Military Power

The Achilles Trap masterfully untangles the people, ploys of power and geopolitics that led to America's disastrous war with Iraq and, for the first time, details America's fundamental miscalculations during its ruinous, decades-long relationship with Saddam Hussein. Beginning with Saddam's rise to power in 1979 and the birth of Iraq's secret nuclear weapons programme, Steve Coll traces Saddam's motives through understanding his inner circle. He brings to life the diplomats, scientists, family members and generals who had no choice but to defer to their leader.

Militaries with state-of-the-art information technology sometimes bog down in confusing conflicts. To understand why, it is important to understand the micro-foundations of military power in the information age - and this is exactly what Jon R. Lindsay's Information Technology and Military Power gives us. As Lindsay shows, digital systems now mediate almost every effort to gather, store, display, analyze, and communicate information in military organizations. He highlights how personnel now struggle with their own information systems, as much as with the enemy.

Ever since 9/11 America has fought an endless war on terror, seeking enemies everywhere and never promising peace. In Pay Any Price, James Risen reveals an extraordinary litany of the hidden costs of that war: from squandered and stolen dollars, to outrageous abuses of power, to wars on normalcy, decency, and truth. In the name of fighting terrorism, our government has done things every bit as shameful as its historic wartime abuses - and until this audiobook, it has worked very hard to cover them up.

He was born to serve his country. She was born to guard a legacy of light. Neither expected their destinies to collide across worlds. When elite Marine Drake Fennigan vanishes during a mission in the Venezuelan jungle, his sister Shelby feels the rupture in her soul. But it’s not just grief—it’s a spark. A thread. A pulse from something beyond. Aristomache Leukos, Keeper of the Spark, never meant to bind her soul to a human. But when the warrior’s light calls to hers, she breaks every law of her world to find him. Across dimensions, across death itself—she reaches. Now, in the ...

During World War II, nurses from across the USA graduated from the Army Air Corps as second lieutenants. These pioneering women flew on C-47s to battlefields around the globe, triaging and treating gravely wounded men being transported to the hospital. Many died when their planes crashed or enemy bullets ripped their bodies. Ascension tells the story of two flight nurses, Colleen O'Brien, who escapes an abusive marriage, and Elizabeth Kizer, who seeks her missing-in-action husband, Captain Van Kizer. These courageous "Nightingales of the Sky" work in grueling conditions and encounter ...

In Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom, Peter Padfield presents a superb description and analysis of naval campaigns conducted between 1788 and 1851 that shaped the modern world. Winner of the Mountbatten Maritime Prize, this is the second of Padfield's masterful trilogy that traces the impact of naval power on modern history, and the means by which it has been enacted.

Out in the Pacific Ocean, there is a war taking place. It is a "warm war", a shoving match between the United States, since World War II the uncontested ruler of the seas, and China, which now possesses the world's largest navy. The Chinese regard the Pacific, and especially the South China Sea, as their ocean, and they're ready to defend it. Each day the heat between the two countries increases as the Chinese try to claim the South China Sea for their own, and the United States insists on asserting freedom of navigation.

Delivering Destruction is the first detailed study of American triphibious (land, sea, and air) firepower coordination in the Pacific War. In describing the Amphibious Corps' development of fire coordination teams and tactics in the Central Pacific, Hemler underlines the importance of wartime adaptation, battlefield coordination, and the primacy of the human element in naval combat.

Timothy W. Crawford's The Power to Divide examines the use of wedge strategies, a form of divisive statecraft designed to isolate adversaries from allies and potential supporters to gain key advantages. With a multidimensional argument about the power of accommodation in competition, and a survey of alliance diplomacy around both World Wars, The Power to Divide artfully analyzes the past and future performance of wedge strategy in great power politics.

The ability of the US Navy to fight and win a protracted war in the Pacific was not solely the result of technology, tactics, or leadership. Naval aviation maintenance played a major role in the US victory over Japan in WWII. The naval war against Japan did not achieve sustained success until enough aircraft technicians were available to support the high tempo of aviation operations that fast carrier task force doctrine demanded.

As a defender of national unity, a leader in war, and the emancipator of slaves, Abraham Lincoln lays ample claim to being the greatest of our presidents. This extraordinary biography by one of the most highly regarded historians on the subject examines Lincoln both as a rising politician and as president.

Apollo, a human-alien hybrid with the otherworldly and unwelcomed ability to kill with a touch, is born and imprisoned in Area 51. A moment of skin-to-skin contact with Apollo instantly turns a person to ash—and creates a massive surge of energy that temporarily ignites other superhuman powers within him. Apollo’s government jailers look to study and exploit him, but he escapes as a teenager and, for a time, finds the simple joys of living as a human before his discovery and recapture. When dark days threaten humanity’s future, will Apollo play the reluctant hero? Combining the ...

There are times when life feels like it has you cornered: financial difficulties, relationship issues, work problems, all of the above. Every one of us, at one time or another, will have to face up to the challenges that come our way. And there are two ways of meeting them: negatively, where blame is the answer, where other people are at fault, where you haven’t been treated fairly. Or positively, where you own the situation, learn and grow from it and become a better person at the end of it.

Kill or Be Killed. Cliché? Yes. True? Even more so. Matthew was a 20-year-old fisherman. Now he's a soldier that is about to get thrown into the meat grinder of war. If that isn’t bad enough, he’s stuck on the frontlines while the rest of the Coalition’s army awaits a “master plan” that has yet to emerge. Even after over a month of aimless fighting. Will Matthew survive his first day on the front, despite his obvious lack of training? For years the Coalition figured that the only possible alien invasion would come from the Alexandrian Republic, not somewhere far beyond the ...

FDR Goes to War expands on the premise that FDR's legacy has damaged America and helped lay the groundwork for the current economic crisis.

The Folsoms continue to expose the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth of epic proportions. Many government programs that are widely used today have their seeds in the New Deal.

War and power are some of the most-widely discussed issues in all of human history and yet they are, time and again, misunderstood— often disastrously so. Whilst we might think the outcome of war is determined by so-called ‘Great Powers’ who dominate their opponents with their impressive size and military prowess, the reality of modern conflict, as Professor Phillips Payson O’Brien demonstrates, is very different.

After the gasp-inducing cliff-hanger ending of The Frozen Crown, the exciting conclusion to the epic story of Askia - a warrior, witch, and queen-to-be - as she confronts the monster that stole her throne...and is holding her prisoner to steal her magic.

Many see China's rise as a threat to US leadership in Asia and beyond. Thomas J. Christensen argues instead that the real challenge lies in dissuading China from regional aggression while eliciting its global cooperation. Drawing on decades of scholarship and experience as a senior diplomat, Christensen offers a deep perspective on China's military and economic capacity. Assessing China's political outlook and strategic goals, Christensen shows how nationalism and the threat of domestic instability influence the party's decisions about regional and global affairs.

In Lincoln and the Power of the Press, Harold Holzer shows us an activist Lincoln through journalists who covered him from his start to the night of his assassination. In a wholly original way, Holzer shows us politicized newspaper editors battling for power and a masterly president who used the press to speak directly to the people and shape the nation.

Valeyn - daughter of the last two gods in the world - has abandoned all she loves in hope of starting a new life. Yet enemies relentlessly hunt her, determined to force the new god to choose a side in the escalating war between her mad parents. The Iron Union has crushed the weakened defences of the Outland Alliance and Valeyn’s friends now face death at the hands of an old ally. Pursued to the very edge of creation, Valeyn must confront the burden of her destiny and discover the unforgiving truth of the gods themselves.