To date, the Heath-Nixon years have been widely portrayed as marking a low-point in the history of Anglo-American relations – even the end of the 'special relationship'; using a wealth of archival material on both sides of the Atlantic, and examining a range of global developments, Allies Apart offers a fresh interpretation of this pivotal period.

A fresh, commanding, and thought-provoking narrative history of the competing Russian and American empires. The American road to empire started when the first English settlers landed in Virginia. Simultaneously, the first Russians crossed the Urals and the two empires that would dominate the twentieth century were born. Empires Apart covers the history of the Americans and Russians from the Vikings to the present day. It shows the two empires developed in parallel as they expanded to the Pacific and launched wars against the nations around them. They both developed an imperial 'ideology' that was central to the way they perceived themselves. Soon after, the ideology of the Russian Empire also changed with the advent of Communism. The key argument of this book is that these changes did not alter the core imperial values of either nation; both Russians and Americans continued to believe in their manifest destiny. Corporatist and Communist imperialism changed only the mechanics of empire. Both nations have shown that they are still willing to use military force and clandestine intrigue to enforce imperial control. Uniquely, Landers shows how the broad sweep of American history follows a consistent path from the first settlers to the present day and, by comparing this with Russia's imperial path, demonstrates the true nature of American global ambitions.

This work takes readers to two countries ravaged by World War II, Poland and Japan, recounting the wartime experiences of teenagers Bogdan and Seiko. Bogdan's family abandoned its home in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and fled to Warsaw, where Bogdan fought for the Polish Home Army in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. During this brutal conflict, as Poles tried to oust occupying Germans, Bogdan sustained severe injuries, and after the Germans crushed the Uprising, he endured seven POW camps. On the other side of the globe, in Hokkaido, Japan, Seiko's country went to war against the U.S. With school suspended, Seiko worked in a wartime factory. Her older sister died during the war, while her older brother trained as a kamikaze pilot. Once the war ended, both Bogdan and Seiko immigrated to the U.S. to pursue educational opportunities. In bustling postwar New York City, they met, fell in love, and then started a family. Bogdan and Seiko's story is one of hope, symbolizing recovery from war's devastation and immigrants' dreams of new lives in America.

Introduction -- 1. Golden age : years of reconstruction -- 2. Thinking of Europe and beyond : Nixon and Kissinger's priorities -- 3. Special relationships : a journey to a continent in transition -- 4. Living with deficits : economic predicaments -- 5. Downward spiral : monetary turmoil and the end of the old order -- 6 Turning point : the United States and the end of "benign hegemony" -- Conclusion.

In an area where in-depth studies of Hitler's relations with Nazi Germany's allies, and the failure of Nazi Germany to make more effective use of them during the war, are scant, this is a survey that looks at the Soviet Union, Japan, France, Italy, Spain, Romania and Hungary and their relationship to Nazi Germany. Using a comparative approach, seven case studies examine themes such as co-operation and resistance, military and economic aid, treatment of Jews, relations with the enemies and the popular sentiment towards Germany. Jonathan Adelman has provided students of the Second World War with a welcome mine of information and a unique perspective on a much-studied topic.

Why do powerful intervening militaries have such difficulty managing comparatively weak local partners in counterinsurgency wars? Set within the context of costly, large-scale military interventions such as the US war in Afghanistan, this book explains the conditions by which local allies comply with (or defy) the policy demands of larger security partners. Analysing nine large-scale post-colonial counterinsurgency interventions including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Lebanon, Cambodia, and Angola, this book utilizes thousands of primary source documents to identify and examine over 450 policy requests proposed by intervening forces to local allies. By dissecting these problematic partnerships, this book exposes a critical political dynamic in military interventions. It will appeal to academics and policymakers addressing counterinsurgency issues in foreign policy, security studies and political science.