Written by: Karl James Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2012, ISBN 9781107017320, 319pp   Reviewed by: Charles D Melson, History Division, Marine Corps University, US Marine Corps The Australian Army History Series, edited by David Horner, has produced another notable work that will appeal to both the professional and public alike. This was with Karl James’ examination of the Second World War effort to defeat the Japanese forces on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. Fought at the time under …

  Written by: Boaz Atzili,  University of Chicago Press, 2012, ISBN 9780226031361, 296pp   Reviewed by: Ryan D Griffiths, Lecturer, University of Sydney Boaz Atzili’s new book, Good Fences, Bad Neighbors: Border Fixity and International Conflict , is an excellent study of the positive and negative consequences of an international norm emphasising territorial boundaries. Atzili argues that a norm against conquest and territorial aggression developed in the wake of the Second World War. On the one hand, this …

  Written by: Christopher Waters,  IB Tauris & Co Ltd, London, 2012, ISBN 9781848859982, 310pp,   Reviewed by: Augustine Meaher PhD (Melb), Director, Department of Political and Strategic Studies, Baltic Defence College Australian inter-war foreign and defence policy is a topic that is at last receiving the attention it has long deserved. Australia and Appeasement: Imperial Foreign Policy and the Origins of World War II provides an excellent introduction to Australian foreign policy during the interwar …

  Written by: Ashley Ekins and Ian McNeill,  Allen & Unwin, 2012, ISBN 9781865088242, 1184pp,   Reviewed by: Thomas Richardson, UNSW Canberra Ashley Ekins and Ian McNeill’s Fighting to the Finish is the much-anticipated final volume of the Official History of Australia’s Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts , and the final volume to deal with Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War. The value of Fighting to the Finish for military professionals and historians lies in both the volume’s …

  Written by: Hall Gardner and Oleg Kobtegg (eds), Ashgate, Farnham, 2012, ISBN 9780754678267, 664pp     Reviewed by: Dr David Connery, Deputy Director (Strategy and Development) National Security College, Australian National University This is a book for the very serious student of war. As befits the title ‘research companion’, this volume of collected works on the topic of war by Professors Hall Gardner and Oleg Kobtzeff of the American University of Paris provides a detailed exposition of the causes of …

  Written by: Aaron L Friedberg WW Norton & Company, New York, 2011, ISBN 9780393068283, 360pp,   Reviewed by: Dr Michael Lankowski, Strategic Policy Division, Department of Defence The relationship between China and the United States is crucial to our region’s strategic stability and a central concern in Australian defence and security policy debates. In A Contest for Supremacy, Professor Aaron Friedberg provides a broad assessment of the Sino-US relationship, highlighting the growing risks for the United …

    Written by: Paolo Tripodi and Jessica Wolfendale Ashgate, Farnham Surrey, UK and Burlington, VT, 2011 ISBN 9781409401056, 296 pp,   Reviewed by: Dr Lacy Pejcinovic There is a tendency in current academic literature dealing with war, conflict and violence to assume that there have been fundamental shifts in the political, military, economic and social fabric of the international system since the turn of the millennium. Books and articles that seek to tell us what exactly has changed and how are …

    Written by: Joseph S Nye Jr PublicAffairs, New York, 2011, ISBN 9781586488918, 320 pp   Reviewed by: David Goyne Joseph Nye has given eminent service to the US Government as a deputy undersecretary in the State Department, an assistant secretary in the Defense Department, and as chairman of the US National Intelligence Council. As an academic, he has been the dean of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, probably the premier global institute for studying and teaching how government works. …

    Written by: James Kraska Oxford University Press, New York, 2011, ISBN 9780199773381, 472 pp   Reviewed by: Allison Casey Maritime Power and the Law of the Sea explores how mounting constraints to freedom of navigation in exclusive economic zones (EEZ)—the maritime area that stretches seaward from a coastal state’s baseline up to 200 nautical miles, as provided in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)—could affect the role of expeditionary activities. While the sea is usually …

    Written by: Ernest Chamberlain Point Lonsdale, 2011, 252 pp Paperback ISBN: ISBN 9780980562347   Reviewed by: Dr Bob Hall Usually, the victors get to write the histories of wars. But in the case of the Vietnam War the historiographical output of the United States—and to a lesser extent, Australia—dwarfs that of Vietnam. To make matters worse, those histories that are published in Vietnam are sometimes difficult to find and, not surprisingly, are written in Vietnamese. Both factors tend to limit their …