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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Weapons & equipment > General
Stephen Hill analyzes the factors that affected the success or failure of the UN disarmament processes during intra-state peacekeeping missions conducted between 1991 and 1999. He examines seven case studies including Cambodia, Mozambique, the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, El Salvador, and the last two operations in Angola. The text utilizes developing approaches to conflict resolution in order to create an analytical framework through which to assess the UN's attempts at disarmament.
This comprehensive compendium covers all aspects of self-defense knives, including their history, development, and technology, as well as practice, training, and combat techniques. Learn about the historical development of modern self-defense knives and their various technical systems, designs, and materials. The book covers various possibilities for carrying an SD-knife, answers questions such as whether a folder or fixed blade is the right choice, and gives recommendations on training knives. The most important combat knives and knife combats of Hollywood movies are included. Readers will learn the basics of Wagner's reality-based training system. Contributions from well-known knife and combat experts such as Sal Glesser, Michael Janich, Frank Metzner, Joachim Friedrich, Dieter Knuttel, and Sohny cover special topics such as butterfly and karambit knives, escrima, and self-defense against dogs.
This is the most up-to-the minute survey of the vital subject of sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) to appear in ten years. It systematically analyzes the technological promises and weaknesses of SLCMs, especially conventionally armed, land-attack versions, explaining sophisticated technologies in language accessible to the general reader. Eric H. Arnett presents a cogent assessment of the crux of the SLCM issue for U.S. security, examining the coastal nation concept of the U.S. defensive position and investigating whether technology can adequately compensate for geography as Tomahawks and their Soviet counterparts give way to more advanced progeny. Arnett weighs the trade-offs in a frank discussion of the technologies and missions envisioned for current and future SLCMs. This well-researched, authoritative study evaluates both U.S. and Soviet SLCM arsenals, examines the role of arms control and unilateral initiatives in managing the dangers of SLCMs, and critically assesses the claims made for the Tomahawk conventionally armed cruise missile. The relevance of a changing international scene and domestic fiscal chaos to SLCM issues is fully appraised. The book's eight chapters lead the reader through all aspects of this complex field with admirable lucidity. Early chapters describe missions envisioned for U.S. conventionally armed SLCMs, and assess actual SLCM technology. Chapter 4 addresses the reciprocal problem of Soviet SLCMs, describing possible and likely roles of Soviet nuclear and conventionally armed SLCMs and the importance of offering responses. The increasingly important question of how SLCMs might be used in the developing world, both by and against U.S. forces and security partners is considered in Chapter 5--an especially relevant discussion in light of the apparent success of the Tomahawk SLCM in the 1991 war with Iraq. The next two chapters describe SLCM arms control as it has been practiced and discuss, from two vantage points, the roles of future arms-control and unilateral disarmament initiatives in addressing the disadvantages of SLCMs. Finally, the immediate implications of the previous chapters for policy practitioners are developed in a chapter that focuses on specific policy recommendations. This timely contribution is a reliable source of information on SLCMs for the interested public, the non-government arms control community, naval personnel, and members of both Congress and the administration.
Countries around the globe are continuously investing money into weapon development and manufacturing. While weapon design has been a relevant topic, from the Middle Ages to today, the morality of this practice is not commonly presented in research. The Morality of Weapons Design and Development: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential scholarly resource that presents detailed discussions on ethical dilemmas in weapons design and innovations. While highlighting relevant topics including projectile and nuclear weapons, the true costs of war, design in peacetime, and weapons development and justification, this book is an ideal resource for researchers, engineers, graduate students, and professionals who have an interest in weapons design, development, and ethics.
This book focuses on Biopreparat, the Soviet agency created in 1974, which spearheaded the largest and most sophisticated biological warfare programme the world has ever seen. At its height, Biopreparat employed more than 30,000 personnel and incorporated an enormous network embracing military-focused research institutes, design centres, biowarfare pilot facilities and dual-use production plants. The secret network pursued major offensive R&D programmes, which sought to use genetic engineering techniques to create microbial strains resistant to antibiotics and with wholly new and unexpected pathogenic properties. During the mid-1980s, Biopreparat increased in size and political importance and also emerged as a major civil biopharmaceutical player in the USSR. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, an acute struggle for control of Biopreparat's most valuable assets took place and the network was eventually broken-up and control of its facilities transferred to a myriad of state agencies and private companies.
