Population and Affective Perception: Biopolitics and Anticipatory Action in US Counterinsurgency Doctrine

Abstract: This paper analyses the biopolitical logics of current US counterinsurgency doctrine in the context of the multiple forms of biopower that make up the “war on terror”. It argues that counterinsurgency doctrine aims to prevent spectral networked insurgencies by intervening on the “environment” of insurgent formation—the relations between three different enactments of “population” (species being, logistical life and ways of life) and a fourth—affectively imbued perception. Counterinsurgency is best characterised, then, as an “environmentality” (Foucault M 2008 The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collége De France, 1978–1979. Translated by G Burchell. London: Palgrave Macmillan) that redeploys elements from other forms of biopolitics alongside an emphasis on network topologies, future‐orientated action and affective perception.     

Counterinsurgency Reexamined: Racism,Capitalism, and US Military Doctrine

The US has been engaged in coercive projects of counterinsurgency since the Indian Wars in the 19^th century. Racist constructions of the enemy have been central to this process. Counterinsurgency has called forth new waves of contestation at every juncture, which has in turn shaped the very texture of military doctrine. This article draws on archival research, historical geography, and Marxist theory to trace the dialectics of counterinsurgency and insurgency through a series of turning points in US imperial history from the development of small wars doctrine in the 1930s to renewal of counterinsurgency during hybrid wars in Venezuela and Latin America in the current conjuncture. Through a conjunctural analysis, we argue that racism performs fundamental work in achieving consent to counterinsurgency wars, allowing capitalism to survive challenges to its legitimacy.     

‘Transformation in contact’: learning the lessons of modern war

The US and British armies have faced intelligent and adaptive enemies in Iraq and continue to do so in Afghanistan. While both armies have proved adept at fighting high‐intensity conflict, their initial performance against asymmetric threats and diffuse insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrated how much each army had to learn about conducting counterinsurgency operations. This article examines one important means by which the US and British armies have transformed themselves into more flexible and responsive organizations that are able to harness innovation at the front effectively. It traces the development of the lessons‐learned systems in both armies from the start of counterinsurgency operations in Iraq to today. These changes have resulted in significant development within the organization of both armies. Reform of US and British army learning capabilities offers an important insight into the drivers of military change. The reformed lessons‐learned systems have been better integrated into training, experimentation, and doctrine and force development. While there are still challenges to be overcome, both armies have created robust structures that facilitate the movement of knowledge from recent experience at the front to the rest of the organization. As such, these reforms provide us with a useful case‐study that enhances our understanding of the role of ‘bottom‐up’ initiatives in military innovation.     

The Trade Goes,and the Flag Follows? British State Intervention and Natural Resource Extraction in Colombia, 1989–2010

During the 1960s, agents of the Colombian state began carrying out a counterinsurgency campaign against elements of the domestic population considered ‘subversive’. Subversion, according to US counterinsurgency manuals, largely translated to involvement in social organisation. As a result, trade unionists, political activists and human rights defenders in Colombia became aggressively targeted. While violence in Colombia's past has been widely documented, recent British involvement has not. The official justification for British military and police assistance, beginning in 1989, was within the context of the drug war. By drawing on a wide range of sources including newly declassified documents from the UK National Archives in Kew, this article posits that British counter-narcotics assistance was contentious in nature and ineffective in outcome. Meanwhile, this assistance lent structural and active support to the counterinsurgency conflict. In this light, the protection of British capital interest in Colombia – specifically that of British Petroleum – is analysed as a persuasive underlying motive for British military and police assistance. Finally, British Petroleum's private security strategy in Colombia is investigated as a case study in the utilisation of counterinsurgency, with the result of the near-total elimination of social organisation within its areas of operations.     

The dynamics of British military transformation

The British military have embarked on a comprehensive process of transformation towards a network-enabled, effects-orientated, and expeditionary force posture. This has involved developing brand new military doctrine, organizational concepts, and technology. The US military are also transforming, and American military ideas about network-centric and effects-based warfare have influenced the British military. But the British have not simply aped their US ally. Rather, British military transformation has followed a different path. Hence, this article proposes a dynamic model of military innovation involving two international drivers: new operational challenges and military emulation; and three national shapers: resource constraints, domestic politics and military culture. This model is then applied to a detailed empirical analysis of the process and progress of British military transformation.     

Appeasement Revisited

R. A. C. PARKER. Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Policy and the Coming of the Second World War. London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. v, 388. £35.00;

GAINES POST, JR. Dilemmas of Appeasement: British Deterrence and Defense, 1934–1937. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993. $48.50 (US);

R. J. Q. ADAMS. British Politics and Foreign Policy in the Age of Appeasement, 1935–39. London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. xii, 192. £40.00;

MICHAEL J. COHEN and MARTIN KOLINSKY, eds. Britain and the Middle East in the 1930s: Security Problems, 1935–1939. London: Macmillan, 1992. Pp. xvii, 231. $40.00;

BENNY MORRIS. The Roots of Appeasement: The British Weekly Press and Nazi Germany during the 1930s. London: Frank Cass, 1992. Pp. 212. $40.00 (US);

GERARD J. DE GROOT. Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair. New York: New York University Press, 1993. Pp. xi, 266. $35.00 (US);

CLEMENT LEIBOVITZ. The Chamberlain-Hitler Deal. Edmonton, Alberta: Les Éditions Duval Inc., 1993. Pp. viii, 544. No Price Available.     

