Military engineering Books

Book SynopsisThis classic Chinese text, the earliest known treatise on war, offers strategy and tactics that can be applied to every type of human conflict. Central to Sun Tzu's philosophy is the concept of using deception and superior intelligence to minimize risk, which has made his book required reading at military, business, and law schools around the world. With a Foreword by B.H. Liddell Hart and a 74-page Introduction, this deluxe edition--beautifully presented in a sumptuous silk hardcover--is a standout offering in the successful Art of Wisdom series.

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Book SynopsisUp to and during the First World War, the Royal Navy was at the forefront of developments in aviation: concerned not just with the use of military aircraft to defend the fleet, but also securing the homeland against Zeppelin raiders and undertaking tactical air strikes into enemy territory. With the aeroplane a totally new and revolutionary weapon, the work of several experimental airfields and seaplane stations became crucial to the success of these operations. Taking the lead role were Felixstowe and the Isle of Grain, where work on the development of new aircraft and aerial weapons was handled, alongside ground-breaking advances in navigational systems, air-to-ground radio communication, and deck-board ship landings. These two air stations (as well as others with a more minor role) witnessed a huge scale of expenditure and the assembly of an elite group of experts and hotshot pilots who, in pushing the envelope to the extreme, sometimes sacrificed their own lives. The work of these experimental stations has been more or less forgotten, a result of the Royal Naval Air Service having been subsumed into the Royal Air Force, and the subsequent emphasis on the aeroplane as a weapon of land warfare. In this First World War anniversary period, it is a story that needs telling.

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Book SynopsisAs the People's Republic's seemingly inexorable rise to economic and military power con-tinues, never has the need for a better grasp of Chinese strategic thought by the West been more acute. In Deciphering Sun Tzu, Derek Yuen seeks to reclaim for the reader the hidden contours and lost Chinese and Taoist con- texts of Sun Tzu's renowned treatise The Art of War, a literary classic and arguably one of the most influential books ever written. He also explains its historical, philosophical, strategic, and cross-cultural significance. His comprehensive analysis of Sun Tzu, based on close reading of the Chinese sources, also reconstructs the philosophy, Taoist methodology and worldview that effectively form the cornerstones of Chinese strategic thinking, which are arguably as relevant today as at any moment in history. Yuen's innovative reading and analysis of Sun Tzu within and from a Chinese context is a new way of approaching the strategic mas- ter's main concepts, which he compares with those of Clausewitz, Liddell-Hart and other Western strategists.Deciphering Sun Tzu offers illuminating analysis and contextualisation of The Art of War in a manner that has long been sought by Western readers and opens new means of getting to grips with Chinese strategic thought.Trade Review'Deciphering Sun Tzu is by far the best book on the subject in years. ... Yuen argues that the only way to read Sun Tzu is to understand the philosophical, historical, and cultural context behind The Art of War. ... Yuen's work reveals that Sun Tzu's treatise needs to be seen in the context of statecraft as a broader cultural artifact rather than in the narrower context of war or strategy'. -- Rob Johnson, Director of the Changing Character of War Programme, Oxford University, in The American Interest'Yuen puts Sun Tzu in context, identifying his debts to Chinese philosophy (particularly Taoism), providing historical background, guiding the reader through the key themes in his work, explaining common interpretations of it, and detailing its reception in the West. Yuen presents Sun Tzu's view of strategic thought as holistic and nonlinear. This is not a book for the faint-hearted or for those skeptical about Sun Tzu's approach to strategy. But anyone who wishes to understand Sun Tzu should not ignore it.' -- Lawrence Freedman, Foreign Affairs'Taking the oldest and most enigmatic of military texts Derek Yuen boldly confronts questions of philosophy and strategic culture as no other contemporary interpreter of Sun Tzu has done before. In a quite extraordinary work of erudition he demonstrates both the continuing significance of The Art of War in Chinese thinking and why our continuing misreading of the text is proving so damaging to our understanding of Chinese thinking.' -- Christopher Coker, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, and author of The Improbable War: China, the US and the Logic of Great Power Conflict'Derek Yuen has produced a fascinating re-interpretation of Sun Tzu. He casts a wide philosophical-cultural net in his quest to capture the essence of this timeless Chinese classic of strategy.' -- Andrew Scobell, Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation and author of China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March'Derek Yuen's exciting new book takes Sun Tzu studies to a new level. It goes beyond the existing translations of and commentaries on this canonical text to deploy its underlying, unique logic as it evolved through Daoist philosophy to serve as a foundation for developing a more comprehensive theory of strategic thought. It is a bold and profoundly philosophical attempt to rise above the familiar rationalisations of this antique text to register its seminal contribution to the holistic nature of Chinese thinking in its broadest sense.' -- Roger T. Ames, Professor of Philosophy, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Hawaii'Reading Deciphering Sun Tzu: How to Read the Art of War by Derek Yuen is very much a light bulb moment for commentators on Western strategic thought.' -- LSE Review of Books

