'Outstanding ... combines a glimpse behind the security screens with a sharp analysis of the real global insecurities - growing inequality and unsustainability' - New Internationalist Written in the late 1990s, Losing Control was years, if not decades, ahead of its time, predicting the 9/11 attacks, a seemingly endless war on terror and the relentless increase in revolts from the margins and bitter opposition to wealthy elites. Now, more than two decades later and in an era of pandemics, climate breakdown and potential further military activity in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Paul Rogers has revised and expanded the original analysis, pointing to the 2030s and '40s as the decades that will see a showdown between a bitter, environmentally wrecked and deeply insecure world and a possible world order rooted in justice and peace.

Step into the violent world of the 13th century, where the European states of the Levant battled with Muslim powers for control of Jerusalem. At the cutting edge of the conflict were the elite fighting men of the Crusader and Egyptian armies - the Knights Templar and the Mamluks, respectively. The Templars were the most famous and formidable of the European Military Orders, while the Mamluks were a slave caste whose fighting prowess had elevated them to the point of holding real political power, threatening their Ayyubid masters who relied on them so desperately for military success. This book draws on the latest research to tell the story of three key engagements from the Fifth Crusade to the Seventh Crusade. It reveals the extraordinary ferocity with which these battles were fought, and how the struggle between Templar and Mamluk came to shape the political future of the region.

This definitive overview of the development and use of artillery makes the complex artillery systems of today understandable, while at the same time showing how they have evolved and how they are likely to change in the future. The author, until recently chief of artillery for the British Army, is considered one of the world's foremost experts on the subject. Unlike other books that either describe the technical aspects of present-day firepower or outline its history during specific wars, this work provides both a detailed explanation of the modern artillery system and a history of its development over the past six hundred fifty years, identifying its enduring principles and changing practices against an ever-changing background of technology, tactics, and strategy. When an earlier version of this book was published in 1989, it became known as the best single source on field artillery in the English language. This new edition has been fully updated and substantially expanded to cover a wide range of contemporary military debates and the role of firepower, and is certain to be regarded as the ultimate work on the subject for years to come. J. B. A. Bailey assesses major developments over the past decade, analyzing artillery operations in airborne, urban, littoral, desert, jungle, mountain, artic, and nocturnal environments. He examines direct fire, counterfire, the suppression of enemy air defenses, and force protection methods. He explains field artillery from its primitive beginnings to its dominance as an art in World War II and its potent utility in operations since 1945 and into the future. The book will be of particular interest to military historians and those engaged in debating firepower's future. Published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army. 15 photographs. 8 line drawings. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 7 x 10 inches.

The end of the beginning... An epic conflictNorth Africa was a turning point for the British in the Second World War: a harsh landscape of sand and enemy tanks, but ultimately a place of victory, that Churchill famously called 'the end of the beginning.' When General Montgomery became commander of the Allied Eighth Army in 1942, he found the troops dispirited after a series of defeats by his nemesis, General Rommel. However, under Monty's inspired leadership the army turned their fortunes around, going on to win seven battles and driving the enemy out of North Africa. However, little credit has been attributed to the Eighth Army for its victories, and even the legendary Battle of El Alamein has been consistently underrated. This highly informed and gripping account brings to light how the troops, and their leaders, won these decisive battles, and helped to win the war. Lucid and accessible, this masterly account is vital reading for all enthusiasts of military history. Perfect for readers of Jonathan Dimbleby and Max Hastings.

This is the first volume of a new collection dedicated to the evolution of techniques and materials used by special services and special forces. To open this new collection dedicated to the evolution of technics and materials used by Special services and Special Forces, the choice of the first issue was an easy one. As early as October 1940, Intelligence Service tries different ways to infiltrate occupied France. Phillip Schneidau is dropped "blind" near Montigny at the edge of Fontainebleau forest. Jumping with a British parachute soon turns out to be one of the best means of infiltration. It is adopted by Allies, including US OSS operational groups and Jedburgh teams. This present study is thus dedicated to Type A and Type X parachutes. Some extra considerations to the following type PX give a better understanding of their differences and the new solutions chosen

