bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Iraq–Iran War(1980–1988)
Authors: Johnson Douglas.V
Published: November 2011

This eight‐year war began as a series of miscalculations and spiraled out of control as new tactics brought forth unexpected reactions, the way most wars develop. In the end, the Iraqis overcame their ideological prejudices to produce a professional military with which they achieved military victory. The Iranians could not overcome their revolution's ideological influences. In the end, the Ayatollah Khomeini's religious stature may have been the only factor preventing the Iranian government's collapse. The centrality of oil made the war a matter of serious interest to all industrialized nations and brought about some strange cooperative actions which are the subject for another study. By war's end, both sides were exhausted, but Iraq had access to reserves Iran did not possess and could have continued the war for a while longer; however, its debt settlement issues led to the invasion of Kuwait in 1989 and the coalition counterstroke, Operation Desert Storm. In the process, both societies were reordered, one by revolutionary zeal, the other by modernization—for a while.
Irish Republican Army
Authors: Kautt W. H.
Published: November 2011

While there were many earlier nationalist groups in Ireland's history, the most direct predecessor of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was the Irish Volunteers. The Irish Volunteer Force was founded in November 1913 in Dublin in reaction to theformation of the militant Unionist Ulster Volunteer Force in Belfast in 1912. The Irish Volunteer Force split in September 1914 over the issue of supporting the war effort against the Germans in World War I. Separating from the larger Home Rule group, which renamed itself the National Volunteers, the smaller, more militant and republican faction called themselves simply the Irish Volunteers.
Janissaries
Authors: Aksan Virginia H.
Published: November 2011

Janissaries, or Yeni Çeri (New Troops), established during the reign of Sultan Murad I (1326?–1389), were the backbone of the formidable army of the Ottoman Empire. The sultans originally created the infantry force as their bodyguard and as loyal support against the Turkish cavalry warriors and tribesmen of the Anatolian frontiers. Armed with swords and bows and arrows, by 1600 the Janissaries had become one of the first standing armies of Europe, equipped with matchlock and later flintlock muskets. They were particularly feared for their formidable artillery and their skill at siege warfare.
Jeune Ecole
Authors: Hood Chalmers
Published: November 2011

Since the industrialization of the world, there has been only one significant alternative to Admiral Alfred T. Mahan's strategy of maritime dominance by large battle fleets. Called the
Jeune Ecole
because of its origin among the younger officers of the French navy, this was the sole attempt to formulate a maritime defense policy—including colonial conquest, commerce raiding, and offensive war—relying on squadrons of small, fast, torpedo boats. Most of its proponents were French naval officers, engineers, or journalists interested in naval affairs. It emerged during the 1870s in the aftermath of the Franco‐Prussian War and continued as a formal, alternative school of naval thought up to World War I. Pipe dream of young officers eager to prove themselves after a terrible military defeat? Corollary to rapid colonial expansion? Technological vision revolutionizing war at sea? A gimmick to sell naval policy cheaply to a country overwhelmed by the threat of a newly united Germany? The answer to all of these is “Yes” and it is this diversity of unreconciled views that explains the continued fascination with the
Jeune Ecole
.
Johnston, General Joseph E. (1807–1891)
Authors: Crosswell D. K. R.
Published: November 2011

A brilliant defensive tactician who placed premiums on staff work and the welfare of his troops in an army that discounted all three, Johnston, with no signal defeat blemishing his record, made the single biggest surrender of the Civil War.
Jomini, General Antoine‐Henri, Baron de (1779–1869)
Authors: Gallaher John G.
Published: November 2011

Antoine‐Henri Jomini was born on March 6, 1779, in the town of Payerne in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. He was educated for a career in business and began as a clerk in a banking house in Basle, but soon moved to Paris in 1796, where he was employed in banking. However, the young Jomini had no interest in the business profession. From an early age he wished for a career in the military. In 1798 he entered the Swiss army as a staff officer and within a few years was given command of a battalion. When the War of the Second Coalition ended in 1801, Jomini returned to civilian life in the banking profession in Paris. In 1803 he published a
Traité des grandes operations militaires
that was widely read by French officers. He came to the attention of Marshal Michel Ney who gave him a position as a volunteer aide‐de‐camp on his staff. In this capacity Jomini served with Ney's 6th Corps during the Austerlitz campaign of 1805. Napoleon was impressed by the talents of the young man, and in December of the same year gave him a commission as colonel in the French army. Thus began Jomini's career in the service of France.
Kutuzov, Field Marshal Mikhail (1747–1813)
Authors: Mikaberidze Alexander
Published: November 2011

Russian military commander whose leadership contributed substantially to Napoleon's defeat in Russia. A scion of an ancient Russian noble family (GolenishchevKutuzov), Kutuzov graduated from the Combined Artillery and Engineer School and was promoted to ensign in 1761. In 1762 he served in the Astrakhanskii Infantry Regiment commanded by General Alexander Suvorov and later fought in Poland in 1764–1769. In 1770–1774 he served with distinction against the Turks at Larga and Kagul, earning the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1774 Kutuzov sustained a serious wound to the head and lost his right eye in action, which required medical treatment in Europe.
League of Nations
Authors: Webster Andrew
Published: November 2011