The United States and counterinsurgency: 'political first, political last, political always'

According to the status of forces agreement signed by Iraq and the United States in November 2008, US troops are to be withdrawn entirely from Iraq by the end of 2011. A few days later it was also revealed that the British force in Iraq, numbering about 4,100 troops, will be reduced to a contingent of just a few hundred military advisors by summer 2009. The counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, on the other hand, is to be intensified in the form of a ‘surge’ in military and political effort. Counterinsurgency operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq have long been at the centre of the security policy debate in the United States and elsewhere; a debate which seems unlikely to be resolved in the near future. But what exactly is counterinsurgency? This article offers some reflections on the practice and the politics of an especially complex form of military engagement. All military activity should be understood through the prism of politics, and counterinsurgency particularly so.     

Choosing Peace and Order: National Security and Sovereignty in a North American Borderland, 1837–42

This article considers the international ramifications of the Canadian Rebellions of 1837, in particular their impact on US politics and policy-making as well as on the state of the international border. The Rebellions and the ensuing border raids led to the deployment of US and British forces in the borderlands, not in pursuit of war but in the interest of peace. Ignoring popular agitation in the Canadian colonies and in border states, the British and US governments expressed their commitment to peace and recognised that continued friendly relations required further assertion of central state authority on both sides of the boundary line. Thus, the events of 1837–42 mark an important advance in the development of national security and national sovereignty in North America. This paper expands upon purely national depictions of the Canadian Rebellions and integrates international developments by utilising a borderlands approach and traditional diplomatic history.     

Lessons from Helmand,Afghanistan: what now for British counterinsurgency?

This article analyses the conduct of British operations in Helmand between 2006 and 2010 and discusses the implications for the legacy and future of British counterinsurgency. A number of lessons stand out: first, competence in the field of counterinsurgency is neither natural nor innate through regimental tradition or historical experience. The slow adaptation in Helmand—despite the opportunity to allow the Basra experience to be a leading example of the need for serious changes in training and mindset—is an indication that the expertise British forces developed in past operations is but a distant folktale within the British Armed Forces. Substantially changed training, painful relearning of counterinsurgency principles and changed mindsets are therefore necessary to avoid repeated early failures in the future. Moreover, despite eventually adapting tactically to the situation and task in Helmand, the British Armed Forces proved inadequate in dealing with the task assigned to them for two key reasons. First, the resources of the British military are simply too small for dealing with large‐scale complex engagements such as those in Helmand or southern Iraq. Second, the over‐arching comprehensive approach, and especially the civilian lines of operations that underpinned Britain's historical successes with counterinsurgency, are today missing.     

Review Article:Rediscovering India under the British

O.P. KEJARIWAL. The Asiatic Society of Bengal and the Discovery of India's Past 1784–1838. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Pp. xiv, 293. $24.95 (US);

TAPAN RAYCHAUDHUM. Europe Reconsidered: Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth Century Bengal. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Pp. xviii, 369. $39.95 (US);

JOAN G. ROLAND. Jews in British India: Identity in a Colonial Era. Hanover, N.H. and London: University Press of New England, 1989. Pp. xiii, 355. $40.00 (US);

NANCY GARDNER CASSELS. Religion and Pilgrim Tax under the Company Raj. Riverdale, Md.: The Riverdale Company, 1988. Pp. xiii, 184. $34.00 (US);