Robert Forczyk covers the development of armoured warfare in North Africa from the earliest Anglo-Italian engagements in 1940 to the British victory over the German Afrikakorps in Operation Crusader in 1941. The war in the North African desert was pure mechanized warfare, and in many respects the most technologically advanced theatre of World War II. It was also the only theatre where for three years British and Commonwealth, and later US, troops were in constant contact with Axis forces. World War II best-selling author Robert Forczyk explores the first half of the history of the campaign, from the initial Italian offensive and the arrival of Rommel's Panzergruppe Afrika to the British Operation Crusader offensive that led to the relief of Tobruk. He examines the armoured forces, equipment, doctrine, training, logistics and operations employed by both Allied and Axis forces throughout the period, focusing especially on the brigade and regimental level of operations. Fully illustrated throughout with photographs, profile artwork and maps, and featuring tactical-level vignettes and appendices analysing tank data, tank deliveries in-theatre and orders of battle, this book goes back to the sources to provide a new study of armoured warfare in the desert.

In many ways, the M26 Pershing was the most advanced and most powerful tank fielded by the US military during the Second World War. The prototype T26 "heavy" tank design was developed to answer the threat of the German Panther and Tiger tanks. Unfortunately for US Army tankers, the T26 tank wasn't ready for field use until 1945. The T26, specifically the E3 variant, was adopted and standardized as the M26 "Pershing" in March 1945. While seeing only limited combat during WWII, the M26 would be extensively used by the Army and Marines in Korea. This pictorial history of the Pershing includes the M26/T26E3, T26E1, T26E4, and T26E2/M45. The book includes almost 300 vintage and recent photographs, color profiles, and detailed line drawings.

The Partisan's Companion was produced by the Red Army to train partisans to fight the Nazi invader. Its usefulness outlived World War II, as it was later used to train Third World guerrillas in their wars of national liberation during the 1950s-70s, and even the Fedayeen guerrillas who fought US and coalition forces in Iraq. By the end of 1942, it was obvious that Germany was losing the war. The partisan ranks grew as did the training requirements for partisan commanders. The 1942 edition of The Partisan's Companion helped quickly train new guerrillas to a common standard. Besides field craft, it covers partisan tactics, German counter-guerrilla tactics, demolitions, German and Soviet weapons, scouting, camouflage, anti-tank warfare and anti-aircraft defense for squad and platoon-level instruction. It contains the Soviet lessons of two bitter years of war and provides a good look at the tactics and training of a mature partisan force. The partisans moved and lived clandestinely, harassed the enemy, and supported the Red Army through reconnaissance and attacks on German supply lines. They clearly frustrated German logistics and forced the Germans to periodically sideline divisions for rear-area security. The partisans and their handbook were clearly part of the eventual Soviet victory over Germany. This pocket manual puts The Partisan's Companion in context, explaining its importance.

Deployed to posts from the Missouri River to the Pacific in 1848, the United States Army undertook an old mission on frontiers new to the United States: occupying the western territories; suppressing American Indian resistance; keeping the peace among feuding Indians, Hispanics, and Anglos; and consolidating United States sovereignty in the region.

The regular Mounted Infantry was one of the most important innovations of the late Victorian and Edwardian British Army. Rather than fight on horseback in the traditional manner of cavalry, they used horses primarily to move swiftly about the battlefield, where they would then dismount and fight on foot, thus anticipating the development of mechanised infantry tactics during the twentieth century. Yet despite this apparent foresight, the mounted infantry concept was abandoned by the British Army in 1913, just at the point when it may have made the transition from a colonial to a continental force as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Exploring the historical background to the Mounted Infantry, this book untangles the debates that raged in the army, Parliament and the press between its advocates and the supporters of the established cavalry. With its origins in the extemporised mounted detachments raised during times of crisis from infantry battalions on overseas imperial garrison duties, Dr Winrow reveals how the Mounted Infantry model, unique among European armies, evolved into a formalised and apparently highly successful organisation of non-cavalry mounted troops. He then analyses why the Mounted Infantry concept fell out of favour just eleven years after its apogee during the South African Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. As such the book will be of interest not only to historians of the nineteenth-century British army, but also those tracing the development of modern military doctrine and tactics, to which the Mounted Infantry provided successful - if short lived - inspiration.

