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A decade ago, the United States armed forces launched its largest offensive operation since the D-Day landings in World War II. The nature of the war was vastly changed; here was a purely desert environment, with sweltering heat during the day and bitter cold at night, making new demands on men and equipment. Indeed, the need for speed during the build-up in Saudi Arabia created shortages of many desert-specific items, resulting in the deployment of troups variously clad and equipped. Many weapo...

The shock discovery of oil in the Gulf States thrust them from relative obscurity to the forefront of international finance and politics. It coincided with the breakdown of the international monetary system and the twin food and energy crisis, all of which helped to magnify the impact of the oil price increases. Yet, despite the continuing oil wealth enjoyed by the Gulf States, their economy has suffered some damaging blows in the recent past. The Iran—Iraq War has imposed a heavy burden on the...

This close examination of the deadly Iraqi F-1 Mirage attack on the USS Stark and its aftermath comes on the tenth anniversary of the incident. Written by two attorneys who are experts on the air strike, it is the first book to chronicle the events of May 17, 1987, when two Exocet missiles were fired at the U.S. Navy frigate on patrol in the Persian Gulf. The authors describe in vivid detail the crew's efforts to save the ship, the resulting investigation into the ship's combat readiness, and th...

This book explores the formation of the Baghdad Pact and Anglo-American defence policies in the Middle East, 1950-1959. It determines the aims with which the pact was established; the failings of the pact, and the struggle that was undertaken against it by hostile countries. It examines the events surrounding the formation, development and collapse of the pact, and Anglo-American attempts to contain the Soviet Union in the Middle East. It also deals with British and American policies towards the...

In August 1990 Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces invaded and occupied the small Arab state of Kuwait. This book analyses the ensuing Gulf War (16 January - 28 February 1991) - a war fought to expel Iraq and restore Kuwaiti independence if not, as one British MP tartly observed, to defend democracy. The allies under General Schwarzkopf launched five weeks of air attacks, deploying 1,800 technologically highly advanced aircraft from the US. British, French and Saudi air forces. Many of these machines,...

First published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Gulf Conflict provides the most authoritative and comprehensive account to date of Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, its expulsion by a coalition of Western and Arab forces seven months later, and the aftermath of the war. Blending compelling narrative history with objective analysis, Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh inquire into the fundamental issues underlying the dispute and probe the strategic calculations of all the participants.

Military cemeteries are one of the most prominent cultural landscapes of Israel. Their story reflects largely the main social processes that Israeli society has been undergoing since the War of Independence (1948)until today. Until the end of the 1970s, the military tombstones and their surroundings were uniform and equal, according to rules set by the State. However, since the 1980s families of the fallen soldiers started to add on the tombstone personal expressions, as well as personal objects...

The reality of what it is to be a soldier, by Britain's foremost military historian.This ambitious, wide-ranging, exhaustively researched book is a compelling attempt to grasp the very nature of war. It takes us through the soldier's experience in its entirety - from the humiliation of basic training and the intense comradeship of army life, to the terror, isolation and exhaustion of battle. What does it feel like to be in the firing line? How does killing change a man? And what do the extre...

The Persian Gulf War was the first war that the United States was officially involved in as a combatant after the Vietnam War. It was a war in which many new technological, strategic, political, and economic elements came together for the first time, making the war a particularly unique experience for American soldiers and those at home. The colorful Persian Gulf War, Revised Edition is a complete reference for students, teachers, war historians, war history enthusiasts, and anyone interested in...

Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East Editor, has been covering the region since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present.In The Making of the Modern Middle East - in part based on his acclaimed podcast, 'Our Man in the Middle East' - Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign, and he explores the power games that have so often wreaked...

With first-hand insight into the into the key role of the US Air Force's fighter-bomber from the Vietnam War through to Operation Desert Storm during the First Gulf War, this book is an unmissable account of some of the most dangerous and demanding missions in the two wars. The advent of the surface-to-air missile (SAM) in the early 1950s threatened the whole concept of aerial bombing from medium and high altitude. Countermeasures were developed during the Korean War, but with little initial su...