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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Other warfare & defence issues
Reverberations of Nazi Violence in Germany and Beyond explores the
complex and diverse reverberations of the Second World War after
1945. It focuses on the legacies that National Socialist violence
and genocide perpetrated in Europe continue to have in
German-speaking countries and communities, as well as among those
directly affected by occupation, terror and mass murder.
Furthermore it explores how those legacies are in turn shaped by
the present. The volume also considers conflicting, unexpected and
often dissonant interpretations and representations of these
events, made by those who were the witnesses, victims and
perpetrators at the time and also by different communities in the
generations that followed. The contributions, from a range of
disciplinary perspectives, enrich our understanding of the
complexity of the ways in which a disturbing past continues to
disrupt the present and how the past is in turn disturbed and
instrumentalized by a later present.
This book explores the history of Dartmoor War Prison (1805-16).
This is not the well-known Victorian convict prison, but a less
familiar penal institution, conceived and built nearly half a
century earlier in the midst of the long-running wars against
France, and destined, not for criminals, but for French and later
American prisoners of war. During a period of six and a half years,
more than 20,000 captives passed through its gates. Drawing on
contemporary official records from Britain, France and the USA, and
a wealth of prisoners' letters, diaries and memoirs (many of them
studied here in detail for the first time), this book examines how
Dartmoor War Prison was conceived and designed; how it was
administered both from London and on the ground; how the fate of
its prisoners intertwined with the military and diplomatic history
of the period; and finally how those prisoners interacted with each
other, with their captors, and with the wider community. The
history of the prison on the moor is one marked by high hopes and
noble intentions, but also of neglect, hardship, disease and death
Most observers who follow nuclear history agree on one major aspect
regarding Israel's famous policy of nuclear ambiguity; mainly that
it is an exception. More specifically, it is largely accepted that
the 1969 Nixon-Meir understanding, which formally established
Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity and transformed it from an
undeclared Israeli strategy into a long-lasting undisclosed
bilateral agreement, was in fact a singularity, aimed at allowing
Washington to turn a blind eye to the existence of an Israeli
arsenal. According to conventional wisdom, this nuclear bargain was
a foreign policy exception on behalf of Washington, an exception
which reflected a relationship growing closer and warmer between
the superpower leading the free world and its small Cold War
associate. Contrary to the orthodox narrative, this research
demonstrates that this was not the case. The 1969 bargain was not,
in fact, an exception, but rather the first of three Cold War era
deals on nuclear tests brokered by Washington with its Cold War
associates, the other two being Pakistan and South Africa. These
two deals are not well known and until now were discussed and
explored in the literature in a very limited fashion. Bargaining on
Nuclear Tests places the role of nuclear tests by American
associates, as well as Washington's attempts to prevent and delay
them, at the heart of a new nuclear history narrative.
Globalization and technology have created new challenges to
national governments. As a result, they now must share power with
other entities, such as regional and global organizations or large
private economic units. In addition, citizens in most parts of the
world have been empowered by the ability to acquire and disseminate
information instantly. However this has not led to the type of
international cooperation essential to deal with existential
threats. Whether governments can find ways to cooperate in the face
of looming threats to the survival of human society and our
environment has become one of the defining issues of our age. A
struggle between renewed nationalism and the rise of a truly global
society is underway, but neither global nor regional institutions
have acquired the skills and authority needed to meet existential
threats, such as nuclear proliferation. Arms control efforts may
have reduced the excesses of the Cold War, but concepts and
methodologies for dealing with the nuclear menace have not kept up
with global change. In addition, governments have shown
surprisingly little interest in finding new ways to manage or
eliminate global and regional competition in acquiring more or
better nuclear weapons systems. This book explains why nuclear
weapons still present existential dangers to humanity and why
engagement by the United States with all states possessing nuclear
weapons remains necessary to forestall a global catastrophe. The
terms of engagement, however, will have to be different than during
the Cold War. Technology is developing rapidly, greatly empowering
individuals, groups, and nations. This can and should be a positive
development, improving health, welfare, and quality of life for
all, but it can also be used for enormous destruction. This book
reaches beyond the military issues of arms control to analyze the
impact on international security of changes in the international
system and defines a unique cooperative security agenda.