APARNA MUKHERJEE. British Colonial Policy in Burma: An Aspect of Colonialism in South-East Asia 1840–1885. Riverdale, Md.: The Riverdale Company, 1988. Pp. x, 559. $34.00 (US).     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: G. John Ikenberry and Michael Mastanduno, International Relations theory and the Asia‐Pacific Mark B. Salter, Barbarians and civilisation in international relations Philip Allott, The health of nations: society and law beyond the state Morten Bøås and Desmond McNeill, Multilateral institutions: a critical introduction Vassilis K. Fouskas, Zones of conflict: US foreign policy in the Balkans and the greater Middle East Thomas L. Friedman, Longitudes and attitudes: exploring the world after September 11 John Pinder and Yuri Shishkov, The EU and Russia: the promise of partnership Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall, Turbulent peace: the challenges of managing international conflict Tobias Debiel with Axel Klein, Fragile peace: state failure, violence and development in crisis regions Jolyon Howorth and John T.S. Keeler, Defending Europe: the EU, NATO and the quest for European autonomy Paul K. Huth and Todd L. Allee, The democratic peace and territorial conflict in the twentieth century Patrick M. Morgan, Deterrence now P. W. Singer, Corporate warriors: the rise of the privatized military industry Eytan Gilboa, Media and conflict: framing issues, making policy, shaping opinion Walter Lacqueur, No end to war: terrorism in the twenty‐first century Fareed Zakaria, The future of freedom: illiberal democracy at home and abroad Elizabeth Sleeman, International who's who 2004 Akbar S. Ahmed, Islam under siege: living dangerously in a post‐honor world Richard D. Lewis, The cultural imperative: global trends in the 21st century Amin Saikal, Islam and the West: conflict or cooperation? Sami Zubaida, Law and power in the Islamic world By. Graham Bird, The IMF and the future: issues and options facing the Fund Barry Eichengreen, Financial crises and what to do about them United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, World investment report 2002: transnational corporations and export competitiveness Elizabeth R. DeSombre, The global environment and world politics: International Relations for the 21^st century Paul F. Steinberg, Environmental leadership in developing countries: transnational relations and biodiversity policy in Costa Rica and Bolivia Carolyn L. Deere and Daniel C. Esty, Greening the Americas: NAFTA's lessons for hemispheric trade Csaba Békés, Malcolm Byrne and János Rainer, The 1956 Hungarian revolution: a history in documents Christoph Bluth, The two Germanies and military security in Europe Philip E. Catton, Diem's final failure: prelude to America's war in Vietnam Tibor Frank, Discussing Hitler. Advisers of US diplomacy in Central Europe, 1934–1941 Anthony Glees, The Stasi files: East Germany's secret operations against Britain Keith Kyle, Suez: Britain's end of empire in the Middle East Julian Lewis, Changing direction: British military planning for post‐war strategic defence, 1942–1947 Richard Mayne, In victory, magnanimity: in peace, goodwill: a history of Wilton Park Robert McNamara, Britain, Nasser and the balance of power in the Middle East 1952–1967 Steven Merritt Miner, Stalin's holy war: religion, nationalism, and alliance politics, 1941–1945 Sophie Quinn‐Judge, Ho Chi Minh: the missing years (1911–1941) Gary Sheffield and Geoffrey Till, The challenges of high command: the British experience Florian Bieber and Zidas Daskalovski, Understanding the war in Kosovo Ali Çarko?lu and Barry Rubin, Turkey and the European Union: domestic politics, economic integration and international dynamics Alan J. Day, Roger East and Richard Thomas, A political and economic dictionary of Eastern Europe Tom Gallagher, The Balkans after the Cold War: from tyranny to tragedy Kemal Kurspahic, Prime time crime: Balkan media in war and peace David Bruce MacDonald, Balkan holocausts? Serbian and Croatian victim‐centred propaganda and the war in Yugoslavia Sandra Lavenex and Emek M. Uçarer, Migration and the externalities of European integration Marko Lehti and David Smith, Post‐Cold War identity politics: northern and Baltic experiences Pami Aalto, Constructing post‐Soviet geopolitics in Estonia Anatol Lieven and Dmitri Trenin, Ambivalent neighbors: the EU, NATO and the price of membership J. H. H. Weiler, Iain Begg and John Peterson, Integration in an expanding European Union: reassessing the fundamentals Dale R. Herspring, Putin's Russia: past imperfect, future uncertain Ted Hopf, Social construction of international politics: identities and foreign policies, Moscow, 1955 and 1999 Necati Polat, Boundary issues in Central Asia Mark Downes, Iran's unresolved revolution Alan George, Syria. Neither bread nor freedom Tami Amanda Jacoby and Brent E. Sasley, Redefining security in the Middle East Owen Bennett Jones, Pakistan: eye of the storm Christophe Jaffrelot, Pakistan: nationalism without nation Rajat Ganguly and Ian MacDuff, Ethnic conflict and secessionism in South and Southeast Asia E. J. Dionne Jr. and William Kristol, Bush v. Gore. The court cases and the commentary Bruce Ackerman, Bush v. Gore. The question of legitimacy Ido Oren, Our enemies and US: America's rivalries and the making of political science Monica Herz and João Pontes Nogueira, Ecuador vs. Peru: peacemaking amid rivalry Frank Safford and Marco Palacios, Colombia: fragmented land, divided society     

Review Article: The Air Force Brats' View of History: Recent Writing and the Royal Air Force, 1918–1960

JAMES S. CORUM. The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918–1940. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997. Pp. ix, 378. $39.95 (US);

CHRISTINA J. M. GOULTER. A Forgotten Offensive: Royal Air Force Coastal Command's Anti-Shipping Campaign, 1941–1945. London: Frank Cass, 1995; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. xxii, 366. $47.50 (US);

SEBASTIAN RITCHIE. Industry and Air Power: The Expansion of British Military Aircraft Production, 1935–1941. London: Frank Cass, 1997; dist. Pordand, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. 304. $49.50 (US), cloth; $22.50 (US), paper;

