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Great Powers and Grand Strategy 1900–1954   De Gruyter Oldenbourg , Berlin/Boston, 2022, 436 pp eBook ISBN: 9783110718713 DOI: 10.1515/9783110718713 Edited by: Brian P Farrell, SR Joey Long and David J Ulbrich Reviewed by: Andrew Carr In his concluding reflections, Brian Farrell observes that this edited book is best thought of as ‘a jazz score, not a symphony—one that combines a steady and discernible rhythm section with connected, but strikingly diverse, individual riffs’. In the hands of these capable …

Asymmetrical Warfare: Today’s Challenge to U.S. Military Power   Written by: Roger W. Barnett, Brassey’s, Washington D.C., 2003, ISBN: , 182 pp. Reviewed by: Alan Ryan, Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare Studies Centre The concept of ‘asymmetry’ in conflict is one of the most abused buzzwords in the contemporary lexicon of warfare. It is most generally used to describe a situation where an adversary uses methods that avoid an opponent’s strengths while targeting their weaknesses. This definition is not …

Bush at War   Written by: Bob Woodward, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2002, ISBN: , 376 pp. Reviewed by: Dr Alexandra Siddall, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade In Bush at War , Bob Woodward provides an informative and non-partisan account of the presidential decision-making process in the hundred days following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. During this period, the United States prepared for a war in Afghanistan against al-Qa’ida and the Taliban, took steps towards a pre-emptive strike …

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 …