When US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, they occupied a country that had been at war for 23 years. Yet in their attempts to understand Iraqi society and history, few policy makers, analysts and journalists took into account the profound impact that Iraq's long engagement with war had on the Iraqis' everyday engagement with politics, the business of managing their daily lives, and their cultural imagination. Drawing on government documents and interviews, Dina Rizk Khoury traces the political, social and cultural processes of the normalization of war in Iraq during the last twenty-three years of Ba'thist rule. Khoury argues that war was a form of everyday bureaucratic governance and examines the Iraqi government's policies of creating consent, managing resistance and religious diversity, and shaping public culture. Coming on the tenth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, this book tells a multilayered story of a society in which war has become the norm.

The Persian Gulf War was the first war that the United States was officially involved in as a combatant after the Vietnam War. It was a war in which many new technological, strategic, political, and economic elements came together for the first time, making the war a particularly unique experience for American soldiers and those at home. The colorful Persian Gulf War, Revised Edition is a complete reference for students, teachers, war historians, war history enthusiasts, and anyone interested in modern U.S. history. Engaging sidebars, suggestions for further research, and an informative chapter about the new military tactics and weapons involved rounds out this new edition.

The September 11, 2001, terror attacks orchestrated by al-Qaeda prompted the United States to declare a "War on Terror." When the Taliban government of Afghanistan refused to extradite al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, an American-led coalition went to war with Afghanistan, overthrowing the Taliban government. However, the coalition did not capture bin Laden and all of his followers, so the battle against the terrorists continues, while a war-torn and ravaged Afghanistan struggles to rebuild. Afghanistan War features an up-to-date account of the battles, weapons, tactics, and people involved in this ongoing conflict.

For six decades, the 7.62mm FN MAG has been a dominant general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) in worldwide arsenals. Three qualities have guaranteed this enduring status - reliability, ease of operation, and firepower. Several nations have license-produced the weapon as their standard GPMG, including the British (as the L7) and the Americans (M240), and in total more than 80 nations have adopted the FN MAG. The machine gun has also been modified extensively for vehicular, naval, and aircraft platforms, demonstrating versatility in the air, on sea, and on land.

In this book, Chris McNab charts the technical evolution of this extraordinary weapon, created by Belgian company Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal. From the jungles of South East Asia, to the deserts of the Middle East, and the icy battlefields of the Falklands, this study explores the origins, development, combat use, and legacy of the FN MAG machine gun, a dominant weapon in its field for more than a half-century.

What drives neighbouring states to intervene in the Afghan conflict? This book challenges mainstream analyses which place Afghanistan at the centre - the so-called 'heart' - of a large pan- Asian region whose fate is predicated on Afghan stability. Instead Harpviken and Tadjbakhsh situ--ate Afghanistan on the margins of three regional security complexes - those of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf - each characterised by deep security rivalries, which, in turn, informs their engagement in Afghanistan. Within Central Asia, security cooperation is hampered by competition for regional supremacy and great power support, a dynamic reflected in these states' half-hearted role in Afghanistan. In the Persian Gulf, Iran and Saudi Arabia fight for economic and political influence, mirrored in their Afghan engagements; while long-standing Indo-Pakistani ri--valries are perennially played out in Afghanistan. Based on a careful reading of the recent political and economic history of the region, and of Great Power rivalry beyond it, the authors explain why efforts to build a comprehensive Afghanistan-centric regional security order have failed, and what might be done to re-set inter-state relations.

United States Navy and the Korean War.
Highlights fleet operations of the United States Navy in the Korean War from September 1950 to June 1951.

