Military and defence strategy Books

Book SynopsisIn December 1944 the Third Reich was retreating. It was almost inconceivable that they could mount a counter offensive. To the Allies, the capitulation of the Third Reich was just around the corner. Or was it? Could the Battle of the Bulge succeed in turning the tide of the war for the German high command ? The US 101st Airborne were the only Allied unit capable of slowing down the German advance towards Antwerp - and they were ordered to do just that - at a place called Bastogne. The battle for the small Belgium cross-roads town is now world famous and to add to that historical narrative, the author has located de-classified interviews with the German unit commanders who took part. Brought together for the first time - they provide a unique perspective on the battle as the Germans were forced to make continuous alterations to their plans - and the 101st resisted every attempt to dislodge them. This book offers significant and fresh research on this famous battle and the narrative unfolds in words of the men who were actually there.

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Book SynopsisWars never run according to plan, perhaps never more so than during the Italian campaign, 1943-45, where necessary coordination between the different armies added additional complexity to Allied plans. Errors in the strategies, tactics, the coalition tensions, and operations at campaign command level can be clearly seen in first-hand accounts of the period. This new account examines the Italian campaign, from Sicily to surrender in 1945, exploring the strategy, intentions, motives, plans, and deeds. It then offers a detailed insight into the five commanders who led the battles in Italy - the two British commanders: Montgomery and Alexander; two American: Patton and Clark; and the leading German commander, Field Marshal Kesselring. Their personal notes and accounts, taken alongside archival material, provides some surprising conclusions - Montgomery was not quite the master of war he is portrayed as; Patton had serious flaws, exposed by wasting men’s lives to save a relative and overlooking the shooting of prisoners of war; Clark lost lives to bolster his image; Alexander the gentleman was far too vague to be effective as a senior leader. Meanwhile, condemned war criminal Kesselring appears to be the most efficient and also, like Alexander, one of the most popular leaders.Trade ReviewCompelling arguments and interesting characters make for a good read. * Goodreads *[A]n iconoclastic study that is a remarkable work of seminal scholarship. * Midwest Book Review *[C]auses you to consider alternate options for the invasion of Sicily and Italy. * Historical Miniatures Gaming Society *The authors offer a very different perspective on this campaign and are very frank in their assessment of the performance of the Allies and Germans on many levels. * New York Journal of Books *[A] well-done piece of historical writing – incisive if contentious at times, and stimulating as a thought piece on contemporary military leadership styles. * Author Robert Forczyk *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Western Allied Strategy German-Italian Strategy Operation Husky and Sicily Patton Italy Invaded Montgomery To Rome Mark Clark The D-Day Dodgers After Rome Alexander The End of the War In Italy Kesselring Conclusion Bibliography Endnotes Index

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Book SynopsisThe most successful film franchise of all time, Star Wars thrillingly depicts an epic multigenerational conflict fought a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But the Star Wars saga has as much to say about successful strategies and real-life warfare waged in our own time and place. Strategy Strikes Back brings together more than thirty of today’s top military and strategic experts, including generals, policy advisors, seasoned diplomats, counterinsurgency strategists, science fiction writers, war journalists, and ground-level military officers, to explain the strategy and the art of war by way of the Star Wars films. Each chapter of Strategy Strikes Back provides a relatable, outside-the-box way to simplify and clarify the complexities of modern military conflict. Strategy Strikes Back gives Star Wars fans and aspiring military minds alike an inspiring and entertaining means of understanding many facets of modern warfare in a book as captivating as Star Wars itself. Trade Review"Illuminating."—Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs“Over the course of history, our single greatest vulnerability has been a failure of imagination. Strategy Strikes Back confronts that vulnerability. The future may not evolve precisely as these authors suggest, but evolve it will. As it does, we will discover that some of tomorrow’s challenges will prove to be timeless, and others surprisingly new. Learning to imagine now will be time well spent.”—Gen. Martin Dempsey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff"This assortment of imaginative and fun analyses is an absolute essential for any military theorist, strategist, critic, and lover of the Star Wars saga that to this day, continues to inspire, expand, and hold a profound sway in our imaginations."—Christopher S. Poppleton, Aviation Digest“Star Wars is just as much a foundational mythology of our time as The Iliad was a long time ago. Strategy Strikes Back ingeniously uses that world far, far away to help readers take a look at our wars here today.”—P. W. Singer, best-selling author of Wired for War and coauthor of Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War"You might be forgiven for thinking the never-ending Star Wars franchise was simply a cash cow built of sequels, spin-offs and toys. But the space saga is actually helping further the discussion about military strategy right here on Earth."—Chad Jones, San Francisco Chronicle"Anyone with a basic knowledge of the Star Wars universe is sure to enjoy the creative parallels used by these esteemed authors to simplify complex topics. Avid fans with deep knowledge of this universe cannot help but embrace these parallels, think through them more deeply, and dig even deeper into them as they try to support or argue against the authors while also showing off their superior knowledge of their favorite series of movies."—Steve Luczynski, Strategy Bridge"Strategy Strikes Back succeeds . . . in illuminating the parallels between war-fighting in speculative fiction and the real world. It opens strategic thinking to non-expert audiences, and prompts experts to reason creatively about the role of force—and indeed the Force—in establishing and maintaining political order."—Stephen Dyson, H-Diplo"Strategy Strikes Back highlights what good science fiction and serious reflection on pop culture can do: bring the (strategic) dilemmas of the current age into stark relief."—Erin Simpson, War on the Rocks"This may be the most innovative and interesting book on military strategy ever published. . . . This volume takes a completely different approach to explaining both the eternal nature and modern intricacies of strategy, politics, and conflict by using the popular Star Wars movies as a common frame of reference for discussing the many issues and challenges modern practitioners of the strategic arts face."—Jerry Lenaburg, New York Journal of BooksTable of ContentsForeword Stanley McChrystal Preface ML Cavanaugh Introduction Max Brooks Part 1. Society and War 1. The Case for Planet Building on Endor Max Brooks 2. The Jedi and the Senate Jim Golby 3. Distant Warriors: Are Clones and Troops Too Separate from the Societies They Serve? Crispin J. Burke 4. On Destroying Alderaan Mick Cook 5. Civil-Military Relationships in Star Wars Daniel D. Maurer 6. How General Grievous and Vulture Droids Foreshadow Conflict’s Fast Future Raq Winchester and Fran Wilde 7. From Princess to General: The On- and Offscreen Rise of the Woman Warrior Erica Iverson Part 2. Preparation for War 8. Tarkin Doctrine: The Empire’s Theory of Victory Kelsey D. Atherton 9. How Not to Build an Army: The Empire’s Flawed Military Force Mick Ryan 10. The Jedi and the Profession of Arms Steve Leonard 11. The Right Fleet: Starships for Strategic Purpose BJ Armstrong 12. Why We Need Space Marines B. A. Friedman 13. Jedi Mind Tricks: From the Reel to the Real Jean Marie Ward 14. Lightsabers and Death Stars: Military-Technology Lessons from Star Wars Dan Ward Part 3. Waging a War 15. Hybrid Star Wars: The Battle of Endor James Stavridis and Colin Steele 16. Han, Greedo, and a Strategy of Prevention Chuck Bies 17. The Logic of Strategy in Space Steve Metz 18. Darth Vader and Mission Command Jonathan Bratten 19. The Battle of Hoth: A Critical Analysis Andrew Liptak 20. Why Military Forces Adapt, Even in a Galaxy Far, Far Away Chuck Bies 21. Dispatch from Hoth: When the Blood Runs Cold August Cole Part 4. Assessment of War 22. Darth Vader’s Failed Counterinsurgency Strategy Liam Collins 23. Why the Jedi Won Fights, Not Wars John Spencer 24. Why the Galactic Republic Fell: An Imperial-Network Perspective Van Jackson 25. Why the Empire Failed Theresa Hitchens 26. Star Wars, Cyclical History, and Implications for Strategy Kathleen J. McInnis 27. Suffer, the Weak Must: A History of the Galactic Civil War Craig Whiteside 28. A Strategist, Yoda Was Not ML Cavanaugh Epilogue: The Lessons of Star Wars ML Cavanaugh Contributors

