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• Defence institutions and civil-military relations
• Transforming the French armed forces
• Nuclear deterrence : capabilities and doctrine
• Defence industry and procurement
• At war : French military operations since 1991
• France and its partners.

• Introduction
• 1. Fighting with Garibaldi: The First Red Shirt
• 2. Becoming Radicals
• 3. Greece,
• 1897: A New Generation of Red Shirts
• 4. Tradition Calls (Again): A Time of Crisis for Radical Garibaldinism
• 5. From Red Shirts to Black Shirts: Radical Garibaldinism Between the Two World Wars
• Epilogue.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Between the two world wars, thousands of European antifascists were pushed to act by the political circumstances of the time. In that context, the Spanish Civil War and the armed resistances during the Second World War involved particularly large numbers of transnational fighters. The need to fight fascism wherever it presented itself was undoubtedly the main motivation behind these fighters' decision to mobilise. Despite all this, however, not enough attention has been paid to the fact that some of these volunteers felt they were the last exponents of a tradition of armed volunteering which, in their case, originated in the nineteenth century. The capacity of war volunteering to endure and persist over time has rarely been investigated in historiography. The aim of this book is to reconstruct the radical and transnational tradition of war volunteering connected to Giuseppe Garibaldi's legacy in Southern Europe between the unification of Italy (1861) and the end of the Second World War (1945). This book seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of the long-term, interconnected, and radical dimensions of the so called Garibaldinism.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: The Ancient Military Treatise, Genre, and History James T. Chlup and Conor Whately
• 1. Military Manuals from Aeneas Tacticus to Maurice: Origins, Scholarship, Genre, Audience, and History Conor Whately
• 2. The Limited Source Value of Works of Military Literature Hans Michael Schellenberg
• 3. The Blind Leading the Blind? Civilian Writers and Audiences of Military Manuals in the Roman World Nadya Williams
• 4. Homeric Taktika Nicholas Sekunda
• 5. Aeneas Tacticus, Philon of Byzantium, Onasander and the Good Siege: A Case-Study of Demetrius at Rhodes Graham Wrightson
• 6. Mercenaries and Moral Concerns Aaron L. Beek
• 7. Xenophon's On Horsemanship: the Equestrian Military Manual Lucy Felmingham-Cockburn
• 8. Refighting Cunaxa: Xenophon's Education of Cyrus as a Manual on Military Leadership Jeffrey Rop
• 9. The Lost Tactica of Lucius Papirius Paetus Murray Dahm
• 10. Defeat as Stratagem: Frontinus on Cannae James T. Chlup
• 11. Vegetius' Regulae bellorum generales Jonathan Warner
• 12. Vegetius' Naval Appendix and the Battle of the Hellespont (324 CE) Craig H. Caldwell
• 13. Justinian's Warfare as Role Model for Byzantine Warfare? The Evidence of the Military Manuals Clemens Koehn
• 14. 'God has sent the thunder': Ideological Distinctives of Middle Byzantine Military Manuals Meredith L. D. Riedel
• Epilogue: Is War an Art? The Past, Present, and Future of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Military Literature Immacolata Eramo.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This volume explores the enigmatic primary source known as the ancient military manual. In particular, the volume explores the extent to which these diverse texts constitute a genre (sometimes unsatisfactorily classified as 'technical literature'), and the degree to which they reflect the practice of warfare. With contributions from a diverse group of scholars, the chapters examine military manuals from early Archaic Greece to the Byzantine period, covering a wide range of topics including readership, siege warfare, mercenaries, defeat, textual history, and religion. Coverage includes most of the major contemporary siege manual writers, including Xenophon, Frontinus, Vegetius, and Maurice. Close examination of these texts serves to reveals the complex ways in which ancient Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines sought to understand better, and impose order upon, the seemingly irrational phenomenon known as war. Providing insight into the multifaceted collection of texts that constituted military manuals, this volume is a key resource for students and scholars of warfare and military literature in the classical and Byzantine periods.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

"An oral history biography of Pao Yang, one of several dozen Hmong fighter pilots secretly trained by the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. Recounts his capture, escape, and migration to the United States and challenges dominant paradigms of Asian American history and Southeast Asian refugees"-- Provided by publisher.