The League of Nations was an international organization created at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, intended, in the aftermath of World War I, “to promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security” (Walters 1952: 43). Its charter, known as the Covenant, was included as the first part of each of the several peace treaties between the victorious Allies and the defeated Central Powers; the League itself formally came into existence on January 10, 1920, with the entry into force of the Treaty of Versailles. The Covenant was surprisingly brief, yet its 26 articles covered a vast range of issues including disarmament, collective security (though the term itself was not used until much later), the resolution of international disputes, social and economic cooperation, the trusteeship of former enemy territories, and the new body's organizational principles. The primary purpose for which the League was created was as an international mechanism of war prevention, and while it experienced some degree of success during the 1920s, when it was essentially left untested, this was violently punctured by its inability to deal with the multiple crises of the early and mid‐1930s, most prominently over the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the collapse of its efforts to achieve international disarmament during 1932–1934, and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. The stark nature of its failures left the League to drift into paralysis and impotence during the final years before the outbreak of World War II. Its work having ceased almost completely during the war, the League of Nations formally dissolved itself on April 18, 1946 and transferred its functions, powers, and physical assets to the new United Nations Organization (UN).
Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990)
Authors: Zisser Eyal
Published: November 2011

From April 1975 to October 1990 Lebanon suffered a bloody civil war. At its peak it threatened to bring about the complete collapse and disintegration of the Lebanese state. During the fighting nearly 150,000 people were killed and another 200,000 wounded. Six hundred thousand people were made homeless, and nearly 250,000 left Lebanon, most of whom never returned. All this took place among a population that numbered merely 3.1 million at the beginning of the war.
LeMay, General Curtis (1906–1990)
Authors: Perry May Michael
Published: November 2011

Curtis Emerson LeMay has been called by those who knew him the best air commander of the twentieth century. He became the youngest four‐star general in the history of the US Air Force at age 44 in 1951. He was the Chief of Staff of the US Air Force from 1961 to 1965 and the vice presidential running mate of George Wallace in 1968. His skills as a leader and his influence on the concept of strategic bombing left a legacy that remained well into the twenty‐first century. Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1906 to impoverished subsistence farmers, LeMay had few natural prospects for success. After seeing his first airplane at age 5, LeMay yearned to fly. He received a commission from the Army Reserve Officer's Training Corps (ROTC) program at Ohio State University in 1928. Soon after, he found himself learning to fly in the Army Air Corps.
Liddell Hart, Basil H. (1895–1970)
Authors: Holden Reid Brian
Published: November 2011

A significant contributor to the renaissance of British military thought after 1918, Liddell Hart was born on October 31, 1895 in Paris, the younger son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister. He was educated at St. Paul's and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, though he never graduated. In December 1914 he gained a commission in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and witnessed three tours of duty on the Western Front before being gassed on July 18, 1916 in Mametz Wood during the Battle of the Somme. He was promoted captain in April 1917, and served as adjutant of the 4th Battalion Gloucestershire Volunteer Regiment in Stroud. In 1918 he married Jessie Douglas Stone (1895–1977).
Liman von Sanders, General Otto Karl Victor (1855–1929)
Authors: Sheffy Yigal
Published: November 2011

A German officer who gained his reputation during World War I, serving in Turkey and Palestine, Liman is clearly the only imperial German officer to rise to such a prominent status despite being of Jewish ancestry. Born on February 18, 1855 in Stolp, Pomerania (now Slupsk, Poland) into a landowner family and to paternal grandparents who had converted from Judaism, he joined the German Imperial Army in 1874 as an infantry officer, but soon was reassigned to the cavalry. In 1877 he married Amalie von Sanders, who bore him three daughters. He held command and staff positions, received the rank of generalmajor in 1908, and was promoted to the rank of generalleutnant and a division commander in 1911. In July 1913 Liman was ennobled by Kaiser Wilhelm II and added his late wife's maiden name to his, becoming Liman von Sanders.
Mahdia campaign (1087)
Authors: Berwinkel Holger
Published: November 2011

In August 1087 an expeditionary force from several Italian cities attacked the fortified town and harbor of Mahdia (al‐Mahdīya) in modern Tunisia. Mahdia was the strong hold of the Zīrids, a Muslim Berber dynasty that since ca. 1050 had lost most of its hinterland territory to the Bedouin Banū Hilāl and Banū Sulaym. Therefore Tamīm, who ruled Mahdia from 1062 to 1108, directed his ambitions toward the sea and offered his city as a base to pirates. Their raids against Italian coasts and commerce prompted a reaction from the seafaring city‐states of Italy, especially Pisa and Genoa. The aim of these maritime republics was more than punitive: they sought to establish bases on foreign shores for commerce and further conquest. Pisa and Genoa were on the rise to dominate the Tyrrhenian Sea—i.e., the western Mediterranean—in terms of naval power and had already built up a record of amphibious expeditions against southern Italy and northern Africa during the eleventh century, e.g., when attacking Palermo together with the Normans in 1063. Though both cities often rivaled with each other, they could cooperate for mutual benefit as they did on the Mahdia campaign. Other participants came from Rome and from Amalfi, a southern Italian maritime city under Norman domination. Pisa seems to have taken the lead, but the main source for this campaign (Cowdrey 1977) was written there and is biased in Pisan favor. It mentions the Pisan noble Ugo Visconte as leader. The whole enterprise was at least to some degree incited by Pope Victor III and politically backed by Matilda of Canossa as the overlord of the Pisan territory, but neither influenced the actual military campaign.
Mamluks
Authors: May Timothy
Published: November 2011