S. J. BALL. The Bomber in British Strategy: Doctrine, Strategy, and Britain's World Role, 1945–1960. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995. Pp. x, 246. $59.95 (US);

SCOT ROBERTSON. The Development of RAF Strategic Bombing Doctrine, 1919–1939. Westport: Praeger, 1995. Pp. xxix, 187. $55.00 (US);

JOHN GOOCH, ed. Airpower: Theory and Practice. London: Frank Cass, 1995; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. 276. $37.00 (US);

MARK K. WELLS. Courage and Air Warfare: The Allied Aircrew Experience in the Second World War. London: Frank Cass, 1995; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. xiv, 240. $40.00 (US);

ARTHUR T. HARRIS. Despatch on War Operations: 23rd February, 1942 to 8th May, 1945, introd. Sebastian Cox. London: Frank Cass, 1995; dist. Pordand, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. liv, 211. $45.00 (US).     

Darfur and the failure of the responsibility to protect

When official representatives of more than 170 countries adopted the principle of the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R₂P) at the September 2005 World Summit, Darfur was quickly identified as the test case for this new doctrine. The general verdict is that the international community has failed the test due to lack of political will. This article argues that the failure is real but that it is more fundamentally located within the doctrine of R₂P itself. Fulfilling the aspiration of R₂P demands an international protection capability that does not exist now and cannot be realistically expected. The critical weakness in R₂P is that the ‘responsibility to react’ has been framed as coercive protection, which attempts to be a middle way between classic peacekeeping and outright military intervention that can be undertaken without the consent of the host government. Thus far, theoretical and practical attempts to create this intermediate space for coercive protection have failed to resolve basic strategic and operational issues. In addition, the very act of raising the prospect of external military intervention for human protection purposes changes and distorts the political process and can in fact make a resolution more difficult. Following an introductory section that provides background to the war in Darfur and international engagement, this article examines the debates over the R₂P that swirled around the Darfur crisis and operational concepts developed for the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and its hybrid successor, the UN–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), especially during the Abuja peace negotiations. Three operational concepts are examined: ceasefire, disarmament and civilian protection. Unfortunately, the international policy priority o bringing UN troops to Darfur had an adverse impact on the Darfur peace talks without grappling with the central question of what international forces would do to resolve the crisis. Advocacy for the R₂P set an unrealistic ideal which became the enemy of achievable goals.     

Rape as a Weapon of War(riors): The Militarisation of Sexual Violence in the United States, 1990–2000

This article uses a transnational feminist lens to examine how accusations of sexual violence were mobilised by the United States (US) government to justify military intervention at the same time that the US military failed to address sexual violence perpetrated by and against its own service members. Drawing upon an archive of civilian representations ranging from the New York Times to G.I. Jane, the author explores US interventions in the Persian Gulf, Haiti and the former Yugoslavia alongside sexual assaults committed by servicemen at the Tailhook Convention, on Okinawa and at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. This article draws connections between feminism and neo‐imperialism, between Cold War and War on Terror ideologies, and between rape as a weapon of war and rape during times of ‘peace’ in order to better understand the relationships between sexual politics and geopolitics at the end of the twentieth century.     

Review Article: The Perils of Mid-Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Relations

JAMES J. BARNES and PATIENCE P. BARNES. Private and Confidential: Letters from British Ministers in Washington to the Foreign Secretaries in London, 1844–67. Selinsgrove, NJ: Susquehanna University Press, 1993. Pp. 475. $55.00 (US)

IAN F. W. BECKETT. The War Correspondents: The American Civil War. Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton, 1993. Pp. 198. £17.99

ROBERT M. BROWNING, JR. From Cape Charles to Cape Fear: The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron during the Civil War. Tuscaloosa and London: University of Alabama Press, 1993. Pp. xi, 453. $44-95 (US)

GEORGE E. BUKER. Blockaders, Refugees, and Contrabands: Civil War on Florida's Gulf Coast, 1861–1865. Tuscaloosa and London: University of Alabama Press, 1993. Pp. ix, 235. $29-95 (US)

HOWARD JONES. Union in Peril: The Crisis over British Intervention in the Civil War. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1992; Pp. xiii, 300. $50.95 (US).     

“Peace is Our Only Shelter”: Questioning Domesticities of Militarization and White Privilege

Abstract: This paper traces how Los Angeles peace activists tried to make visible the grave domestic effects of Cold War militarization. Women Strike for Peace went beyond a focus on the productive relations between the state, military and industry captured by the term “military–industrial complex” to analyze how reproductive spaces were part of this complex. In opposing war, they challenged what I am calling militarized domesticities: how war‐making shapes the ‘home front’ and home as the spaces national security states claim to protect. I build on feminist antiracist intersectionality theories to situate the military–industrial complex per se within broader processes of the militarization of society and daily life. The questions become how do gendered processes of militarization—that work in conjunction with relations of white privilege—produce and connect differently situated “private” spaces or home places? How might strategies for dismantling the military–industrial complex emerge from the contradictions of these processes?     