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Book SynopsisIf you liked Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code—or want to solve similarly baffling cyphers yourself—this is the book for you! A thrilling exploration of history’s most vexing codes and ciphers that uses hands-on exercises to teach you the most popular historical encryption schemes and techniques for breaking them.Solve history’s most hidden secrets alongside expert codebreakers Elonka Dunin and Klaus Schmeh, as they guide you through the world of encrypted texts. With a focus on cracking real-world document encryptions—including some crime-based coded mysteries that remain unsolved—you’ll be introduced to the free computer software that professional cryptographers use, helping you build your skills with state-of-the art tools. You’ll also be inspired by thrilling success stories, like how the first three parts of Kryptos were broken. Each chapter introduces you to a specific cryptanalysis technique, and presents factual examples of text encrypted using that scheme—from modern postcards to 19-century newspaper ads, war-time telegrams, notes smuggled into prisons, and even entire books written in code. Along the way, you’ll work on NSA-developed challenges, detect and break a Caesar cipher, crack an encrypted journal from the movie The Prestige, and much more.You’ll learn: How to crack simple substitution, polyalphabetic, and transposition ciphers How to use free online cryptanalysis software, like CrypTool 2, to aid your analysis How to identify clues and patterns to figure out what encryption scheme is being used How to encrypt your own emails and secret messages Codebreaking is the most up-to-date resource on cryptanalysis published since World War II—essential for modern forensic codebreakers, and designed to help amateurs unlock some of history’s greatest mysteries.Trade Review“Codebreaking: A Practical Guide is quite the best book on codebreaking I have read: clear, engaging, and fun. A must for would-be recruits to GCHQ and the NSA!”—Sir Dermot Turing, author of Prof, the biography of his uncle, Alan Turing“Riveting. Dunin and Schmeh show us that we each have our own inner code-breaker yearning to be set free. Codebreaking isn’t just for super-geniuses with supercomputers; it’s something we were all born to do.”—Mike Godwin, creator of Godwin’s law and former general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation“This is THE book about codebreaking. Very concise, very inclusive, and easy to read. Good references for those who would make codes, too, like Kryptos.”—Ed Scheidt, CIA“A compendium of historical cryptography. Approachable, accessible, this book brings back the joy I felt when I first read about these things as a kid.”—Phil Zimmermann, creator of PGP encryption and inductee into the Internet Hall of Fame“One of the most helpful guides outside the NSA to cracking ciphers. But even if you don’t become a codebreaker, this book is full of fascinating crypto lore.”—Steven Levy, New York Times best-selling author of Crypto, Hackers, and Facebook: The Inside Story“Another kind of Applied Cryptography.”—Whitfield Diffie, Turing Laureate and creator of public-key cryptography“This is the book of my dreams. Super-clear, super-fun guide for solving secret messages of all kinds.”—Jason Fagone, author of the best-selling book The Woman Who Smashed Codes“Kool dnoces a htrow era snootrac eht fo ynam.”—Suomynona Ecila“A wonderful mix of ciphers, both famous and little-known, solved and unsolved. Beginners will be hooked on exploring the world of secrets in cipher, and those who have already been introduced to the field will find much that is new.”—Craig Bauer, editor in chief of Cryptologia and author of Unsolved!: The History and Mystery of the World’s Greatest Ciphers“Cryptography? Ciphers? I thought this would be an easy book to put down. I was very wrong.”—Steve Meretzky, co-author with Douglas Adams of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy computer game"Fun, fascinating, and user friendly . . . Expertly written, organized and presented, [Codebreaking] is unreservedly recommended as a supplemental Code Breaking curriculum textbook."—Midwest Book ReviewTable of ContentsPrefaceChapter 1: How can I break an encrypted message? And other introductory questionsChapter 2: The Caesar cipherChapter 3: Simple substitution ciphersChapter 4: Simple substitution ciphers without spaces between words: PatristocratsChapter 5: Simple substitution ciphers in non-English languagesChapter 6: Homophonic ciphersChapter 7: Codes and nomenclatorsChapter 8: Polyalphabetic ciphersChapter 9: Complete columnar transposition ciphersChapter 10: Incomplete columnar transposition ciphersChapter 11: Turning grille transposition ciphersChapter 12: Digraph substitutionChapter 13: Abbreviation ciphersChapter 14: Dictionary codes and book ciphersChapter 15: Additional encryption methodsChapter 16: Solving ciphers with hill climbingChapter 17: What next?Appendix A: KryptosAppendix B: Useful language statisticsAppendix C: GlossaryAppendix D: Morse CodeAppendix E: Figure SourcesReferences

