conventional and asymmetric warfare as they relate to insurgency and counterinsurgency. This book makes significant contributions to international and interdisciplinary discussions regarding the seminal features of insurgency and counterinsurgency in modern warfare. It also relates topics with terrorism in the post-9/11 era, including the historical roots of insurgency, radicalism in Europe, and regional radical groups like al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba. It emphasizes how issues around insurgency, counterinsurgency, and terrorism permeate or evolve into particular forms of warfare, military operations, and related governmental activities. Using a diversified lens of analysis, the chapters illustrate key elements that spawn insurgency such as insurgents' beliefs, motivations, aims, leadership characteristics, recruitment methods, operations planning, and responses to state and non-state efforts to contain insurgency. The book also examines how certain terrorist and insurgent operations can remain in the shadows and become secret wars beneath the growing surface threats they pose to the societies in which they breed activity. Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Modern War takes a unique look at a subject that has become widely studied and written about in reaction to modern terrorism and insurgency. It analyzes conditions under which insurgency and counterinsurgency occur from nuanced perspectives that have not previously received full consideration.
This book offers the first English-language translation of the finest soldier's memoir to emerge from the Franco-Prussian War, titled With my Rucksack: The Unvarnished Campaign Memoirs of an Infantryman from the Year 1870 by Carl Ruckert. Lasting from 1870-1871, this was the war that made the modern German nation and set Europe on the path to World War I, and Carl Ruckert offers an unrivalled worm's eye view of the experiences of common soldiers who fought in it. A Hessian lance corporal in the German army, he was a close observer of daily hardships, class tensions, the influence of nationalism, and the terrors of combat. He was gravely wounded in the war's decisive battle at Gravelotte, where he was among the first Europeans to face the horrors of breech-loading rifles, machine guns, and accurate artillery. Accompanied by an insightful translator's introduction and a wealth of footnotes, this book is an invaluable link to the everyday realities of the Franco-Prussian War.
The decision to mount an armed foreign intervention is one of the most consequential that a US president can take. This book sets out to explain why and when presidents choose to use force. The book examines decisions to use force throughout the post-Cold War period, via flashpoints including the Balkans, the 'War on Terror' and the Middle East. It develops new explanations for variation in the use of force in US foreign policy by theorizing and demonstrating the effects of the displacement and repression of ideas within and across different US presidential administrations, from George H.W. Bush to Donald Trump. For students, scholars and anyone with an interest in international relations and global security, this book is an original perspective on a defining issue of recent decades.
Arab involvement in the Jewish-Palestine conflict had started during the late 1930s, but it was only in the wake of the UN Partition Resolution of 29 November 1947 that active military intervention was considered. The Arab League tried to form a unified army that would prevent the implementation of the Partition Resolution, but failed. In Egypt, the government and the army opposed the idea of dispatching an expeditionary force to Palestine, but the pressure of public opinion and King Farouq's insistence carried the day. The order was given and in May 1948, Egyptian forces crossed the international border with Palestine. The author analyses the reasons for the decisive victory enjoyed by Israel over a larger opponent; and the successes and failures that were sealed in the Egyptian-Israeli General Armistice Agreement signed in Rhodes in March 1948.
Widespread media interest into the Chechen conflict reflects an ongoing concern about the evolution of federal Russia. Why did the Russian leadership initiate military action against Chechnya in December 1994 but against no other constituent part of the Federation? This study demonstrates that the Russian invasion represented the culmination of a crisis that was perceived to have become an increasing threat not only to the stability of the North Caucasus region, but also to the very foundations of Russian security. It looks closely at the Russian Federation in transition, following the collapse of the communist Soviet Union, and the implications of the 1991 Chechen Declaration of Independence in the context of Russia's democratisation project.
Given the resurgence of Russian economic capabilities and of Russia's role as a regional, even global, political actor, much of the literature written more than 4-5 years ago is already dated. The editor and contributors to this timely volume draw upon a broad range of analysts who deal with various aspects of Russian relations with its neighbours to the West and to the East. Implications for Russian foreign and security policy are key to understanding Russia's position in the 21st Century. Readers in Russian foreign and security policy; European, Eurasian, and Asian security; and contemporary international politics/security will find this volume invaluable.