• 1. Culture warriors--
• 2. Themes and issues--
• 3. Knowledge, influence and control from the Imperial era to the modern day--
• 4. 'Peaceful penetration' on the north west frontier 1919-1939--
• 5. 'Hearts and minds' vs French revolutionary war: Algeria 1954-1962--
• 6. Pacification in Vietnam 1964-1972--
• 7. Political warfare in Iraq: Al Anbar and Basra 2006-2009--
• 8. Political warfare in Afghanistan: Helmand province 2006-2012-- Conclusion.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Western counterinsurgency doctrine proposes that cultural intelligence is an important requirement for those forces operating amidst the unfamiliar socio-political structures often found in distant conflict zones. Yet while the determination to understand the intricate nature of alien societies may appear a rational undertaking in such circumstances, Christian Tripodi argues that these endeavours rarely help deliver success. The frictions of war and the complex human, cultural and political 'terrain' of the operating environment render such efforts highly problematic. In their attempts to generate and instrumentalize local knowledge for the purpose of exerting influence and control, western military actors are drawn into the unwelcome realm of counterinsurgency as a form of political warfare. Their operating environment now becomes a space charged with phenomena that they rarely comprehend, rarely even see and which they struggle to exert any meaningful control over. All in pursuit of a victory that might literally mean nothing.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part I: Peace
• Zing-a-Zing!
• Emergency Mode
• Scientific Spies
• The Wizard
• Section Tuve
• Choice Overload
• Uncanny Days
• Peenemünde
• Don't Slow Down
• Prying Eyes
• Escalation
• Part II: War
• Ready or Not
• No Alibis
• Dr. Jones's Raid
• The Garage
• Three Runs, Three Hits
• Into the Fleet
• New Tricks
• Cherry Stone
• A London Fuse
• AMNIARIX
• Part III: Victory
• Ski Shapes
• Ranch Country
• Chemical Boys
• Things Carried
• Wachtel is Hiding
• A Comet Gone Wrong
• "Turkey Shoot"
• Ack Ack Girls
• A Cold Winter
• Tug of War
• Downtime

"The riveting story of the American scientists, tinkerers, and nerds who solved one of the biggest puzzles of World War II-and developed one of the most powerful weapons of the war."-- Provided by publisher

• The 300
• Weekend Warriors
• Island of Misfit Toys
• The Old Fort
• Going Live
• Origin story
• Fail
• Anomaly
• Icefog
• Taepodong-2
• Glancing Blow
• Bad Vibrations
• The Culling
• Management by Blowtorch and Pliers
• Useful Failures
• Yeoman's Work
• Flight Test Ground-06B
• Pyongyang A Go Go
• ICBM-range
• 24/7/365

"For the first time ever, a groundbreaking account of the individuals who operate America's super-advanced missile defense system. Since the dawn of the rocket age, nations have been powerless to defend themselves against incoming attacks. For decades, not even the mighty fortress of the NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, buried deep under a granite shield inside Cheyenne Mountain, could stop enemy missiles from raining down on American cities. In September 2004, that changed. For the first time, a space-aged unit of missile defense wizards, the 100th Missile Defense Brigade, was established as an operating unit at Fort Greely in Alaska and Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Armed with advanced interceptor weapons, this unique outfit took on the most difficult feat in the long history of weapons engineering: to destroy an inflight ballistic missile. Under the leadership of missile crew directors like Richard Michalski, a lieutenant colonel with the Colorado National Guard, the small brigade-just 300 soldiers-is tasked with defending 300 million Americans. They stand watch in desolate missile fields in the farthest reaches of Alaska. In Colorado, their engineering brain trust struggles to perfect the highly advanced and at times unreliable missile technology of the Missile Defense Agency. With unprecedented access, years of research, and dozens of exclusive interviews, author Dan Wasserbly has peeled back the layers of secrecy. For the first time, The 300 tells the true story of this secretive yet essential unit of homeland defenders."-- Provided by publisher

• Introduction: Why Military Adaptation?
• Part I: A Framework for Analysis
• Chapter 1: Understanding Adaptation
• Chapter 2: The Role of Doctrine
• Chapter 3: The Role of Technology
• Chapter 4: The Role of Leadership Part II: The Recent Wars
• Chapter 5: Doctrinal Adaptation in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Chapter 6: Technological Adaptation in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Chapter 7: Tactical Leadership Adaptation in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Chapter 8: Theater Leadership Adaptation in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Part III: Looking to the Future
• Chapter 9: The Challenges of Future War
• Chapter 10: U.S. Military Adaptability Today
• Chapter 11: Recommendations for Improving Adaptability
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