The importance of technology in our day to day lives is something that few people would deny. At home and in the office, in business and in politics, the effects of technology are pervasive. In this important new study, Anthony DiFilippo examines one specific aspect of this issue: the forces of political economy that direct the course of industrial technology. The book thoroughly analyzes the topic both empirically and comparatively and assesses the impact the political economy of technology has on the nation's standard of living, its quality of life, and its long-term prospects for economic and democratic advancement. In addition, DiFilippo concludes with a practical and rational alternative to confront many of the economic problems described. The book's primary thesis states that recent U.S. industrial policy, which has emphasized continuous advancement of military capabilities, has absorbed large amounts of capital and technical personnel. At the same time, foreign nations have improved their technological capacities through comprehensive, civilian-supported industrial policies. To improve U.S. competitiveness, manufacturing, productivity, and, ultimately, the standard of living, DiFilippo shows that technological resources must be shifted to the civilian sector. He examines a wide range of issues surrounding the topic, from the demise of the post-industrial economy and the conventional explanations for competitive decline to the resource drain of advanced warfare and the industrial policies of Japan, West Germany, and France. An extensive set of charts and tables support DiFilippo's argument and point out some of the serious economic problems the U.S. approach to high technology has caused. A bibliography of selected works is also provided. With its pertinence to current economic, political, and technological issues, From Industry to Arms will be a valuable resource for courses in government and business, political economy, policy analysis, and science and technology. Public and academic libraries will also find it to be an important and timely addition to their collections.
This handbook provides critical analyses of the theory and practices of small arms proliferation and its impact on conflicts and organized violence in Africa. It examines the terrains, institutions, factors and actors that drive armed conflict and arms proliferation, and further explores the nature, scope, and dynamics of conflicts across the continent, as well as the extent to which these conflicts are exacerbated by the proliferation of small arms. The volume features rich analyses by contributors who are acquainted with, and widely experienced in, the formal and informal structures of arms proliferation and control, and their repercussions on violence, instability and insecurity across Africa. The chapters dissect the challenges of small arms and light weapons in Africa with a view to understanding roots causes and drivers, and generating a fresh body of analyses that adds value to the existing conversation on conflict management and peacebuilding in Africa. With contributions from scholars, development practitioners, defence and security professionals and civil society activists, the handbook seeks to serve as a reference for students, researchers, and policy makers on small arms proliferation, control and regulation; defence and security practitioners; and those involved in countering violence and managing conflicts in Africa.
This book] provides the kind of scholarly resource that educated citizens need to think for themselves, a rich digest of primary sources documenting--in their own words--the views, motives, and intentions of the Framers, historic commentators, legislators, and judiciary who have debated the right to keep and bear arms from the origins of our republic. "Preston K. Covey, Carnegie Mellon University " Beginning with its origins in the English Civil War, Clayton Cramer traces the development in the United States of the right to keep and bear arms--through the Constitutional Convention, the ratification debates that followed, its inclusion by Congress in the Bill of Rights, to the present controversy over gun control. This book provides important background, analysis, documentation, and perspective for the ongoing national debate over arms.
This text considers the ethical credentials of the United States in branding various countries pariah states, and describes the background to the Iraq question (the role of Saddam, the genocidal sanctions regime, amongst other things). A detailed chronology of 1997-98 US/Iraq weapons inspections crisis is given, prior to a profile of the subsequent UN/Iraqi settlement and its aftermath.
Engineers learn the latest electronic warfare (EW) techniques and technologies related to on-board military platforms with this authoritative resource. Practitioners gain expert design guidance on technologies and equipment used to detect and identify emitter threats, giving them an advantage in the never-ending chess game between sensor guided weapons and EW systems. This unique book offers deeper insight into EW systems principles of operation and their mathematical descriptions, arming professionals with better knowledge for their specific design applications. Moreover, readers get practical information on how to counter modern communications data links which provide connectivity and command flow among the armed forces in the battlefield. Taking a sufficiently broad perspective, this comprehensive volume offers a panoramic view of the various physical domains - RF, Infrared, and electronics - that are present in modern electronic warfare systems.
As a leading expert on non-conventional weapons and explosives, the author focuses on the bombs and explosives and shows how the IRA became the most adept and experienced insurgency group the world has ever seen through their bombing expertise and how - after generations of conflict - it all came to an end. The book is a comprehensive account of more than 150 years of Irish republican strategic, tactical, and operational details and analysis covering the IRA's mission, doctrine, targeting, and acquisition of weapons and explosives. Oppenheimer also colourfully presents the story behind the bombs; those who built and deployed them, those who had to deal with and dismantle them, and those who suffered or died from them. He analyses where, how, and why the IRA's bombs were built, targeted and deployed and explores what the IRA was hoping to accomplish in its unrivalled campaign of violence and insurgency through covert acquisition, training, intelligence and counter-intelligence. The book focuses entirely on the IRA's bombing campaign - beginning with the Fenian 'Dynamiters' in the 19th century up to the decommissioning of an arsenal big enough to arm several battalions - which included an entire home-crafted missile system, an unsurpassed range of improvised explosive devices, and enough explosives to blow up several urban centres. The author scrutinises the level of improvisation in what became the hallmark of the Provisional IRA in its pioneering IED timing, delay and disguise technologies. He follows the arms race it carried on with the British Army and security services in a Long War of Mutual Assured Disruption. Oppenheimer fully describes and assesses the impact of the pre-1970s bombing campaigns in Northern Ireland and England to the evolution of strategies and tactics. He also provides an insight into the bombing equipment and guns from the IRA inventory held at Irish Police HQ in Dublin.