Detention and confinement--of both combatants and large groups of civilians--have become fixtures of asymmetric wars over the course of the last century. Counterinsurgency theoreticians and practitioners explain this dizzying rise of detention camps, internment centers, and enclavisation by arguing that such actions "protect" populations. In this book, Laleh Khalili counters these arguments, telling the story of how this proliferation of concentration camps, strategic hamlets, "security walls," and offshore prisons has come to be.
"Time in the Shadows" investigates the two major liberal counterinsurgencies of our day: Israeli occupation of Palestine and the U.S. War on Terror. In rich detail, the book investigates Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, CIA black sites, the Khiam Prison, and Gaza, among others, and links them to a history of colonial counterinsurgencies from the Boer War and the U.S. Indian wars, to Vietnam, the British small wars in Malaya, Kenya, Aden and Cyprus, and the French pacification of Indochina and Algeria.
Khalili deftly demonstrates that whatever the form of incarceration--visible or invisible, offshore or inland, containing combatants or civilians--liberal states have consistently acted illiberally in their counterinsurgency confinements. As our tactics of war have shifted beyond slaughter to elaborate systems of detention, liberal states have warmed to the pursuit of asymmetric wars. Ultimately, Khalili confirms that as tactics of counterinsurgency have been rendered more "humane," they have also increasingly encouraged policymakers to willingly choose to wage wars.

Will Britain take him in... or mark him as its enemy?'A brilliantly realised world of Imperial ambition and native resistance' Simon Scarrow'Wonderful, distinct characters' Conn IgguldenFaustus Valerianus is the son of a Roman father and a British mother, a captive sold among the spoils after Claudius's invasion. Now both parents have died within a month of each other, and so he sells the family farm and enlists, joining legendary general Agricola's campaign to conquer the entirety of the British Isles culminating in a devastating battle amongst Caledonia's dark mountains. But Faustus will have to contend with more than ferocious British warriors and whip-cracking elements. For the bonds of blood can weigh heavy on one's soul. The call of his mother's true people. His father's restless shadow. Faustus must carry them with him... A deeply moving, gripping, epic historical drama, perfect for fans of Rosemary Sutcliff, Ben Kane and Simon Scarrow. Praise for Shadow of the Eagle 'Faustus is a fascinating character and it's a treat to see how he negotiates the challenges he faces. His duties in the service of Rome comprise a truly Faustian pact!' Simon Scarrow 'I adored Faustus and Constantia in particular. Great sense of humour throughout. This is a terrific read' Conn Iggulden 'I only need one word to describe this stunning novel: masterful' Anthony Riches, Sunday Times bestselling author of Wounds of Honour 'Blood, steel, honour, and a deep and gripping tale of the Roman army on the frontier of the empire. Hunter has created an instant classic' S J A Turney, author of the Marius' Mules series 'A haunting, historical epic' Gordon Doherty, author of Sons of Rome 'Enthralling and authentic historical roman fiction, that brings the period alive and keeps you turning the page' Alex Gough, author of Emperor's Sword

Allied success in invading Fortress Europe (the area of Continental Europe occupied by Nazi Germany) depended on getting armor onto the beaches as fast as possible. This book explains how the Allies developed the specialist tanks it needed, their qualities, deployment and numbers, and how they performed on the two crucial days when France was invaded, firstly in Normandy and then in Provence. The focus of this volume will be on the specialized tanks developed for the Operation Neptune amphibious landings including the Duplex Drive amphibious Sherman tanks used on both the US and British/Canadian beaches. It also covers the specialized engineer tanks called "Armoured Funnies" of the British 79th Armoured Division and addresses the popular myth that US Army refusal to employ the Armoured Funnies was a principal cause for the high casualties at Omaha Beach. There is also coverage of Operation Overlord's "Forgotten D-Day", the amphibious landings of Operation Dragoon. This book addresses why there were so few Panzers opposing the landings from the German perspective as well as detailing the extent of German tank/assault gun activity on D-Day.

Staging Dissent: Young Women of Color and Transnational Activism seeks to interrupt normative histories of girlhood dominated by North American contexts and Western feminisms to offer an alternative history of girlhoods produced by and through globalization. Weems does this by offering three case studies that exemplify how transnational and indigenous youth dissent against capitalism and colonialism through situated "guerilla pedagogies."

