Through Mobility We Conquer: The Mechanization of US Cavalry   Written by: George F Hofmann, University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, 2006, ISBN: 9780813124032, 578 pp. Reviewed by: Jean Bou The mechanisation of ground forces was one of the most important developments in twentieth century military affairs. George F Hofmann, a former Armored Branch officer in the US Army and now a Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati, has sought to explain how the US Cavalry underwent mechanisation, a …

Swords and Ploughshares — Bringing Peace to the 21 st Century   Written by: Paddy Ashdown,  Weidenfield and Nicholson, London, 2007, ISBN: 9780297853039, 338 pp. Reviewed by: Colonel Marcus Fielding As a former British Royal Marine, diplomat and politician Paddy Ashdown has a broad range of experiences to call upon in his latest role, that of international statesman. It is his period as the European Unions Special Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, from 2002 to 2006, that he draws upon to write Swords …

Doves Over the Pacific: In Pursuit of Peace and Stability on Bougainville   Written by: Reuben RE Bowd,  Australian Army History Unit and Australian Military History Publications, Canberra, 2007, ISBN: 9780980320480, 259 pp. Reviewed by: Colonel Bob Breen With this book Reuben Bowd continues a fine tradition of serving army officers finding the time to write about contemporary Australian military history in order to educate, commemorate and inspire. A veteran of a peace support operation in Bougainville, …

The Echo of Battle: The Army’s Way of War   Written by: Brian McAllister Linn, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2007, ISBN: 9780674034792, 312pp. Reviewed by: Albert Palazzo Professor Brian McAllister Linn, in The Echo of Battle: The Army’s Way of War,  has done the US Army a great service. In a book of modest length he provides the institution with an outline of the origins and evolution of its intellectual tradition. This in itself would have been a major and important accomplishment …

The Minefield – An Australian Tragedy in Vietnam   Written by: Greg Lockhart,  Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2007, ISBN: 9781741141061, 306pp Reviewed by: Brigadier David Buring, AM (Retd) Greg Lockhart’s book on the Australian Army’s mine warfare experience in Vietnam has its basis in a history of the barrier fence and minefield laid in southern Phuoc Tuy province in 1967. The consequences of laying this obstacle were extensive and serious; eventually it was largely cleared but with difficulty. The author tells …

Listed below is a selection from the review copies that have arrived at the Australian Army Journal.  Some of these books will feature as book reviews in future editions. Are you interested in writing a book review for the Australian Army Journal?.  Please contact the AAJ  at army.journal@defence.gov.au A Thousand Miles of Battles: The Saga of the Australian Light Horse ,  Ian Jones, ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee, ISBN 9870975712382, 224pp.   After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination ,  Kirkpatrick …

A purely academic study of war by itself is today unrewarding. It is important that the future Commander or Staff Officer should understand the inter-action of political, geographic, economic and military factors in the various parts of the world and that our military studies be set in these realistic settings. - Major-General M AH Butler CB, CBE, DSO, MC (Commandant, Staff College, Camberly) 1 March 1967 Introduction On 8 March 1966 the Prime Minister of Australia announced that an Australian task force …

Abstract The purpose of this article is to explain some of the various types of incentives that can be awarded within sustainment contracts and that will benefit both the contractor and the client—in this case, the Australian Defence Force (ADF). This article describes a variety of financial and non-financial incentives including those currently employed by the ADF in its Performance Based Logistics (PBL) contracts. Introduction A number of Australian Defence Force (ADF) outsourced logistics contracts have …

Abstract Until the early 1990s Chinese participation in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations was rather insignificant. Since the mid-1990s, however, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has steadily increased its commitment to UN missions and moved from a position of marginality to become one of the main contributors to such missions. China’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations and its growing engagement with the UN in general has become an important component of the PRC’s diplomacy and its …

Abstract The debate about the importance of the United States, and whether it is the leader in a unipolar global order, continues to provoke leading thinkers in the world of International Relations. This article explores some of the intellectual positions that have led to current thinking about the United States and its place in an asymmetrical world. There are few things to stir the intellectual emotions during our time as the United States role in the world. There is wide disagreement about the merit and …