Reviews of Books

CLARK G. REYNOLDS. Navies in History. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 267. $24.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Joseph A. Maiolo

PETER WHITFIELD. New Found Lands: Maps in the History of Exploration. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Pp. viii, 200. $40.00 (US). Reviewed by Glyndwr William

A. J. COATES. The Ethics of War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997; dist. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Pp. 314. $24.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Noam J. Zohar

JEREMY BLACK. Why Wars Happen. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Pp. 271. $30.00 (US); JEREMY BLACK. War and the World: Military Power and the Fate of Continents, 1450–2000. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp. 334. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by Roger Beaumont

ROBERT E. A. PALMER. Rome and Carthage at Peace. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1997. Pp. 152. DM 68. Reviewed by Hans-Friedrich Mueller

ROGER COLLINS. Charlemagne. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 234. $55.00 (CDN), cloth; $19.95 (CDN), paper. Reviewed by John J. Contreni

JEAN FAVIER. Gold and Spices: The Rise of Commerce in the Middle Ages, trans. Caroline Higgitt. New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1998. Pp. 390. $39.95 (US). Reviewed by John H. Munro

JOHANNA MARIA VAN WINTER, compiler. Sources Concerning the Hospitallers of St John in the Netherlands, 14th–18th Centuries. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998. Pp. viii, 821. NLG 450. Reviewed by David F. Allen

DENIS TWITCHETT and FREDERICK W. MOTE, eds. The Cambridge History of China: VIII: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 2. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 1203. $130.00 (US). Reviewed by Richard von Glahn

RICHARD W. UNGER. Ships and Shipping in the North Sea and Atlantic, 1400–1800. Aldershot: Variorum, 1997; dist. Brookfield: Ashgate. Pp. xii, 316. $89.95 (US). Reviewed by Timothy J. Runyan

OM PRAKASH. The New Cambridge History of India: II.5: European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-Colonial India. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xviii,377. $54.95(US). Reviewed by Blair B. Kling

M. W. DALY, ed. The Cambridge History of Egypt: II: Modern Egypt, from 1517 to the End of the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 463. $100.00 (US). Reviewed by Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot

JAROSLAW PELENSKI. The Contest for the Legacy of Kievan Rus'. Boulder: East European Monographs, 1998; dist. New York: Columbia University Press. Pp. xxiii, 325. $48.00 (US). Reviewed by Paul Bushkovitch

NICHOLAS CANNY, ed. The Oxford History of the British Empire: I: The Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. xix, 533. $59.50 (CDN). Reviewed by Simon Adams

PHILIP LAWSON. A Taste for Empire and Glory: Studies in British Overseas Expansion, 1660–1800. Aldershot: Variorum, 1997; dist. Brookfield: Ashgate. Pp. xiv, 298. $89.95 (US). Reviewed by Kenneth Morgan

HARRY LIEBERSOHN. Aristocratic Encounters: European Travelers and North American Indians. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 179. $49.95 (US). Reviewed by Ian K. Steele

SYLVIANE A. DIOUF. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Pp. ix, 254. $18.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Paul E. Lovejoy

DESMOND GREGORY. No Ordinary General: Lt General Sir Henry Bunbury (1778–1860): The Best Soldier Historian. Cranbury: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999. Pp. 144. $32.50 (US). Reviewed by Neville Thompson

JOHN GASCOIGNE. Science in the Service of the Empire: Joseph Banks, the British State, and the Uses of Science in the Age of Revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. vii, 247. $64.95 (US). Reviewed by Larry Stewart

PAUL WEBER. On the Road to Rebellion: The United Irishmen and Hamburg, 1796–1803. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997; dist. Portland: ISBS. Pp. 205. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by Daire Keogh

JAC WELLER. On Wellington: The Duke and His Art of War, ed. Andrew Uffindell. London and Mechanicsburg: Greenhill Books and Stackpole Books, 1998. Pp. 191. £19.99. Reviewed by Brian M. de Toy

LAWRENCE S. KAPLAN. Thomas Jefferson: Westward the Course of Empire. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1999. Pp. xvii, 198. $50.00 (US), cloth; $17.95 (US)) paper. Reviewed by Reginald C. Stuart

I. C. CAMPBELL. ‘Gone Native’ in Polynesia: Captivity Narratives and Experiences from the South Pacific. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 167. $55.00 (US). Reviewed by David A. Chappell

NICHOLAS TARLING. Nations and States in Southeast Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. x, 136. $59.95 (US), cloth; $17.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by A.J. Stockwell

JAMES CABLE. The Political Influence of Naval Force in History. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. viii, 213. $59.95 (US). Reviewed by George W. Baer

NELIDA FUCCARO. The Other Kurds: Yazidis in Colonial Iraq. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1999; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. xiii, 230. $55.00 (US). Reviewed by Robert Olson

