Peace and War

[rockboy85]

hey guys, i need your help.

i have a friend and she is currently completing her arts masters degree. she is contemplating undertaking a course which reflects on insurgencies and counter insurgencies and the way governments go to war to achieve their apparent goals. does anyone know of a book that deals with the reality of planning a war. or even a book that reflects on peace and war. im after something moving and passionate!

Cheers,

RB

[Purple Poppy]

Just to clarify...are you after a text book, informative type of book, which analyses and assesses or a work of fiction?

Pp

 

Ps...having just watched Black Hawk down, that might fit the bill, fiction but with a strong undercurrent of debated ethics and morality.

[rockboy85]

i would prefer a non fiction book, which looks at the difference a person can make, or at least try and make. my friend is kind of lost and looking for answers, and considers literature the place to find them. so pretty much a factual and emotional experience of organizing a war. wow its not easy to explain but i hope you get my drift....?

[Pilgrim]

Jimmy Carter's Palestine Peace Not Apartheid made a bit of a flap - if your friend is interested in flap. Though it's hard to talk about peace in the Holy Land without a flap of some sort.

[Freewheeling Andy]

I guess it depends a lot on the timeframe you're thinking of, and whether you're wanting the political build up, the military build up, or the effect of the build-up on the normal citizen.

 

In describing the insane chaos of how wars come about through bizarre aliances and stupid decisions and coincidence, the beginning of Adam Zamoyski's "1812" is an excellent summation of a bunch of weird nonsense that eventually caused the French campaign in Russia (and is also a very useful bedfellow of War and Peace itself, which might not be a bad thing to read, either). It's particularly interesting that the Napoleon really didn't want a war with Russia but eventually circumstances and arrogance forced him into it.

 

On a different tack, Gen Romeo Dallaire's Shake Hands With The Devil, gives a fascinating insight into the work he and about 300 UN troops with no mandate did to try and prevent the Rwandan genocide and the wars that followed, and really focusses on the build up and how it got out of control.

[Guest ii]

How about See No Evil by Robert Baer? The one thay used as a starting point to make the movie Syriana (brilliant, by the way!). I don't know if it's really what you're after, but it's an excellent book and deals also with the motives of going into a war.

[kateleopald]

The Forgotten Soldier - Guy Sajer, about a German soldier's experiences in WW2. Has been a lot of controversy about its authenticity but is a gripping read.