Military Law Books

The book shows how the early Coast Guard, as collector of the nation's revenue, combined the spirit of enterprise with acknowledgement of individual freedoms to establish respect for the new Constitution and the rule of law

The editor of this book is Mark Tushnet. The other names listed above are contributors (as Tushnet is also). The book is well described in Tushnet's Introduction (pp. 1-7).

I purchased this gift for a friend because it was on her wish list. I didn't read the description and was surprised when it arrived and was a short (25-30 page) paperback.

While there is some interesting info in there regarding the campaign against Al Qaeda, it is way too short to delve in to complex facts and theories.

This book basically outlines and describes the basic campaign against Al Qaeda, but does not go in to much detail. While it was interesting, there are much better books out there on the same subject.

As a fan of espionage, terrorism, and special ops. books I had to check this out. This covers a multitude of the aforementioned groups. It is extraordinarily researched and I strongly recommed it for the avid reader of books about "the weird world of Spooks, Counter-terrorists, Adventureres and the not-quite professionals.

The book is a great review of the FIDIC Form. It starts off with the origin of the FIDIC and how it relates to different (historic or current) legal systems, ICE, ACE..

However, what I found great about the book that the author discussed topics such as Role of Engineer, Claims and Counter Claims, The Contractor's Obligations, etc. which introduces the reader to the big picture of the contract and as such enables the reader to relate to the FIDIC clauses and their relationship more easily.

The bad thing about the book that it doesn't offer a direct explanation of each clause separately, but rather, interacts with FIDIC clauses per topic.

This book examines an important and interesting subject and does a good focused job. It is dry and some may have significant issues with the soft law versus treaty law approach but in terms of examining voluntary standards, this volume does well.

This is an excellent book for an empirical overview of how humanity treats itself during the time when it is most inhumane. The only complaint I have with the book is its concentration on the Soviet Union and communism. Because Best wrote the book during the Cold War, this is understandable, but it still needs an update. Otherwise, excellent read.

For 130 years, there have been articles and editorials addressing these hangings, always taking the moral high ground and ignoring the less than heroic actions of the Military in the absence of law and order. Few accounts have really tried to understand feelings and situations of the people involved. Just as they were easy targets for Picket in 1864, the illiterate farmers continued through the years since to be easy targets for writers appealing to Southern emotion. For 130 years, there has been a need for an unvarnished look at the actions and incentives of all involved. There is an even greater need to remind all people of the horrors of any civil war and to remind those in the military of the need for ethics and compassion in the absence of law and order. The thought provoking approach of "Justice or Atrocity" fills a wide gap in the teaching of Southern History and provides a needed lesson in ethics and compassion.

As Sarah Percy states early in her book, other books about mercenaries fall into two categories: Paperback overviews for the popular audience and historical texts which explain mercenaries only in a specific historical context.
While also asserting that her work is not a historical overview of the subject, which is still needed, what Percy accomplishes here is the changing world view towards mercenaries over the course of time. This is where this book is brilliant.
While a slow start, as the reader has to slog through the required definition of a norm in order to be able to grasp Percy's thesis, this book quickly pick up and becomes an invaluable historical text for almost any era historian. Moving from early opponents of mercenaries like Machiavelli, Percy spends great and interesting indepth time on the impact of the Revolutionary era (1776-1853), and the death of mercenaries in that time period. She then spends a lot of time discussing the failed UN attempt at outlawing mercenaries and demonstrates clearly why it failed. Finally, we conclude in the present in the world of Private Military Companies and their successors, the Private Security Companies, including a brief overview of Blackwater, the PSC that gained so much notoriety in Iraq in recent years.
While I don't think this book is accessible or would be enjoyed by all, any fan of history or politics will find this book very insightful. Personally, this book gains a prize place in my military history collection.

Cimbala's review of military persuasion covers mobilization and conflict termination from an historical perspective. Starting with a deep analysis of the causes of World War I, he effectively draws parallels between conventional force inflexibility (that is, strategic/political inflexibility) and the doctrine of mutually assured destruction. His coverage of limited warfare and conflict termination is excellent.

Unfortunately, Cimbala seems to have fallen prey to one of the errors he cites: failure to plan. The chapters on WWI, the Gulf War, and the Cold War were good, but material relevant to each subject was scattered throughout. Rather than revealing something more complex to the reader as time went on, this habit instead tends to repeatedly cover similar issues with new details, not a novel perspective.

The book is worth it for any student of limited warfare or conflict termination, and would be useful to anyone interested in further research on the causes of WWI and the *real* lessons of Desert Storm. If Cimbala had just collated all his thoughts on the various conflicts in a more concise way, I would have given it five stars.