A critical look into how and why the U.S. military needs to become more adaptable. Every military must prepare for future wars despite not really knowing the shape such wars will ultimately take. As former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates once noted: "We have a perfect record in predicting the next war. We have never once gotten it right." In the face of such great uncertainty, militaries must be able to adapt rapidly in order to win. Adaptation under Fire identifies the characteristics that make militaries more adaptable, illustrated through historical examples and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Authors David Barno and Nora Bensahel argue that militaries facing unknown future conflicts must nevertheless make choices about the type of doctrine that their units will use, the weapons and equipment they will purchase, and the kind of leaders they will select and develop to guide the force to victory. Yet after a war begins, many of these choices will prove flawed in the unpredictable crucible of the battlefield. For a U.S. military facing diverse global threats, its ability to adapt quickly and effectively to those unforeseen circumstances may spell the difference between victory and defeat. Barno and Bensahel start by providing a framework for understanding adaptation and include historical cases of success and failure. Next, they examine U.S. military adaptation during the nation's recent wars, and explain why certain forms of adaptation have proven problematic. In the final section, Barno and Bensahel conclude that the U.S. military must become much more adaptable in order to address the fast-changing security challenges of the future, and they offer recommendations on how to do so before it is too late.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Whirl
• Whore of the Orient
• Agent Ramsay
• When Sonya is Dancing
• The Spies Who Loved Her
• Sparrow
• Aboard the Conte Verde
• Our Woman in Manchuria
• Vagabond Life
• From Peking to Poland
• In for a Penny
• The Molehill
• A Marriage of Convenience
• The Baby Snatcher
• The Happy Time
• Barbarossa
• The Road to Hell
• Atomic Spies
• Milicent of MI5
• Operation Hammer
• Rustle of Spring
• Great Rollright
• A Very Tough Nut
• Ruth Werner
• Afterword: the lives of others

"The New York Times bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor tells the thrilling true story of the most important female spy in history: an agent code-named "Sonya," who set the stage for the Cold War. In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her three children and her husband, who worked as a machinist nearby. Ursula Burton was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. By all accounts, she seemed to be living a simple, unassuming life. Her neighbors in the village knew little about her. They didn't know that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. They didn't know that her husband was also a spy, or that she was running powerful agents across Europe. Behind the facade of her picturesque life, Burton was a dedicated Communist, a Soviet colonel, and a veteran agent, gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb. This true-life spy story is a masterpiece about the woman code-named "Sonya." Over the course of her career, she was hunted by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Nazis, MI5, MI6, and the FBI-and she evaded them all. Her story reflects the great ideological clash of the twentieth century-between Communism, Fascism, and Western democracy-and casts new light on the spy battles and shifting allegiances of our own times. With unparalleled access to Sonya's diaries and correspondence and never-before-seen information on her clandestine activities, Ben Macintyre has conjured a page-turning history of a legendary secret agent, a woman who influenced the course of the Cold War and helped plunge the world into a decades-long standoff between nuclear superpowers."-- Provided by publisher
In 1942, in a quiet village in the English Cotswolds, Ursula Burton was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. Her unassuming life hid the fact that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. Her husband was also a spy, and she was running powerful agents across Europe gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb. Macintyre tells the story of "Sonya," a woman who influenced the course of the Cold War and helped plunge the world into a decades-long standoff between nuclear superpowers. - adapted from jacket

• פתח דבר
• תקציר
• סקירת ספרות נבחרת
• מבוא
• האבולוציה של תולדות המלחמה
• תקופות של מלחמה
• תודעה אזרחית מכוננת את האסטרטגיה של המלחמה
• מרחב מצבים חדש
• ישראל
• צבא במאה ה-21
• מושג המלחמה החדש
• המהפכה הקיברנטית והבינה המלאכותית במלחמה מהסוג החדש
• ביבליוגרפיה. ‬

