Augustine's Laws: Norman Augustine

Some books which have fallen within Defense & Security Analysis's fields of interest have paved the way for further studies, either because they have opened up a new era for enquiry and research, or because they have introduced new approaches and methodologies to existing areas. Other volumes have had impact, but have, in their turn, owed an intellectual debt to an earlier work. Again, there are many books and studies on defense which have become forgotten or which were unappreciated at the time of their publication, but which have immediate relevance to today's problems. This section is designed to review books that fall within these categories with a view to highlighting how and why they deserve serious attention.     

Facing ‘people's war’: Moltke the elder and Germany's military options after 1871

Prof. Dr Werner Hahlweg (ed.), Carl von Clausewitz: Vom Kriege. Neunzehnte Auflage. Bonn: Duemmler, 1980. Pp. 1406; DM. 98.00.*

Tony Ashworth, Trench Warfare 1914–1918. The Live and Let Live System. London: The Macmillan Press, 1980. Pp. 226; £15.

Stephen Roskill, Admiral of the Fleet: Earl Beatty. London: Collins, 1980. Pp. 430; £12.95.

R.J. Overy, The Air War 1939–1945. London: Europa Publications, 1980. Pp. 250; £12.50.

Martin Binkin and Irene Kynakopoulos, Youth or Experience? Manning the Modern Military. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1980. Pp. 84; NP.

Amos Perlmutter and Valerie Bennett (eds), The Political Influence of the Military. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1980. Pp. 508; £22.50; £6.90 (paperback).

Edward M. Spiers, The Army and Society 1815–1914. Themes in British Social History. London: Longman, 1980. Pp. 318; £9.95, £5.75 (paperback).

Richard K. Ashley, The Political Economy of War and Peace: The Sino‐Soviet‐American Triangle and the Modern Security Problematique. London: Frances Pinter, 1980. Pp. 384; £15.     

Whose Hearts and Whose Minds? The Curious Case of Global Counter-Insurgency

Traditionally regarded as a secondary activity in military thinking and practice, the notion of counter-insurgency (COIN) has undergone a remarkable renaissance. This analysis traces the origins of this renaissance to two distinctive schools: a neo-classical school and a global insurgency school. The global insurgency school critiques neo-classical thought and presents itself as a more sophisticated appreciation of current security problems. An examination of the evolution of these two schools of counter-insurgency reveals how the interplay between them ultimately leaves us with a confused and contradictory understanding of the phenomenon of insurgency and the policies and strategies necessary to combat it.     

The United States' Use of Exiles in Promoting Regime Change in Cuba, 1961 and Iraq, 2002–3

Issues raised by the United States' relations with and potential use of Iraqi exile groups in 2003–3 bear important similarities to those surrounding the failed Bay of Pigs operation against Fidel Castro's Cuba 40?years previously. In both cases, questions of legitimacy were of prime importance. In both cases too, the role played by the US had ramifications for the effectiveness of the exiles' own roles in the political and operational spheres. Finally, in each case the exile ‘movements’ were characterised by numerous, often rancorous, internal divisions, raising questions about their capacity to effectively constitute alternative governments.     

‘Taylor must go’ – the strategy of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy

In 1999, rebels rose to oppose the newly elected former warlord Charles Taylor in Liberia. Motivated by a variety of reasons, the minimal common denominator of these rebels, who assumed the name Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), was that Charles Taylor must leave the country. The decentralized nature of LURD though stands out in their struggle, as they don't fit the unitary actor assumed by literature on strategy, nor the alternative conception of decentralized forces fighting for purely local reasons. Understanding such aberrations as LURD is the first step to finding strategies that can incorporate and manage them.