Download or read book Why Wars Happen written by Jeremy Black and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 1998 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing the question of why wars happen, this book bridges the disciplines of history, political science and international relations, and spans the period from 1450 to the present. Examples are used from many parts of the world to demonstrate the universality of conflict. The author looks at the problems of defining war, and considers the major theories advanced for the causes of war to date. Do wars primarily reflect bellicosity in societies and states, or do they arise largely as a result of the breakdown of diplomatic systems? How far are the causes of war related to changes in the nature of warfare, of the international system, or of the internal character of states? Black investigates instances of wars that are deliberate or accidental, and analyzes the three main forms of war: civil wars, wars across cultures, and wars within cultures. He also considers the present situation and asks where we are heading in terms of future wars.
Download or read book On War written by Carl von Clausewitz and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book What Every Person Should Know About War written by Chris Hedges and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed New York Times journalist and author Chris Hedges offers a critical -- and fascinating -- lesson in the dangerous realities of our age: a stark look at the effects of war on combatants. Utterly lacking in rhetoric or dogma, this manual relies instead on bare fact, frank description, and a spare question-and-answer format. Hedges allows U.S. military documentation of the brutalizing physical and psychological consequences of combat to speak for itself. Hedges poses dozens of questions that young soldiers might ask about combat, and then answers them by quoting from medical and psychological studies. • What are my chances of being wounded or killed if we go to war? • What does it feel like to get shot? • What do artillery shells do to you? • What is the most painful way to get wounded? • Will I be afraid? • What could happen to me in a nuclear attack? • What does it feel like to kill someone? • Can I withstand torture? • What are the long-term consequences of combat stress? • What will happen to my body after I die? This profound and devastating portrayal of the horrors to which we subject our armed forces stands as a ringing indictment of the glorification of war and the concealment of its barbarity.
Download or read book Why Nations Go to War written by John George Stoessinger and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the role of the personalities of leaders who take their nations or their following across the threshold into war? WHY NATIONS GO TO WAR i is built around 10 case studies culminating in the two new wars that ushered in the twenty-first century, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Download or read book How Wars End written by Gideon Rose and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive treatment of how the United States has handled the final stages of its conflicts-from World War I to Iraq-spoiled repeatedly by leaders' failures to plan clearly for what to do when the guns fall silent. Concerned with not repeating past errors, our leaders miscalculate and prolong the conflict or invite unwelcome results. In his penetrating analysis of past, present, and future wars, Rose suggests how to break this cycle.
Download or read book History for the IB Diploma Causes Practices and Effects of Wars written by Mike Wells and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-19 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exciting new series that covers the five Paper 2 topics of the IB 20th Century World History syllabus. This coursebook covers Paper 2, Topic 1, Causes, practices and effects of wars, in the 20th Century World History syllabus for the IB History programme. It is divided into thematic sections, following the IB syllabus structure and is written in clear, accessible English. It covers the following areas for detailed study: First World War (1914-18); Second World War (1939-45); Asia and Oceania: Chinese Civil War (1927-37 and 1946-9); and Europe and Middle East: Spanish Civil War (1936-9). Tailored to the requirements and assessment objectives of the IB syllabus, it allows students to make comparisons between different regions and time periods.
Download or read book War What Is It Good For written by Ian Morris and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction: Friend to the undertaker. - The wasteland? : war and peace in ancient Rome. - The barbarians strike back : the counterproductive way of war, A.D. 1-1415. - The five hundred years' war : Europe (almost) conquers the world, 1415-1914. - Storm of steel : the war for Europe, 1914-1980s. - Red in tooth and claw : why the chimps of Gombe went to war. - The last best hope of Earth : American empire, 1989-?
Download or read book Big Wars written by John Storey and published by Hybrid Publishers. This book was released on 2021-09-01 with total page 653 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II was the biggest and most destructive war in history. For two centuries wars had grown ever larger, with the use of more terrible weapons and rising casualties, culminating in the cataclysmic global events of 1939–45. And then, quite suddenly, large international wars have all but disappeared. What caused wars to grow in size to such an extent and then shrink so precipitously? Is this a permanent state of affairs or could big wars make a comeback? Lawyer and historian John P Storey explores these questions by looking at the evolution of military technology and tactics over the long history of warfare. From ancient bronze spears and chariots to World War II tanks and warplanes, from the nuclear weapons of the Cold War to the drones and robotics of the future, the changes in our methods of waging war has had, and will continue to have, a major impact on their size and destructiveness. The sobering conclusion Storey makes is that, based on past trends and the weapons in the pipeline for the future, there is a much higher risk of there being much bigger wars in the coming decades.