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Book SynopsisThe growing ubiquity of drones means that they are more readily available for both terrorists and civilians to use. At the same time, the military use of drones has globalised. Yet regulations for their international use, both military and domestic, are sparse and lacking in clarity, and most books on the legality of drones tend to be written by journalists or activists. Drones and the Law: International Responses to Rapid Drone Proliferation presents a fresh, scholarly perspective on the increasingly complex relations between drone usage and international and privacy law. Combining expert insights into strategy, international law, international humanitarian law, targeted killing, ethics, and privacy, Vivek Sehrawat offers an important historical and context for understanding how drone usage has become widespread; investigates how international law and international humanitarian law on the use of force interact with the rapid proliferation of military drones; and outlines how civilian use of drones poses specific challenges to national privacy laws in large countries such as the UK, the USA, and India. Throughout, Sehrawat discusses potential world policies for drone strikes and counter terrorism and debunks myths about current drone capabilities and the law regarding drone usage, making this book a useful and timely addition to the growing literature on drones and the law. For its rigorous legal research that offers a precise, accurate, and authoritative account of the legal challenges posed by rapid drone proliferation, Drones and the Law is a must-read for students and scholars of law and international relations.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Historical Introduction and Technology Used in Drones Chapter 2. Legality of Drones Under LOAC and International Law Chapter 3. Legal Justifications for the Drone Targeted Killing Chapter 4. Point Forward: Legitimate Concerns about Drones’ Proliferation Chapter 5. Drones Present and Future Privacy Laws: A Comparative Study of the U.S., U.K., and India

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Book SynopsisThis book is a collection of papers given at the sixth biennial conference at the University of Reading held in March 2006, and is the fourth in the series Modern Studies in Property Law. The Reading conference has become well-known as a unique opportunity for property lawyers to meet and confer both formally and informally. This volume is a refereed and revised selection of the papers given there. It covers a broad range of topics of immediate importance, not only in domestic law but also on a worldwide scale.Table of ContentsI - Keynote Address 1. Reforming Housing Law: A Progress Report Martin Partington II - Law and Equity 2. Equitable Co-ownership: Proprietary Rights in Name Only? Martin Dixon 3. Why is the Law of Undue Influence so Hard to Understand and Apply? Graham Ferris 4. The Lie of the Land: Mortgage Law as Legal Fiction Gary Watt 5. Curbing the Enthusiasm of Finders Robin Hickey 6. Leases: Rethinking Possession against Vulnerable Groups Warren Barr 7. Reconciling Property Law and Social Security Law: Same Concepts, Different Meanings? Nicholas Hopkins and Emma Laurie III - Possession of Land 8. The Acquisition of Rights in Property by the Effluxion of Time Amy Goymour 9. An Adjudication Rule for Encroachment Disputes: Adverse Possession or a Building Encroachment Statute? Pamela O’Connor 10. de Soto Discovers the Prairies:Of Squatters and the Canadian West Bruce Ziff and Sean Ward IV - Property, Empire and Indigenous Title 11. Land Law and the Making of the British Empire Patrick McAuslan 12. Translating Native Title to Individual ‘Title’ in Australia: Are Real Property Forms and Indigenous Interests Reconcilable? Lee Godden and Maureen Tehan 13. Individual Title versus Collective Title in Australia: Reflections on the North American and New Zealand Experiences of Indigenous Title to Land M A Stephenson

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Book SynopsisThis Naval and Military Press series on military technology continues with this very important publication, which gives details of all ammunition in use by the British Army in 1936 With few exceptions, it covers ammunition, explosives and propellants in service just prior to the start of the Second World War.Every military historian, war gamer, re-enactor and reader should be familiar with the technology associated with the tactics, and this series of reprints aims to provide that information. No true, objective appreciation of tactical operations is possible without a basic knowledge of the weapons and ammunition being used at a specific point in time, and the series will serve as a continuing source of the relevant information.This volume looks in detail at explosives, cartridges, tubes and primers in detail. It also gives a treatment of projectiles, explaining the form of shells, and how they are designed for their purpose. There is a detailed examination of time fuses (the proximity fuse being still a dream in 1936). Small arms ammunition is described, as are grenades (including the famous Mills 36) and a section deals with military explosives.There is a wealth of illustration including many colour plates and the book is an essential to any study of the British Army and its equipment at the start of World War II.