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Book SynopsisSingapore is located in the heart of the Muslim Malay world, yet 78 per cent of its population is ethnically Chinese. The prosperous city-state relies on outside sources for virtually all its water and food; it has no access to the high seas, on which it depends for 85 per cent of its trade, except through its neighbours' waters. Physically linked to Malaysia by a causeway and a bridge, only twenty kilometres of sea separate Singapore from the nearest Indonesian territory.Surrounded by larger and more populous nations, Singapore has been acutely aware of its vulnerability since separating from the Malaysian federation in 1965. Singapore's government has met its defence needs with characteristic determination, building powerful, well-equipped and highly-trained armed forces based on a relatively small professional core and much larger numbers of conscript and reservist citizen soldiers.Defending the Lion City, the first-ever major study of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of Singapore's impressive military capability and the strategic outlook and policies which have shaped it. The book analyses the roles, structure, training and logistic arrangements of each branch of the SAF - army, air force and navy - as well as recent moves to enhance combined arms and joint service capabilities. It investigates Singapore's growing military cooperation with other armed forces in the region - and further afield - and assesses the SAF's personnel policies, the role of SAF officers in politics and civilian administration, and Singapore's burgeoning defence-industrial capability. In light of the crucial role the SAF plays in maintaining the security of Singapore, Defending the Lion City also asks the question: what are the areas of potential vulnerability in Singapore's defence posture?Table of ContentsForewordTables, figures and mapsGlossaryPreface and acknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Singapore Armed Forces' origins and early years2. Defence policy, threat perceptions and strategy3. Command and control4. Personnel5. Singapore's army6. The Republic of Singapore Air Force7. The Republic of Singapore Navy8. Defence procurement, R+D and industry9. Regional and international links10. Political and administrative rolesConclusionAppendix 1 - Summary of forcesAppendix 2- Paramilitary forcesNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThailand remains important by virtue of its location at the centre of the Asia–Pacific region, an area playing a vital role in world affairs. And yet, although Thailand has a comparatively large population and has powerful military forces performing significant roles in state and society, the country itself is seen as having little military power; it is a minor player. Why is this? Using strategic culture as an analytical framework, this book produces a portrait of the Thai state as an accommodative actor. During the period of Western imperial dominance in Asia, Thailand `bent in the wind’ to preserve its independence by a limited trading of territory and sovereignty. This accommodative policy continues to the present day in different forms. A key feature is that military organisational culture reinforces a state ideology of royalist nationalism that in turn reinforces the national strategic culture. Significant here is internal political acceptance of not just militarydomination in civil–military relations but also of the Thai military’s limitations in state-on-state combat. The author finds such `underbalancing’ – not responding to threat, or responding to it inadequately – elsewhere in Southeast Asia, too, especially in Indonesia. Although ASEAN’s two largest economies, and despite the challenges presented by a rising China, neither country is acting to significantly build alliances or rapidly strengthen their military forces. Pointing as well to other Southeast Asian nations with weak civil control of their militaries, including Myanmar, the Philippines and Cambodia, the book sets out a case that the interplay of civil–military relations and military organisational culture retards the development of strong external defence postures.

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