Diana Lary examines how the common soldier in Warlord China became an instrument of oppression and terror.

Defeated in the Sino-Japanese War 1894–95 and the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, Imperial China collapsed into revolution and a republic was proclaimed in 1912. From the death of the first president in 1916 to the rise of the Nationalist Kuomintang government in 1926, the differing regions of this vast country were ruled by endlessly forming, breaking and re-forming alliances of regional generals who ruled as 'warlords'. These warlords acted essentially as local kings and much like Sengoku-period Japan, fewer, larger power-blocks emerged, fielding armies hundreds of thousands strong. In the midto late 1920s some of these regional warlords. This book will reveal each great warlord as well as the organization of their forces which acquired much and very varied weaponry from the west including the latest French air force bombers. They were also joined by Japanese, White Russian and some Western soldiers of fortune which adds even more colour to a fascinating and oft-forgotten period.

"Human rights lawyer Shannon Sedgwick Davis runs the Bridgeway Foundation, whose stated mission is to end mass atrocities around the world. When she spoke to survivors of warlord Joseph Kony's brutal attacks across Central Africa, she knew she would fight to ensure every mother there had the right that she had, to sing their children to sleep at night and trust that they will be safe til morning. When nations had failed to shield families in danger, she'd come to hire a private army to protect them. Millions had been affected by the violence of the Lord's Resistance Army, led by Kony, including tens of thousands of children who had been abducted from their homes, swept into the jungles and forced to become child soldiers, never to be seen again. Guided by her faith and driven by her moral responsibility as an activist, Davis pushed tirelessly for intervention, using every contact she had in Washington, to the highest levels of the State Department--but since it wouldn't serve our national interests, the issue languished. Davis's efforts to report on the conflict and help survivors were valuable--but they were putting band-aids on bulletholes. Davis realized that to truly stand by Bridgeway's mission, they would have to become the ones they were waiting for. Davis knew she had to act, but this was uncharted territory and she feared that hiring a private army to stop the LRA might lead to more chaos. The decision weighed heavily on her heart, but when she spoke to her mentor Archbishop Desmond Tutu, he took her hand, and told her to put her fears to rest"--

As riveting as the man it portrays, Warlord is a masterful, unsparing portrait of Winston Churchill, one of history’s most fascinating and influential leaders. “Epic. . . . A brilliantly exciting narrative. . . . D’Este has given us, finally, the lion not only in winter, but at war: impetuous, brazen, misguided, but indefatigable, indomitable, and magnanimous: the greatest and most energetic generalissimo of the 20th century.” —Boston Globe Carlo D’Este’s definitive chronicle of Churchill’s crucial role in the major military campaigns of the 20th century, Warlord uses extensive, untapped archival materials to provide “a very human look at Churchill’s lifelong fascination with soldiering, war, and command.” (Washington Post)

The Last Warlord tells the story of the brotherhood forged in the mountains of Afghanistan between elite American Green Berets and Dostum that is told in the movie 12 Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horsesoldiers The Last Warlord tells the spellbinding story of the legendary Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, a larger-than-life figure who guided US Special Forces to victory over the Taliban after 9/11. Having gained unprecedented access to General Dostum and his family and subcommanders, as well as local chieftains, mullahs, elders, Taliban prisoners, and women's rights activists, scholar Brian Glyn Williams paints a fascinating portrait of this Northern Alliance Uzbek commander who has been shrouded in mystery and contradicting hearsay. In contrast to sensational media accounts that have mythologized the "bear of a man with a gruff laugh" who "some Uzbeks swear, has on occasion frightened people to death," Williams carefully chronicles Dostum's rise from peasant villager to Uzbek leader and skilled strategist who has fought a long and bitter war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda fanatics that have sought to repress his people. Also revealed is Dostum's surprising history as a defender of women's rights and religious moderation. In riveting detail The Last Warlord spotlights the crucial Afghan contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom: how the CIA contacted the mysterious warrior Dostum to help US Special Forces wage a covert war in the mountains of Afghanistan, how respect and even friendship quickly grew between the Afghan and American fighting men, and how Dostum led his nomadic people charging into war the same way his ancestors had—on horseback. The result was one of the most decisive campaigns in the entire war on terror. The Last Warlord shows that, far from serving as an exotic backdrop for American heroics, it was these horse-mounted descendents of the Mongol warrior Genghis Khan that allowed the American military to overthrow the Taliban regime in a matter of weeks. .

China in the 1910s and 1920s was dominated by a succession of military strongmen who fought with each other for the control of the country. Weak central government meant that provincial governors or Warlords and their personal armies were left to fight over the country. The wars that resulted cost millions of civilian deaths and the death of hundreds of thousands of ordinary soldiers. In total a staggering 500 wars were fought over a seventeen year period from 1911 to 1928 starting with the fall of the Qing Dynasty and ending with the victory of the Nationalists in 1928. Some of these conflicts involved a few hundred men on each side, while the larger wars involved up to one million men with tanks, armored trains, and aircraft. This book will, for the first time, show in detail the history of the Armies of Warlord China featuring over 600 rare photographs and illustrations. The book also includes color sections on the uniforms, aircraft and awards and medals of the Chinese Warlord Armies.

Reno (political science, Florida International U.) examines alternative, usually clandestine, economic systems, arguing that such phenomena as tax evasion, illicit production, smuggling, and protection rackets have become widespread and integral to building political authority in parts of Africa. He also clarifies the limitations of the liberalizing reforms of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by detailing how weak- state and warlord political economies restrict and manipulate bank and IMF prescriptions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The first study of Benito Mussolini's failure as a war leader.

The Chinese Nationalist Army was at war almost continuously from 1931 until 1949 fighting first against the invading Japanese Imperial Army until 1945. This was followed by a four year civil war in which the Nationalist Army fought the Chinese Communists until its final defeat in 1949. Millions of Chinese soldiers fought and died during this eighteen years of conflict and their sacrifice has been largely overshadowed by the events of the Second World War. This new book presents in a large number of period images the history of the Chinese Nationalist Army and its campaigns.

During the final four centuries BC, many political and stateless entities of the Mediterranean headed towards anarchy and militarism, while stronger powers -Carthage, the Hellenistic kingdoms and Republican Rome- expanded towards State formation, forceful military structures and empire building. Edited by T. Ñaco del Hoyo and F. López Sánchez, this volume presents the proceedings from an ICREA Conference held in Barcelona (2013), addressing the connection between war, warlords and interstate relations from classical studies and social sciences perspectives. Some twenty scholars from European, Japanese and North American Universities consider the scope of ‘multipolarity’ and the usefulness of ‘warlord’, a modern category, in order to feature some ancient military and political leaderships.