Detention and confinementOCoof both combatants and large groups of civiliansOCohave become fixtures of asymmetric wars over the course of the last century. Counterinsurgency theoreticians and practitioners explain this dizzying rise of detention camps, internment centers, and enclavisation by arguing that such actions protect populations. In this book, Laleh Khalili counters these arguments, telling the story of how this proliferation of concentration camps, strategic hamlets, security walls, and offshore prisons has come to be.
"Time in the Shadows" investigates the two major liberal counterinsurgencies of our day: Israeli occupation of Palestine and the U.S. War on Terror. In rich detail, the book investigates Abu Ghraib, Guantinamo Bay, CIA black sites, the Khiam Prison, and Gaza, among others, and links them to a history of colonial counterinsurgencies from the Boer War and the U.S. Indian wars, to Vietnam, the British small wars in Malaya, Kenya, Aden and Cyprus, and the French pacification of Indochina and Algeria.
Khalili deftly demonstrates that whatever the form of incarcerationOCovisible or invisible, offshore or inland, containing combatants or civiliansOColiberal states have consistently acted illiberally in their counterinsurgency confinements. As our tactics of war have shifted beyond slaughter to elaborate systems of detention, liberal states have warmed to the pursuit of asymmetric wars. Ultimately, Khalili confirms that as tactics of counterinsurgency have been rendered more humane, they have also increasingly encouraged policymakers to willingly choose to wage wars."

In this book, Ariel Ahram offers a new perspective on a growing threat to international and human security--the reliance of 'weak states' on quasi-official militias, paramilitaries, and warlords.
Tracing the history of several "high profile" paramilitary organizations, including Indonesia's various militia factions, Iraq's tribal "awakening," and Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Basij corps, the book shows why and how states co-opt these groups, turning former rebels into state-sponsored militias. Building on an historical and comparative empirical approach that emphasizes decolonization, revolution, and international threat, the author offers a new set of policy prescriptions for addressing this escalating international crisis--with particular attention to strategies for mitigating the impact of this devolution of violence on the internal and international stability of states.

The first major study of the experiences of the hundreds of thousands of African soldiers who served with the British army during the Second World War. During the Second World War over half-a-million African troops served with the British Army as combatants and non-combatants in campaigns in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, Italy and Burma - the largest single movement of African men overseas since the slave trade. This account, based mainly on oral evidence and soldiers' letters, tells the story of the African experience of the war. It is a 'history from below' that describes how men were recruited for a war about which most knew very little. Army life exposed them to a range of new and startling experiences: new foods and forms of discipline, uniforms, machines and rifles, notions of industrial time, travel overseas, new languages and cultures, numeracy and literacy. What impact did service in the army have on African men and their families? What new skills did soldiers acquire and to what purposes were they put on their return? What was the social impact of overseas travel, and how did the broad umbrella of army welfare services change soldiers' expectations of civilian life? And what role if any did ex-servicemen play in post-war nationalist politics? In this book African soldiers describe in their own words what it was like to undergo army training, to travel on a vast ocean, to experience battle, and their hopes and disappointments on demobilisation. DAVID KILLINGRAY is Professor Emeritus of History, Goldsmiths, and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.

The menacing silhouette of the T-54 tank prowling down streets of Eastern European capitals or roaring across fields in massive exercises remains one of the most enduring images of Soviet power in the early years of the Cold War. Its sleek and unmistakable shape was a warning to any nation that wanted to stand against the USSR.

Yet all of this masked a flawed, outdated design, and when T-54s began to clash with the Western armoured vehicles in proxy wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, they were found to be on the losing side of many of the battles.

Containing over 500 stunning contemporary and modern photographs, and written by two experts on Soviet armour, this authoritative book tells the complete story of the T-54, one of the most widely produced tanks of all time, including many previously unheard of variants.

