Drawing from military geography's spatial roots, its embrace of dynamic systems, and integration of human and biophysical environments, this book helps in understanding the value of analyzing patterns, processes and systems, and cross-scale and multi-disciplinary ways of acting in a complex world, while making the case for a resurgence of strategic and military geography in Australia. Here, leading experts demonstrate that geography retains its relevance in clarifying the scale and dynamics of defense activities in assessments of the international, regional, national, and site impacts of changes in physical, cyber and human geographies. The cases presented show Australia contributing to a growing strategic and military geography.

Drawing from military geography's spatial roots, its embrace of dynamic systems, and integration of human and biophysical environments, this book helps in understanding the value of analyzing patterns, processes and systems, and cross-scale and multi-disciplinary ways of acting in a complex world, while making the case for a resurgence of strategic and military geography in Australia. Here, leading experts demonstrate that geography retains its relevance in clarifying the scale and dynamics of defense activities in assessments of the international, regional, national, and site impacts of changes in physical, cyber and human geographies. The cases presented show Australia contributing to a growing strategic and military geography.

Blood on the Thistle is an examination of the life and times of a remarkable Scottish family, the Cranstons of Haddington, East Lothian. It focuses on a period from about 1880, when the young, hard-working parents, Alec and Lizzie Cranston, arrived in Haddington, through to 1920, when the family they had produced, torn apart by the Great War, broke up as its surviving members pursued separate lives around the globe. Of seven sons who served in the First World War, four died and two more were horrifically wounded; only one, the youngest, returned home physically unscathed. This book explores the effects of this extreme sacrifi ce on the sons themselves as well as the loved ones they left behind, particularly their mother, Lizzie, who mourned them for the rest of her days. This is the tale of how a once proud and aspirational Scottish family was devastated by war, and how the effects continued to ripple through time and generations. Until, a century later, the threads of this remarkable family are finally drawn together again, in a book that is at once a superb documentary account and a moving tribute to a generation.

How did the Irish independence movement lead directly to the invention of the modern submarine? Who was the Irish 'Queen' of Paraguay whose delusions of grandeur caused the destruction of her adopted country? Who escaped execution for participating in the Easter Rising of 1916, only to go on and be elected to the UK Parliament in London? Whose belief in reform through non-violent means became the inspiration for Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King? The answers to these questions and more can be found in the pages of Great Irish Heroes, covering over a thousand years of Irish history and encompassing outstanding leaders in a broad range of pursuits, including literature, mathematics, sport, religion, entertainment and politics. Ireland has for centuries produced a great number of exceptional, heroic men and women far out of proportion to the island's small population and geographical size. It is also true to say that few nations have been so shaped by their history, a history with which the country still resonates today. In this companion volume to his Great Scottish Heroes, Stuart Pearson examines the lives and careers of fifty of the greatest Irishmen and women from St Columba to Brian O'Driscoll, Brian Boru to Pierce Brosnan. In doing so, he shows how this remarkable island race has contributed so much to our world, and continues to do so to this day.

Which Scottish anti-slavery campaigner lost a son in a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the American Civil War? Was the enemy of Scotland's first 'freedom fighter' not England, but ancient Rome? What was the laboratory accident that led to one of the greatest discoveries in modern medicine? How did the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 influence the legal foundation of the greatest superpower the world has ever seen? Which singing superstar overcame a learning difficulty to become a worldwide inspiration? The answers to these and many other questions can be found in Great Scottish Heroes, covering 2,000 years of Scottish history and encompassing outstanding leaders in a broad range of pursuits, including the arts, exploration, medicine, sport, religion and politics. Even a brief list of Scottish inventions shows the nation's influence upon our world: television, penicillin, the steam engine, the telephone, the vacuum flask, to name only a few. Scotland has for centuries produced a great number of exceptional, heroic individuals out of all proportion to its small population and geographical size. This concise but wide-ranging book offers biographies of fifty Scottish heroes and heroines, but in truth there are a hundred others, and more, who would qualify for inclusion. These men and women helped to shape the world, and continue to do so today. Great Scottish Heroes shows how they achieved such remarkable success. If you are a Scot by birth, descent, or adoption, this book will make you even prouder of your countrymen. If you are not Scottish, you will wish you were.