Customer Reviews

A Quick and Dirty Guide to War: Briefings on Present and Potential Wars

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On their Strategy Page website, analyst James Dunnigan and (retired) Colonel Austin Bay state their mission: to view news as history. In this spirit they give us the fourth edition of A Quick and Dirty Guide to War.

It is a compilation on the many wars, conflict, tensions, and potential tensions around the world today. They provide the necessary history, the driving issues today, and a complete list of the various actors, state and non-state including people, political parties, "popular" movements, and terror and criminal organizations. Charts (in a uniform format) describe economic, political, and historical interest of the parties involved, near and far, as well as their ability to intervene. They follow these with predictions: not single predictions, but possible outcomes with ranges of probability. And their record on predictions, from the first three editions, is quite good.

Most readers (excluding perhaps professional analysts and foreign affairs experts) will find here much they have never heard of and much that was mentioned once or twice in the news years ago, but never given follow-up. For them--for us--this book is the cure for our popular education and haphazard news media.

This is more than a book on weapons and wars. It is also one on strategy, politics, ideology and power. It concentrates on the military end but does not neglect all the accompanying subject matter.

Several of the conflicts are still ongoing - in fact almost all of them are: Sri Lanka, India-Pakistan, Burma, the almost endless conflicts in Africa (the Sudan and Zairre lead the pack with total deaths so far), the Mideast conflict. This is pre-breakup of the Soviet Union though that was strongly suggested.

He also discusses future possiblities of outbreaks, many of which are still pertinent today. What is missing is ideology, the driving force behind the greatest mass murders in human history - China, Russia, Germany, Zairre, Sudan, Rwanda...in some ways the problems are unsolvable, dependent upon geography and resource allocation. One only wishes that the book could be updated to the presetn.

This is a book about future wars. Who will fight, where, over what, how it will probably turn out, and when it might happen, for fifty or more perpetual hots spots around the world. People fighting in the Balkans have been repeating the same war for 1300 years and nobody ever wins. Roughly the same for Iraq and Iran, England and France, France and Germany, Japan and Korea... you name it. Peace is only an interlude while the endless war sleeps for a while. It will break out again, in the same place, over the same issues, with the same results. It is only a matter of time.

I wish they had taught us about this in high school. Every American should read this book and keep it handy.

The Authors have a clear grasp of what is going on in the world and how we as a people are effected by the events all over the world. I started reading this series in the 1980's and found their predictions on where a war was going to break out to be on target about 80% of the time.

The author's cover the ethnic and historic causes of conflict a which group and where they are located and how they effect a conflict. They explain how certain thing will effect the way and reason for a conflict, like negative growth. After the quick history section they explain the events that could happen most likely to least likely. Some are chilling, see Russia, some are just eye opening, see Sudan.

In all this book is a good read for the Armchairs Strategist, the pacifist and a person who wants to join a NGO overseas. Reading it you get an idea of what the CIA is telling the Government. In other words BUY II!!!

This book when I first read it as a young analyst seemed like fiction, but as the events in especially Africa have unfolded in the last decade, it seems now almost prophetic in its nature. I have read this text again and again, each time I extract something that is relevant today as well as possibilities for our world tomorrow. I also reccomend Race to the Swift, by Simpkin.

This is a book about future wars. Who will fight, where, over what, how it will probably turn out, and when it might happen, for fifty or more perpetual hots spots around the world. People fighting in the Balkans have been repeating the same war for 1300 years and nobody ever wins. Roughly the same for Iraq and Iran, England and France, France and Germany, Japan and Korea... you name it. Peace is only an interlude while the endless war sleeps for a while. It will break out again, in the same place, over the same issues, with the same results. It is only a matter of time.

I wish they had taught us about this in high school. Every American should read this book and keep it handy.

This book was nearly the first thing I turned to when a new trouble spot surfaced. Africa, the Balkans, and the Muslim World all approached the trends the authors foresaw. Though it is now a bit out of date, there are many sidebar items of history and modern warfare that still retain their importance. I would purchase an updated edition in a heartbeat.

This book provides a good overview of the forces that may involved in the various scenarios discussed in the book (i.e., Libya and Chad, Zaire, etc.). It discusses, well, not only the quantities of each side's forces but also their quality and leadership. Where the book is really lacking, however, is in the political motivations of each side. As Clausewitz emphasized, war is politics by another means. There is a political objective. The author does not discuss political motivations and where he does he does not do a good job. The author is lacking in political sense/knowledge of the situation though his knowledge of the military aspects are quite good.

Note:

For some strange reason this review of the 1st edition of the book Amazon has, all of sudden, also placed under this edition. Please note that the above review applies only to the first edition. This reviewer has not read the 4th edition and has no opinion whatsover towards it as a result.

An insightful & intellegent guide to today's hot spots. Get the jump on the next international headline by reading this!

This is the type of book that demands regular updates. It's informative, yes, but presents itself as something it no longer is.