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Book SynopsisIn an age in which fears about the future predominate (in the form of dystopias, ecological catastrophes and terrifying Sci-Fi scenarios), utopia is reappearing as the bearer of hope for the fate of humanity. Latin America has historically been a fertile ground where utopian projects, movements and experiments could take root and thrive, and this constitutes one of the regions major contributions to world history. Each of the thirteen authors who participate to this collective volume address a particular case or specific aspect of Latin American utopianism from colonial times to the present day. The relationship between utopia and America Latin America in particular has been a constant throughout the ages and helps to clarify both the concept of Utopia and of Latin America. The one cannot be understood without the other, from the book of Thomas More in 1516 to the present. Myths and legends of utopian content already proliferated at the time of the voyages of exploration, spurring on the conquistadors, while the knowledge gap about lands awaiting discovery was filled with stories about utopias. The America that the Spanish and Portuguese discovered became, from the sixteenth century onwards, a space in which it was possible to imagine the widest variety of forms of human coexistence. Utopias in Latin America reconsiders the sense and understanding of utopias in various historical frames: the discovery of indigenous cultures and their natural environments; the foundation of new towns and cities in a vast colonial territory considered as empty space in which it was possible to start afresh; the experimental communities of nineteenth-century utopian socialists and European exiled intellectuals; and the innovative formulae that attempts to get beyond twentieth-century capitalism.

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Book SynopsisIn an age in which fears about the future predominate (in the form of dystopias, ecological catastrophes and terrifying Sci-Fi scenarios), utopia is reappearing as the bearer of hope for the fate of humanity. Latin America has historically been a fertile ground where utopian projects, movements and experiments could take root and thrive, and this constitutes one of the regions major contributions to world history. Each of the thirteen authors who participate to this collective volume address a particular case or specific aspect of Latin American utopianism from colonial times to the present day. The relationship between utopia and America Latin America in particular has been a constant throughout the ages and helps to clarify both the concept of Utopia and of Latin America. The one cannot be understood without the other, from the book of Thomas More in 1516 to the present. Myths and legends of utopian content already proliferated at the time of the voyages of exploration, spurring on the conquistadors, while the knowledge gap about lands awaiting discovery was filled with stories about utopias. The America that the Spanish and Portuguese discovered became, from the sixteenth century onwards, a space in which it was possible to imagine the widest variety of forms of human coexistence. Utopias in Latin America reconsiders the sense and understanding of utopias in various historical frames: the discovery of indigenous cultures and their natural environments; the foundation of new towns and cities in a vast colonial territory considered as empty space in which it was possible to start afresh; the experimental communities of nineteenth-century utopian socialists and European exiled intellectuals; and the innovative formulae that attempts to get beyond twentieth-century capitalism.

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Book SynopsisWritten by a former Colonel of the Coldstream Guards, this book gives an account of the Crimean War generally, from its causes and beginnings to its conclusion after the long-delayed fall of Sebastopol. As such, it can be read with profit by the general reader as well as the student of military or regimental history.The first part sets the political scene for the war, detailing the inconclusive military operations in Bulgaria and Romania and the novel arrival of women nurses in a theatre of war as well as the ravages of disease. The second part deals with the allied invasion of the Crimean peninsula - making no effort to hide now ill-equipped and badly prepared the allies were - and the Battle of the Alma. Part III describes the beginnning of the long and weary siege of Sebastopol and the Battle of Balaclava, with the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. Part IV is solely concerned with the bloody Battle of Inkerman in which the Guards took a major part and suffered heavy losses. Part V outlines the savage winter of 1854-55 in the Crimea, during which the scantily-clad British army suffered more from the weather than the enemy. In Part VI, Sebastopol is at last taken and finally, Part VII deals with the end of the war on March 30th 1856. There are five appendices, including Crimea casualty breakdowns of the Coldstreams and the British Army generally, and six maps.

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Book SynopsisA Vertical Empire provides a description of the British rocketry and space programme from the 1950s to 1970s, detailing the Medium Range Ballistic Missile Blue Streak and its conversion to a satellite launcher as part of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO). This extensively revised second edition includes material only made available in the past ten years and the text is supplemented by numerous photographs, sketches and statistics. The all-British satellite Black Arrow is described, as well as the research rocket Black Knight, the Blue Steel missile and the rocket powered interceptor aircraft.Table of ContentsRocket Motors; Rocket Interceptors; Blue Steel; Blue Streak - The Origins; Blue Streak - The 'Underground Launcher'; Blue Streak - The Cancellation; B S S L V; The European Launcher Development Organisation - ELDO; Europa; Black Knight; Black Knight and the Re-Entry Experiments; Black Arrow; The 'Might Have Beens'.