The mamluk (slave) institution entered Islamic civilization in the ninth century as a way for the Abbasid caliphs to counter their reliance on military warlords and tribal leaders. The caliphs sought to create a dependable body of warriors loyal only to them as a counterbalance to the shifting rivalries of other regional power brokers. Most of the earliest mamluks were Turks, whose prowess on horseback and skills in archery were highly prized, and preferred to the Arabs and Persians who already made up the armies of the caliphs. Over the centuries, mamluks became a common feature in Muslim armies throughout the Islamic world, although always limited in number due to their expense, up to and including the famous Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire. Others were Slavs from Russia and eastern Europe and some Africans. Typically, mamluks were purchased just as they approached puberty—thus they may have had some early skills, but were still impressionable and could be taught. Mamluks were not slaves
per se
, but slaves who were trained, educated in Islam (although some never converted), and then manumitted. They usually remained intensely loyal to the man who manumitted them, but less so to their master's successor, who often had his own mamluks.
Manzikert, Battle of (1071)
Authors: Frankopan Peter
Published: November 2011

In the summer of 1071 the Byzantine army marched across Asia Minor. Its targets were Manzikert and Akhlat, which had until recently been key points on the empire's eastern frontier, protecting the interior of Anatolia. They had fallen to the Turks, a people who emerged in the later tenth century in central Asia, spreading west to become masters of Baghdad following the appointment of Tughril Beg as sultan in 1055. The military expedition to retake both locations, led by the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes, proved to be a fiasco. Poor intelligence and incompetent decision‐making led to the rout of the imperial forces and the capture of the emperor by the Turks. The subsequent meeting between Romanus IV and his victor, the Turkish sultan Alp Arslan, became one of the most famous scenes of the early Middle Ages, a defining moment in the rise of the Turks and of Islam in Asia Minor and the decline of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean.
Military necessity
Authors: Noone Michael F.
Published: November 2011

US Army Field Manual 27–10, The Law of Land Warfare
, describes military necessity as “that principle which justifies those measures not forbidden by international law which are indispensable for securing the complete submission of the enemy as soon as possible” (para. 3a). The principle was articulated in the first codification of the laws of war, by Francis Lieber,
General Orders No. 100, Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field
(1863), and recently, by implication, in Article 8 (b) (iv) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which lists among other violations of the law of war “intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long‐term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated.” Similar language can be found Article 51, paragraph 5 (b), of Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and in the United Kingdom's
Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict
.
Military occupation
Authors: Tyson‐Banks William
Published: November 2011

Military occupation is the umbrella term for a number of different ways in which an external power occupies territory, usually but not always by conquest. The generic definition of military occupation is necessarily vague, a point worth bearing in mind in the examination that follows. Certainly, belligerent military occupation is the classic understanding of the term, but as will be seen it is but one of a number of possible models of occupation that have been implemented throughout history. Peacekeeping and protective occupations are some examples of occupation but not by conquest. After 1945, the concept of military occupation has become more of an issue for warring powers; it has also become more complicated in a world heavily influenced by ideas of liberal intervention. These approaches come in the main from a western tradition of warfare, another point worth bearing in mind and one that reflects a typically Eurocentric attitude to the problem of occupation. Whereas, in the past, occupation was the business of national governments, in the contemporary era it is not only a politically sensitive issue for western (and other) governments but it also heavily involves non‐state actors, such as non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). Today, charities such as the Red Cross and Oxfam are almost as important for occupying powers as military forces and governments were in the past. The United Nations (UN), from its creation in 1945, plays a very significant role in all of this.
Military uniforms
Authors: Lamphear John
Published: November 2011

In modern times, military dress typically has consisted of officially prescribed, state‐issued clothing that identifies its wearers as members of the armed forces. Within a particular branch or unit, it exhibits absolute uniformity from which the very term “uniform” is derived. Uniforms in this contemporary sense have developed only rather recently and mainly in western warfare, however.
Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159–1189)
Authors: Boyd James
Published: November 2011

Minamoto Yoshitsune is an important medieval Japanese samurai commander who was responsible for the three victories that helped the Minamoto defeat the Taira during the Genpei Wars. He is also, because of the circumstances surrounding his upbringing and his death, Japan's foremost tragic hero.
Moltke, Field Marshal Helmuth von, the Elder (1800–1891)
Authors: Seligmann Matthew S.
Published: November 2011

