War: A Short History

By Jeremy Black

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1 Until the ‘Barbarian’ Invasions

2 From the Creation of the Islamic World to the Start of European Transoceanic Expansion, 630-1490

3 The Gunpowder Empires of the Early-Modern World, 1490-1630

4 From the Mid-Seventeenth Century Crisis to the Age of Revolutions, 1630-1800

5 The World of the European Empires, 1800-1950

6 To the Present, 1950-

7 Conclusions: Assessing War

Republished by Kajian Internasional Strategis

Washington’s Phantom War The Effects of the U.S. Drone Program in Pakistan

By Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann
Foreign Affairs, Vol. 90 Iss. 4, Jul/Aug 2011

Drone strikes were successful in killing high-level leaders of the Taliban and al Qaeda. But few are. On average, only one out of every seven US drone attacks in Pakistan kills a militant leader. The majority of those killed in such strikes are not important insurgent commanders but rather low-level fighters, together with a small number of civilians. As the pace of the drone strikes has increased, so, too, has their accuracy. So far, the US has paid too little attention to how the strikes are seen in Pakistan. There are a number of steps Washington could take to make the drone strikes more palatable to Pakistanis concerned about civilian casualties and violations of their country’s sovereignty. To begin with, the US should make the program more of an operational partnership with Pakistan. Additionally, US and Pakistani officials should be more forthcoming about the program’s existence. A more transparent drone-strike program would increase accountability, in particular regarding civilian casualties.

Why Middle East Studies Missed the Arab Spring: The Myth of Authoritarian Stability

By F. Gregory Gause III
Foreign Affairs, Vol. 90 Iss. 4, Jul/Aug 2011

The vast majority of academic specialists on the Arab world were as surprised as everyone else by the upheavals that toppled two Arab leaders last winter and that now threaten several others. It was clear that Arab regimes were deeply unpopular and faced serious demographic, economic, and political problems. Yet many academics focused on explaining what they saw as the most interesting and anomalous aspect of Arab politics: the persistence of undemocratic rulers.