Download or read book Modern War A Very Short Introduction written by Richard English and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Warfare is one of the most dangerous threat faced by modern humanity. It is also one of the key influences that has shaped the politics, economics, and culture of the modern world. This book explores the assumptions we make about modern warfare and considers what we can learn from the historical reality.
Download or read book The Norton Book of Modern War written by Paul Fussell and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1991 with total page 842 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selections from poetry and fiction describe the 20th century's major conflicts.
Download or read book Winning the Next War written by Stephen Peter Rosen and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How and when do military innovations take place? Do they proceed differently during times of peace and times of war? In Winning the Next War, Stephen Peter Rosen argues that armies and navies are not forever doomed to "fight the last war." Rather, they are able to respond to shifts in the international strategic situation. He also discusses the changing relationship between the civilian innovator and the military bureaucrat. In peacetime, Rosen finds, innovation has been the product of analysis and the politics of military promotion, in a process that has slowly but successfully built military capabilities critical to American military success. In wartime, by contrast, innovation has been constrained by the fog of war and the urgency of combat needs. Rosen draws his principal evidence from U.S. military policy between 1905 and 1960, though he also discusses the British army's experience with the battle tank during World War I.
Download or read book The Oxford History of Modern War written by Charles Townshend and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2005 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a comprehensive overview of military conflict over several centuries, this book consists of fascinating thematic chapters covering air and sea warfare, combat experience, technology, and even opposition to war.
Download or read book Moral Dilemmas of Modern War written by Michael L. Gross and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical guide for policy makers, military officers, students, and anyone else interested in asymmetric conflicts.
Download or read book Learning the Lessons of Modern War written by Thomas G. Mahnken and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learning the Lessons of Modern War uses the study of the recent past to illuminate the future. More specifically, it examines the lessons of recent wars as a way of understanding continuity and change in the character and conduct of war. The volume brings together contributions from a group of well-known scholars and practitioners from across the world to examine the conduct of recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, South America, and Asia. The book's first section consists of chapters that explore the value of a contemporary approach to history and reflect on the value of learning lessons from the past. Its second section focuses on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Chapters on Iraq discuss the lessons of the Iraq War, the British perspective on the conflict, and the war as seen through the lens of Saddam Hussein's military. Chapters on Afghanistan discuss counterinsurgency operations during the war, Britain's experience in Afghanistan, raising and training Afghan forces, and U.S. interagency performance. The book's third section examines the lessons of wars involving Russia, Israel, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Georgia, and Colombia. It concludes by exploring overarching themes associated with the conduct of recent wars. Containing a foreword by former National Security Advisor Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, Learning the Lessons of Modern War is an indispensable resource for international relations and security studies scholars, policymakers, and military professionals.
Download or read book Waging Modern War written by Wesley K. Clark and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2002-08-15 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Waging Modern War, General Wesley K. Clark recounts his experience leading NATO's forces to a hard-fought and ultimately successful victory in Kosovo in 1999. As the American military machine has swung into action in the months following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it has become clear that the lessons of Kosovo are directly applicable to the war against terrorism and the nations that sponsor it. The problems posed, and overcome, in the war in Kosovo-how to fight an air war against unconventional forces in rough terrain and how to coordinate U.S. objectives with those of other nations-are the problems that America increasingly faces in the today's world. As the Los Angeles Times noted in late September of 2001, this book's "lessons are highly relevant now…. We need to think about exactly what steps will lessen, rather than increase, the terrorist threat. And we also need innovative commanders willing to improvise to meet a new kind of threat, more determined political leadership, a more flexible outlook in the Pentagon…. Gen. Clark has performed another service by highlighting these problems at a crucial moment in American history." Waging Modern War is history, memoir, guidebook, and forecast, essential reading for those who want to know how modern war is fought, and won.
Download or read book The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare written by Edward Hagerman and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1992-09-22 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American Civil War was a war of transition: a war of romanticism and idealism fought by a large citizen army with the first tools of modern warfare. This book is a must for students of American history and military affairs. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Divided Armies written by Jason Lyall and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do armies fight and what makes them victorious on the modern battlefield? In Divided Armies, Jason Lyall challenges long-standing answers to this classic question by linking the fate of armies to their levels of inequality. Introducing the concept of military inequality, Lyall demonstrates how a state's prewar choices about the citizenship status of ethnic groups within its population determine subsequent battlefield performance. Treating certain ethnic groups as second-class citizens, either by subjecting them to state-sanctioned discrimination or, worse, violence, undermines interethnic trust, fuels grievances, and leads victimized soldiers to subvert military authorities once war begins. The higher an army's inequality, Lyall finds, the greater its rates of desertion, side-switching, casualties, and use of coercion to force soldiers to fight. In a sweeping historical investigation, Lyall draws on Project Mars, a new dataset of 250 conventional wars fought since 1800, to test this argument. Project Mars breaks with prior efforts by including overlooked non-Western wars while cataloguing new patterns of inequality and wartime conduct across hundreds of belligerents. Combining historical comparisons and statistical analysis, Lyall also marshals evidence from nine wars, ranging from the Eastern Fronts of World Wars I and II to less familiar wars in Africa and Central Asia, to illustrate inequality's effects. Sounding the alarm on the dangers of inequality for battlefield performance, Divided Armies offers important lessons about warfare over the past two centuries—and for wars still to come.
