Stranded and seduced! Lulu Lachaille's secret agoraphobia won't stop her from attending her best friend's big day. She feels utterly out of her depth, but that isn't the reason her heart is pounding... The cynical best man, Argentinian polo god Alejandro du Crozier, hates weddings...until he gets inconveniently stranded in the Scottish Highlands with the alluring maid of honor! The temptation inexperienced Lulu presents is too much for Alejandro to refuse. But du Crozier is determined to keep Lulu under his command, so he whisks her away to Buenos Aires until he is sure that their recklessness hasn't left lasting consequences...

Using examples from a wide variety of conflicts, Lawrence Freedman shows that successful military command depends on the ability not only to use armed forces effectively but also to understand the political context in which they are operating. Command in war is about forging effective strategies and implementing them, making sure that orders are appropriate, well-communicated, and then obeyed. But it is also an intensely political process. This is largely because how wars are fought depends to a large extent on how their aims are set. It is also because commanders in one realm must possess the ability to work with other command structures, including those of other branches of the armed forces and allies. In The Politics of Command, Lawrence Freedman explores the importance of political as well as operational considerations in command with a series of eleven vivid case studies, all taken from the period after 1945. Over this period, the risks of nuclear escalation led to a shift away from great power confrontations and towards civil wars, and advances in communication technologies made it easier for higher-level commanders to direct their subordinates. Freedman covers defeats as well as victories. Pakistani generals tried to avoid surrender as they were losing the eastern part of their country to India in 1971. Iraq's Saddam Hussein turned his defeats into triumphant narratives of victory. Osama bin Laden escaped the Americans in Afghanistan in 2001. The UK struggled as a junior partner to the US in Iraq after 2003. We come across insubordinate generals, such as Israel's Arik Sharon, and those in the French army in Algeria, so frustrated with their political leadership that they twice tried to change it. At the other end of the scale, Che Guevara in Congo in 1966 and Igor Girkin in Ukraine in 2014 both tried to spark local wars to suit their grandiose objectives. Freedman ends the book with a meditation on the future of command in a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on technologies like artificial intelligence. A wide-ranging and insightful history of the changing nature of command in the postwar era, this will stand as a definitive account of a foundational concept in both military affairs and politics.

Harlequin® Presents brings you a collection of four new titles! This Presents box set includes: BILLIONAIRE WITHOUT A PAST Irresistible Russian Tycoons by Carol Marinelli When Nikolai Eristov meets dancer Rachel Cary, he sees a woman running from shadows as dark as his own. And one electric night makes Nikolai promise Rachel two weeks of exquisite pleasureExcept the billionaire lied. Two weeks isn't nearly enough! THE SHOCK CASSANO BABY One Night With Consequences by Andie Brock When Orlando Cassano's affair with Isobel Spicer has a surprise consequence, he's determined to be there for his child. But getting independent Isobel down the aisle takes more than his legendary charm! She demands the one thing Orlando has never given anyone… CLAIMING THE ROYAL INNOCENT Kingdoms & Crowns by Jennifer Hayward Unveiled as secret royalty, Aleksandra Dimitriou enters a new world…under Aristos Nicolades's protection. He has orders not to touch the innocent princess, but as their desire rises it's soon clear the person Aristos should be protecting Aleksandra from is himself! KEPT AT THE ARGENTINE'S COMMAND by Lucy Ellis Argentinean polo god Alejandro du Crozier hates weddings…until he is stranded with the alluring maid of honor! Innocent Lulu Lachaille is too tempting, and he whisks her off to Buenos Aires until he is sure that their recklessness hasn't left lasting consequences! Be sure to collect Harlequin® Presents' May 2016 Box set 2 of 2!

A remorseless seduction… Bastiaan Karavalas loves the thrill of the hunt. His prey this time is tantalizing Sarah Fareham. Pity this seduction won't be purely for pleasure—she's a threat to his family that needs to be removed! Sarah dreams of becoming an opera singer, but must scrape out a living as a nightclub performer, overcoming her inhibitions by hiding behind her vivacious stage persona, Sabine. It also becomes her only defense against Bastiaan's sensual onslaught. But Bastiaan is a tycoon to be reckoned with, and once his true intentions are revealed, will Sarah's facade be enough to safeguard her fragile heart?

A gruff billionaire’s anger toward a voluptuous widow soon turns into desire in this contemporary romance. Nik’s not a Voronov by blood, but he’s ferociously protective of his adoptive family. So when he believes single mother Sybella Parminter is taking advantage of his grandfather, he ruthlessly strips her of her job! But when unexpected desire threatens to consume them both, sweet Sybella might just be the redemption this brooding billionaire needs . . .

Since the Second World War, Arab armed forces have consistently punched below their weight. They have lost many wars that by all rights they should have won, and in their best performances only ever achieved quite modest accomplishments. Over time, soldiers, scholars, and military experts have offered various explanations for this pattern. Reliance on Soviet military methods, the poor civil-military relations of the Arab world, the underdevelopment of the Arab states, and patterns of behavior derived from the wider Arab culture, have all been suggested as the ultimate source of Arab military difficulties. Armies of Sand, Kenneth M. Pollack's powerful and riveting history of Arab armies from the end of World War Two to the present, assesses these differing explanations and isolates the most important causes. Over the course of the book, he examines the combat performance of fifteen Arab armies and air forces in virtually every Middle Eastern war, from the Jordanians and Syrians in 1948 to Hizballah in 2006 and the Iraqis and ISIS in 2014-2017. He then compares these experiences to the performance of the Argentine, Chadian, Chinese, Cuban, North Korean, and South Vietnamese armed forces in their own combat operations during the twentieth century. The book ultimately concludes that reliance on Soviet doctrine was more of a help than a hindrance to the Arabs. In contrast, politicization and underdevelopment were both important factors limiting Arab military effectiveness, but patterns of behavior derived from the dominant Arab culture was the most important factor of all. Pollack closes with a discussion of the rapid changes occurring across the Arab world-political, economic, and cultural-as well as the rapid evolution in war making as a result of the information revolution. He suggests that because both Arab society and warfare are changing, the problems that have bedeviled Arab armed forces in the past could dissipate or even vanish in the future, with potentially dramatic consequences for the Middle East military balance. Sweeping in its historical coverage and highly accessible, this will be the go-to reference for anyone interested in the history of warfare in the Middle East since 1945.