The United States has attempted for several decades to assist in the modernization of armies in the Middle East. These armies are rich in tradition and heritage of medieval and pre-modern Islamic armies. Islamic armies possess an ability to...
The Ottoman Empire is often portrayed as a bloodthirsty Empire bent on conquering Europe and opposing the great European powers of its time through its military strength. From its beginnings in the thirteenth century the Ottoman Empire expanded its...
The crusade of Nicopolis, in 1396, intended to expel the Turks from the Balkans, but it ended with the disastrous defeat. Sigismund of Luxemburg, the King of Hungary and Holy Roman Emperor, achieved much to fortify the southern border of Hungary...
In June 1999, the international community, represented by KFOR and UNMIK entered Kosovo, and started one of the most costly peace-building operations ever. In March 2004 a part of the Albanian majority in Kosovo carried out riots that primarily...
Egypt has one of the oldest civilizations and proudest national histories in the world with a tradition of a well-maintained, advanced and relevant military force. These experiences provided guidance for developing victory in some of the most...
Recent scholarly work has devoted much attention to analyzing the French counterinsurgency war in Algeria from 1954 to 1962. The United States military has taken many of the lessons and principles offered by authors such as David Galula and Roger...
Turkish Culture had a profound influence on the conduct of its counter-insurgency campaign against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). The independent variables shaping Turkey’s response to the insurgency were a unique brand of nationalism,...
Modern military leaders require solid information, with broad background knowledge, to operate in some of the world's most complex cultures. In the Balkan Peninsula, the overlapping demands of religion, ethnic loyalties, and selfish power-politics...
The mythology surrounding the 1389 Battle of Kosovo Polje, in present-day Serbia, is the foundation for the Serbian cultural identity and is a prism through which Serbs view and interpret the past, present, future. The mythology, created out of...
An initial historical review of the Balkans provides the setting to help one understand what led to America's involvement in the region. Later the book provides an excellent summary of the Bosnia and Kosovo regions and the consequent US presence...
The Palestine Campaign of the First World War exhibited a fighting style that brought with it various challenges in mission command. While General Allenby, commanding the Allied Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), gained several victories in the...
This monograph examines the Arab Spring in light of the past half century of efforts in transnational Arab identity formation and thus considers its links to Arab Nationalism and Pan-Islamism. Then, with a focus on Syria and the sectarian nature of...
This monograph begins by reviewing the current strategic situation in Bosnia. President Clinton's security strategy, A National Security Strategy of Engagenient and Enlargement provides the means to analyze how the United States developed its...
This thesis examines the British experience in Iraq from 1914-1926. Britain invaded Iraq to secure its oil interests and to protect its lines of communication to India. The British initially defeated Ottoman forces and captured the Basra vilayet...
This paper analyzes the Mahdist Revolution in the Sudan from 1881 to 1885. Mohammed Ahmed bin Abdallah proclaimed himself the Mahdi (the expected one or the deliverer in the Islamic faith), and fought the colonial Egyptian government of the Sudan...
This study attempts to explain the causes and effects of the military coup d'etat which took place in Turkey on September 12, 1980. The analysis focuses on the National Security Council government of the period, against the broader historical...
Coalition warfare has been, and will continue to be, a matter of course for the U.S. military. Developing and maintaining coalitions of politically and militarily diverse members is, at its most elemental level, a matter of human relationships--the...
The purpose of this monograph is to evaluate international efforts at coercive diplomacy aimed at stopping the fighting in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. According to Lawrence Freedman, Professor of War Studies at King's College,...
This monograph sets out to prove that Geoffrey Blainey's theory about a disagreement over relative power between nations explains the causes of the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991. Blainey describes the diplomatic crisis leading to war 'like a crisis...
Military history demonstrates the vital role that geography plays in the planning, execution, and results of any conflict. This project espouses a comprehensive notion of geography that encompasses both physical and human contextual...