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Major Niel Smith commanded B Company, 2d Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, in Tal Afar and then served as a brigade S3 staff officer for current operations in the Ready First during Operation Iraqi Freedom V. He currently is the operations officer at the U.S. Army-Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. MAJ Smith holds a B.A. from James Madison University. His deployments include two tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom. … Niel …

Lieutenant General David H. Petraeus, U.S. Army, took command of the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in October 2005. He also serves as the Commandant of the Command and General Staff College and as Deputy Commander for Combined Arms of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. LTG Petraeus commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Iraq during the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom, returning to the United States with the Division in mid-February 2004. He returned to …

Dr. Steven Metz is Research Professor and Chairman of the Regional Strategy and Planning Department at the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. This article is based on his monograph Rethinking Insurgency (Carlisle, Pa.: US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, June 2007). … Steven …

Jeff Grey is a professor of history at UNSW@ADFA. He is the author of numerous books in the fields of Australian and contemporary military history. His book, A Military History of Australia, was published in its third, revised edition in early 2008. … Jeff Grey …

The Artist and the Warrior: Military History through the Eyes of the Masters   Written by: Theodore K. Raab, Yale University Press, 2011, ISBN: 9780300126372, 228 pp   Reviewed by: Dr Claire Baddeley, Senior Curator of Art, Australian War Memorial The preoccupation with war and its representation has long been the subject matter of artists. Whether recording battles or the heroism and suffering of war’s protagonists, artists have depicted conflict in its many forms over the centuries. From early images in …

Anzacs in the Middle East: Australian soldiers, their allies and the local people in World War II   Written by: Mark Johnston, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2013, ISBN: 9781107030961, 255 pp   Reviewed by: Tristan Moss, PhD student, Australian National University During the first half of the Second World War, three Australian divisions and thousands of support troops played an important role in the war against Italy and Germany. Over a period of three years, Australian soldiers campaigned or were …

Defense Acquisition Reform 1960–2009: An Elusive Goal   Written by: J. Ronald Fox, Center of Military History United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2011, ISBN: 9780160866975, 268 pp.1   Reviewed by: Scott Richardson, Land Warfare Studies Centre As may be expected, a book entitled Defence Acquisition Reform 1960–2009: An Elusive Goal is unlikely to attract a wide audience of avid readers. An account of United States (US) Department of Defense efforts at procure-ment reform compiled by J. Ronald Fox, a …

The Battle for Lone Pine: Four Days of Hell at the Heart of Gallipoli   Written by: David W. Cameron, Viking, 2012, ISBN: 9780143572114, 386 pp   Reviewed by: Dr Karl James, Australian War Memorial Built on the heart of the old battlefield, Lone Pine Cemetery on Gallipoli Peninsula is today a place of contemplation and reflection. It contains the remains of over 1100 Commonwealth servicemen including 182 Australians killed in the area, mostly during August 1915, and who are known or believed to be buried …

Hell’s Battlefield: The Australians in New Guinea in World War II   Written by: Phillip Bradley, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2012, ISBN: 9781743317556, 506 pp   Reviewed by: John Moremon, Centre for Defence and Security Studies, Massey University Close to 20 years ago, Peter Stanley, the respected and industrious historian who nowadays heads the Centre for Historical Research at the National Museum of Australia, declared that there was a ‘green hole’ in Australian military historiography. He noted that the …

Exit Wounds: One Australian’s War on Terror   Written by: Major General John Cantwell (Retd) with Greg Bearup, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2012, ISBN: 9780522861785, 374 pp   Reviewed by: Dr John Blaxland, Senior Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre Wow! This book is hard to put down. At first I was a bit reluctant to purchase a copy, assuming from the cover that the book was a little self-indulgent. After all, Major General John Cantwell had a dream career and one that many others …