Helmuth von Moltke, the Elder was of Danish birth and might, therefore, have played only a limited role in history had he not decided as a youth to forego a career in the military of his native kingdom and to seek instead preferment in the much larger and more significant Prussian army. Despite being something of an outsider in this organization, dominated as it was by Prussian noblemen (often referred to as Junkers), he advanced steadily through the hierarchy, becoming chief of the Great General Staff in 1857. In this role, which he held until his retirement in 1888, he was to become one of the most influential military leaders of the post‐Napoleonic nineteenth century. His importance derives from two different, albeit interconnected, causes.
Mongol conquest of China
Authors: Wright David Curtis
Published: November 2011

China was by far and away the most difficult conquest the Mongols ever undertook. It began before any other major Mongol conquest of sedentary civilizations and continued long after the others had been completed. The Mongol conquest of China lasted for 70 years, beginning in 1209, passing through several stages of intermittent prosecution, and not achieving completion until 1279, over halfway through the 34‐year reign of Khubilai Khan, Genghis (Chinggis) Khan's grandson.
Mongol invasions of Japan
Authors: Conlan Thomas D.
Published: November 2011

Two attempted invasions of Japan, which occurred in 1274 and 1281, by the Mongol forces of Khubilai Khan. These invasions became famous, as later myth established that a Divine Wind (
kamikaze
) caused the Mongol defeat.
Montecùccoli, General Raimondo (1609–1680)
Authors: Parrott David
Published: November 2011

Raimondo Montecùccoli, Imperial field commander and one of the most influential military theorists of the seventeenth century, was born in 1609, third son of an old‐established Modenese noble family. Raimondo was attracted to the prospects of military service in the armies of the Habsburg emperor, whose court was strongly influenced by transalpine culture and Italian patronage networks. The 16‐year‐old was taken under the wing of his older cousin, Ernesto, cavalry colonel in the newly created Imperial army of Albrecht Wallenstein. Beginning as a volunteer ranker, in 1630 he gained his own company and took part in the attempts to repulse the Swedish army following Gustavus Adolphus’ landing in Germany. Campaigning against the Swedes throughout 1631, he fought at Breitenfeld on September 17, and in the wake of the Imperial defeat was badly wounded and fell into the hands of the Swedish victors. Released six months later after paying a ransom, Montecùccoli was engaged in extensive military operations in 1632–1633, and in 1634 took part in the campaign in southern Germany that culminated in the Imperial victory over the Swedes at Nödlingen. The battle and its aftermath assisted his reputation for reliability and competence, and led to his being granted the colonelcy of his late cousin's cavalry regiment in 1635. At the Imperial defeat of Wittstock in October 1636, it was Montecùccoli's initiative, resolution, and the sacrifice of his regiment that prevented the defeat turning into a rout. Court intrigue surrounding allegations of theft kept Montecùccoli out of military service during the campaigns of 1637 and 1638 when the Imperialists appeared to be turning the tide against the Swedes, and by the time he returned to service in 1639, he found himself on the defensive against increasingly confident and wide‐ranging Swedish operations. Attempting to block the Swedish invasion of Bohemia, he was captured for a second time, though on this occasion his captivity was to last for four years, a period in which he was granted access to the ducal library at Stettin and began his own literary career. Though the last few years of the war in Germany were mostly a rearguard action for the Habsburgs and their allies, the period definitively established Montecuùccoli's reputation and career.
Montgomery, Field Marshal Bernard Law (1887–1976)
Authors: Baxter Colin F.
Published: November 2011

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery commanded British and Allied armies in two of the turning‐point battles of World War II: El Alamein (October 23–November 4, 1942) and Normandy (June 6–August 25, 1944). The figure of Montgomery standing in the open turret of his Grant tank, wearing a black beret with two badges (the badge of the Royal Armoured Corps as well as a general's insignia), became recognized worldwide during World War II. “Monty” was second only to Prime Minister Winston Churchill as a British national icon.
Nanbokuchō Wars (1331–1392)
Authors: Conlan Thomas D.
Published: November 2011

The wars of the Southern and Northern Courts (
Nanbokuchō
lasted from 1331 until 1392, and resulted in profound changes in Japan. Although these wars did not witness any significant innovations in tactics, as mounted archers continued to dominate the battlefield, their indeterminacy allowed for logistical improvements, as regional magnates appointed to the office of
shugo
gained the ability to use half of a province's taxes for military supplies, starting in 1351. This ability to half‐tax, or
hanzei
, set the stage for the rise of regional military power for the next two and a half centuries, as these regional magnates, known increasingly as
daimyō
, managed to sustain regional armies indefinitely.
Neutrality
Authors: Van Tuyll Hubert P.
Published: November 2011