Sure to be found controversial by some, compelling by all, this is the only available book-length examination of the way the U.S. Army and Department of Defense have tried to create the capabilities promised by the high-tech Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Of more immediate concern, it is also the only in-depth account of the effect RMA and transformation concepts had on the American operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of the problems in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Adams argues, arose from the DoD's implacable desire to implement RMA-driven transformation concepts-whether they were appropriate or not. What we need to do, he maintains, is to fight the war we have, not the war we want. Over the last several decades, military theorists and others began to believe that new technologies were generating a "revolution in military affairs" (RMA), capabilities so revolutionary that they would redefine warfare. Spurred by these beliefs, and led by President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Department of Defense (DoD) set out to transform the U.S. armed forces by adopting RMA concepts-and spending billions to make the hypothetical capabilities real. The entire structure of the armed forces changed as a result. This vision, however, was totally dependent on a set of unproven suppositions and often nonexistent capabilities, especially a network of information technologies. Moreover, the services, the media, Congress, and industry each had its own agenda, all of which continue to come into play in the development of RMA strategies. The interplay of politics, technology and military reality offers a fascinating narrative.

The idea of British soldiers using American tanks was not viewed with a great deal of enthusiasm by the British Army. They perceived American tanks as being crudely made, mechanically unsophisticated and impossible to fight in. However, once British crews got used to them and learned to cope with some of their difficulties, such as limited fuel capacity and unfamiliar fighting techniques, they started to see them in a far more positive light, in particular their innate reliability and simplicity of maintenance.

This book, the last in a three-part series on British Battle Tanks by armour expert David Fletcher, concentrates on World War II and studies American tanks in British service, some of which were modified in ways peculiar to the British. It shows how the number of these tanks increased to the point that they virtually dominated, as well describing some types, such as the T14 and M26 Pershing, which were supplied but never used in British service.

An original and unique work that will fill a huge gap in the field of military history, and be of interest to both scholars and general readers, and it should attract reviews in academic journals like The British Journal of Military History or The Review of Military History but importantly in more popular journals and magazine like History Today, BBC History and Military History. It is a picture of the universal role of cavalry in warfare from earliest times to the present - and future. It covers the role of horses and essential mobility in 'shock action', in warfare in the classical world, in the major civilisations of China and India, Steppe cavalry, in the middle ages with Islamic and European conflict, the 'social politics' in Christendom with knightly valour, and war with non-Christian forces including the Muslim invasion of Europe, Islamic Spain, and conflict with the Mongols - the last probably new to readers. The early modern period covers the Asia and North Africa and the Ottomans - a major field of warfare continuing up to the modern period - and the time is notable for the introduction of horses in the Americas - a new phase in cavalry history. The modern period from Napoleon to the First World War is the history of the mobility of cavalry in European warfare and in imperial expansion and empire-building, but the concept of cavalry 'redundancy' arises in the maelstrom of 1914-1918 with artillery bombardment, trench warfare and the role of infantry. The long 'transition' period leading up the present and future is fascinating for both cavalry and infantry, with the development of tanks and armour. And here is a fascinating and original concept of cavalry 'transformation' and not cavalry 'survivalism', with modern and post-modern development of drone warfare - from horses to drones - as a 'new cavalry' for reconnaissance and combat. Contents: 1 Strengths and Starts 2 The Classical World - 350CE 3 The Post-Classical World and the Attacks of Steppe Peoples, 350-1150 4 Medieval Centuries 5 The Early Modern Period I, 1500-1660 6 The Early Modern Period II, 1650-1800 7 From Napoleon to the First World War 8 Transition, 1916-1945 9 Armour as the Cavalry Arm, but Drones as the Next Generation? 1945 -the Future 10 Conclusions

Failure to exploit the potential of an original idea is a recurring phenomenon in our national history. Few failures, however, can have been so costly in human life as that of our military commanders early in 1916 to appreciate that the tank was a war winning weapon. The slaughter of the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres salient had to be endured before accepted conventional methods were abandoned and the tank given a chance. Bryan Cooper describes the early tank actions in vivid detail, with many eye-witness accounts. He tells of the courage and endurance of the crews not just in battle but in the appalling conditions in which they had to drive and fight their primitive vehicles. Scalded, scorched and poisoned with exhaust fumes, constantly threatened with being burned to death, these crews eventually laid the foundation for the Allied Victory in World War I. The book is well illustrated with many original photographs which give the present day reader a glimpse of the infancy of a dominant weapon of modern war.