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.

When Canada committed forces to the military mission in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, little did Canadians foresee that they would be involved in a war-riven country for over a decade. The Politics of War explores how and why Canada's Afghanistan mission became so politicized. Through analysis of the public record and interviews with officials, Boucher and Nossal show how the Canadian government sought to frame the engagement in Afghanistan as a "mission" rather than what it was - a war. This book analyzes the impact of political elites, Parliament, and public opinion on the conflict and demonstrates how much of Canada's involvement was shaped by the vagaries of domestic politics.

This monograph studies the racial integration of Army ground combat units in Eighth (US) Army during the Korean War. The purpose of the monograph is to determine how this change in the utilization of African-American combat soldiers impacted the effectiveness of a US Army organization engaged in fighting a war. This monograph utilizes several methods to accomplish this purpose: study of pertinent records and Army doctrine, primary and secondary source historical analysis, and an inter-disciplinary study of military effectiveness. To answer the primary research question, this monograph also explores in broad terms the origins of the Cold War and US national policy after World War II, the use of Korean soldiers in US Army units during the Korean War, and the Army's segregation policies. This monograph comes to two major findings. First, the integration of African-Americans in Army combat units during the Korean War resulted in improvements in cohesion, leadership and command, fighting spirit, personnel resources and sustainment that increased the combat effectiveness of Eighth (US) Army. Second, contrary to the prevailing Army view, leaders in the Eighth (US) Army held a positive opinion of the ability of African-American soldiers to fight in combat. Both of these findings are evidence of Eighth (US) Army's adaptability.