Neutrality is a legally defined status under which a country seeks to avoid war through adherence to guidelines prohibiting it from benefitting any belligerent. The concept has evolved over a period of some six hundred years. Maintenance of neutrality is largely a function of the belligerents' willingness to accept it, and the neutrals' power to defend it. Neutrality is more than war avoidance, which alone does not place any legal limitations on a country. Neutrality does. Failure to adhere to these legal limitations provides the belligerents with justification to withdraw recognition of neutral status and to treat the former neutral as hostile. The most significant legal requirements involve trade, and the use of the neutrals' soil by a belligerent for any war‐related purpose.
Nogi Maresuke, General (1849–1912)
Authors: Boyd James
Published: November 2011

Nogi Maresuke, one of the heroes of the Russo‐Japanese War of 1904–1905, is remembered largely for his ritualistic suicide following the death of the Emperor Meiji in 1912. Born into a samurai family, Nogi entered the new Japanese Army one year after the imperial restoration that ended the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1877, during the Satsuma Rebellion, an uprising by disgruntled samurai opposed to the new government's modernization policies, an event occurred that shaped Nogi's career. In the fighting between the rebels and government forces, Nogi and the small force under his command, acting against orders, became separated from the main government force. After much heavy fighting, Nogi was forced to retreat, losing the regimental standard in the process. The loss was deemed dishonorable, and Nogi was sentenced to death, only escaping execution after fellow officers pleaded for him to be spared and his confession of guilt sent to the emperor. The emperor refused to allow Nogi to die, instead ordering him to return to the army. Nogi subsequently “carried the dishonor, and an intense death wish, with him always” (Warner 1975 : 50).
Pacification
Authors: Pizzo David
Published: November 2011

Pacification refers to military policies intended to bring about the submission of a subject population to a conquering or governing authority. Since the early history of kingdoms and empires, organized militaries have attempted to “pacify” new or rebellious territories. The Roman Empire engaged in frequent pacification operations in newly conquered regions such as Britain or Gaul, as well as during and after revolts by populations already subjected to Roman authority, such as the First Jewish War (66–73). Much of the Romans' experience with pacification had been gained during their conquest of Spain, which involved a protracted series of pacification campaigns from 218
BCE
until 19
CE
. Pacification operations are most closely associated with the campaigns of the European empires during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They have also been associated with major counterinsurgency operations during wars of national liberation. Pacification operations were particularly violent when launched against enemies resorting to guerilla warfare, which occurred frequently in both the colonial and postcolonial context as indigenous armies sought to minimize European armies' superior logistics and firepower. In some cases, as discussed below, the violence of pacification could result in genocidal outcomes.
Pitt, William (“the Younger”) (1759–1806)
Authors: Green Dominic
Published: November 2011

The youngest prime minister in British history, William Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, led Britain's House of Commons through the aftermath of the American War of Independence (1775–1783), the illness of George III, the French Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), and the Napoleonic Wars (1802–1815). In two terms of office totaling nineteen years, Pitt stabilized the British economy, modernized the prime ministership, and laid the foundations for the defeat of Napoleon. The youngest of a group of remarkable parliamentary orators that included Edmund Burke, Charles James Fox, and Richard Sheridan, he is known as Pitt the Younger to avoid confusion with his father William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–1778), architect of British victory in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763).
Pontiac (Obwandiyag) (1720–1769)
Authors: Vandervort Bruce
Published: November 2011

Born in obscurity and destined to lie in an unmarked grave, Pontiac nonetheless became one of the most famous Indians in the history of North America, though much of his fame was owed to white men writing about him long after his death. A war chief of the Ottawa tribe who inhabited the eastern half of Michigan and parts of Ohio and Ontario, Pontiac fought alongside the French in their wars with Britain between 1744 and 1763. The Ottawa, like most of the Great Lakes Indian tribes, had close relations with the French through the fur trade. David Dixon, author of a study of Pontiac's uprising, believes that it is “entirely possible” that Pontiac led Ottawa warriors in the French and Indian ambush of Braddock's column on the Monongahela in 1755 (Dixon 2006: 62). He was one of the many Western Indian leaders who believed that the war was not over in 1763 but that the French would return to battle on to victory.
Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder
Authors: Reid Fiona
Published: November 2011

Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a relatively new diagnosis. PTSD first appeared in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
in 1980 (
DSM‐III
). Commonly regarded as the bible of the APA,
DSM‐III
is an inventory of about two hundred named mental disorders. The initial diagnostic criteria stated that PTSD was promoted by “a recognizable stressor that would evoke significant symptoms of distress in almost anyone”; the 1987 revision (
DSM‐III‐R
) insisted that such an event should be “outside the range of usual human experience” and would “be markedly distressing to almost anyone.”
DSM‐IV
(1994) states that “By definition, PTSD always follows a traumatic event which causes intense fear and/or helplessness in an individual.” The symptoms of PTSD include sleeping disorders, concentration difficulties, obsessive thoughts, and flashbacks. Sufferers are often extremely anxious, highly irritable, and easily startled; they tend to re‐experience or re‐live the original trauma and so have to avoid situations which might provoke traumatic memories. These may all seem like very general descriptors, but the diagnosis of PTSD was the direct result of research into the particular mental health problems of Vietnam War veterans in the United States, and of much political pressure by those veterans and their advocates.
Preemptive War
Authors: Shue Henry
Published: November 2011

