Warfare and defence Books

This book develops a new contractualist foundation for just war theory, which defends the traditional view of the moral equality of combatants and associated egalitarian moral norms.

This book offers a fresh assessment of George W. Bush's foreign policies.It is not designed to offer an evaluation of the totality of George W. Bush's foreign policy. Instead, the analysis will focus on the key aspects of his foreign and security policy...

This book offers an examination of the role of emancipation in the study and practice of security, focusing on the issue of environmental change.The end of the Cold War created a context in which traditional approaches to security could be systematically...

Armed groups operating beyond the state have become the most important actors in most contemporary wars and violent conflicts, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Colombia and Somalia. They come in a dizzying array of forms: some informally linked to the state...

This book collects the key essays, together with updating notes and commentary, of Professor John Mueller on war and the role of ideas and opinions.Mueller has maintained that war (and peace) are, in essence, merely ideas, and that war has waned as the...

Comprising essays by Michael W. Doyle, Liberal Peace examines the special significance of liberalism for international relations. The volume begins by outlining the two legacies of liberalism in international relations - how and why liberal states have...

Since the 19th century the Gulf region has been an area of intense interest, having been influenced first by the British and more recently by the Americans. This book charts the changing security and political priorities of these two powers and how...

This highly topical new study clearly shows how there are at least two reasons to question the central role that is assigned to religion, in particular Islam, when explaining suicide terrorism. suicide terrorism is a modern phenomenon, yet Islam...

James D. Kiras shows how a number of different special operations, in conjunction with more conventional military actions, achieve and sustain strategic effect(s) over time. In particular, he argues that the root of effective special operations lies...

Why does North Korea behave erratically in pursuing its nuclear weapons program? Why did the United States prefer bilateral alliances to multilateral ones in Asia after World War II? Why did China become "nice"-no more military coercion-in dealing with...

Focusing on East Asia, this book sets out a framework for analyzing infectious disease threats in security terms. It covers the security significance of naturally occurring disease outbreak events such as SARS and avian influenza, the development and use...

This book examines the interplay between energy policy and security policy under Vladimir Putin, and his drive to re-establish Russia's 'greatness'. Assessing the internal contradictions of this policy, the book argues that Russia's desire to strengthen...

Radical Islam poses a political challenge in the modern world which is like that of no other radical religious movement. Ideologically, it is perceived by Western policy makers as threatening the liberal-democratic ideology by which most states in the...

Experiences of captivity in Japanese-occupied Asia varied enormously. Some prisoners of war (POWs) were sent to work in Japan, others to toil on the 'Death Railway' between Burma and Thailand. Some camps had death rates below 1 per cent, others of over...

This is the first study of the Ludendorff Offensives of 1918 based extensively on key German records presumed to be lost forever after Potsdam was bombed in 1944. In 1997, David T. Zabecki discovered translated copies of these files in a collection of...

This book offers a new insight into when and why paramilitary groups in Afghanistan engage in protective or predatory behavior against the civilians they purportedly defend. In Afghanistan's counterinsurgency environment, America leaned on militias to...

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the Taliban, and how it has affected post-9/11 U.S.-Pakistan relations. It analyzes the genesis of the Taliban, the rationale behind their emergence and how they consolidated their rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to...

This book analyses efforts to achieve justice in Kosovo for victims of crimes committed during the conflict in the 1990s, relating this to broader debates on transitional justice. The war in Kosovo has come under the jurisdiction of a number of...

Why do people adopt attitudes of political alienation--attitudes of estrangement from, or lack of identification with, the political system? Why do some politically alienated people react to their alienation by engaging in revolutionary behavior, while...

Persistent international conflicts, increasing inequality in many regions or the world, and acute environmental and climate-related threats to humanity call for a better understanding of the processes, actors and tools available to face the challenges of...

This textbook is designed to be used by those tackling the complex and challenging issues of security sector reform (SSR). The questions of 'What is security?' and 'How can governments deliver it in the most efficient and effective manner?' are central...

This book, first published in 1982, examines the crisis of détente in Europe and between the superpowers, the crisis in arms control, and the heightening of tensions within NATO, and analyses the central precepts of Western policy and thought in these...

This book, first published in 1991, is the cumulative result of a long period of research by qualified experts in an attempt to analyse the legal and scientific problems of arriving at definitions in the task of preventing an arms race in outer space...