One of the great misconceptions of the Second World War is the notion that the German Army was the epitome of mechanical efficiency--combining lightning speed with awesome military power. R. L. DiNardo argues that, although the elite panzer divisions were indeed formidable units, about 75 percent of the German Army were infantry divisions who relied primarily on the horse for transport. So, DiNardo asks, how modern was the Wehrmacht during World War II? Could it have achieved a higher level of modernity than it actually did? This book takes an unusual approach to the study of the much mythologized German Army. In dealing with horses specifically, DiNardo shows how the German Army was in many ways a throwback to the nineteenth century. How extensive was this antiquated dependence on horses, and was this a conscious decision on the part of the leaders of the German war machine? Did it have an effect on the army's organization and battle strength? What problems did the Germans encounter due to their use of horses? This study answers these questions from a unique perspective and will be invaluable to military historians, courses in military studies, and the collections in public and academic libraries.
The primary focus of this book is on the arms and armour of Europe, but also included are neighbouring cultures where these had a direct influence on developments and changes within Europe, from late Roman cavalry armour, Byzantium and the East, to the influence of the Golden Horde. A Companion to Medieval Arms and Armour covers the entire period from the fifth to the fifteenth century, a thousand years which saw huge changes in military technology in most of the world's major civilisations. Arms and armour in Europe are the principal focus of the studies, but those of neighbouring civilisations, including the Byzantine Empire, eastern Europe, the steppes and the Islamic world, are also investigated, both for the impact upon them of European technological developments, and for their influence upon developments within western Europe. Arms and armour in Europe developed dramatically during the thousand years from the fifth to the fifteenth century. During this broad sweep of time civilisations rose and fell and population movements swept from east to west, bringing in their wake advances and modifications absorbed and expanded by indigenous populations. So although the primary focus of this book is on the arms and armour of Europe, it also includes neighbouring cultures where these had a direct influence on developments and changes within Europe, from late Roman cavalry armour, Byzantium and the Eastto the influence of the Golden Horde. A truly impressive band of specialists cover issues ranging from the migrations to the first firearms, divided into three sections: From the Fall of Rome to the Eleventh Century, Emergence ofA European Tradition in the High Middle Ages, and New Influences and New Challenges of the Late Middle Ages; throughout there is particular emphasis on the social and technological aspects of medieval military affairs. Contributors: ANDREA BABUIN, JON COULSTON, TIM DAWSON, CLAUDE GAIER, MICHAEL GORELIK, JOHN HALDON, MARCO MORIN, HELMUT NICKEL, DAVID NICOLLE, EWART OAKESHOTT, ANNE PEDERSON, SHIHAB AL-SARRAF, ALAN WILLIAMS.
The four Valois Dukes of Burgundy created, in little more than a century, a fabulously wealthy and independent state. Their centralised control and chancellery have bequeathed to us a vast treasure trove of documents, including accounts and inventories of the Masters of the artillery under the later Dukes. Although many of these were extracted and transcribed in the late nineteenth century, modern historians have largely ignored their unprecedented insights into fifteenth-century guns and their use. When Charles the Bold, the last Valois Duke, took on the combined Swiss confederate forces in 1476 he lost not just the battles and his personal fortune, but much of his artillerytrain as well. Of the dozens of cannons captured, at least 25 pieces survive in Swiss museums. The documents that survive from the Valois state give us, almost for the first time in medieval Europe, the ability to see the course of history in a period when Europe was undergoing some of the most profound changes before the 20th century. The Artillery of the Dukes of Burgundy is the first attempt to combine all these sources, bringing newand fresh insights into the development and use of artillery in the fifteenth century. Moreover this is the first modern study of medieval cannon, one of the most important discoveries of the post-classical world. KELLY DeVRIES has authored numerous books and articles on medieval warfare. ROBERT DOUGLAS SMITH formerly Head of Conservation in the Royal Armouries, Tower of London, is an acknowledged expert on medieval artillery. This study is thefirst major fruit of their combined researches.
