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The Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future of Aerial Warfare Written by Michael Russell Rip and James M. Hasik, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2002, ISBN: 9781557509734, 552 pp. Reviewed by: Major Russell Parkin, Research Fellow, Land Warfare Studies Centre This analysis of the precision revolution by Michael Russell Rip and James M. Hasik has been described by the leading scholar of American air power, Benjamin S. Lambeth, as ‘a sweeping survey of the technologies of precision navigation and …
The Lion, The Fox and the Eagle: A Story of Generals and Justice in Rwanda and Yugoslavia Written by: Carol Off, Random House, Toronto, 2000, ISBN: 9780679311386, 406 pp. Reviewed by: Alan Ryan, Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare Studies Centre This extraordinary book examines the disastrous peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Rwanda, and it does so by analysing the role played in these disasters by three senior Canadians. The Lion of the title is Major General Romeo Dallaire, the commander of the …
The Strategists Written by: Hugh Smith (ed.), Australian Defence Studies Centre, University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, 2001, ISBN: 9780731704538, 145 pp. Reviewed by: Martin Sheehan, Strategic and International Policy Division, Department of Defence In 1989 Francis Fukuyama, then Deputy Director of the US State Department’s policy planning staff, published a curious essay, ‘The End of History?’ in the journal The National Interest . Fukuyama’s argument was that, …
Future Wars: Coalition Operations in Global Strategy Written by: Dennis E. Showalter (ed.), Imprint Publications, Chicago, 2002, ISBN: 9781879176393, 184pp. Reviewed by: Major Russell Parkin, Australian Defence College, Weston Creek Previous volumes of the United States Air Force Academy’s Military History Symposium Series have produced some excellent studies. Volume 7 in the series contains a collection of essays on the subject of coalition warfare that very successfully fulfil Sir Michael Howard’s …
Redcoats to Cams: A History of Australian Infantry 1788–2001 Written by: Ian Kuring, Australian Military History Publications, Loftus, NSW, 2003, ISBN: 9781876439996, 572pp. Reviewed by: Alan Ryan, Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare Studies Centre Although this book will not be available until just before Christmas, its value to the Army is such that it is worth providing an advance review. The reviewer has been fortunate enough to receive the page proofs of the book and has no hesitation in …
The Once and Future Army: A History of the Citizen Military Forces 1947–1974 Written by: Dayton McCarthy, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2003, ISBN: 9780195515695, 303pp. Reviewed by: Alan Ryan, Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare Studies Centre This excellent book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand how our present-day Army came to be. In that sense it is not only a history of the Army’s reserve forces since the end of World War II, but it is also an account of how the Army …
Military Stress and Performance: the Australian Defence Force Experience Written by: George E. Kearney, Mark Creamer, Ric Marshall and Anne Goyne (eds), Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne, 2003, ISBN: 9780522850543, 294pp. Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel David Schmidtchen, Directorate of Retention Policy, Defence Personnel Executive, Canberra Of the 52 000 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel who served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1972, approximately 3000 were either killed or wounded …
Ted Serong Written by: Anne Blair, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2002, ISBN: 9780195515923, 238pp. Reviewed by: Major General Adrian Clunies-Ross (Retd) Brigadier Ted Serong was a unique Australian soldier, and the essence of any biography of him would be to capture this uniqueness. This Anne Blair does to a considerable degree. Serong is most widely identified with the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV); this is not surprising since he led the first team to South Vietnam in 1962 and …
Task Force Dagger: The Hunt for Bin Laden Written by: Robin Moore, Random House, New York, 2003, ISBN: 9780375508615, 372pp. Reviewed by: Captain Brett Chaloner, Royal Military College, Duntroon Robin Moore will never be renowned as one of the world’s great military historians; however, as the author of Task Force Dagger , he does what only an American author can do. He tells a story with great passion and fervour, sprinkled with good old ‘Uncle Sam’ ideology. This is a story of which the World War II …
Sir James Whiteside McCay: A Turbulent Life Written by: Christopher Wray, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2002, ISBN: 9780195515732, 280pp. Reviewed by: Brigadier John Essex-Clark (Retd) ‘One of the greatest soldiers ever to have served Australia ... greater even than Monash’ So wrote General Brudenell White. This is an honest book that should be read by those who aspire to understand leadership and the pitfalls of egocentricity. It highlights the weaknesses of a strict, dogmatic, non-empathetic …