MARTIN A. KLEIN. Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 354. $54.95 (US), cloth; $19.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by William B. Cohen

JAIME E. RODRÍGUEZ O. The Independence of Spanish America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 274. $59.95 (US). Reviewed by Timothy E. Anna

CARL BENN. The Iroquois in the War of 1812. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 272. $21.95 (CDN), paper. Reviewed by K. David Milobar

PHILIP D. CURTIN. Disease and Empire: The Health of European Troops in the Conquest of Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 256. $64.95 (US), cloth; $19.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Daniel R. Headrick

TIMOTHY E. ANNA. Forging Mexico, 1821–1835. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 330. $40.00 (US). Reviewed by Claudia Agostoni

GERALD STUDDERT-KENNEDY. Providence and the Raj: Imperial Mission and Missionary Imperialism. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 1998. Pp. 273. $44.95 (US). Reviewed by Penelope Carson

JANE SAMSON. Imperial Benevolence: Making British Authority in the Pacific Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 240. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by Hugh Laracy

J. Y. WONG. Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism, and the Arrow War (1856–1860) in China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxx, 542. $69.95 (US). Reviewed by D. W. Clayton

ELLIOTT WEST. The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. Pp. xxiv, 422. $34.95 (US). Reviewed by Francis Paul Prucha

JACK L. HAMMERSMITH. Spoilsmen in a ‘Flowery Fairyland’: The Development of the US Legation in Japan, 1859–1906. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 368. $49.00 (US). Reviewed by Antony Best

PETER STANLEY. White Mutiny: British Military Culture in India. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 314. $40.00 (US). Reviewed by Hew Strachan

JOHN C. G. RÖHL. Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859–1888, trans. Jeremy Gaines and Rebecca Wallach. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxv, 979. $74.95 (US). Reviewed by Lamar Cecil

DAVID MAYERS. Wars and Peace: The Future Americans Envisioned, 1861–1991. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. viii, 184. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by Eileen P. Scully

SAMUEL L. BAILY. Immigrants in the Lands of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires and New York City, 1870–1914. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp. xvii, 308. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by Donald S. Castro

HIROAKI KUROMIYA. Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 357. $44.95 (US). Reviewed by David Saunders

ANDREW LAMBERT. The Foundations of Naval History: John Knox Laughton, the Royal Navy, and the Historical Profession. London: Chatham Publishing, 1998. Pp. 256. £30.00. Reviewed by C. I. Hamilton

H. RAHMAN. The Making of the Gulf War: Origins of Kuwait's Long-Standing Territorial Dispute with Iraq. Reading: Ithaca Press, 1997. Pp. xv, 378. £35.00. Reviewed by Peter Sluglett

ROY MACLAREN, ed. African Exploits: The Diaries of William Stairs, 1887–1892. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998. Pp. vi, 423. $49.95 (CDN); PETER HARRINGTON and FREDERIC A. SHARF, eds. Omdurman 1898: The Eye-Witnesses Speak: The British Conquest of the Sudan as Described by Participants in Letters, Diaries, Photos, and Drawings. London and Mechanicsburg: Greenhill Books and Stackpole Books, 1998. Pp. 236. £20.00. Reviewed by Philip Stigger

MATTHEW S. SELIGMANN. Rivalry in Southern Africa, 1893–99: The Transformation of German Colonial Policy. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. vii, 200. $65.00 (US). Reviewed by Robert Kubicek

SALWA ALGHANIM. The Reign of Mubarak al-Sabah: Shaikh of Kuwait, 1896–1915. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1998; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. xiii, 242. $59.50 (US). Reviewed by Frederick F. Anscombe

RISTO MARJOMAA. War on the Savannah: The Military Collapse of the Sokoto Caliphate under the Invasion of the British Empire, 1897–1903. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 1998. Pp. 305. FIM 140; $28.00 (US). Reviewed by A. S. Kanya-Forstner

LOUIS A. PÉREZ, JR. The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 171. $16.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by David Healy

MARK MAZOWER. Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century. London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 495. £20.00. Reviewed by William R. Keylor

GUIDO MÜLLER, ed. Deutschland und der Westen: Internationale Beziehungen im 20. Jahrhundert: Festschrift fiir Klaus Schwabe zum 65. Geburtstag. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998. Pp. 381. DM 138, paper. Reviewed by Rennie W. Brantz

NIALL FERGUSON. The Pity of War. New York: Basic Books, 1999. Pp. xliii, 563. $30.00 (US). Reviewed by Martin Kitchen

JAY WINTER and EMMANUEL SIVAN, eds. War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. vii,260. $59.95 (US) Reviewed by R. J. B. Bosworth

GEORGE H. CASSAR. The Forgotten Front: The British Campaign in Italy, 1917–1918. London and Rio Grande: Hambledon Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 269. $55.00 (US). Reviewed by William Philpott

DAVID DUTTON. The Politics of Diplomacy: Britain and France in the Balkans in the First World War. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1998; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. 248. $59.50 (US). Reviewed by David Stevenson