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Book SynopsisThe covert, clandestine operations of the Special Air Service (SAS) regiment, from the jungles of Malaya, Borneo and Brunei to the deserts and mountains of the Middle East and Afghanistan have always been the focus of intense fascination, stoked by the regiment's 'closed' organization and secretive activities. However, no period of activity has remained more secret than the vital years in the immediate aftermath of World War II when the regiment seemingly expired, only to rise miraculously from the dead to fight communism in the Malaya Emergency. Tim Jones' fascinating history pieces together the evidence to show that while the Malaya Emergency re-established the SAS as a unique source of counter-guerilla expertise, the regiment was not disbanded in 1945 and was, in fact, covertly involved in the Greek Civil War of 1945-49, a war unmatched in savagery until the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s. Revealing important operational secrets and shedding new light on post-war history, this book will be essential reading for enthusiasts of military history, and those interested in the world of intelligence.Trade Review'Reveals a new insight into the undiscovered years in the history of the SAS - a must for those interested in the SAS.' - Bulletin of the Military Historical SocietyTable of ContentsIntroduction: Dare All to Win All 1. Towards a New Beginning 2. A life-line: Greece 3. Fighting for Survival on Two Fronts 4. Fighting Insurgency on Two Fronts 5. The International Squadron: Bending the Rules in Greece 6. 'Too Funny to be True!': The Middle East Rangers (SAS) 7. Fighting for Corps Status 8. Korea: The War That Never Was? 9. Malaya: Hearts, Minds and Winged Dagger 10. The SAS Family Appendix - Deception in Malaya

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Book SynopsisInsecure Gulf examines how the concept of Arabian/Persian Gulf 'security' is evolving in response to new challenges that are increasingly non-military and longer-term. Food, water and energy security, managing and mitigating the impact of environmental degradation and climate change, addressing demographic pressures and the youth bulge and reformulating structural economic deficiencies, in addition to dealing with the fallout from progressive state failure in Yemen, require a broad, global and multi-dimensional approach to Gulf security. While 'traditional' threats from Iraq, Iran, nuclear proliferation and trans-national terrorism remain robust, these new challenges to Gulf security have the potential to strike at the heart of the social contract and redistributive mechanisms that bind state and society in the Arab oil monarchies. Consequently, Insecure Gulf explores the relationship between 'traditional' and 'new' security challenges and situates it within the changing political economy of the GCC states as they move at varying speeds toward post-oil structures of governance. It describes how regimes are anticipating and reacting to the shifting security paradigm, and contextualises these changes within the broader political, economic, social and demographic framework. It also argues that a holistic approach to security is necessary for regimes to renew their sources of legitimacy in a globalising world.Trade Review'Insecure Gulf' provides the first detailed assessment of the developments in the Persian Gulf sub-region in the post-oil era. It is the one of the few books of its kind not to be obsessed with the sub-region's energy riches, and in looking to highlight the uncertainties of a future from which oil income may not provide sufficient protection, warns of the sub-region's impending demographic, economic and environmental crises. Sympathetically written and meticulously researched, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen draws our attention to the dangers of a perfect storm forming in the Gulf Arab countries in which domestic challenges could combine with externally-induced security or economic shocks to expose these societies to crises of such magnitude that could test their very socio-political foundations. This is a must read. -- Anoush Ehteshami, Professor of International Relations at Durham UniversityKristian Coates Ulrichsen's absorbing book is rich in detail and profoundly incisive. It is brilliant in its analysis and masterful in scope, tackling the most important and toughest questions on security in the Gulf region. Fascinating, fluently written and insightful, 'Insecure Gulf' offers a genuinely original perspective on this important subject. This is compulsory and highly engaging reading. -- Dr Steven Wright, Department of International Affairs, Qatar University'Insecure Gulf' offers a broad-ranging yet consistently cogent survey of the major trends that threaten the stability of the Arab Gulf states at the present moment and in the foreseeable future. It highlights not only the concrete, material challenges that confront regimes in this part of the world but also the ideational dynamics that shape how strategic realities get interpreted and prioritized. And the book accomplishes this while remaining accessible to non-specialists. An enlightening tour d'horizon. -- Fred H. Lawson, Professor of Government, Mills College

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