The genocide in Myanmar has drawn global attention as Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be presiding over human
rights violations, forced migrations and extra-judicial killings on
an enormous scale. This unique study draws on thousands of hours of
interviews and testimony from the Rohingya themselves to assess and
outline the full scale of the disaster. Casting new light on
Rohingya identity, history and culture, this will be an essential
contribution to the study of the Rohingya people and to the study
of the early stages of genocide. This book adds convincingly to the
body of evidence that the government of Myanmar has enabled a
genocide in Rakhine State and the surrounding areas.
After World War II, thousands of Japanese throughout Asia were put
on trial for war crimes. Examination of postwar trials is now a
thriving area of research, but Sharon W. Chamberlain is the first
to offer an authoritative assessment of the legal proceedings
convened in the Philippines. These were trials conducted by Asians,
not Western powers, and centered on the abuses suffered by local
inhabitants rather than by prisoners of war. Her impressively
researched work reveals the challenges faced by the Philippines, as
a newly independent nation, in navigating issues of justice amid
domestic and international pressures. Chamberlain highlights the
differing views of Filipinos and Japanese about the trials. The
Philippine government aimed to show its commitment to impartial
proceedings with just outcomes. In Japan, it appeared that
defendants were selected arbitrarily, judges and prosecutors were
biased, and lower-ranking soldiers were punished for crimes ordered
by their superior officers. She analyzes the broader implications
of this divergence as bilateral relations between the two nations
evolved and contends that these competing narratives were
reimagined in a way that, paradoxically, aided a path toward
postwar reconciliation.
The status of prisoners of war was firmly rooted in the practice of
ransoming in the Middle Ages. By the opening stages of the Hundred
Years War, ransoming had become widespread among the knightly
community, and the crown had already begun to exercise tighter
control over the practice of war. This led to tensions between
public and private interests over ransoms and prisoners of war.
Historians have long emphasised the significance of the French and
English crowns' interference in the issue of prisoners of war, but
this original and stimulating study questions whether they have
been too influenced by the state-centred nature of most surviving
sources. Based on extensive archival research, this book tests
customs, laws and theory against the individual experiences of
captors and prisoners during the Hundred Years War, to evoke their
world in all its complexity.
Americans at War in the Ottoman Empire examines the role of
mercenary figures in negotiating relations between the United
States and the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century.
Mercenaries are often treated as historical footnotes, yet their
encounters with the Ottoman world contributed to US culture and the
impressions they left behind continue to influence US approaches to
Africa and the Middle East. The book's analysis of these mercenary
encounters and their legacies begins with the Battle of Derna in
1805-in which the US flag was raised above a battlefield for the
first time outside of North America with the help of a mercenary
army-and concludes with the British occupation of Egypt in
1882-which was witnessed and criticized by many of the US Civil War
veterans who worked for the Egyptian government in the 1870s and
1880s. By focusing these mercenary encounters through the lenses of
memory, sovereignty, literature, geography, and diplomacy,
Americans at War in the Ottoman Empire reveals the ways in which
mercenary force, while marginal in terms of its frequency and
scope, produced important knowledge about the Ottoman world and
helped to establish the complicated relationship of intimacy and
mastery that exists between Americans in the United States and
people in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, South Sudan, and Turkey.