השינויים הטכנולוגיים גרמו למלחמה הטוטאלית, שעיקרה שילוב של האזרחים בהכרעה הצבאית שהחל נפוליאון ושהגיע לשיאו במלחמת העולם השנייה, שבה, לראשונה בהיסטוריה, נהרגו יותר אזרחים מלוחמים. בנוסף, התודעה האזרחית ההולכת וגוברת על התודעה הצבאית (צפון קוריאה ואיראן הן המדינות היחידות שעדיין מונהגות על עקרונות של תודעה צבאית וכוח צבאי) יצרה מלחמה מסוג חדש, שבה הגרעין והטרור מהווים שחקנים ראשיים יחד עם או מול המרחב האזרחי.הספר מציג את אופייה המשתנה של המלחמה לאורך 2500 השנים האחרונות ועד ימינו: מימי מוקדון ועד נפוליאון - שבהם מלחמות הוכרעו בקרב שנמשך יום אחד בלבד ותוצאותיו הכריעו את גורלן של יבשות, דרך מלחמת העולם השנייה והמלחמה הקרה, עד ימינו. ‬

"In the past century, multinational military operations have become the norm; but while contributions from different nations provide many benefits-from expanded capability to political credibility-they also present a number of challenges. Issues such as command and control, communications, equipment standardization, intelligence, logistics, planning, tactics, and training all require consideration. Cultural factors present challenges as well, particularly when language barriers are involved. In Allies in Air Power, experts from around the world survey these operations from the birth of aviation to the present day. Chapters cover conflicts including World War I, multiple theaters of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Kosovo, the Iraq War, and various United Nations peacekeeping missions. Contributors also analyze the role of organizations such as the UN, NATO, and so-called "coalitions of the willing" in laying the groundwork for multinational air operations"-- Provided by publisher.

• Part one: Training. Welcome to the jungle ; Bubba ; The hard road ; Going all the way
• Part two: What we do is secret. A chilly reception ; Rabbit hole ; Falling down ; An education
• Part three: The war within. Shock and awe ; Days of blunder ; Sharp edges ; Monsters ; Coming home ; Epilogue
• Part four: America's favorite black, gay Republican. Becoming America's favorite black, gay Republican ; The cult of LGBTQ ; The Kanye Effect: why black Americans are leaving Democrats behind
• Afterward: An inclusive Republican Party for a changing world.

"Moonlight meets American Sniper in this groundbreaking memoir and political commentary from a bold new voice in American politics. Before he became a war veteran and political analyst, he was a young black man who enlisted in the U.S. Army right out of high school, survived the notoriously brutal Infantry basic training, and served while remaining a closeted gay man to all but a few of his colleagues. At his first duty station, he finds himself in dangerous territory when the United States declares war on Iraq; in fact, his unit was one of the first called in after the initial invasion. Rob's experience offers a ground-level view of life on the front lines in the United States Army in an unforgettable coming-of-age story with a military twist. In addition to his memoir, Always a Soldier highlights his thoughts on current hot-button political topics like the new crop of Black Republicans and the escalating tactics of the LGBTQ community, announcing him as a voice in American politics that will be heard for years to come." --Amazon.

• List of illustrations. Preface. Citizen soldier and sailor vs. standing armed forces
• The struggle for military professionalism
• Technology, mechanization, and the world wars -- The limits of power
• Conclusion. The armed forces and perennial problems
• References. Further reading. Index,

"American Military History: A Very Short Introduction outlines the forces shaping the American military for the past 400 years. Since the colonial period, the United States has struggled to balance standing armed forces with citizen soldiers and sailors. Technological developments and two world wars forced the military to embrace professionalism and its increased obligations. The United States emerged from World War II in a strong position but failed to recognize the limits of its power, a legacy that some might say continues. Recent wars highlight some of the problems of a volunteer-dominated force. To succeed, the American military needs improved communication, understanding, and support"-- Provided by publisher.

