Titles to Note

Listed below are a select group of books recently or soon to be published that either contribute to the discussions initiated in the articles in the Australian Army Journal or on subjects that may be of interest in the near future. Some of these books may be reviewed in forthcoming editions of the Journal.

• Marcus Fielding, Red Zone Baghdad: My War in Iraq, Big Sky Publishing, 2011, ISBN 9781921941177, 288 pp, RRP AU$29.99.

  In Red Zone Baghdad Colonel Marcus Fielding presents his view of the last months of Australia’s involvement in Iraq. Along with larger concerns like the negotiation of the Iraqi–US Status of Forces Agreement, Fielding describes the day-to-day activities that were required to support and enable the building of the organisational infrastructure of the Iraqi nation, and the complex interactions that required tact and subtlety during the conduct of a complex counterinsurgency. Embedded in the Coalition’s Headquarters Multi-National Force-Iraq in Baghdad, Fielding allows us to understand the often-mundane tasks of everyday life in both the red and green zones during the last months of Australian troop deployment and the speed at which camaraderie between soldiers from different countries develops when far from home and family. Although a very personal view of Iraq at this pivotal time, this book is also an important part of the larger picture of Australia’s involvement. In Fielding’s words, ‘my story will add to a patchwork of accounts that portray a soldier’s life, far removed from the peace and certainty of life in Australia’.

• Idean Salehyan, Rebels Without Borders: Transnational Insurgencies in World Politics, Cornell University Press, 2011, ISBN 9780801477546, 216 pp, RRP US$21.00.

  The ability of al-Qaeda to become a global organisation in the 1990s and early 2000s has been blamed, in part, on the concurrent globalisation of communications. This is only part of the story though. As state borders became more fluid with the encouragement of global trade from 1945 onwards, armed insurgencies were increasingly able to find sanctuary in neighbouring countries. From there they were able to extend their reach and power base as well as their ability to destabilise other states. In this book, through in-depth case studies, Idean Salehyan explores the development and effect of this movement from local to transnational insurgencies and how the integration of global methods of organisational structure has led to several regional wars. This, he argues, has in turn complicated intelligence gathering, counterinsurgency and peacekeeping operations globally.

• Kyle Beardsley, The Mediation Dilemma, Cornell University Press, 2011, ISBN 9780801450037, 240 pp, RRP US$39.95.

  Although controversial, mediation with insurgents remains an oft-used tactic for the stabilisation and development of self-governance in countries torn apart by civil strife. Through the empirical analysis of historical case studies both recent, the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding in Aceh, and more distant, Theodore Roosevelt’s 1905 mediation in the Russo-Japanese War, Kyle Beardsley questions the viability of this tactic in producing a long-term peace. If anything, he concludes, reliance on mediation increases the chance of conflict relapse. Although not skirting the repercussions of not negotiating—ongoing bloodshed—Beardsley’s results are important for those brokering negotiations to better understand and balance the risks involved in the process of mediation between warring parties often inflamed by complex rivalries.

• Michael Wesley, There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia, 2011, New South Books, ISBN 9781742232720, 224 pp, RRP AU$32.95.

  Billed as a wake-up call against complacency, Michael Wesley’s book offers an expansive view of Australia’s prosperity and security over the last two decades, and its downside—an insular and introspective outlook that could very well undermine all that has been achieved. To Wesley, the decisions made across successive Australian governments to actively engage diplomatically, economically and culturally in the region has enabled Australia to ride out the economic difficulties of both the Asian and global financial crises. At the same time, this strong regional cooperation, underpinned by the United States, has allowed Australia an enviable level of security. As multilateralism becomes less of a driving force for regional engagement though, and individual states focus more heavily on bilateral agreements to drive their economies, the stability of our neighbourhood is under threat. Michael Wesley’s book is a clear and engaging read; its strength lies in its broad-ranging analysis of not just the effects of rising economies like China and India on Australia and the region. To Wesley, Australia is also in the enviable position where it has many opportunities; it is in an ideal position to ‘make a difference’, particularly through increasing strategic links among other countries in our immediate neighbourhood like Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore. For the Australian Army, this may mean ongoing engagement through military adviser and mentoring roles, military exchanges, and peacekeeping and humanitarian operations when called upon.