Download or read book America s Modern Wars written by Christopher A. Lawrence and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2015-02-19 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A well researched and well analyzed study of the nature of insurgencies and guerilla warfare” (Military Review). The fighting skills and valor of the US military and its allies haven’t diminished over the past half-century—yet our wars have become more protracted and decisive results more elusive. With only two exceptions—Panama and the Gulf War under the first President Bush—our campaigns have taken on the character of endless slogs without positive results. This fascinating book takes a ground-up look at the problem to assess how our strategic objectives have become divorced from our true capability or imperatives. The book presents a unique examination of the nature of insurgencies and the three major guerrilla wars the United States has fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. It is both a theoretical work and one that applies the hard experience of the past five decades to address the issues of today. As such, it also provides a timely and meaningful discussion of America’s current geopolitical position. It starts with the previously close-held casualty estimate for Iraq that The Dupuy Institute compiled in 2004 for the US Department of Defense. Going from the practical to the theoretical, it then discusses a construct for understanding insurgencies and the contexts in which they can be fought. It applies these principles to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, assessing where the projection of US power can enhance our position and where it merely weakens it. It presents an extensive analysis of insurgencies based upon a unique database of eighty-three post-WWII cases. The book explores what is important to combat and what is not important to resist in insurgencies. It builds a body of knowledge, based upon a half-century’s worth of real-world data, with analysis, not opinion. In these pages, Christopher A. Lawrence, the President of The Dupuy Institute, provides an invaluable guide to how the US can best project its vital power while avoiding the missteps of the recent past. “Provides a unique quantitative historical analysis . . . Logically estimating the outcomes of future military operations, as the author writes, is what US citizens should expect and demand from their leaders who take this country to war.” —Military Review
Download or read book The New Rules of War written by Sean McFate and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-01-22 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Stunning. Sean McFate is a new Sun Tzu." -Admiral James Stavridis (retired), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO An Economist Book of the Year 2019 Some of the principles of warfare are ancient, others are new, but all described in The New Rules of War will permanently shape war now and in the future. By following them Sean McFate argues, we can prevail. But if we do not, terrorists, rogue states, and others who do not fight conventionally will succeed—and rule the world. The New Rules of War is an urgent, fascinating exploration of war—past, present and future—and what we must do if we want to win today from an 82nd Airborne veteran, former private military contractor, and professor of war studies at the National Defense University. War is timeless. Some things change—weapons, tactics, technology, leadership, objectives—but our desire to go into battle does not. We are living in the age of Durable Disorder—a period of unrest created by numerous factors: China’s rise, Russia’s resurgence, America’s retreat, global terrorism, international criminal empires, climate change, dwindling natural resources, and bloody civil wars. Sean McFate has been on the front lines of deep state conflicts and has studied and taught the history and practice of war. He’s seen firsthand the horrors of battle and understands the depth and complexity of the current global military situation. This devastating turmoil has given rise to difficult questions. What is the future of war? How can we survive? If Americans are drawn into major armed conflict, can we win? McFate calls upon the legends of military study Carl von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and others, as well as his own experience, and carefully constructs the new rules for the future of military engagement, the ways we can fight and win in an age of entropy: one where corporations, mercenaries, and rogue states have more power and ‘nation states’ have less. With examples from the Roman conquest, World War II, Vietnam, Afghanistan and others, he tackles the differences between conventional and future war, the danger in believing that technology will save us, the genuine leverage of psychological and ‘shadow’ warfare, and much more. McFate’s new rules distill the essence of war today, describing what it is in the real world, not what we believe or wish it to be.
