The increasing capacity of states to muster violence, the concomitant rise of military power as a meaningful instrument of foreign policy, and the frequent episodic collapse of that power are considered in this examination of force, order, and diplomacy. Nathan points to periods of relative order and stability in international relations-the time immediately prior to the rise of Frederick the Great, for example, or the half century after the Napoleonic Wars-as times when states have been most vulnerable to spoilers and rogues. Only the power of the Cold War blocs fostered durable order. Now, notwithstanding novel elements of globalization, international relations appear as dependent as ever on the prudent management of force. Students, scholars, and soldiers are frequently exposed to Clausewitz, Westphalia, Napoleon, World War I, and the like. But what makes these events and individuals so important? This book is Clausewitz's successor, insisting that soldiers and statesmen know and master the integrative potential of force. Nathan provides a narrative account of the people and events that have shaped international relations since the onset of the state system. He asserts that an understanding of the limits and utility of persuasion, as well as the corresponding limits and utility of force, will help assure national security in a world filled with more uncertainties than ever in the last 50 years.

This symposium, the fourth in the series sponsored jointly by the Department of History and the Association of Graduates of the Air Force Academy, was of particular interest to those of us charged with responsibility for professional education in the military services. Especially at the National War College, most of whose graduates move on to high staff and command responsibilities, the value of so enlightened a discussion of the relationships between soldiers and statesmen cannot be overemphasized. Statecraft through the ages has called upon the soldier and the statesman to play vital roles in attaining the preeminent goal of national security. There has been a tendency, particularly in recent years, to separate and often dichotomize the two professions. In part this can be attributed to scholarly commentators who, for legitimate analytical purposes, often separate the two elements. This intellectual division is further compounded by the increasing degree of functional specialization required of the modern soldier and diplomat. Today's national security policy-maker, as compared to his predecessors of only a generation ago, requires much greater technical knowledge and expertise. It is little wonder then that a type of myopic egocentrism develops as the soldier or diplomat wrestles with the complex problems of the "here and now." Inundated with data, beset by the conflicting advice of subordinates and demands of superiors, and inexorably constrained by compressed decision time, he has little opportunity to reflect on the wider implications of his decisions. Yet it is not an exaggeration to insist that in our age and in the foreseeable future the soldier and the diplomat must work together more closely than ever before. Nuclear weapons and Vietnam have demonstrated both the strength and the limitations that can be placed on the use of military force; the Cold War and containment have provided a similar demonstration for diplomacy. The development of a new modus vivendi poses challenges of the highest order as new power configurations emerge to displace the old and as increased demands for solution of domestic problems attain higher priority in the competition for limited national resources. The challenge, however, is not limited to the practitioners of statecraft. It is here that the scholar must lend his talents, not only to provide the elongated perspective of history, which helps free us from generational egocentrism, but also to collect, distill, and collate the wisdom of the giants upon whose shoulders new pygmies will build. The scholars, both guest and resident, at the Fourth Military History Symposium of the United States Air Force Academy have more than met their challenge. For this reason, therefore, I commend to statesman and soldier, as well as to other interested scholars, this, the record of their proceedings.

This collection of essays combines historical research with cutting-edge strategic analysis and makes a significant contribution to the study of the early history of strategic thinking. There is a debate as to whether strategy in its modern definition existed before Napoleon and Clausewitz. The case studies featured in this book show that strategic thinking did indeed exist before the last century, and that there was strategy making, even if there was no commonly agreed word for it. The volume uses a variety of approaches. First, it explores the strategy making of three monarchs whose biographers have claimed to have identified strategic reasoning in their warfare: Edward III of England, Philip II of Spain and Louis XIV of France. The book then analyses a number of famous strategic thinkers and practitioners, including Christine de Pizan, Lazarus Schwendi, Matthew Sutcliffe, Raimondo Montecuccoli and Count Guibert, concluding with the ideas that Clausewitz derived from other authors. Several chapters deal with reflections on naval strategy long thought not to have existed before the nineteenth century. Combining in-depth historical documentary research with strategic analysis, the book illustrates that despite social, economic, political, cultural and linguistic differences, our forebears connected warfare and the aims and considerations of statecraft just as we do today. This book will be of great interest to students of strategic history and theory, military history and IR in general.