This book, first published in 1989, explores the ideas, proposals and counterproposals surrounding the thorny issue of Cold War conventional force disarmament in Europe. European nations acknowledged the need to reduce military tensions, but divergences...

This book, first published in 1986, examines the challenges the United States faced in maintaining a strong nuclear deterrence capability in the Far East without giving rise to political tensions among its allies. The Soviet aggression in the region,...

This book, first published in 1984, carefully examine the political debate surrounding nuclear weapons and superpower polices in Cold War Western Europe. It seeks to analyse a distinctly European view in Soviet policy, as opposed to a superpower view. It...

This book, first published in 1984, analyses the critically important Cold War issue of the Soviet national security decision-making process dealing with weapons acquisition, arms control and the application of military force. It conceptualises Soviet...

This book, first published in 1989, analyses Western and Soviet perceptions of each other's military thoughts and doctrines, a key part of the Cold War, where both sides planned to both win a possible conflict, and to avoid one. The work demonstrates...

This book, first published in 1991, provides a major analysis of the prelude to the US's Cold War maritime strategy, showing how NATO's maritime forces were organised in the period. It examines how the United States Navy and allied navies, particularly...

This book, first published in 1993, examines the security concerns of the Central European countries in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought considerable uncertainty and instability to its satellite states,...

This book, first published in 1983, examines weapons standardisation as one aspect of NATO's efficiency. It analyses the economic arguments for weapons standardisation, the limitations of the analysis and the available evidence. A political economy or...

This book, first published in 1990, is an incisive examination of NATO's strategy for the defence of the central front - the concern that has lain at the heart of NATO since its formation. Politically, the central front marked the post-war division of...

This book, first published in 1997, examines the forced merger between national security interests and environmental policy makers arising from the Chemical Weapons Convention and its requirement to safely dismantle the world's chemical weapons...

This book, first published in 1980, is a close analysis of Britain's defence policy in the latter years of the Cold War. It examines the factors that limited the choices available to the governments of the day, including technological advances, costs,...

This book, first published in 1975, is a comprehensive examination of specialised strategic studies, and deals with the theoretical and policy aspects of the topic. It argues that military power is an intrinsic part of the international system, with...

This book, first published in 1954, is a key analysis of the guiding policies, basic assumptions, fundamental principles and methods of the Red Army, in many respects the most powerful force in the Cold War. This analysis examines the strategy and...

This book, first published in 1983, analyses the technical and political developments in the two decades after the 1972 Soviet-American ABM treaty. It signposts the route for discussion of the antiballistic missile question - with its shared tacit...

This book, first published in 1981, is an analysis of the Soviet Union's military strategy, taking in both sides of the 'hawks' and 'doves' views of the USSR's intentions. It examines the Soviet approach to nuclear war, defence and deterrence in the...

This book, first published in 1975, analyses the three tools which the Russians used for attaining their political objectives: war, peace and neutrality. This study shows how they have evolved a clear-cut view, based on Marxism-Leninism, of the origins...

This book, first published in 1981, offers an analysis of the ways in which one strategic situation in Cold War politics impinged on another, and the interplay of historical forces and trends shaping national policies and the world pattern of power...

This book, first published in 1986, analyses a number of emerging, enduring and neglected issues that affected European security and the stability of the Atlantic Alliance at the end of the Cold War. It provides a comprehensive review of the major...

This book, first published in 1991, examines Britain's defence and foreign policy of the 1980s , and explores a variety of alternative roles for Britain in the radically changed circumstances of the 1990s. The authors analyse the full range of major...

This book, first published in 1965, examines the doctrine for fighting a conventional war against a nuclear power. Troops must be deployed as if they were fighting a nuclear war: dispersed over a greatly extended battlefield, conducting mobile...

This book, first published in 1985, analyses the factors that have shaped the militarization of space. By examining in great detail the determinants of U.S. policy, it explains why for over 25 years space did not become the scene of an arms race, and why...

This book outlines challenges to the effective operation of regional economic communities (RECs) with regards to peacebuilding in Africa. Critically examining these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, with a focus on comparative analysis of the...

This book ambitiously weaves together history and politics to explain all of the major situations where mass atrocities have occurred, or been prevented, over the 15 years since the 'Responsibility to Protect' (R2P) was adopted at the 2005 UN World...