An indispensable reference on concentration camps, death camps,
prisoner-of-war camps, and military prisons offering broad
historical coverage as well as detailed analysis of the nature of
captivity in modern conflict. This comprehensive reference work
examines internment, forced labor, and extermination during times
of war and genocide, with a focus on the 20th and 21st centuries
and particular attention paid to World War II and recent conflicts
in the Middle East. It explores internment as it has been used as a
weapon and led to crimes against humanity and is ideal for students
of global studies, history, and political science as well as
politically and socially aware general readers. In addition to
entries on such notorious camps as Abu Ghraib, Andersonville,
Auschwitz, and the Hanoi Hilton, the encyclopedia includes profiles
of key perpetrators of camp and prison atrocities and more than a
dozen curated and contextualized primary source documents that
further illuminate the subject. Primary sources include United
Nations documents outlining the treatment of prisoners of war,
government reports of infamous camp and prison atrocities, and oral
histories from survivors of these notorious facilities. Maintains a
modern focus while providing broad historical context Covers
lesser-known but significant events such as the camps set up by the
British for refugees of the Boer Wars that resulted in the deaths
of 25,000 people Provides the context necessary to help students
understand the significance of the primary source material in
introductions Studies camps outside of World War II, illustrating
their use in numerous other wars and genocides
Who owns the street? Interwar Berliners faced this question with
great hope yet devastating consequences. In Germany, the First
World War and 1918 Revolution transformed the city streets into the
most important media for politics and commerce. There, partisans
and entrepreneurs fought for the attention of crowds with posters,
illuminated advertisements, parades, traffic jams, and violence.
The Nazi Party relied on how people already experienced the city to
stage aggressive political theater, including the April Boycott and
Kristallnacht. Observers in Germany and abroad looked to Berlin's
streets to predict the future. They saw dazzling window displays
that radiated optimism. They also witnessed crime waves,
antisemitic rioting, and failed policing that pointed toward
societal collapse. Recognizing the power of urban space, officials
pursued increasingly radical policies to 'revitalize' the city,
culminating in Albert Speer's plan to eradicate the heart of Berlin
and build Germania.
Peaceful War is an epic analysis of the unfolding drama between the
clashing forces of the Chinese dream and American destiny. Just as
the American experiment evolved, Deng Xiaoping's China has been
using "Hamiltonian means to Jeffersonian ends" and borrowed the
idea of the American Dream as a model for China's rise. The Chinese
dream, as reinvented by President Xi Jinping, continues Deng's
experiment into the twenty-first century. With a possible "fiscal
cliff" in America and a "social cliff" in China, the author
revisits the history of Sino-American relations to explore the
prospects for a return to the long-forgotten Beijing-Washington
love affair launched in the trade-for-peace era. President Barack
Obama's Asia pivot strategy and the new Silk Road plan of President
Xi could eventually create a pacific New World Order of peace and
prosperity for all. The question is: will China ultimately evolve
into a democratic nation by rewriting the American Dream in Chinese
characters, and how might this transpire?
While serving as a crew chief aboard a U.S. Air Force Rescue
helicopter, Airman First Class William A. Robinson was shot down
and captured in Ha Tinh Province, North Vietnam, on September 20,
1965. After a brief stint at the "Hanoi Hilton," Robinson endured
2,703 days in multiple North Vietnamese prison camps, including the
notorious Briarpatch and various compounds at Cu Loc, known by the
inmates as the Zoo. No enlisted man in American military history
has been held as a prisoner of war longer than Robinson. For seven
and a half years, he faced daily privations and endured the full
range of North Vietnam's torture program. In The Longest Rescue:
The Life and Legacy of Vietnam POW William A. Robinson, Glenn
Robins tells Robinson's story using an array of sources, including
declassified U.S. military documents, translated Vietnamese
documents, and interviews from the National Prisoner of War Museum.
Unlike many other POW accounts, this comprehensive biography
explores Robinson's life before and after his capture, particularly
his estranged relationship with his father, enabling a better
understanding of the difficult transition POWs face upon returning
home and the toll exacted on their families. Robins's powerful
narrative not only demonstrates how Robinson and his fellow
prisoners embodied the dedication and sacrifice of America's
enlisted men but also explores their place in history and memory.