Twentieth century witnessed the rise and fall of many great powers. With the start of that century, nations fought and won battles individually to stretch their empires and economics. Within the same century, when the sizes of a few empires rose to mythical proportion, others vanished from the map. It was during the same twentieth century, that the alliance building becomes a religion. Both World wars and the entire Cold war period were dominated by the principle of 'building and maintaining alliances'. Two countries, the United States and the United Kingdom, understood the art of alliance building more than any other nation. From the last decade of the twentieth century till Iraq war, the world witnessed a series of events, one after another. Cold War ended, Russia disintegrated, US-led alliance won Gulf war, NATO's existence, expansion and future (if any) were clouded with questions marks' Ireland issue erupted; Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yugoslavia crises deepened; Euro currency started and September 11 and subsequent Afghanistan and Iraq Wars occurred. It was during these eventful years, the US and UK stood together to shape the course of history. Their mutual alliance essential for each other but indispensable and failed to achieve their objectives. The book "Essential Alliance" chronicles the success and failures.

In its struggle against international terrorism following 9/11, the United States developed rendition - the international transfer of an individual without customary due processes - as an instrument of policy. Rendition became associated with the use of coercive interrogation techniques - techniques often crossing the threshold of torture, in violation of international standards to which successive American administrations committed themselves. To a degree yet to be fully established, Britain was implicated in that policy. Whatever its alleged benefits, rendition's cost is clear - not simply in terms of the human impact of the abuses, but also in terms of the huge damage done to the moral authority of the West. By creating a powerful image of injustice, rendition gives Islamist radicals a recruiting and propaganda tool. Moreover, the policy is a severe setback to efforts to enhance shared international standards in humanitarian and human rights laws. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition was founded in December 2005, following the emergence of allegations that the United States had been operating a programme of 'ghost flights' and 'black sites'. In the five years since then the Group has contributed to public knowledge and awareness of the debate surrounding rendition and Britain's involvement in it.

This volume reassesses the origins, nature, and aftermath of the war which was fought in the Korean peninsula between 1950 and 1953. Attention is focused particularly on the extraordinary first year of the war, which witnessed profound variations in the fortune of both sides. This included the initial North Korean attack, the counter-offensive launched by the United States Command, China's dramatic entry into the war, the retreat of UN forces, the controversy over the conduct and dismissal of General MacArthur, and the decision to commence armistice negotiations.

One key factor that emerged from the various presentations was the sheer variety of issues, leaderships, local security environments, and prospects for the local gorups that are affiliated with Al-Qaida in some way. Other key judgments are also revealed including that Al-Qaida continues to harbor implacable hostility toward the international system, the United States, Israel, and many local governments.
Each presentation by the various contributors are represented as separate essays within this text.
Regional and territorial maps are interspersed throughout the book to showcase key areas to the group. Some may find interest in the metrics set by Al-Qaida as well as the Goods and Services Exchanged Between Al-Qaida and its partners that are showcased through charts and tables.

By Charles H. Briscoe, et al. Tells the story of Iraqi Freedom, the second Army Special Operations (ASO) campaign in America's Global War on Terrorism. Shows how the ASO supported a US-led conventional air and ground offensive to collapse the regime of Saddam Hussein and capture Baghdad.

As Foreign Policy Adviser to Margaret Thatcher and then John Major from 1984 to 1992, Sir Percy Cradock was at the centre of government for most of the last decade. He was particularly active and influential on China, where he was Charge d'Affaires during the Cultural Revolution and Ambassador from 1978 to 1984. He masterminded the joint Declaration on Hong Kong in 1984 and played a leading role in later negotiations over the colony. In this book he reviews his experiences of China over thirty years, since his first posting there in 1962. It is a chronicle, ranging from the famines after the Great Leap Forward, through the madness of the Cultural Revolution, to the reformist years of Deng Xiaoping, the tragedy of Tiananmen, and finally to present-day China, now with the fastest growing economy in the world. In narrower focus, it is also an authoritative account of Sino-British dealings during that turbulent time, in particular the critical negotiations over Hong Kong. These memoirs offer the inside story, illuminating past crises and present controversies, and making a contribution to the understanding of a coming world power.

This work presents 60 eye-opening, first person narratives that takes readers into the dust and smoke of the battlefield that was Iraq. The reporters interviewed covered history as it was being made, from the frontline. From the network anchor calling his wife to tell her he was safe, to a reporter riding in the belly of a Bradley to camping in Saddam's palace, these reports provide an insight into what really went on during the war.