American Military History provides the United States Army-in particular, its young officers, NCOs, and cadets-with a comprehensive but brief account of its past. The Center of Military History first published this work in 1956 as a textbook for senior ROTC courses. Since then it has gone through a number of updates and revisions, but the primary intent has remained the same. Support for military history education has always been a principal mission of the Center, and this new edition of an invaluable history furthers that purpose. The history of an active organization tends to expand rapidly as the organization grows larger and more complex. The period since the Vietnam War, at which point the most recent edition ended, has been a significant one for the Army, a busy period of expanding roles and missions and of fundamental organizational changes. In particular, the explosion of missions and deployments since 11 September 2001 has necessitated the creation of additional, open-ended chapters in the story of the U.S. Army in action. This first volume covers the Army's history from its birth in 1775 to the eve of World War I. By 1917, the United States was already a world power. The Army had sent large expeditionary forces beyond the American hemisphere, and at the beginning of the new century Secretary of War Elihu Root had proposed changes and reforms that within a generation would shape the Army of the future. But world war-global war-was still to come. The second volume of this new edition will take up that story and extend it into the twenty-first century and the early years of the war on terrorism and includes an analysis of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq up to January 2009.

This monograph examines the potential utility of history as a source of education and possible guidance for the U.S. Army. The author considers the worth in the claim that since history (more accurately termed the past) is all done and gone, it can have no value for today as we try to look forward. This point of view did not find much favor here. The monograph argues that although history does not repeat itself in detail, it certainly does so roughly in parallel circumstances. Of course, much detail differs from one historical case to another, but nonetheless, there are commonly broad and possibly instructive parallels that can be drawn from virtually every period of history, concerning most circumstances. Contents: Should the U.S. Army Learn From History? Understanding the Past: A Foreign Country? Persisting Concerns and Enduring Hazards A Familiar Past? Parallels and Analogies What Changes and What Does Not? What Can the U.S. Army Learn From History? Recommendations for the U.S. Army

Behind enemy lines is a harrowing place to be. Few survive and those that do may never be the same again. World War II was no gentleman's war. There was brutality all around and death may have been a welcomed alternative to captivity. Rescue or survival was wanted even more though. There are stories of those that have been caught behind the enemies lines. They are cut off from their allies. Alone. Desperate. These are just a few of those stories. Ask yourself, what would you do to survive? What lengths would you go to in order to make it out alive? This book explores what some did when faced with that very real question. Germany was determined to crush Yugoslavia when it broke ties with them and aligned themselves with the Allied Forces. When a British envoy arrived to meet if Yugoslavian leaders, they find themselves running for their lives as the Germans close in. What was to be a diplomatic mission, soon turns into a nightmare. Will they all make it home alive? The Special Air Service is one of the most elite units in the British military. These men come from all corners of the United Kingdom and are some of the best out there. What happens when an already beleaguered unit finds it's self behind enemy lines and betrayed by possibly one of their own? This is another action packed book on the men that fought, and sometimes died, in World War II. They sacrificed their lives for the freedom of not only others but their own countries as well. Some of their stories are forever immortalized here in these pages.

What is commonly known as history is really the past, as it is often selected and preserved both by professional historians and by non-specialist citizens. The past is such a large and diverse repository of happenings, thoughts, and experiences that it requires treatment with a disciplined respect. Frequently, respect for the truth about the past is a victim of contemporary circumstance. In this monograph, Dr. Colin S. Gray seeks to explore how historical data might best be used for the benefit of the U.S. Army and, therefore, the United States. He pulls no punches in explaining how challenging it is to penetrate the fog that obscures much of the past. Since the future cannot be foreseen reliably, we are left rather uncomfortably with a seemingly ever changing today.