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The War of Ideas: Jihad Against Democracy Written by: Walid Phares, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, ISBN: 9781403976390, 266 pp. Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Jason Thomas The referees for the author of this book are many and varied. Phares is, according to the book sleeve, a world renowned expert on Islamic based terrorism and the Middle-East, with many television and governmental interviews. It is obvious upon reading the text that his knowledge of the subject is indeed impressive. Additionally, he makes …
The Secret War: A True History of Queensland’s Native Police Written by: Jonathan Richards, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 2008, ISBN: 9780702236396, 320 pp. Reviewed by: Major Murray Stewart Considering the Australian frontier war raged from 1788 into the 1920s across Australia with the expanding settlement, and about 2000 white and 20,000 Aboriginals were killed as a direct result of armed clashes, it is surprising that it is only now starting to loom in Australian military consciousness. …
Extraordinary Justice: Military Tribunals in Historical and International Context Written by: Peter Judson Richards, New York University Press, New York, 2007, ISBN: 9780814775912, 272 pp. Reviewed by: Wing Commander Terence O’Connor Against the background of the ongoing Guantanamo Bay controversy, the time is right for a book that presents a balanced analysis of the history and current utility of Military Tribunals and Military Commissions. Extraordinary Justice: Military Tribunals in Historical and …
Between Victor and Vanquished – ATIS Interrogators in the Pacific War Written by: Arthur Page, Australian Military History Publications, Loftus, 2008, ISBN: 9780980475319, 525 pp. Reviewed by: Colonel Terry McCullagh Between Victor and Vanquished is Arthur Page’s own story of his remarkable wartime career. Arthur arrived in Australia at the age of 19, a refugee from a Japan gone mad with nationalistic fervour and rabid militarism. Arthur’s parents had escaped to Japan in 1920 from Russia, so this was the …
A Thousand Miles of Battles: The Saga of the Australian Light Horse in WW1 Written by: Ian Jones, Anzac Day Commemorations Committee (Queensland), Aspley, 2007, ISBN: 9870975712382, xvi + 208 pp. Reviewed by: Jean Bou The light horseman is perhaps the most romanticised figure in Australian military history. Embodying the bushman-soldier ideal, they are used to depict the quintessential Australian soldier in all sorts of ways; from the unlikely circumstance of accompanying the mostly infantry general …
Power and Military Effectiveness: The Fallacy of Democratic Triumphalism Written by: Michael C Desch, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD, 2008, ISBN: 9780801888014232 pp. Reviewed by: Ross Mallett Democratic triumphalism—a term coined by Michael Desch in this book—is defined as a belief that ‘not only does the spread of democracy make the world more benign by reducing the likelihood of wars among liberal states, but democracies enjoy certain advantages in their relations with nondemocratic …
The Accidental Guerrilla Written by: David Kilcullen, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009, ISBN: 9780199754090, 346 pp. Reviewed by: Peter Mansoor The War on Terrorism since 11 September 2001 has defied precise analysis, in large measure because it is not clear who or what we are fighting and because our vocabulary concerning war is limited in its scope to largely state-based conflict. In The Accidental Guerrilla , David Kilcullen succeeds in explaining the diverse phenomenon that constitute the wars …
Bad Strategies: How Major Powers Fail in Counterinsurgency Written by: James S Corum, Zenith Press, Minneapolis, 2008, ISBN: 9780760330807, 304pp. Reviewed by: Campbell Micallef Due to the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the number of books written on the subject of COIN is matched only by the myriad of ‘experts’, whose emergence suggests that there exists a desire to isolate a strategic algorithm, or a ‘silver bullet’ methodology for success. This is understandable, considering recent …
Forgotten ANZACS: The Campaign in Greece, 1941 Written by: Peter Ewer, Scribe Publications, Carlton North, 2008, ISBN: 9781925321296, 419pp. Reviewed by: Glyn Harper This book deals with the dispatch of W Force to Greece in the early months of 1941 and its ultimate fate. Consisting primarily of the Australian 6th Division fresh from its triumphs in North Africa and the 2nd New Zealand Division, W Force was a token military commitment made by the British Government even though they knew it had little …
The Proud 6th: An illustrated history of the 6th Australian Division, 1939-45 Written by: Mark Johnston, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2008, ISBN: 9780521514118, 269pp. Reviewed by: Phil Bradley There is a wonderful tradition in Australia to write battalion histories and, as a result, very few divisional or brigade level histories have been written. This can make it very difficult to follow the history of Australian divisions in the two World Wars, particularly in the Second World War, …
