While it would be wrong to discredit the idea that the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia was a major cause of war, it would also be inaccurate to portray it as the only factor that necessitated conflict.
Often relegated to a fringe area of the study of war, peace studies is often marginalised as an even more specific sub-division of its militaristic counterpart.
The cataclysmic Arab-Israeli conflicts of 1967 and 1973 have in many ways defined today’s conflict. But, what were the main strategic and political consequences of these two wars?
One of the many issues Rousseau covered was the idea of international cooperation or even integration, and its suitability to some of the states of Europe.
The bloody and protracted small wars of the last 20 years seem to be the current norm in IR, and may well be so for the foreseeable future. It is into this context that we can place Uzi Rabi’s edited collection.
Dick Couch is an individual well placed to deal with the issues of unit culture, training, combat experience, and the misconduct of the few, all of which forms the core of this text. Whilst the book does have several weaknesses, it provides a quick and easy to understand insight into a key issue affecting the US Military today.
Warfare today is changing. The course of conflict in the 21st century, and the problems we in the West may continue to face in the coming decades are mutating, developing and adapting in ways that make their defeat – whilst not necessarily more difficult – an entirely different prospect to face.
The War in Afghanistan is now in its tenth year. The conflict has diversified as it has developed, evolving from a purely military confrontation against the Taliban to a multi-faceted state building and humanitarian operation in an attempt to defeat the resurgent insurgency and stabilise the Afghan state on a sufficiently pro-Western model.
The wars in the former state of Yugoslavia that endured for most of the 1990’s have an established legacy today. They have come to be seen by those in the West as a gritty, difficult and unpleasant series of conflicts, epitomised by horrific brutality perpetrated by ultra-nationalist thugs. Nationalism was a major feature of the wars as they were prosecuted, but not the primary cause of the Yugoslav wars. The answer is less clear-cut than it may seem.
Vietnam. Mention the word to many a Westerner today and the reply you will get is more than likely to involve images of napalm, Hamburger Hill, Kent State and a whole other array of brutal and divisive issues that have so scarred the American psyche. However, there is another story, the legacy of the war on the Vietnamese themselves.
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