Download or read book Rational Fog written by M. Susan Lindee and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thought-provoking examination of the intersections of knowledge and violence, and the quandaries and costs of modern, technoscientific warfare. Science and violence converge in modern warfare. While the finest minds of the twentieth century have improved human life, they have also produced human injury. They engineered radar, developed electronic computers, and helped mass produce penicillin all in the context of military mobilization. Scientists also developed chemical weapons, atomic bombs, and psychological warfare strategies. Rational Fog explores the quandary of scientific and technological productivity in an era of perpetual war. Science is, at its foundation, an international endeavor oriented toward advancing human welfare. At the same time, it has been nationalistic and militaristic in times of crisis and conflict. As our weapons have become more powerful, scientists have struggled to reconcile these tensions, engaging in heated debates over the problems inherent in exploiting science for military purposes. M. Susan Lindee examines this interplay between science and state violence and takes stock of researchers’ efforts to respond. Many scientists who wanted to distance their work from killing have found it difficult and have succumbed to the exigencies of war. Indeed, Lindee notes that scientists who otherwise oppose violence have sometimes been swept up in the spirit of militarism when war breaks out. From the first uses of the gun to the mass production of DDT and the twenty-first-century battlefield of the mind, the science of war has achieved remarkable things at great human cost. Rational Fog reminds us that, for scientists and for us all, moral costs sometimes mount alongside technological and scientific advances.
Download or read book The Economic Weapon written by Nicholas Mulder and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing the history of economic sanctions from the blockades of World War I to the policing of colonial empires and the interwar confrontation with fascism, Nicholas Mulder combines political, economic, legal, and military history to reveal how a coercive wartime tool was adopted as an instrument of peacekeeping by the League of Nations.This timely study casts an overdue light on why sanctions are widely considered a form of war, and why their unintended consequences are so tremendous.
Download or read book War in the Modern World written by Theodore Ropp and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2021-11-03 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A brilliant survey of the history of warfare... the best yet produced anywhere.” — B. H. Liddell Hart “Outstanding and penetrating outline of the processes of war and the means of fighting from 1415 onward... skillfully and carefully written... [includes] one of the most comprehensive bibliographies of the history of war.” — E. B. Long, Chicago Tribune “A substantial and scholarly history of modern warfare from the age of the ‘great captains’ through the innovations of the industrial revolution, to our age of unlimited violence.” — Henry L. Roberts, Foreign Affairs “Leaves the reader astonished by its combinations of brevity, clarity, and accuracy.” — Times Literary Supplement “Theodore Ropp’s thoughtful and well-documented study of wars of Western civilization from 1415 to the present is most welcome because of its comprehensiveness. His book has the added attraction of readability, so it is to be hoped that it will inform and influence not only the professional soldier, but also the intelligent layman... Dr. Ropp has been eminently successful in emphasizing the most essential lessons for today. We see policy and grand strategy cooperate or fall apart in military activities from planning, recruiting, and training to strategy and tactics... throughout we are unobtrusively shown the disastrous consequences of failure to coordinate policy and strategy.” — Donald Armstrong, Military Affairs “Dr. Ropp has written a brilliant survey of the history of warfare in modern times. It is useful to the military man because it surveys concisely yet adequately modern concepts of war; it is equally helpful to the advocate of peace because it portrays the factors and the beliefs he must overcome if war is to be removed from the world... [a] concise, yet meticulously organized and accurate account of the place of war in modern society... Ropp has produced an invaluable insight into military thinking of the modern world.” — Elden Billings, World Affairs “[A] short and vivid summary of warfare as waged in modern time... Ropp’s book is a reminder that the history of warfare includes the raw materials with which the political, economic, diplomatic, or social historian also works... Ropp preserves timeless lessons for us, along with his evidence that warfare did much to disrupt and change the life of man in the past three hundred years. The historian cannot ignore the ways and means by which nations enforced these changes if he is to give the whole picture of the past.” — Forrest C. Pogue, The American Historical Review “A scholarly, thoughtful and well-written survey of the evolution of warfare from the ‘age of the captains’ to the ‘age of violence.’ The main stress is on the wars of the 20th century and on the effect of political, social and economic circumstances on the theory and practice of the military profession.” — C. P. Snow, Scientific American “Theodore Ropp’s volume... is principally a history of the political and social implications of warfare from the Renaissance to the present. But it is much more than that. It adequately summarizes the battles and campaigns that form the stuff of conventional military history; it analyzes the principal military theorists from Machiavelli to Clausewitz and Mahan; and it discusses the complex problem of military organization and the intricate relationships between military institutions and the governments they serve. Moreover, the analysis of American and European political, economic and social history is as sound as the discussion of the technical issues of strategy and tactics... a remarkable volume which, in addition, contains one of the finest working bibliographies of military history that has ever been put into print.” — Richard D. Challener, The American Scholar “It requires courage to undertake to survey the history of warfare through the past five