San Antonio College Library

A compellingly readable history of the forgotten wars of American history: the small conflicts that resulted from-and helped promote-America's rise to world power. Boot (editorial features editor, The Wall Street Journal) celebrates American interventionism and imperialism, arguing that the military strategies involved in small wars of imperialism have been constant in American history and have demonstrated substantial success in dominating less-developed...

The Banana Wars is the first history of the rise of the United States as a military power in this hemisphere - from the Spanish-American War in 1898 to the recent Grenadan and Panama interventions. It concerns most of all the men sent to maintain order in remote locales - the military governors, generals, and officers - and also the State Department officials, congressmen, and Presidents who pulled the strings back home. In his gripping account based...

"Is it possible and worthwhile to use the military in conjunction with humanitarian action to thwart violence and mitigate civilian suffering? This timely book seeks to answer this question by looking at the contemporary context and history of military-civilian interactions, developing a framework for assessing military costs and civilian benefits, and examining in depth the five most prominent cases -- Northern Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and...

Contrary to the expectations of some and the hopes of many, the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War did not bring about an era of peace and stability. Rather, conflict between and within states is commonplace, and threaten to become more violent and dangerous with the spread of unconventional arms and the means to deliver them. Important, even vital, U.S. interests could be jeopardized in such a disorderly world. As a result, questions...

In Sands of Empire, veteran political journalist and award-winning author Robert W. Merry examines the misguided concepts that have fueled American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. The emergence in the George W. Bush administration of America as Crusader State, bent on remaking the world in its preferred image, is dangerous and self-defeating, he points out. Moreover, these grand-scale flights of interventionism, regime change, and the...

"The study will be a valuable guide for all those keen to understand the use of international law and the United Nations in the first two major conflicts of the 21st century and their implications for the future role of the United Nations."--Jacket.

"Michael Walzer is one of the world's most eminent philosophers on the subject of war and ethics. Now, for the first time since his classic Just and Unjust Wars was published almost three decades ago, this volume brings together his most provocative arguments about contemporary military conflicts and the ethical issues they raise." "The essays in the book are divided into three sections. The first deals with issues such as nuclear deterrence, humanitarian...

"From Eisenhower's toppling of Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954 to Bush's overthrow of Noriega in Panama in 1989, Grow casts a close eye on eight major cases of U.S. intervention in the Western Hemisphere, offering fresh interpretations of why they occurred and what they signified." "Grow argues that it was not threats to U.S. national security or endangered economic interests that were decisive in prompting presidents to launch these interventions. Rather,...

"Final Solutions focuses on three types of mass killings: communist mass killings like the ones carried out in the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia; ethnic genocides as in Armenia, Nazi Germany, and Rwanda; and "counterguerilla" campaigns including the brutal civil war in Guatemala and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Valentino closes the book by arguing that attempts to prevent mass killing should focus on disarming and removing from power...