The Strategy of Terrorism – How it Works and Why it Fails   Written by: Peter R Neumann and Michael LR Smith,  Routledge, London, 2008, ISBN: 9780415545266, 140pp. Reviewed by: Major Jason Harley This book is a valuable contribution to military studies. Terrorism is a most misunderstood term in both society and academia, and for military practitioners equally so. While the book explores the strategic aspects of terrorism in first principles, it is written in a simple clear manner. It unearths a number of …

‘Sorry, lads, but the order is to go’ – The August Offensive, Gallipoli: 1915   Written by: David W Cameron,  UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009, ISBN: 9781742230771, 370pp. Reviewed by: Rhys Crawley After the months of stalemate that followed the failed Gallipoli landings, the Allied high command began to look for new options. They decided to mount a breakout manoeuvre from the Anzac sector to seize the northern heights and eventually cross the peninsula. At the same time there was a new landing at Suvla Bay which …

Malaya   Written by: Brian Farrell and Garth Pratten,  Army History Unit, Canberra, 2009. ISBN: 9781921941689, 254pp   Reviewed by: Mark Johnston The Second AIF was a magnificent force, but it was on the receiving end of several heavy defeats. Inevitably, these defeats raise some questions about its performance. One of these controversial campaigns, Malaya, is the subject of the latest instalment of the ‘Australian Army Campaigns Series’. Brian Farrell and Garth Pratten have written a penetrating and …

Managing Civil-Military Cooperation   Written by: Sebastiaan J H Rietjens and Myriame T I B Bollen (eds),  Ashgate Publishing Limited, Surrey, 2008, ISBN: 9781315593470, 280pp   Reviewed: by Major Richard Peace Civil-military cooperation is now a feature of nearly all Australian current operational deployments. While seen by some as a black art, this book attempts to dispel some of the misconceptions that arise on what is civil- military cooperation. This book is a collection of essays based on the Dutch …

Mud & Dust – Australian Army Vehicles and Artillery in Vietnam   Written by: Michael K Cecil,  New Holland Publishers, 2009, ISBN 9781741107678, 272pp   Reviewed by: Ian Kuring, Australian Army Mud & Dust by Michael Cecil is the third book of a series sponsored by the Australian War Memorial. It is a well researched, interesting and easy to read reference book covering the armoured fighting vehicles, artillery, logistic vehicles and engineer equipment used by the Australian Defence Force in Vietnam. Also …

Embedded: A Marine Corps Adviser Inside the Iraqi Army   Written by: Wesley R Gray, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2009, ISBN 9781591143406, 272pp   Reviewed by: Graeme Sligo, Australian Army Second Lieutenant Wesley Gray was a young Marine at Okinawa in 2006 when told he was being posted—at short notice—to Anbar Province to advise and train members of the Iraqi Army. It was a seven month tour. When Gray arrived, in July 2006, the insurgency was at a critical stage. The Golden Mosque bombing that year …

Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme and the Making of the Twentieth Century   Written by: William Philpott,  Little, Brown, London, 2009, ISBN 9781408701089, 736pp   Reviewed by: Albert Palazzo, Land Warfare Studies Centre For most readers the mention of the Somme brings forth the image of a futile and tragic campaign in which a generation of fine British and Imperial soldiery was wilfully slaughtered by an incompetent and distant command. William Philpott, in his breakthrough book Bloody Victory: …

Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the Twenty- first Century   Written by: Peter Singer,  The Penguin Press, New York, 2009, ISBN 9781594201981, 512pp   Reviewed by: Richard S Bowyer, Defence Science and Technology Organisation Peter Singer’s Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the Twenty-first Century takes the reader on a twenty-two chapter journey through the space occupied by the mechanical, electronic and software world of real robots doing real stuff. Situated …

The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War   Written by: Conor Foley,  Verso, New York and London, 2008,  ISBN 9781844672899, 266pp   Reviewed by: Tristan Moss, Australian National University Since the end of the Cold War the world has seen the significant growth in the profile and importance of humanitarian aid. Running parallel to this is the increasing currency of the concept of ‘humanitarian intervention’, an idea often used as a justification for government action in foreign crisis zones. …

The Science of War: Defence Budgeting, Military Technology, Logistics, and Combat Outcomes   Written by: Michael E O’Hanlon,  Princeton University Press, 2009, ISBN 9781400830930, 280pp Reviewed by: Mark Thomson, Australian Strategic Policy Institute Michael O’Hanlon is a prominent figure in the US national security debate. As senior author of the Brooking Institution’s Iraq Index and its Afghanistan and Pakistan variants, he has done as much as anyone to promote an evidence-based discussion of ongoing US …