PAUL W. DOERR. British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939: ‘Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst’. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998; dist. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Pp. xi, 291. $28.95 (CDN), paper. Reviewed by Fred Stambrook

KURKPATRICK DORSEY. The Dawn of Conservation Diplomacy: US-Canadian Wildlife Protection Treaties in the Progressive Era. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 311. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by Philip V. Scarpino

JACOB METZER. The Divided Economy of Mandatory Palestine. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxii, 275. $59.95 (US). Reviewed by Martin Bunton

SASSON SOFER. Zionism and the Foundations of Israeli Diplomacy, trans. Dorodiea Shefet-Vanson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 449. $64.95 (US); BEN HALPERN and JEHUDA REINHARZ. Zionism and the Creation of a New Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. 293. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by Donna Robinson Divine

SHERI BERMAN. The Social Democratic Moment: Ideas and Politics in the Making of Interwar Europe. Cambridge, Mass, and London: Harvard University Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 308. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by William Lee Blackwood

ERIC PAUL ROORDA. The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930–1945. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp. xii, 337. $17.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Irwin F. Gellman

M. E. YAPP, ed. Politics and Diplomacy in Egypt: The Diaries of Sir Miles Lampson, 1935–1937. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp. xvii, 1044. $332.50 (CDN). Reviewed by Robert L. Tignor

JOHN HERMAN. The Paris Embassy of Sir Eric Phipps: Anglo-French Relations and the Foreign Office, 1937–1939. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1998; dist. Portland: ISBS. Pp. viii, 276. $75.00 (US). Reviewed by Keith Neilson

JAMES K. HOPKINS. Into the Heart of the Fire: The British in the Spanish Civil War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. Pp. xxii, 474. $60.00 (US). Reviewed by Willard C. Frank, Jr.

SUSAN A. BREWER. To Win the Peace: British Propaganda in the United States during World War II. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997. Pp. xiii, 269. $39.95 (US). Reviewed by John Ramsden

JÜRGEN ROHWER. Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two: German, Italian, and Japanese Submarine Successes, 1939–1945. London: Greenhill Books, 1999. Pp. xvi, 366. £30.00. Reviewed by Michael L. Hadley

RICHARD OVERY. Russia's War. London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 394. £20.00 Reviewed by Evan Mawdsley

DONALD H. AVERY. The Science of War: Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology during the Second World War. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 406. $40.00 (CDN). Reviewed by Reg Whitaker

RANDALL L. SCHWELLER. Deadly Imbalances: Tripolarity and Hitler's Strategy of World Conquest. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Pp. x, 267. $21.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Stephen A. Schuker

OOI KEAT GIN. Rising Sun over Borneo: The Japanese Occupation of Sarawak, 1941–1945. New York: St Martin's Press, 1999. Pp. xix, 158. $55.00 (US). Reviewed by Nicholas Tarling

LARRY I. BLAND, ed. George C. Marshall's Mediation Mission to China, December 1945–January 1947. Lexington: George C. Marshall Foundation, 1998. Pp. xx, 661. $60.00 (US). Reviewed by David L. Wilson

MICHAEL J. HOGAN. A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945–1954. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xii, 525. $34.95 (US). Reviewed by Matthew Jones

ROGER S. WHITCOMB. The Cold War in Retrospect: The Formative Years. Westport: Praeger, 1998. Pp. xiii, 260. $65.00 (US). Reviewed by David S. Foglesong

EDELGARD MAHANT and GRAEME S. MOUNT. Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American Policies toward Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1999. Pp. xii, 252. $75.00 (CDN). Reviewed by Gordon T. Stewart

GARY B. OSTROWER. The United Nations and the United States. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998. Pp. xvi, 317. $29.95 (US). Reviewed by Stanley Michalak

LARS BLINKENBERG. India-Pakistan: The History of Unsolved Conflicts: I: The Historical Part. Odense: Odense University Press, 1998; dist. Portland: ISBS. Pp. 337, paper; LARS BLINKENBERG. India-Pakistan: The History of Unsolved Conflicts: II: An Analysis of Some Structural Factors. Odense: Odense University Press, 1998; dist. Portland: ISBS. Pp. 433. $61.50 (US, for both), paper. Reviewed by Hasan-Askari Rizvi

MARY ANN HEISS. Empire and Nationhood: The United States, Great Britain, and Iranian Oil, 1950–1954. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Pp. x, 328. $19.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Helmut Mejcher

ANDREW MORAVCSIK. The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Idiaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. Pp. xii, 514. $22.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Pierre-Henri Laurent

YOSEF GOVRIN. Israeli-Soviet Relations, 1953–1967: From Confrontation to Disruption. London and Portland: Frank Cass, 1998. Pp. xxxvi, 347. $59.50 (US), cloth; $27.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Michael Graham Fry