A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year A riveting account of
a forgotten holocaust: the slaughter of over one hundred thousand
Ukrainian Jews in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. In the
Midst of Civilized Europe repositions the pogroms as a defining
moment of the twentieth century. 'Exhaustive, clearly written,
deeply researched' - The Times 'A meticulous, original and deeply
affecting historical account' - Philippe Sands, author of East West
Street Between 1918 and 1921, over a hundred thousand Jews were
murdered in Ukraine by peasants, townsmen, and soldiers who blamed
the Jews for the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. In hundreds of
separate incidents, ordinary people robbed their Jewish neighbours
with impunity, burned down their houses, ripped apart their Torah
scrolls, sexually assaulted them, and killed them. Largely
forgotten today, these pogroms - ethnic riots - dominated headlines
and international affairs in their time. Aid workers warned that
six million Jews were in danger of complete extermination. Twenty
years later, these dire predictions would come true. Drawing upon
long-neglected archival materials, including thousands of newly
discovered witness testimonies, trial records, and official orders,
acclaimed historian Jeffrey Veidlinger shows for the first time how
this wave of genocidal violence created the conditions for the
Holocaust. Through stories of survivors, perpetrators, aid workers,
and governmental officials, he explains how so many different
groups of people came to the same conclusion: that killing Jews was
an acceptable response to their various problems.
In recent decades the debate on nuclear weapons has focused
overwhelmingly on proliferation and nonproliferation dynamics. In a
series of "Wall Street Journal" articles, however, George Shultz,
William Perry, Henry Kissinger, and Sam Nunn called on governments
to rid the world of nuclear weapons, helping to put disarmament
back into international security discussions. More recently, U.S.
president Barack Obama, prominent U.S. congressional members of
both political parties, and a number of influential foreign leaders
have espoused the idea of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Turning this vision into reality requires an understanding of the
forces driving disarmament forward and those holding it back.
"Slaying the Nuclear Dragon" provides in-depth, objective analysis
of current nuclear disarmament dynamics. Examining the political,
state-level factors that drive and stall progress, contributors
highlight the challenges and opportunities faced by proponents of
disarmament. These essays show that although conditions are
favorable for significant reductions, numerous hurdles still exist.
Contributors look at three categories of states: those that
generate momentum for disarmament; those with policies that are
problematic for disarmament; and those that actively hinder
progress--whether openly, secretly, deliberately, or inadvertently.
Nuclear deterrence was long credited with preventing war between
the two major Cold War powers, but with the spread of nuclear
technology, threats have shifted to other state powers and to
nonstate groups. "Slaying the Nuclear Dragon" addresses an urgent
need to examine nuclear disarmament in a realistic, nonideological
manner.
Local Peacebuilding and National Peace is a collection of essays
that examines the effects of local peacebuilding efforts on
national peace initiatives. The book looks at violent and
protracted struggles in which local people have sought to make
their own peace with local combatants in a variety of ways, and how
such initiatives have affected and have been affected by national
level strategies. Chapters on theories of local and national
peacemaking are combined with chapters on recent efforts to carry
out such processes in warn torn societies such as Africa, Asia, and
South America, with essays contributed by experts who were actually
actively involved in the peacemaking process. With its unique focus
on the interaction of peacemaking at local and national levels, the
book will fill a gap in the literature. It will be of interest to
students and researchers in such fields as peace studies, conflict
resolution, international relations, postwar recovery and
development.
This ground-breaking comparative perspective on the subject of
World War II war crimes and war justice focuses on American and
German atrocities. Almost every war involves loss of life of both
military personnel and civilians, but World War II involved an
unprecedented example of state-directed and ideologically motivated
genocide-the Holocaust. Beyond this horrific, premeditated war
crime perpetrated on a massive scale, there were also isolated and
spontaneous war crimes committed by both German and U.S. forces.
The book is focused upon on two World War II atrocities-one
committed by Germans and the other by Americans. The author
carefully examines how the U.S. Army treated each crime, and gives
accounts of the atrocities from both German and American
perspectives. The two events are contextualized within multiple
frameworks: the international law of war, the phenomenon of war
criminality in World War II, and the German and American collective
memories of World War II. Americans, Germans and War Crimes
Justice: Law, Memory, and "The Good War" provides a fresh and
comprehensive perspective on the complex and sensitive subject of
World War II war crimes and justice. . Provides historic
photographs related to war crimes and trials . An extensive
bibliography of primary sources and secondary literature in English
and German related to World War II war crimes and trials
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