“All successful wars of mankind, gentlemen, have been preventive wars.” Adolf Hitler, December 12, 1944 (Vagts 1956: 267) Preemptive war and preventive war have long been considered two completely separate phenomena, but the US Administration of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney (2001–2008) chose to call preventive war “preemption” (United States, White House 2002). Consequently, what is frequently referred to today by both supporters and opponents as “preemptive war” is actually preventive war. In 2002 “preemptive attack” was officially defined by the US military as “an attack initiated on the basis of incontrovertible evidence that an enemy attack is imminent” (United States, Department of Defense 2002: 33). “Preventive war” was defined as “a war initiated in the belief that military conflict, while not imminent, is inevitable, and that to delay would involve greater risk” (United States, Department of Defense 2002: 336). Thus, according to the US military, preemption responds to a threat that is imminent, and preventive war responds to a threat that is not imminent. The distinction is clear and is generally accepted outside recent US political circles. Since the purpose of the strategic doctrine announced by the Bush/ Cheney Administration was to eliminate threats from weapons of mass destruction (WMD) before they become imminent on the ground that the risk of waiting is too great (United States, White House 2002: 23), it is more accurately characterized as a mislabeled doctrine of preventive war proposed as restricted to threats with WMD (Shue and Rodin 2007: 1–12).
Prisoners of War, Treatment of
Authors: Doyle Robert C.
Published: November 2011

For the most part, captives, hostages, and prisoners provide footnotes to warfare rather than a central focus. Wars over religion, territory, mercantile interests, colonies, or even ideologies, were too serious to devote much time to worrying about prisoners of war (POWs). Captured soldiers were public enemies, burdens to their respective captors and living symbols of lost battles at home. After capture in ancient times, eras without much compassion, POWs, if they were permitted to live, were immediately stripped of their respective citizenship, killed, or made slaves with no rights.
Raids and raiders
Authors: Lamphear John
Published: November 2011

In western warfare, raids were usually surprise attacks into enemy territory without the intention of holding ground. In most cases raids were ancillary to the main goal of destroying enemy armies in pitched battle. Broadly there were two main categories of raiders. First, there were conventional troops employed unconventionally to ambush and infiltrate. They appeared in many manifestations: light cavalry, rangers, special forces; and were often regarded as elite troops. Second, there were irregular fighters, frequently civilians without formal training, operating outside conventional military structure, who might be known as guerillas, insurgents, or terrorists. As they often contravened normal practices and military codes, raiders could be seen as morally ambiguous. Lines of demarcation between various appellations were vague and subjective: one man's “patriot” was another's “brigand.” In many non‐western cultures raiding was regarded differently, however. In parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas warfare consisted of small‐scale clandestine attacks rather than set‐piece battles. Such activity was generally misunderstood by westerners as relatively harmless and ritualistic. However, such reciprocal raiding actually was deadly conflict that assailed an enemy's very survival, erased distinctions between soldiers and civilians, and could last for generations. Practitioners of this “Raiding War” (Lamphear 2003 : 171) were expert at hit‐and‐run tactics and ambushes that terrorized their victims.
Rif Wars (1893, 1909, 1920)
Authors: Alvarez José E.
Published: November 2011

There were three significant colonial wars fought between the Spanish army and Moroccan tribesmen starting in the late nineteenth century and continuing into the early twentieth century. Spain's modern military and diplomatic involvement with Morocco began in 1859 when troops sent by General Leopoldo O'Donnell to crush a localized action by Moroccan tribesmen against Ceuta, a Spanish presidio (garrison) since 1578, turned into a full‐blown conflict. Following this brief six‐month war which resulted in a series of Moroccan defeats, Spain was forced by Great Britain and its own tenuous international position to accept a series of treaties which, while extracting concessions from the Moroccan sultan, limited its territorial ambitions and restored to some degree antebellum stability. This stability remained intact until the early 1890s.
Roberts, Field Marshal Frederick, 1st Earl Roberts of Kandahar (1832–1914)
Authors: Barua Pradeep P.
Published: November 2011

Frederick Sleigh Roberts was born in Cawnpore (Kanpur) in India. In 1832 he was sent to England to follow a quintessential path to becoming a “sepoy” general. He was educated at Eton and then graduated from the East India Company's military academy at Addiscombe. He returned to India in 1852 as a second lieutenant in the Bengal Artillery.
Rodney, Admiral George Brydges (1719–1792)
Authors: Schweizer Karl
Published: November 2011

