Billy Mitchell. . – book review Dr. Douglas V. Johnson, II Billy Mitchell. By James J. Cooke. Boulder, Cob.: Lynne Reinner Publishers, 2002. 305 pages. $49.95. I have never been a fan of Billy Mitchell. Most previous biographies have reinforced my distaste, although the adoring style has generally been more the cause than the actual […]
Transnational terrorism and the al Qaeda model: Confronting new realities Paul J. Smith On 6 January 1995, Philippine authorities responded to a fire that had started in room 603 of the Dona Josefa apartment complex in downtown Manila. Although firefighters quickly contained the blaze, which they first attributed to a simple cooking fire, they soon […]
Technology and the Yom Kippur War Scott Padgett To the Editor: With regard to Robert S. Bolia’s article, “Overreliance on Technology in Warfare: The Yom Kippur War as a Case Study” (Parameters, Summer 2004), I agree with the author that Israeli doctrinal errors led to their initial losses in the Yom Kippur War and that […]
Demographic trends and military recruitment: surprising possibilities George H. Quester This article will attempt to project current demographic trends in the United States and abroad, along with several related determinants, a substantial distance into the future, so as to explore some possibly surprising implications for the recruitment of armed forces. The most important of these […]
Commentary & Reply – Letter to the Editor AIR-CENTRIC STRATEGY AND CASUALTY AVERSION To the Editor: The article “Collapsed Countries, Casualty Dread, and the New American Way of War” (Parameters, Summer 2002) by Jeffrey Record should be thought-provoking for those concerned with the future role of the Army in national defense and its force structure. […]
Caution: Children at War – global poverty contributions – Statistical Data Included P.W. Singer After less than two weeks of training, the strike force of 150 British paratroopers deployed to the target zone, a ramshackle camp located in the jungles of Sierra Leone. At H-Hour, the assault group raced out from three RAF Chinook CH-47s, […]
Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War. . – book review J. Boone Dr. Bartholomees Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War. By Charles B. Dew. A Nation Divided: New Studies in Civil War History series. Ed. James I. Robertson. Charlottesville: University Press […]
Shadow of the Dragon: Vietnam’s Continuing Struggle with China and the Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy Andrew Scobell By Henry J. Kenny. Washington: Brassey’s, 2002. 176 pages. $49.95 ($24.95 paper). With the end of America’s Indochina war in the 1970s and the passage of time, Vietnam has slipped from the collective consciousness of US policymakers […]
British bulldog or Bush’s poodle? Anglo-American relations and the Iraq war James K. Wither On 26 February 2003, British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced the largest parliamentary rebellion in over a hundred years. Some 120 of his Labour Party colleagues voted against the government’s policy of support for US military action against Iraq. Earlier that […]
Relearning counterinsurgency warfare Robert R. Tomes Thirty years after the signing of the January 1973 Paris peace agreement ending the Vietnam War, the United States finds itself leading a broad coalition of military forces engaged in peacemaking, nation-building, and now counterinsurgency warfare in Iraq. A turning point appeared in mid-October 2003 when US Secretary of […]