Modern weaponry and warfare have entered a new era where death and destruction are produced electronically and with appalling speed and accuracy. This book shows for the first time how electronic combat and the battle for intelligence are changing every aspect of the battlefield of the future - from nuclear warfare to espionage. It is the first of its kind to show how the new technology and tactics are used, and how they shape strategy and peacetime planning.
This work focuses on the efforts of the Quartermaster Corps to apply the concept of standardization to the Army's motor transportation system. The experiences of the Quartermaster Corps and the automobile industry indicated that the most efficient and cost effective method of motorization was to adopt a fleet of standardized trucks with interchangeable components. To attain this goal, the Quartermaster Corps faced many obstacles: bureaucratic inertia, technological limitations, insufficient funding, and resistance from the truck industry. But, in 1940, as America prepared for war, thanks to the efforts of the Quartermaster Corps, the haphazard policies that had once governed truck procurement were superseded by a standardization policy that purchased predetermined makes and models of trucks manufactured specifically for Army service.
In the fifty-five years since World War II ended in Europe, there has never been a detailed book published in any country pertaining to the German police warrant discs (Erkennungsmarke-Dienstmarke) of the Third Reich era. Warrant discs were used in Germany for police identification. This book is geared to both the beginning and the most advanced and knowledgeable collectors. The large format, full color photographs of German police warrant discs show details of the features of both rare original discs and recent counterfeit pieces. This book is without equal in this esoteric field of collecting.
Will tomorrow's wars be dominated by autonomous drones, land robots and warriors wired into a cybernetic network which can read their thoughts? Will war be fought with greater or lesser humanity? Will it be played out in cyberspace and further afield in Low Earth Orbit? Or will it be fought more intensely still in the sprawling cities of the developing world, the grim black holes of social exclusion on our increasingly unequal planet? Will the Great Powers reinvent conflict between themselves or is war destined to become much 'smaller' both in terms of its actors and the beliefs for which they will be willing to kill? In this illuminating new book Christopher Coker takes us on an incredible journey into the future of warfare. Focusing on contemporary trends that are changing the nature and dynamics of armed conflict, he shows how conflict will continue to evolve in ways that are unlikely to render our century any less bloody than the last. With insights from philosophy, cutting-edge scientific research and popular culture, Future War is a compelling and thought-provoking meditation on the shape of war to come.
This book addresses the technological evolution of modern warfare due to unmanned systems and the growing capacity for cyberwarfare. The increasing involvement of unmanned means and methods of warfare can lead to a total removal of humans from the navigation, command and decision-making processes in the control of unmanned systems, and as such away from participation in hostilities - the "dehumanization of warfare." This raises the question of whether and how today's law is suitable for governing the dehumanization of warfare effectively. Which rules are relevant? Do interpretations of relevant rules need to be reviewed or is further and adapted regulation necessary? Moreover, ethical reasoning and computer science developments also have to be taken into account in identifying problems. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach the book focuses primarily on international humanitarian law, with related ethics and computer science aspects included in the discussion and the analysis.
With a brand new introduction from the author, this is the complete story of how the bomb was developed. It is told in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly -- or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity there was a span of hardly more than twenty-five years. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan Project, and then into the Bomb with frightening rapidity, while scientists known only to their peers -- Szilard, Teller, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Meitner, Fermi, Lawrence, and yon Neumann -- stepped from their ivory towers into the limelight. Richard Rhodes takes us on that journey step by step, minute by minute, and gives us the definitive story of man's most awesome discovery and invention. The Making of the Atomic Bomb has been compared in its sweep and importance to William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It is at once a narrative tour de forceand a document as powerful as its subject.
This book addresses issues of legal and moral governance arising in the development, deployment, and eventual uses of emerging technologies in military operations. Proverbial wisdom has it that law and morality always lag behind technological innovation. Hence, the book aims to identify, enumerate, and constructively address the problems of adequate governance for the development, deployment, and eventual uses of military technologies that have been newly introduced into military operations or which will be available in the near future. Proposals for modifications in governance, the book argues, closely track the anxieties of many critics of these technologies to the extent that they will proliferate, prove destructive in unanticipated ways, and partially or wholly escape regulation under current treaties and regulatory regimes. In addition to such concerns in domestic and especially in international law, the book addresses ethical norms in the professions involved in the design and eventual use of specific technologies, principally involving the professional norms of practice in engineering and the military (as well as biomedical and health care practice), which impose moral obligations on their members to avoid reckless endangerment or criminal negligence in the course of their activities. Thus, in addition to exploring the application of existing legal regimes and moral norms, the book examines how these professions might develop or improve the voluntary constraints on forms of malfeasance that are enshrined in their histories and codes of best practices. This book should prove of great interest to students of ethics, military studies, philosophy of war and peace, law, and international relations. |
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