centuries in less than 400 pages. Professor Ropp has done a remarkable job of just that in this unique volume... outstanding... is the manner in which the Bibliography is presented. It is developed by means of Footnotes to the text so that the reader has the applicable reference before him as he reads... The compilation of the Bibliography alone is a monumental piece of work... This volume is much more than an introductory textbook to military history; it is a reference work of real worth.” — Bern Anderson, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science “War in the Modern World is a valuable book. It will be very useful in military history courses. And Professor Ropp’s excellent bibliographical notes are the most thorough and up-to-date guide to recent work in military history which is presently available; they are, indeed, beyond praise. These and its other virtues will make this a standard work in its field, useful alike to the beginner and the professor of military history. “ — William R. Emerson, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review “[A] distinguished one-volume history of military affairs spanning the past five centuries. It is superbly annotated and brilliantly balanced in its interpretation... the basic contribution of War in the Modern World is found in its central thesis: political, technological, and organizational features of warfare in history are indivisible... Professor Ropp’s contribution comes as close as any volume will to filling the crucial need for a balanced single volume on military history, broadly considered.” — Eugene M. Emme, Technology and Culture “War in the Modern World is far and away the best of the histories of military affairs... a remarkably fine piece of work... Professor Ropp has made a great contribution to an understanding of the phenomenon of war.” — Edward L. Katzenbach, Jr., The American Political Science Review “Surpasses any other general history of the subject.” — Library Journal “The narrative flows easily, is illuminated by flashes of colorful detail, and relates the development of warfare to the political, technological, and economic changes of the modern era... Especially stimulating and helpful is Mr. Ropp’s system of bibliographic footnotes. These are found on almost every page, directing the reader to a well-selected choice of historical and military writings which will provide more light and wider vistas whenever his interest is further stirred by what he is reading... This reviewer... has never seen anything quite as calculated to guide the beginner in further exploration of the subject or to serve as a quick reference index for the experienced analyst.” — New York Herald Tribune
Download or read book Dark Trophies written by Simon Harrison and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many anthropological accounts of warfare in indigenous societies have described the taking of heads or other body parts as trophies. But almost nothing is known of the prevalence of trophy-taking of this sort in the armed forces of contemporary nation-states. This book is a history of this type of misconduct among military personnel over the past two centuries, exploring its close connections with colonialism, scientific collecting and concepts of race, and how it is a model for violent power relationships between groups.
Download or read book First Platoon written by Annie Jacobsen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful story of war in our time, of love of country, the experience of tragedy, and a platoon at the center of it all. This is a story that starts off close and goes very big. The initial part of the story might sound familiar at first: it is about a platoon of mostly nineteen-year-old boys sent to Afghanistan, and an experience that ends abruptly in catastrophe. Their part of the story folds into the next: inexorably linked to those soldiers and never comprehensively reported before is the U.S. Department of Defense’s quest to build the world’s most powerful biometrics database, with the ability to identify, monitor, catalog, and police people all over the world. First Platoon is an American saga that illuminates a transformation of society made possible by this new technology. Part war story, part legal drama, it is about identity in the age of identification. About humanity—physical bravery, trauma, PTSD, a yearning to do right and good—in the age of biometrics, which reduce people to iris scans, fingerprint scans, voice patterning, detection by odor, gait, and more. And about the power of point of view in a burgeoning surveillance state. Based on hundreds of formerly classified documents, FOIA requests, and exclusive interviews, First Platoon is an investigative exposé by a master chronicler of government secrets. First Platoon reveals a post–9/11 Pentagon whose identification machines have grown more capable than the humans who must make sense of them. A Pentagon so powerful it can cover up its own internal mistakes in pursuit of endless wars. And a people at its mercy, in its last moments before a fundamental change so complete it might be impossible to take back.
Download or read book Clausewitz s Timeless Trinity written by Colin M. Fleming and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to apply the Clausewitzian Trinity of 'passion, chance, and reason' to the experience of real war. It explores the depth and validity of the concept against the conflicts of former Yugoslavia - wars thought to epitomise a post-Clausewitzian age. In doing so it demonstrates the timeless message of the Trinity, but also ties the Trinitarian idea back into Clausewitz's political argument. Intended to build on the existing corpus of scholarship, this book differs from the existing literature in two ways. By applying the Trinity to the wars of former Yugoslavia 1991-1995, it explores war at its micro-foundations, assessing the complex cause-and-effect nexus of reciprocity produced by actions between belligerents embroiled in dynamic competition perpetuated by their own interaction. Providing valuable insights into the complexities of real war fuelled by passion, undermined by chance, and shaped by reason, it is the first study to bridge the Clausewitzian world of theory with real experience. Examining each part of the triad separately, the book explores the multiple manifestations of hostility and chance, before then assessing the influence of these elements on the policies of the belligerents as the war evolved.