• Introduction
• Irregular Warfare and the Cold War in Europe
• Bolivia and the Department of Defense's Entry into the War on Drugs
• El Salvador and the Fight Against Communism in the Americas
• Panama and the Transition from Traditional to Irregular
• The Decade of Delusion and My Pentagon Wars
• Peacekeeping in Bosnia and the Reemergence of Irregular Warfare
• Unconventional Warfare in the War on Terror
• Special Operations Campaigning in Latin America
• At the Vanguard of American Irregular Warfare
• Shepherding America's Irregular Warfare Capability
• Key Observations
• Recommendations
• Conclusion

American irregular warfare is the United States' unique and, in recent times, troubled approach to conflict in which armed civilian or paramilitary forces, and not regular armies, are the primary combatants. In most forms, it emphasizes the importance of local partnerships and gaining legitimacy and influence among targeted populations. It is thus a critical capability in contests in which populations, rather than territory, are decisive. This memoir explores the strengths and limitations of America's current irregular warfare capability and provides recommendations for what the United States must do to develop the world-class American way of irregular war it needs. This analysis is based on a detailed examination of Lieutenant General Charles T. Cleveland's career, the majority of which was spent with U.S. Special Forces, and his experiences in Europe during the Cold War, Bolivia, El Salvador, Operation Just Cause, Bosnia, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as in command of 10th Special Forces Group, Special Operations Command South, Special Operations Command Central, and U.S. Army Special Operations Command. The United States, despite the admirable performance of civilian and military tactical-level irregular warfare formations, has failed to achieve its strategic objectives in nearly every population-centric military campaign during the past 40 years. The memoir concludes that the reason for this consistent failure is that the United States lacks the concepts, doctrine, and canon necessary to be effective in population-centric conflicts and as a result is not well organized for irregular warfare. In the wake of the coordination breakdown that led to the failed Operation Eagle Claw and the intelligence failure that led to September 11, action by Congress and the support of the President were needed to drive reforms. This memoir concludes that Congress and the President will need to act again. To provide a proactive defense against the irregular warfare campaigns of U.S. enemies and the necessary offensive potential to destabilize Great Power adversaries, the country must turn to, and not away from, the American way of irregular war

Justin Swanton examines the principal battle-winning formations of the Ancient world, determining their composition, function and efficacy. An introductory chapter looks at the fundamental components of the principal battle formations of heavy and light infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots, showing how they bolstered the individual's soldier's willingness to fight. The rest of the book focuses on massed infantry that reigned supreme in this era: the heavily armoured Greek hoplite phalanx that was immune to the weaponry of its non-Greek opponents; the Macedonian pike phalanx that was unbeatable against frontal attacks so long as it kept order; the Roman triplex acies which, contrary to popular opinion, consisted of continuous lines in open order, with file spaces wide enough to allow embattled infantry to fall back after which those files closed up instantly against the enemy. A careful study of the Greek and Latin of the sources sheds fresh light on how these formations were organized and worked, re-evaluating many conventional notions and leading to some surprising conclusions.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Pragmatism: Practices, Process, and Change in International Politics Chapter Three: Sovereignty: Then and Now Chapter Four: Colonial Collisions Chapter Five: Searching for Security, 1942-1947 Chapter Six: Here to Stay, 1948-1951 Chapter Seven: Conclusion References Notes Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