George Brydges Rodney, British admiral and statesman, was born in 1719 at Walton‐onThames, son of Henry Rodney, an ex‐captain who had served under the earl of Peterborough during the War of the Spanish Succession. Briefly attending Harrow, Rodney volunteered for naval service (1732) on board HMS
Sunderland
, stationed in the Mediterranean. He rose rapidly, with promotions to lieutenant (1739) and postcaptain of the sixty gun frigate HMS
Plymouth
in 1742. After serving in home waters, he obtained command of the battleship HMS
Eagle
(1744). He distinguished himself during the Austrian Succession War, taking part in Admiral Edward Hawke's successful operation against the French fleet off Ushant (1747) as a result of which he was cited for exceptional bravery.
Roman‐Persian Wars (92
BCE
–627
CE
)
Authors: Okamura Lawrence
Published: November 2011

For over 700 years the two major empires of western Eurasia engaged each other variously as respectful neighbors, as potential threats, and as resolute enemies. Rome's
Imperium
, successively under republican magistrates and emperors, and Iran's Empire, ruled by the Arsacid (or Parthian) and the Sassanian (or Persian) dynasties, tried to handle each other while simultaneously controlling internal affairs and warding off external barbarians. By the early seventh century, their resources exhausted, they offered little resistance to Muslim Arabic armies that attacked from the south.
Russian conquests in central Asia (nineteenth century)
Authors: Siegel Jennifer
Published: November 2011

While Russian expansion before 1850 concentrated on the Caucasus and Near East, the later nineteenth century witnessed a clear shift toward central Asia as a focus for Russian imperial efforts. This strategic shift was, in part, unavoidable, as the 1856 Treaty of Paris, ending the Crimean War, denied Russia access to the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits; Russia thereinafter appreciated central Asia's potential as a region in which expansion was not yet thwarted by the other Great Powers and an area in which it might gain bargaining chips for future diplomacy by potentially threatening British India. But there were numerous other Russian motivations for concentrating on central Asia. They were committed to their self‐perceived role as a civilizing force, required to subdue their unstable, predatory neighbors. Similarly, late tsarist Russia considered its imperial destiny coexistent with Russia's Asian heritage. Historically, Russia had been frequently overrun by the peoples of the eastern steppes, and Russian Asian expansion was seen as an opportunity to reunite the peoples once ruled by the Mongol horde, albeit with the Russians now dominant. Russian propaganda emphasized Russia's ability to incorporate its neighbors within the empire for the collective benefit of all. Furthermore, Turkestan's prospects for trade and agriculture — particularly vis‐à‐vis the cotton industry — showed great promise.
Russo‐Turkish Wars (pre‐1878)
Authors: Aksan Virginia H.
Published: November 2011

The Russians and Ottomans fought seven major wars after 1700 before the climactic confrontation in the Balkans in 1877–1878: 1710–1711, 1736–1739, 1768–1774, 1787–1792, 1806–1812, 1828–1829, and the Crimean War (1853–1856). First under Peter the Great, then under Catherine and her successors, the aim of the “southern project” of Russian ambitions was the acquisition of a Black Sea port, an outlet to the Mediterranean and the expansion of Russian influence into Poland and Ukraine, Georgia in the Caucasus, then Serbia, Moldavia, and Romania north of the Danube River. Ideological justifications for such expansion included the protection of the Orthodox brothers of the tsar in Muslim lands and the recapturing of Constantinople. This slowly evolved into Panslavism, which became central to the Eastern Question crises of the later nineteenth century.
Rwandan Genocide
Authors: Infranco Michael P.
Published: November 2011

In spring 1994 in the central African country of Rwanda, the Hutu‐led government planned and executed the murder of an estimated 800,000 Rwandans in what became the most rapid genocide in human history. The extermination of ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutu occurred within the span of one hundred days, and was carried out in disparate locations from communes to roadblocks, and even inside churches. The roots of the conflict reached back to the colonial period, in which the two major ethnic groups within Rwanda, the Hutu and Tutsi, competed for dominance over the country. When independence came to Rwanda in the early 1960s, the majority Hutu seized power and purged the government of Tutsi. Thereafter, the Tutsi were persecuted sporadically and denied positions in government. The Hutus perceived the Tutsis in a negative, hostile image, in which the latter were depicted as former oppressors with bellicose intentions. The Hutu political elite consciously propagated these negative images of the Tutsi in the media and later directed their extermination. Yet, the genocide must also be viewed within the context of the 1990 war that pitted the Tutsi‐based Rwandan Patriotic Front against the Hutu‐led government forces. In sum, the history of this human catastrophe was founded in decades of interethnic antagonism and intermittent violence.
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572)
Authors: Baumgartner Frederic J.
Published: November 2011

The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre occurred on August 24, 1572, during the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598). The civil wars began in 1562 because of the religious divisions, economic difficulties, and political rivalries that fissured France and the weakness of the French monarchy, with young kings occupying the throne after Henry II's death in July 1559. As of 1562 the Huguenots, as French Protestants were called, constituted about 10 percent of the French population, some 1.6 million persons. Protestantism's appeal was strongest among the bourgeoisie, but crucial for the civil wars were the French nobles who became Protestant, including several highranking men such as Antoine de Bourbon and Louis de Condé, who were princes of blood, and Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. When Henry II died, his heir, Francis II, was only 15 years old. Married to Mary Stuart, Francis gave power to her devoutly Catholic uncles, the Guises. Their power rankled their rivals, but they could not dislodge them until Francis died in December 1560. His brother Charles IX, now king at age 10, needed a regent — queen‐mother Catherine de’ Medici, whose goal was maintaining the authority of the French monarch for her son. Thus, there were three powerful factions in France: royalist, ardent Catholic, and Huguenot.
Saturation (carpet) bombing
Authors: Bonura Michael
Published: November 2011