• Terry Smith, Training the Bodes: Australian Army Advisers Training Cambodian Infantry Battalions—A postscript to the Vietnam War, 2011, ISBN 9781921941016, 214 pp, RRP AU$34.99.

  In the Foreword to this book Major General Gordon Maitland explains, ‘within [Australia’s military history] are some hidden gems – stories of young Australians doing surprising things in surprising places’. This book tells one of these stories. Terry Smith enlisted in the 45th Battalion, The St George Regiment in 1959 and volunteered for active service in South Vietnam in 1970. In 1972 he was attached to the US Army Vietnam Forces Army Nationale Khmer Training Command to train Cambodian infantry battalions in Phouc Tuy Province. This book is interesting not just as a recount of the events and experiences of the small group of Australians of the Army Training Team Vietnam during this time, but also as a detailed account of the challenges in preparing a battalion for battle in a very short period of time and the struggles that accompany the role of adviser.

• Gerard Windsor, All Day Long the Noise of Battle: An Australian Attack in Vietnam, 2011, Pier 9, ISBN 9781741969184, 256 pp, RRP AU$29.99.

  Although this book is more generally an account of the actions of Charlie Company, 7RAR during Operation COBURG in Vietnam in February 1968, the author has another purpose—to right what he believes was the oversight of the courageous actions of both the company and the individual soldiers involved. As he states early in the book, ‘Combat is an uncertain revealer of men. It may bring out the previously unseen best in a man, or it might show him up.’ In combining personal recollections with official sources, Windsor presents a compelling argument that the coincidence of this operation with the events during the Tet Offensive has hindered the recognition of the importance of the operation at the time and the actions of the soldiers involved.

• Peter Rees, Desert Boys: Australians at War from Beersheba to Tobruk and El Alamein, 2011, Allen & Unwin, ISBN 9781741142921, 736 pp, RRP AU$49.99.

  In Desert Boys, Peter Rees presents an engaging and very personal picture of Australian soldiers in desert campaigns in the Middle East and North Africa in both the First and Second World Wars. In his earlier book The Other Anzacs, Rees focused on the role of Australian and New Zealand nurses serving in the First World War. Here though he focuses on battles, many of which later defined what were to become collectively recognised as responsible for the formation of the ‘Anzac legend’. Although not pretending to be a military historian, Rees allows the reader to follow the fortunes, hopes and fears of average soldiers, their families and friends, often spanning generations, through the use of letters, diaries and other previously unpublished sources. A long read at 736 pages, this is nevertheless an engaging and evocative book.

• Peter Englund, The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War, Profile Books, 2011, ISBN 9781846683428, 544 pp, RRP AU$49.99.

  Peter Englund, like Peter Rees in the previous book, uses personal diaries and letters to develop a detailed and, in his words, ‘intimate’ view of war, in this case the First World War. The method and structure of this book is different though. By focusing on twenty people from very different nationalities, backgrounds and perspectives, Englund details the ongoing effect of the war each year from 1914 to 1918. Beginning with 2 August 1914, a Sunday, and Laura de Turcynowicz, the American wife of a Polish aristocrat, he evocatively creates an image of a ‘perfect summer’ that is shattered as war is declared. He then goes on to contrast the impressions, consternation and fears of the many and varied characters. These characters, or Dramatis Personae as he refers to them, include a German schoolgirl, an English nurse, a French civil servant and a Venezuelan cavalryman in the Ottoman army.

Two Australians— Lieutenant William Henry Dawkins, an army engineer who dies at Gallipoli in 1915 and Olive King, an adventurous young woman who becomes a driver in the Serbian army and watches Salonica burn—and one New Zealander, Lieutenant Edward Mousley, an artilleryman in the British Army who becomes a prisoner the Turks and spends much of the war in a camp in Constantinople, offer a local perspective. Rather than focusing on specific battles though, Englund offers a very ‘ordinary’ perspective—for Dawkins, days and nights at Gallipoli are spent sinking wells to aid the soldiers’ personal hygiene, King writes letters to her father and sets up a canteen for the poor, Mousley struggles through the days as a prisoner. The book is an interesting reminder that among the dramatic occurrences that punctuate wars, there is also a plethora of mundane, everyday actions that go on regardless.