In the wake of World War II, the United States and its allies developed a new type of security arrangement in which a state could maintain a long-term, peacetime military presence on the territory of another equally sovereign state that, unlike earlier practice, was not tied to occupational regimes or colonial rule. The impact of this development on international politics is hard to overstate, and it has become a constitutive feature of contemporary security dynamics. Despite its significance, the origins of this basing practice have remained largely understudied and unexplained. In Armed Guests, Sebastian Schmidt develops a theory to explain the emergence of this phenomenon, which he calls "sovereign basing, " and in doing so, shows how its development fundamentally transformed state sovereignty and the very nature of security politics. He applies concepts derived from pragmatist thought to a historical study of the relations between the United States and its wartime allies to explain how sovereign basing originated through the efforts of policymakers to come to grips with the unique security environment of the postwar era. As he argues, the tools offered by pragmatism provide needed analytical leverage over the emergence of novelty and offer valuable insight into the dynamics of stability and change. Armed Guests is a wide-ranging account of the development of sovereign basing practices in the years before and after World War II. It is a book with significant implications for our understanding of contemporary security politics and the future of basing strategies as well as for broader issues in IR, including the sociological foundations of security strategies, the nature of norms, and the practice of sovereignty.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• L'armée de l'air - La naissance, la chute et le rebond (1934-1940-1943)
• La naissance (1933-1934)
• La chute (1940) - les responsabilités
• Le rebond (1943-1945)
• L'armée de l'Air - Les crises de l'après-guerre - La libération - La victoire - L'Indochine - Nouveau rebond (1944-1949)
• L'armée de l'Air au lendemain de la Libération
• L'armée de l'Air dans l'immédiat après-guerre (1945-1949)
• Vers un nouveau rebond
• L'armée de l'Air - L'OTAN - l'expansion - la CED - les guerres (1950-1956)
• 1950 - L'OTAN
• L'expansion spectaculaire de l'armée de l'Air
• La communauté européenne de défense : la "CED"
• L'armée de l'air au combat en Indochine et en Algérie
• Réflexions sur les événements des années 50
• - L'armée de l'air et l'atome - De l'arrivée du général de Gaulle à notre départ de l'OTAN (1958, 1966, 1975)
• 1954-1958 : Le virage vers l'atome
• 1958 : Le général de Gaulle : nouvelle armée - nouvelle stratégie
• Années 60 : l'armée de l'Air propulsée sur le devant de la scène
• Les problèmes rencontrés
• Le retrait de la fiance de l'OTAN et ses conséquences (1966-1975)
• Réflexions sur la situation en 1975
• - De la Guerre froide à la guerre du Golfe - De la montée en puissance de l'armée de l'Air à la révélation de ses faiblesses (1975-1991)
• Le contexte
• L'armée de l'Air et le septennat du président Giscard d'Estaing
• L'armée de l'Air à l'ère mitterrandienne
• État de nos forces aériennes à la fin de la guerre froide
• Les bouleversements de la décennie 1990 ? Nouvelles stratégies - Décrue des forces - Interventions
• L'ambiance après la fin de l'URSS
• Les conséquences sur les stratégies
• La restructuration de l'armée de l'Air
• Les interventions aériennes de l'après-guerre froide (1991-1999)
• L'armée de l'air professionnalisée - Nouvelle armée - Nouveaux formats - Nouvelles missions (de 1996 à nos jours)
• La professionnalisation des armées
• L'armée de l'Air. Réduction drastique du volume des forces
• L'échec du modèle d'armée 2015
• L'armée de l'Air en Asie centrale et en Afrique (2002-2003)
• La crise financière et les livres blancs de 2008 et 2013. La débâcle
• Les réactions de l'armée de l'Air. Vers une remontée de la pente
• Bilan des opérations conduites au cours des dix dernières années.

""Une armée de l'Air innovante, à la pointe de la technologie, qui est portée par son histoire et qui construit son avenir, en préparant notamment l'arrivée du système de combat aérien du futur, et en intégrant pleinement l'espace à son identité... les perspectives sont foisonnantes, et s'annoncent passionnantes !" extrait de la Préface du Général d'armée aérienne Philippe Lavigne, Chef d'État-major de l'armée de l'Air. L'armée de l'Air a dû faire face depuis sa naissance en 1934 à bien des épreuves qu'elle a su à chaque fois surmonter. Certes, elle n'est pas la seule des armées à avoir connu - et à connaître - des moments difficiles. Elle n'en a pas moins été bousculée plus que les autres du fait de sa naissance tardive, des conditions inadaptées qui lui ont été imposées pour son organisation initiale, ainsi que du caractère spécifique de la technique aéronautique, plus évolutive que toute autre et à laquelle elle a dû sans cesse s'adapter. Elle a eu en conséquence un parcours en dents de scie marqué par des périodes de restrictions suivies de rebonds largement évoquées par l'auteur. Disposant aujourd'hui d'un volume de forces dangereusement réduit, l'armée de l'Air a su maintenir ses capacités de réaction et d'intervention rapide en mettant l'accent non seulement sur les qualités de ses vecteurs, de leurs équipements et de leurs armements mais aussi sur le développement de ses moyens de commandement et de contrôle des opérations aériennes. Elle n'a pas cessé de resserrer ses structures de commandement opérationnel et logistique au fur et à mesure des restrictions d'effectifs qui lui étaient imposées. Cela lui permet de se situer actuellement largement en tête des armées de l'Air en Europe et de figurer au premier rang des armées de l'Air dans le monde. L'auteur nous délivre dans cet ouvrage un message d'optimisme et de confiance dans l'avenir de cette jeune armée à laquelle il rend un hommage appuyé."--Page 4 of cover.