Saturation or carpet bombing began as an idea at the very birth of aviation. The idea maintained that concentrating one's air forces and dropping massive amounts of bombs on an enemy's industrial and population centers would overwhelm their ability to resist, break their morale, and force them to surrender. This idea predated the technology required to implement it, and yet grew to dominate warfare from the 1930s through the 1970s. Ironically, the reality of saturation bombing failed to bring this idea to fruition, despite the best efforts of pilots and generals, and politicians. During the warfare of the twentieth century, saturation bombing failed to independently destroy an enemy's will or means to resist, and in fact played a supporting role in achieving victory.
Schlieffen, Field Marshal Alfred von (1833–1913)
Authors: Seligmann Matthew S.
Published: November 2011

Alfred von Schlieffen was appointed chief of the Great General Staff of the Prussian army in 1891 and held the post until his retirement at the end of 1905. Schlieffen was an officer of considerable military skill, who might legitimately have aspired to rise to the top of his profession. However, he would not have anticipated achieving this as soon as 1891. This came about because of several
faux pas
by his predecessor, Alfred von Waldersee. Waldersee, who succeeded the elder Moltke in 1888, was a politically active general of reactionary views, who saw his role as both leading the army and guiding the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, of whom he was a confidant of long‐standing, to ever more conservative policies both domestically and internationally. In the process, Waldersee expected to become a powerful behind‐the‐scenes figure in the German Empire. It was not to be. Waldersee's political meddling put him in conflict with Germany's responsible political leaders; while his attempts to guide the kaiser eventually overstepped the bounds into active criticism, most notably during the 1891 maneuvers. Accordingly, after just three years in post, Waldersee was dismissed. Schlieffen was chosen as his replacement not only because of his proven tactical acumen, but also because he held no political ambitions. He was a military technocrat unlikely to interfere in areas outside his sphere. In short, he was the antithesis of Waldersee.
Scipio Africanus (236–183 BCE)
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: November 2011

Publius Cornelius Scipio belonged to one of the leading patrician families in Rome during the third century BCE. His father was Publius Cornelius Scipio, consul in 218, and his mother was Pomponia. There is little reliable information about his early life, which was soon obscured by legend. He saved his father at the Battle of the Ticinus against Hannibal in 218 at the start of the Second Punic War (218–201). He then saw service as a military tribune at the Battle of Cannae in 216 and helped rally the survivors at Canusium.
Second Macedonian War (200–197 BCE)
Authors: Dmitriev Sviatoslav
Published: November 2011

The defeat of King Philip V of Macedonia by the Romans finally eliminated Macedonian control over the Greeks (which had been sealed by Philip II's victory at Chaeronea in 338 BCE), established Roman military and political domination over mainland Greece, and provided the basis for extending Roman rule to the entire eastern Mediterranean.
Sekigahara, Battle of (1600)
Authors: Swope Kenneth M.
Published: November 2011

Considered by many to be the most important battle in Japanese history, this engagement was the critical episode in the unification of Japan by Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616), who would subsequently found the last of the Japanese shogunal governments based at Edo (Tokyo) in 1603. The battle has its origins in the arrangements made by Ieyasu's predecessor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for the regency of his young son, Hideyori. Having spent his final years directing a fruitless invasion of Korea, Hideyoshi established a regency of fivedaimyo(used here to denote provincial warlords, though under the Tokugawa shoguns the term denoted samurai lords whose annual income was at least 10,000koku, or bushels of rice) to secure his infant child's inheritance. Tokugawa Ieyasu was the most powerful of these regents but his power was checked somewhat by the others and by another layer of five commissioners, who theoretically ranked below the regents. The most prominent of the latter group was Ishida Mitsunari, who would later head the coalition that opposed Ieyasu at Sekigahara. Disputes had broken out among the various lords even before Hideyoshi's death, as some had opposed thetaikô's decision to evacuate all troops from Korea after their thrust in the autumn of 1597 had been checked south of Seoul. Upon their return from Korea it was also clear that there were serious flaws in Hideyoshi's plans to preserve his patrimony. Even though an accord had been reached, Ishida Mitsunari continued to agitate against Ieyasu, arguing (correctly in fact) that Ieyasu was violating his vows to the late Hideyoshi by conducting marriage alliances and otherwise seeking to entrench himself in a superior position vis‐á‐vis the other regents. Ishida's intrigues were thwarted and he even unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Ieyasu on two occasions, after which he was confined in his own strong hold in Sawayama in Ômi province. The death of fellow regent Maeda Toshiie in May 1599 allowed Tokugawa Ieyasu to further consolidate his own position and rise above his fellow regents.