Ten years have elapsed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, which served as a fitting symbol for the end of the Cold War. That historic juncture brought into question the main edifice of western European security arrangements -- the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- that had served Alliance members so well since NATO's founding in 1949. It also brought into question the rationale for America's continued deep involvement in European security affairs. With the gradual realization that the Russian menace is essentially dead, at least for the next 10 to 15 years and perhaps longer, and with NATO's missions having evolved well beyond the original purpose of territorial defense, debate on both sides of the Atlantic has begun to intensify concerning the vital issue of where NATO should beheaded and America's relation to the Alliance. To bring an array of informed voices to the debate, four institutions -- the Office of the Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies of the University of Chicago, and the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago joined hands to sponsor a symposium titled The Future of U.S. Military Presence in Europe," held at the University of Chicago on 4 August 1999. The present book is an outgrowth of this symposium. It is not designed to set forth a literal record of words and events in the mold of the traditional symposium "proceedings," but rather is organized as an anthology of individual chapters complemented by selected questions, answers, and comments by symposium participants and attendees. The symposium opening address by Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre (Chapter 1) and the keynote address by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Wesley Clark (Chapter 2) cogently set the stage for discussion. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 address the first panel topic, "Is Europe Still Strategically Important to the United States? Chapters 6, 7, and 8 tackle the second topic, Potential New Missions for NATO in the 21st Century, while Chapters 9, 10, and 11 are devoted to the last topic, What Type of Deployed Forces Does the United States Require to Meet Its Commitments in Europe? Noteworthy among the commentaries is the wrap-up by General Crosbie E. Saint (USA Ret.). As Commander in Chief of U.S. Army Europe during the period of the Gulf War, General Saint supplied the U.S. Army VII Corps, nominally slated as an element of NATO forces, to the coalition command that executed Operation DESERT STORM.

As an asthmatic teenager in the 1950s, I longed for a life in a place more exotic and warm for my condition than the then dreary Britain. National Service seemed to offer such a chance to a stockbroker's clerk (office boy) such as me. It did. I ended up, after disappointments danger and drama, in Egypt. What could be more exciting to an 18 year old than the land of the Pharaohs, pyramids and permanent (almost) sun? Adventures and misadventures abounded there for me. I have tried to relate them in an as amusing a narrative as possible. Come with me on this sometimes hilarious, sometimes disastrous journey.

When Neil Reynolds was first asked to work as a private military contractor in Iraq, he didn’t even know where it was on the map. But the Border War veteran and former SANDF officer would quickly learn the ins and outs of working and surviving in that war-torn country. It was 2003 and the US-led coalition that had toppled Saddam Hussein was confronted with a savage insurgency.

His candid, unvarnished account tells of the numerous challenges faced by private military contractors in Iraq: from avoiding ambushes on the highways in and around Baghdad to buying guns on the black market and dodging bullets on several hair-raising protection missions. He describes how his team’s low-profile approach allowed them to blend in with the local population and mostly kept them and their clients safe.

Reynolds also tells the tragic story of four South African colleagues who were kidnapped and killed outside Baghdad in 2006.