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.
Terrorism and Global Security: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives, Anne Aly, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2011, ISBN 9781420256406, 306 pp, RRP AU$59.95.
In this book, Senior Lecturer in terrorism and counterterrorism at Edith Cowan University, Dr Anne Aly takes a multidisciplinary approach to terrorism drawing perspectives from psychology, political science, criminology and sociology. Although the book addresses the origins and history of terrorism, it is in its analysis of the evolution of terrorism where Aly’s book is of most interest. Emerging trends in terrorism and the effect of new technologies are a key focus, with chapters on the tactical use of media by extremist groups and links between state, intergovernmental and non-governmental actors offering interesting insights on potential counterterrorist strategy.
The Iraq Wars and America’s Military Revolution, Keith L Shimko, Cambridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 9780521128841, 264 pp, RRP AU$61.95.
Keith L Shimko’s book is a detailed examination the existence and scope of a revolution in military affairs brought about by information-age technologies in the 1990s. Using detailed examinations of the United States’ operations in DESERT STORM and Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Shimko explores the relative strengths and inadequacies in overall defence strategy and capability planning that the revolution in military affairs debate led to, how these have affected low-intensity conflicts today, and how they might shape potential high-intensity conflicts of the future.
Beyond the Military Revolution: War in the Seventeenth Century World, Jeremy Black, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, ISBN 9780230251564, 240 pp.
Jeremy Black challenges conventional war chronologies permitting a reappraisal of the debate over the military revolution of the early-modern period. The seventeenth century has long been seen as a period of ‘crisis’ or transition to the modern world. Exploring this crisis from the perspective of war and military institutions, Black places warfare into a global context, assessing military capability in terms of tasks and challenges faced, and attaching styles of warfare to their social and political context.
The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War, Gary D Solis, Cambridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 9780521870887, 692 pp, RRP AU$140.00 (also available as an eBook, US$71.00)
Combining his academic expertise with his experience as a combat US Marine, Gary D Solis explores the complex questions that today’s battlefield presents for the soldier in this age of terrorism. Moving from analyses of international and humanitarian legal doctrine and their application to previous wars and conventional combatants, he then applies this to contemporary battlefield conditions using case studies from all over the world.
Gallipoli: The Final Battles and Evacuation of Anzac, David W Cameron, Big Sky Publishing, 2011, ISBN 9780980814095, 368 pp, RRP AU$34.99.
David W Cameron presents a detailed narrative of the bloody and tragic battle for Hill 60, along with the other engagements that went on until the very last days at Anzac—viewed from both sides of the trenches. Using firsthand accounts including letters, diaries and interviews, he examines the planning and execution of the evacuation of the troops from Anzac—the most successful part of the whole Gallipoli fiasco.
Bomb Hunters: In Afghanistan with Britain’s Elite Bomb Disposal Unit, Sean Rayment, HarperCollins Publishers, 2011, 9780007395279, 304 pp, RRP AU$35.00.
To write this book Sean Rayment, British ex-paratrooper and now defence journalist, accompanied the elite British bomb disposal unit in Helmand Province in Afghanistan throughout 2009. Through interviews with soldiers while they performed their duties, Rayment paints a picture of what they feel about the war, their place in it, and how they deal with the relentless pressure of the job itself.
Witnesses to War, Fay Anderson and Richard Trembath, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2011, ISBN 9789522856446, 320 pp, RRP AU$36.99.
In this book Fay Anderson and Richard Trembath present a history of Australian war journalism from regional conflicts of the nineteenth century through to major conflicts of the twentieth. In the process, they examine the ethics of embedding journalists, and issues that have continued and contemporary relevance, including the genesis of the Anzac ideal and how technology has changed the nature of conflict reporting.
When Bamboo Bloom: An Anthropologist in Taliban’s Afghanistan, Patricia A Omidian, Waveland Press Inc, 2010, ISBN 978157667001, 136 pp, RRP US$14.95.
A medical anthropologist, Dr Patricia Omidian began working in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1997 studying Afghan refugee camps and then conducted research in Afghanistan from 1998 to 2001, finally moving to Kabul and working there from 2002 to 2007. She has done extensive fieldwork in Afghanistan both when it was under the control of the Taliban and then US/NATO forces. In this, an experiential narrative, Omidian provides an insider’s view of the people and circumstances that reaches beyond the news headlines of wars, invasions, coups and droughts. As a critic of militarised anthropology, she presents a different perspective as she illustrates the difficulty for the Afghan people in negotiating between the dictates of their own culture and the intimidation of the Taliban.
Sport and the Military: The British Armed Forces 1880-1960, Tony Mason and Eliza Riedi, 2011, ISBN 9780521700749, 298 pp, RRP AU$39.95.
This book offers a fascinating insight into the history of organised sport in the British military, drawing on a wide range of untapped sources to explore its development in all services and all ranks. Beginning its organised development in the Victorian army and navy, sport became the focus of criticism in the Edwardian era and then officially adopted in the First World War as a boost to morale and esprit de corps.
War in the Pacific, Richard Overy, Gameloft, available for iPad: <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/war-in-the-pacific/id407240872?mt=8#>, RRP AU$5.99.
This interactive book uses photographs, animated maps and documents from the period (including the ‘Pocket Guide to Australia: Information for Australian Troops Stationed in Australia’) and archive video to retrace the war between the Japanese and the Allies in the Pacific during the Second World War. Beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor, US bases on Guam and Wake Island, this app then goes on to detail the battles in the jungle islands of Guadalcanal and Philippines and on the Pacific Ocean. This book is a part of the larger Home Box Office franchise, The Pacific and Band of Brothers.
