Military History

Soviet Local Politics and Government (1983) examines the local government system of the Soviet Union, an important part of the great bureaucracy that ran the country. It looks at the wide range of duties that the local soviets managed, and the attempts to adapt the local government system to new circumstances and requirements.

The Cold War Past and Present (1987) analyses the generally antagonistic postwar relations between the Soviet Union and the West, particularly America. Following the uneasy wartime alliance, Russia's tightening grip on Eastern Europe and the Berlin Blockade ushered in the first of the several 'cold wars'.

An investigation into how Antioch maintained itself as an independent principality during a period of considerable challenges.Situated in northern Syria, on the eastern-most frontier of Latin Christendom, the principality of Antioch was a medieval polity bordered by a host of rival powers, including the Byzantine Empire, the Armenian Christians of Cilicia, the rulers of the neighbouring Islamic world and even the other crusader states, the kingdom of Jerusalem and the counties of Edessa and Tripoli. Coupled with the numerous Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities who populatedthe region, Antioch's Frankish settlers - initially installed into power by the military successes of the First Crusade - thus faced numerous challenges to their survival. This book examines how the ruling elites of the principality sought to manage these competing interests in order to maintain Antioch's existence during the troubled twelfth century, particularly following the death of Prince Bohemond II in 1130. His demise helped to spark renewed interest from Byzantium and the kingdom of Jerusalem, and came at a time of both Islamic resurgence under the Zengids of Aleppo and Mosul, as well as Armenian power growth under the Rupenids. An examination of Antioch's diplomatic and military endeavours, its internal power structures and its interaction with indigenous peoples can therefore help to reveal a great deal about how medieval Latins adapted to the demands of their frontiers. ANDREW BUCK is an Associate Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, from where he received his PhD in 2014.

Features essays by scholars from across academic disciplines - classicists and historians, philosophers and political theorists, literary scholars - engaging with classical texts to understand how differently they were read in other times and places. Contributors articulate difficult but necessary questions about contemporary conceptions of war and conflict.

This volume explores the scale and meaning of humanitarianism during the era of the Great War (1914-24). Bringing together a diverse range of scholars, it offers a fresh perspective on how and why humanitarian engagement shaped the arc of violence unleashed during these years, and analyses the extent to which the events influenced the development of humanitarian concepts and practices. Building on a decade of scholarship that has predominantly focused on the work of non-governmental humanitarian actors, the collection foregrounds the role of governmental agencies in humanitarian affairs and examines both the motivations and transnational networks of donor publics and the views of the beneficiaries of humanitarian aid. It explores how the connection between humanitarian engagement and international politics gave rise to a range of diverse humanitarian agendas, which were tied to and driven by larger questions of war and peace and conceptions of social and political order. The chapters address the debate over the emergence of 'modern' humanitarianism. Instead of seeing it as either the beginning of 'modern' humanitarianism or the end of its nineteenth century variant, the volume depicts the era as an important conjuncture in the history of humanitarianism. This was a transitional period, in which humanitarianism took on a myriad of different forms and resulted in a picture that was more complex and less triumphalist than many contemporary protagonists, and historians, have tended to admit.

[Not final] Proxy wars systematically dismantle the foundations of the states they target, leaving a legacy of violence, fractured governance, and eroded sovereignty. This book introduces the concept of "state-wrecking" to explain how external interventions--through support for insurgent actors--undermine political legitimacy, intensify violence, disrupt territorial control, and entrench cycles of instability. Using Afghanistan as a case study, the book offers a detailed exploration of how proxy wars devastate fragile states and obstruct state-building and statehood in the target county.The book moves beyond traditional studies of proxy wars that focus on global and regional power competition. Instead, it focuses on the procedural dynamics of proxy wars and highlights the internal consequences of these conflicts for the target state. Through a combination of innovative theoretical insights and comprehensive empirical research, it examines Pakistan's role in supporting the Taliban in the war in Afghanistan, the limitations of U.S.-led counterinsurgency efforts, and the broader implications for Afghanistan's sovereignty and political cohesion. Drawing on interviews, archival evidence, and conflict analysis, the book reveals how proxy wars dismantle state institutions and deepen social and political divisions.By reframing proxy wars as tools of state fragmentation rather than mere instruments of geopolitical strategy, the book sheds light on their long-term impact. It highlights the role of external actors in entrenching violence and governance failures, complicating peacebuilding efforts.Rigorously argued and deeply insightful, this book makes a significant contribution to understanding the intersections of modern warfare, state fragility, and international security. It offers an essential framework for scholars, policymakers, and readers seeking to address the enduring challenges of fragile states and conflict-ridden regions.

The twentieth century witnessed the end of traditional empire.The impact of nationalism brought down many empires to disintegration. Yet, there were variations. Some empires retained their domains longer by changing their cloaks. This book compares how Russia and China survived. They both maneuvered nationalism through communist revolutions. In form, the Bolsheviks transformed the Tsarist domain into a union of multiple nation-states, while the Chinese revolutionaries re-integrated the Qing territories into one nation-state with autonomous units for ethnic minorities. To understand such divergence underneath convergence, this book compares the leading elites of the two revolutions. In comparison with the USSR-founding Bolsheviks, the Chinese communists were ethnically more homogeneous but less international. Their outlook was to establish an enclosed polity rather than a union institutionally open to incorporate new member-states. Through a protracted war the Chinese communists developed skills of reconciling the traditional "China" with revolutionary values. This rendered the Bolshevik way of entirely dissolving "Russia" in "Soviet" unnecessary. Moreover, the Chinese communists were weaker at borderlands vis-a-vis their rivalries. They were thus more cautious, rejecting the Bolshevik strategy of weaponizing "national self-determination". This book highlights the crucial features of the Chinese communist revolution and shows how they affected China's transition to nation-state: geographical isolation buffering external interference, bottom-up mass mobilization in a protracted course, and the longtime position of being the weak side of confrontation. The book will be useful to scholar interested in revolution, empire, nationalism, comparative historical sociology, and the biographies of communist leaders in Russia and China.

This innovative exploration of various Jewish experiences in France and the Francophone world through nuanced questions and representations offers an intertwining of perspectives that challenge geographical, chronological, and theoretical boundaries.

The Vienna Gestapo headquarters was the largest of its kind in the German Reich and the most important instrument of Nazi terror in Austria, responsible for the persecution of Jews, suppression of resistance and policing of forced labourers. Of the more than fifty thousand people arrested by the Vienna Gestapo, many were subjected to torturous interrogation before being either sent to concentration camps or handed over to the Nazi judiciary for prosecution. This comprehensive survey by three expert historians focuses on these victims of repression and persecution well as the structure of the Vienna Gestapo and the perpetrators of its crimes.

Although it lasted only thirty years, German colonial rule dramatically transformed South West Africa. The colonial government not only committed the first genocide of the twentieth century against the Herero and Nama, but in their efforts to establish a "e;model colony"e; and "e;racial state,"e; they brought about even more destructive and long-lasting consequences. In this now-classic study-available here for the first time in English-the author provides an indispensable account of Germany's colonial utopia in what is present-day Namibia, showing how the highly rationalized planning of Wilhelmine authorities ultimately failed even as it added to the profound immiseration of the African population.

This book provides a historically informed perspective of First Lady of China Soong Mayling's legacy within the context of World War II history, international cultural and military affairs, and transnational geopolitics inflected through gender.

This volume presents the way the discourse of memory and identity in the post-Soviet territory of Kaliningrad Oblast has altered over time, examining the ways in which German myths about East Prussia were reused and adapted after 1991 and the role of the region has played in wider memory politics of the Russian state.