Download or read book Presidents of War written by Michael Beschloss and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From a preeminent presidential historian comes a “superb and important” (The New York Times Book Review) saga of America’s wartime chief executives “Fascinating and heartbreaking . . . timely . . . Beschloss’s broad scope lets you draw important crosscutting lessons about presidential leadership.”—Bill Gates Widely acclaimed and ten years in the making, Michael Beschloss’s Presidents of War is an intimate and irresistibly readable chronicle of the Chief Executives who took the United States into conflict and mobilized it for victory. From the War of 1812 to Vietnam, we see these leaders considering the difficult decision to send hundreds of thousands of Americans to their deaths; struggling with Congress, the courts, the press, and antiwar protesters; seeking comfort from their spouses and friends; and dropping to their knees in prayer. Through Beschloss’s interviews with surviving participants and findings in original letters and once-classified national security documents, we come to understand how these Presidents were able to withstand the pressures of war—or were broken by them. Presidents of War combines this sense of immediacy with the overarching context of two centuries of American history, traveling from the time of our Founders, who tried to constrain presidential power, to our modern day, when a single leader has the potential to launch nuclear weapons that can destroy much of the human race. Praise for Presidents of War "A marvelous narrative. . . . As Beschloss explains, the greatest wartime presidents successfully leaven military action with moral concerns. . . . Beschloss’s writing is clean and concise, and he admirably draws upon new documents. Some of the more titillating tidbits in the book are in the footnotes. . . . There are fascinating nuggets on virtually every page of Presidents of War. It is a superb and important book, superbly rendered.”—Jay Winik, The New York Times Book Review "Sparkle and bite. . . . Valuable and engrossing study of how our chief executives have discharged the most significant of all their duties. . . . Excellent. . . . A fluent narrative that covers two centuries of national conflict.” —Richard Snow, The Wall Street Journal
Download or read book Why Wars Happen written by Jeremy Black and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Wars Happen is a groundbreaking inquiry into the crucial yet surprisingly understudied question of why wars occur. Jeremy Black, one of Britain's foremost military historians, presents an interdisciplinary study that draws on subjects such as history, political science, and international relations and marshals a vast range of material with global examples spanning from the fifteenth century to today. Black examines several major modern wars in their historical contexts, taking into account cultural differences and various conflict theories. He analyzes the three main types of war—between cultures, within cultures, and civil—and explores the problems of defining war. Black's investigation inspires fascinating questions such as: Do wars reflect the bellicosity in societies and states, or do they largely arise as a result of a diplomatic breakdown? How closely is war linked to changes in the nature of warfare, the international system, or the internal character of states? Black also considers contemporary situations and evaluates the possible course of future wars. Offering a valuable and thought-provoking analysis on the causes of war and conflicts, Why Wars Happen will interest historians and readers of military history alike.
Download or read book How Civil Wars Start written by Barbara F. Walter and published by Crown. This book was released on 2023-04-25 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A leading political scientist examines the dramatic rise in violent extremism around the globe and sounds the alarm on the increasing likelihood of a second civil war in the United States “Required reading for anyone invested in preserving our 246-year experiment in self-government.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) WINNER OF THE GLOBAL POLICY INSTITUTE AWARD • THE SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Financial Times, The Times (UK), Esquire, Prospect (UK) Political violence rips apart several towns in southwest Texas. A far-right militia plots to kidnap the governor of Michigan and try her for treason. An armed mob of Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists storms the U.S. Capitol. Are these isolated incidents? Or is this the start of something bigger? Barbara F. Walter has spent her career studying civil conflict in places like Iraq, Ukraine, and Sri Lanka, but now she has become increasingly worried about her own country. Perhaps surprisingly, both autocracies and healthy democracies are largely immune from civil war; it’s the countries in the middle ground that are most vulnerable. And this is where more and more countries, including the United States, are finding themselves today. Over the last two decades, the number of active civil wars around the world has almost doubled. Walter reveals the warning signs—where wars tend to start, who initiates them, what triggers them—and why some countries tip over into conflict while others remain stable. Drawing on the latest international research and lessons from over twenty countries, Walter identifies the crucial risk factors, from democratic backsliding to factionalization and the politics of resentment. A civil war today won’t look like America in the 1860s, Russia in the 1920s, or Spain in the 1930s. It will begin with sporadic acts of violence and terror, accelerated by social media. It will sneak up on us and leave us wondering how we could have been so blind. In this urgent and insightful book, Walter redefines civil war for a new age, providing the framework we need to confront the danger we now face—and the knowledge to stop it before it’s too late.
Download or read book Why America Loses Wars written by Donald Stoker and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-26 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can you achieve victory in war if you don't have a clear idea of your political aims and a vision of what victory means? In this provocative challenge to US political aims and strategy, Donald Stoker argues that America endures endless wars because its leaders no longer know how to think about war, particularly wars fought for limited aims, taking the nation to war without understanding what they want or valuing victory and thus the ending of the war. He reveals how flawed ideas on so-called 'limited war' and war in general evolved against the backdrop of American conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. These ideas, he shows, undermined America's ability to understand, wage, and win its wars, and to secure peace. Now fully updated to incorporate the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, Why America Loses Wars dismantles seventy years of misguided thinking and lays the foundations for a new approach to the wars of tomorrow.