JEFFREY PICKERING. Britain's Withdrawal from East of Suez: The Politics of Retrenchment. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 231. $65.00 (US); MICHAEL J. COHEN and MARTIN KOLINSKY, eds. Demise of the British Empire in the Middle East: Britain's Responses to Nationalist Movements, 1943–55. London and Portland: Frank Cass, 1998. Pp. xv, 255. $54.50 (US). Reviewed by Tore Tingvold Petersen

DAVID R. MORRISON. Aid and Ebb Tide: A History of CIDA and Canadian Development Assistance. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 602. $65.00 (CDN). Reviewed by Kim Richard Nossal

FRITZ FISCHER. Making Them, Like Us: Peace Corps Volunteers in the 1960s. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. Pp. viii, 237. $27.95 (US). Reviewed by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman

ROLAND DANNREUTHER. The Soviet Union and the PLO. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. ix, 222. $59.95 (US); FRED WEHLING. Irresolute Princes: Kremlin Decision Making in Middle East Crises, 1967–1973. New York: St Martin's Press, 1997. Pp. 225. $49.95 (US). Reviewed by Fred Halliday

ELINOR C. SLOAN. Bosnia and the New Collective Security. Westport: Praeger, 1998. Pp. xii, 128. $49.95 (US). Reviewed by Donald M. Snow

STEVE TSANG. Hong Kong: Appointment with China. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1997; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. xiii, 274. $17.95 (US), paper; JOHN FLOWERDEW. The Final Years of British Hong Kong: The Discourse of Colonial Withdrawal. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 258. $65.00 (US). Reviewed by Ian Scott

STEPHEN HOPGOOD. American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. x, 262. $94.50 (CDN).Reviewed by Dimitris Stevis

JERROLD L. SCHECTER. Russian Negotiating Behavior: Continuity and Transition. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1998. Pp. ix, 225. $14.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Stephen White

PETER TRUBOWITZ, EMILY O. GOLDMAN, and EDWARD RHODES, eds. The Politics of Strategic Adjustment: Ideas, Institutions, and Interests. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Pp. viii, 331. $20.50 (US), paper Reviewed by John H. Maurer

PETER BURROUGHS and A. J. STOCKWELL, eds. Managing the Business of Empire: Essays in Honour of David Fieldhouse. London and Portland: Frank Cass, 1998. Pp. 262. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by John Flint

CHARLES JONES. E. H. Carr and International Relations: A Duty to Lie. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xvii, 179. $54.95 (US), cloth; $19.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Christopher Brewin

PAUL GORDON LAUREN. The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 385. $29.95 (US), paper; WILLIAM KOREY. NGOs and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘A Curious Grapevine’. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 638. $39.95 (US). Reviewed by J. G. Merrills

CHRISTOPHER COKER. War and the Illiberal Conscience. Boulder: Westview Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 240. $39.00 (US). Reviewed by John Mueller     

A Double-Edged Sword: Anglo-American ‘Special Relations,’ 1936–1981

C.A. MACDONALD. The United States, Britain and Appeasement, 1936–1939. New York: St Martin's Press, 1981. Pp. xi, 220. $22.50 (US); DAVID REYNOLDS. The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, 1937–41: A Study in Competitive Co-operation. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1982. Pp. xiii, 397. $28.00 (US); H.G. NICHOLAS (ed.). Washington Despatches, 1941–45: Weekly Political Reports from the British Embassy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981. Pp. xviii, 700. $40.00 (US); TERRY H. ANDERSON. The United States, Great Britain, and the Cold War, 1944–1947. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981. Pp. xiv, 256. $18.00 (US); ROBERT M. HATHAWAY. Ambiguous Partnership: Britain and America, 1944–1947. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. Pp. xi, 410. $25.00 (US); JOHN BAYLIS. Anglo-American Defence Relations, 1939–1980: The Special Relationship. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981. Pp. xxii, 259. $25.00 (US).     

The Grammar of Imperial History

FREDERICK MADDEN and DAVID FIELDHOUSE, eds. ‘The Empire of the Bretaignes’, 1175–1688: The Foundation of a Colonial System of Government: Select Documents on the Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth, Volume I. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985. Pp. xxix, 669; $55.00 (us); The Classical Period of the First British Empire, 1680–1783, Volume II. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985. Pp. xxxiii, 628. –65.00 (US).     

Review Article: Nations and Empires in Colonial North America

GREGORY EVANS DOWD. War under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations, and the British Empire. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. Pp. xvi, 360. $32.00 (US); ERIC HINDERAKER and PETER C. MANCALL. At the Edge of Empire: The Backcountry in British North America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Pp. ix, 210. $17.95 (US), paper; JANE T. MERRITT. At the Crossroads: Indians and Empires on a Mid-Atlantic Frontier, 1700–1763. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2003; dist. Toronto: SBS. Pp. vi, 338. $32.95 (CDN), paper; MICHAEL LEROY OBERG. Uncas: First of the Mohegans. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2003. Pp. ix, 268. $27.50 (US). Reviewed by Gary Clayton Anderson