This important new book provides the first detailed and clear analysis of the Scots involvement in naval warfare during the early modern period. The lazy use by both contemporaries and some modern authors of the word 'piracy' as a catch-all for all sorts of maritime activity obscures a complex picture of Scottish maritime warfare. Through the use of letters of marque and reprisal (rightly distinguished in this analysis) as well as dedicated Crown fleets, Scottish warfare against against a wide range of enemies are scrutinised. This is an impressive book that makes and important contribution...

Ten leading scholars of ancient warfare offer new insights on several aspects of military activity from the Later Bronze Age to the Roman Empire. They make significant contributions to understanding warfare on land and sea, to the social and economic aspects of war, and to battlefield experience. The studies illustrate the ways in which technology, innovation, cultural exchange and tactical developments transformed ancient warfare. Papers survey the armies of Assyria and Persia, the important role of navies and money in transforming Greek warfare, and how Romans learned to fight as soldiers...

This book suggests a general framework for the analysis of formative factors in military thought and offers an account of the Israel Defense Force's state of intellectualism and modernity. This account is followed by an attempt to trace the factors that have shaped Israeli military thought. The explanations are a mixture of realist and non-realist factors, which can be found at both the systemic and the state level of analysis. At the systemic level, realist evaluations focus on factors such as the dominance of the technological dimension and the pervasiveness of asymmetrical, low-intensity...

Jussi Jalonen's On Behalf of the Emperor, On Behalf of the Fatherland approaches the Russian suppression of the Polish Uprising in 1830-1831 from a new transnational perspective. The Russian mobilization involved people from the farthest reaches of the Empire, and one notable group was the Finnish Battalion of the Imperial Guard. For the Finnish elites, the war was a demonstration of loyalty to the Tsar, and the service of young Finnish gentlemen in the Russian Guards produced a sense of militarized patriotism. Relying on a rich variety of original sources, this study places the...

During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) suffered one of its greatest defeats in Burma. Both in Malaya and Burma, the bulk of the British Commonwealth forces comprised Indian units. Few people know that by 1944, about 70 percent of the Allied ground personnel in Burma was composed of soldiers of the Indian Army. The Indian Army comprised British-led Indian units, British officered units of the Indian princely states and the British units attached to the Government of India. Based on the archival materials collected from India and the United Kingdom, Sepoys against the...

These essays honor Dennis Showalter, a pioneer in the field of military history and a mentor to an entire generation of scholars. The essays themselves are written by some of the best-known and most highly-respected scholars in the field. They span the globe and cover a wide range of military history topics from the ancient world to the present day. As a group, this book represents not only a collection in honor of a great scholar, but a collection of some of the highest-quality cutting-edge scholarship in the field today. It will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the history...

Much of the recent literature on cultural demobilisation or remobilisation after the First World War has focused on men and masculinity. By contrast, this interdisciplinary volume of essays sets out to examine the importance of women's movements and individual female activists to the shaping of post-war Europe at the private, communal, national and transnational levels. Key themes include the commemoration of the war dead; the renegotiation of gender roles; suffrage and political rights; and women's contribution to the establishment of new visions of peace or national revenge and regeneration...

This new study argues that the religious attitude of the Roman army was a crucial factor in the Christianization of the Roman world. Specifically, by the end of the third century, there was a significant Christian presence within the army which was ready to act in the interests of the faith. Conditions at this time were thus ripe for the coming to power of a Christian emperor: when Constantine converted to Christianity he could rely upon the enthusiastic support of his Christian soldiers. Constantine strengthened his Christian base by initiating policies which accelerated the Christianization...

Usually it is a foreign military threat or the geopolitical position of a country that attracts the most attention as a factor to explain the emergence of the national security policies of small, neutral powers like the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland in the period 1900-1940. While these factors may explain the similarities between these small states, they fail to make clear why there were such great differences between them. The authors of this volume argue that the internal politics and the politico-military strategic cultures of the countries are vital keys to...

The aim of this book is to explore the neglected subject of the final war between France and England at the end of Henry VIII's and Francis I's reigns. The relationship between these two monarchs has long fascinated historians and serious work has been done in the last generation, especially on the earlier period. Rather less has been done on the end of their reigns. The perspective is a dual one, from both that of England and France, with equal weight given to the reasons for conflict and the effects of war on both (on land and sea, in France and Scotland). For England, the military effort...