Download or read book Causes of War written by Jack S. Levy and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-09-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by leading scholars in the field, Causes of War provides the first comprehensive analysis of the leading theories relating to the origins of both interstate and civil wars. Utilizes historical examples to illustrate individual theories throughout Includes an analysis of theories of civil wars as well as interstate wars -- one of the only texts to do both Written by two former International Studies Association Presidents
Download or read book War and Its Causes written by Jeremy Black and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-01-21 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary book provides an invaluable perspective on the causes of war, drawing on a thoughtful consideration of what war actually is—the key foundation for an analysis of its causes. Jeremy Black assesses the three main types of war—between cultures, within cultures, and civil—emphasizing the social and cultural factors leading to conflict. He argues that cultural factors have always been the key element, especially aggression in the shape of a willingness to kill and be killed, which alters rational assumptions of risk and overcomes deterrence. He assesses the predisposition of ideologies to think and act in terms of conflict, the functional dynamics of international relations systems, and the strengths and failures of diplomacy. Drawing on research from history, political science, and international relations, Black marshals global examples spanning the fifteenth century to the present. Contrasting wars within cultures and wars between cultures he considers the implications for ongoing and future conflict.
Download or read book For God s Sake written by Antony Loewenstein and published by Macmillan Publishers Aus.. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Four Australian thinkers come together to ask and answer the big questions, such as: What is the nature of the universe? Doesn't religion cause most of the conflict in the world? and Where do we find hope? We are introduced to the detail of different belief systems - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - and to the argument that atheism, like organised religion, has its own compelling logic. And we gain insight into the life events that led each author to their current position. Jane Caro flirted briefly with spiritual belief, inspired by 19th century literary heroines such as Elizabeth Gaskell and the Brontë sisters. Antony Lowenstein is proudly culturally, yet unconventionally, Jewish. Simon Smart is firmly and resolutely a Christian, but one who has had some of his most profound spiritual moments while surfing. Rachel Woodlock grew up in the alternative embrace of Baha'i belief but became entranced by its older parent religion, Islam. Provocative, informative and passionately argued, For God's Sake encourages us to accept religious differences but to also challenge more vigorously the beliefs that create discord.
Download or read book Warriors and Citizens written by Jim Mattis and published by Hoover Press. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A diverse group of contributors offer different perspectives on whether or not the different experiences of our military and the broader society amounts to a "gap"—and if the American public is losing connection to its military. They analyze extensive polling information to identify those gaps between civilian and military attitudes on issues central to the military profession and the professionalism of our military, determine which if any of these gaps are problematic for sustaining the traditionally strong bonds between the American military and its broader public, analyze whether any problematic gaps are amenable to remediation by policy means, and assess potential solutions. The contributors also explore public disengagement and the effect of high levels of public support for the military combined with very low levels of trust in elected political leaders—both recurring themes in their research. And they reflect on whether American society is becoming so divorced from the requirements for success on the battlefield that not only will we fail to comprehend our military, but we also will be unwilling to endure a military so constituted to protect us. Contributors: Rosa Brooks, Matthew Colford,Thomas Donnelly, Peter Feaver, Jim Golby, Jim Hake, Tod Lindberg, Mackubin Thomas Owens, Cody Poplin, Nadia Schadlow, A. J. Sugarman, Lindsay Cohn Warrior, Benjamin Wittes
Download or read book The Conflict Helix written by R. J. Rummel and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book on conflict and consensus aimed at the general reader. In active, plain and direct language it makes the seemingly abstract and complex issues simple. Its view of peace is well-rounded, tough-minded, one that well understands the difficult world of social and personal violence and conflict. At its heart is a simple finding: "to wage peace we need to foster freedom." The human race can best achieve that simple aim by "leaving people alone to form their own communities." "The Conflict Helix "avoids the ambiguous in favor of the categorical; the hedged, qualified statement for the direct Rummel presents a series of basic principles, each concerning an aspect of conflict and peace - psychological, interpersonal, societal, international - and each aspect having its own master principle. These principles are not mere organizational props, but are deeply theoretical and empirically fundamental. The volume expresses the core ideas, results and conclusions of Rummel's major, five-volume work on "Understanding Conflict and War. "In discarding technical material and focusing on principles and meaning, "The Conflict Helix "presents an executive summary of a lifetime of work in a digestible form. In light of recent events in Europe, Asia and Latin American this work takes on a special poignancy for the developing no less than the industrialized worlds. Hence, this book should be of value to the general reader as well as professionals and advanced students of international politics.