This book examines the political consequences of European security commercialisation through increased reliance on private military and security companies (PMSCs). The role of commercial security in the domestic setting in Europe is widely acknowledged; after all, the biggest private security company globally G4S Group has its roots in Scandinavia. However, the use of commercial security contracting by European states for military purposes in international settings is mostly held to be marginal. This book examines the implications of commercialisation for the peace and reconciliations strategies of European states, focussing specifically on European contracting in Afghanistan. Drawing upon examples from Scandinavia, Central Europe and Continental Europe, each chapter considers three key factors:
This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, global governance, peace and conflict studies, European politics, and IR in general.
This timely analysis of security in Europe identifies the factors that enable and hinder the creation of networks of defence cooperation across the continent. Going beyond regional arrangements established by NATO and the European Union, this book considers the subregional level by focusing on bilateral and minilateral defence collaborations. It provides a new conceptual framework to assess the rationales, leadership and the complex dynamics within these alliances, and highlights how they shape and interact with NATO and EU initiatives.
As long ago as 1961 a young Terry Parsons, then still in his twenties, began his long search for lost aircraft and memories of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. What he discovered over the decades that followed went far beyond the tangled wreckage of military aircraft, both fighters and bombers. For with each of the thousands of RAF and Luftwaffe artefacts he unearthed, came the intricate weave of life stories linking the valiant and the brave, the living and the dead. Included among the items he has recovered from the many wreck sites he has investigated, was a mud-cloaked control column from a Spitfire with its gun button still switched to firing mode, a piece of Dornier Do 17 fuselage bearing the fatal bullet holes which led it to crash to the of earth of south-east England, a pilot's waistcoat once used to stop the drafts and rattles in a Hurricane cockpit, blood-stained maps from a Luftwaffe bomber, and a buckled tail fin from a Me 110 bearing the unmistakable symbol of the swastika. Now in this exclusive biography, created from Terry's original notes and photographs stretching back almost seventy years, we learn not only about the historical significance of his own story as a wreck-hunter but the importance of remembering the lives of the men who fought in the skies above Britain in those desperate days of the Second World War. Indeed, this book shows us how one man's pioneering commitment to aviation archaeology ultimately serves as a unique tribute to thousands of young souls both lost and found of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.
The world faces explosive conflicts about the distribution and scarcity of resources, about ethnicity and religion, and about the risks of urban life. These conflicts can easily spiral out of control toward mass slaughter-an evil of huge proportions that is often escalated by the media. What should be done to prevent this lethal trend? We need to understand how the 'spiral of escalation' works. How do media create anxiety, provide space for agitation, and disconnect people? Three approaches to the prevention of mass mediated aggression are proposed in this book: an early warning system for incitement to mass destruction, the invitation to disarming conversations in urban space, and the teaching of 'compassionate communication' to children and others. Alertness to the recurrence of collective violence is urgently needed not only in unstable and poor societies, but also in established democracies. Ordinary people can be incited to the mass slaughter of other ordinary people anywhere. Understanding the media's role in this and acting to prevent it are key goals of this book.
The world faces explosive conflicts about the distribution and scarcity of resources, about ethnicity and religion, and about the risks of urban life. These conflicts can easily spiral out of control toward mass slaughter-an evil of huge proportions that is often escalated by the media. What should be done to prevent this lethal trend? We need to understand how the 'spiral of escalation' works. How do media create anxiety, provide space for agitation, and disconnect people? Three approaches to the prevention of mass mediated aggression are proposed in this book: an early warning system for incitement to mass destruction, the invitation to disarming conversations in urban space, and the teaching of 'compassionate communication' to children and others. Alertness to the recurrence of collective violence is urgently needed not only in unstable and poor societies, but also in established democracies. Ordinary people can be incited to the mass slaughter of other ordinary people anywhere. Understanding the media's role in this and acting to prevent it are key goals of this book. |
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