Military History

This article (written in Polish) focuses on the aquacritical interpretation of literary texts in the paradigm of the new historiography of the 1934 flood. By applying deep mapping of interpretations and methodology developed in the field of ecocriticism and spatial studies, the authors analyze the works by Polish writers, J. Kurek, K. I. Gałczyński, and M. Płaza, to indicate the frequent renamings in the flood vocabulary. Examination of language militarization in flood narratives (fighting the river) and its symptomatic discourse of power and control (control over the river element) shows that both the Polish experience of the First World War – along with subsequent military conflicts – and the impact of militarized state politics left a mark on the flood vocabulary and resulted in a disagreement between the human subject and the living river.

Ornas (also Hornach) appears in the mentions of several Latin authors in the mid-thirteenth century as an important city deep in Asia that had been conquered by the Mongols. There have been several past suggestions by scholars for its identity; the scattered mentions of Ornas (Hornach) have been variously suggested to refer to Tana, Otrar, or Konye-Urgench. The present paper argues that these references, though confused on matters of geography since the Western European authors were writing about largely unknown regions that they did not personally visit, are typically references to the city of Konye-Urgench. The Latin authors' descriptions of its fall to the Mongols unquestionably draw parallels with Middle Eastern, Rus' , Chinese, and Mongol accounts. This paper argues that the Latin references to Ornas' proximity to a nearby sea are related to the Aral Sea which had southerly stretches very close to Konya-Urgench as is indicated, for instance from Russian survey maps of the nineteenth century. This identification allows us to place John of Plano Carpini's description of the fall of Ornas within a larger, cohesive narrative which, though confused on points, offers insights on the fall of the Khwarazmian Empire in the early 1220s.

During the first half of the 19th century, warfare did not provide a background for a systematic analysis of spinal cord injury (SCI). Medical officers participating in the Peninsular and Crimean Wars emphasized the dismal prognosis of this injury, although authors of sketchy civil reports persuaded a few surgeons to operate on closed fractures. The American Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion was the first text to provide summary of results in 642 cases of gunshot wounds of the spine. The low incidence of this injury (0.26%) and the high mortality rate (55%) discouraged the use of surgery in these cases. Improvements in diagnoses and the introduction of x-ray studies in the latter half of the century enabled Sir G. H. Makins, during the Boer War, to recommend delayed intervention to remove bone or bullet fragments in incomplete injuries. The civil experiences of Elsberg and Frazier in the early 20th century promoted a meticulous approach to treatments, whereas ...

This article analyzes the transformation of Israeli security organizations after the Yom Kippur War. In this context, the literature on military change and the change of intelligence organizations was systematically examined in order to draw the theoretical and practical framework of the transformation. As a result of the research, we argue that the Yom Kippur War was considered as an intelligence failure by Israeli policy makers and the public, and the main reason for the transformation was the motivation to eliminate social trauma and failure. In addition, contrary to the common view in the literature, the transformation in Israeli military institutions took place in a hybrid manner, both top-down and bottom-up. We also conclude that, given the military, political and strategic conjuncture not only during the war, but also before and after the war, the change in question arising from the failure of the intelligence was two-way, encompassing various transformation factors. Finally,...

Internal and external state security determines defense needs. It takes place within the domain of foreign policy, as well as defense policy and strategy. One of the key elements of defense needs are weapons and military equipment requirements. Due to the fact that the state is the purchaser of armaments production, it has the legal obligation to develop defense industry and to ensure its safety. State services protect defense industry against unauthorized access. Existing threats require taking actions on the basis of the law on protection of classified information, and, when it is necessary, also conducting intelligence and surveillance operations.

The author analyzes the therapeutic service development of the young city of the era of “developed socialism”, which eventually becomes the basis for the creation of the urban healthcare system in the late Soviet industrial centers. Both problems and achievements of its development are identified along with specific features of the urban healthcare system that had been formed at the beginning of the “Perestroika”, which eventually sharply distinguished the new socialist industrial centers from the cities of the European part of the country. During the period under consideration, a lot of work was done to establish a therapeutic service in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny. At the time the construction of industrial enterprises began, there was only one therapeutic unit in the central district hospital in the city. Later, hospitals and out-patient clinics were opened, healthcare centers and workshop services operated to treat the workers. Therapy was the basis of all specialized medical...

Remote sensing survey in southern Jordan has identified at least three Roman temporary camps that indicate a probable undocumented military campaign into what is today Saudi Arabia, and which we conjecture is linked to the Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom in AD 106.

Il 13 settembre 2010 si svolsero a Bordighera (IM) i funerali del partigiano Renzo Biancheri (Rensu u Longu), che aveva fatto parte durante la Resistenza dei "Partigiani del Mare" o "Gruppo Sbarchi Vallecrosia". Giuseppe "Mac" Fiorucci aveva nell'occasione mandato ad una mailing-list locale una testimonianza della persona defunta, raccolta per una pubblicazione che all'epoca non conoscevo ancora, benché fossi stato in precedenza messo al corrente della sua preparazione. Come feci allora con l'approvazione dell'estensore della raccolta, riporto qui di seguito (ma adesso in forma parziale) il testo richiamato. "La mia storia nella Resistenza è legata a filo doppio con Renzo Rossi. Nell'agosto del 1944 mi aggregai al gruppo partigiano di Girò [Pietro Gerolamo Marcenaro, "Gireu"], che operava nella zona di Negi [Frazione di Perinaldo (IM)], dove godevamo anche dell'appoggio di Umberto Sequi a Vallebona e di Giuseppe Bisso a Seborga; tutti e due membri del CLN di Bordighera. Negi era il punto di contatto tra le varie formazioni partigiane che operavano nella zona: Cekoff [Mario Alborno di Bordighera (IM)], Gino Napolitano ecc.

This study examined the Impact of Coalition Joint Tasks Force in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study employed survey design. A total population of 400 participants was selected using Taro Yamani formula as sampling techniques to determine the sample size. Questionnaire was used as an instrument for collection of data; the collected data were analyzed using descriptive and Pearson Product Moment correlation statistic. The results revealed that Coalition Joint Task Force has positive significant effect on personal, political, economic, and community security in Kaduna State. The study concluded that Coalition Joint Task Force has significant role on Human Security in Kaduna State. It was recommended that: The Federal government should also continue to integrate and recruit them into the various security agencies to prevent them from degenerating into criminal gangs, political thugs or becoming bandits which is a high possibility if care is not taken. Finally, the federal, state and local...

The Suez Canal is ranked among the most significant engineering feats in human history. Besides its geopolitical and economic impact, however, the Canal became a subject of sanitary concern right from the beginning of its operation in 1869, which coincided with the fourth pandemic of cholera. Sanitary efforts during the 19th century focused on humans and merchandise distributed through the Canal in the frame of the theories of contagion and contamination. Contact with Asia via maritime trade routes entailed increased possibilities of dangerous pathogens and infectious diseases invading the Mediterranean and – by extension – Europe, as evidenced by the cholera and plague epidemics in Egypt. The sanitary significance of the Suez Canal was further demonstrated in the early 20th century when the cholera biotype El Tor was discovered in the Sinai Peninsula. After the Second World War the health systems evolved by incorporating all guidelines of the World Health Organization, whereas spec...

The article is devoted to the study of the emergence and development of populism in the political struggle of the late Roman Republic. It focuses on the purely Roman nature of this phenomenon, which distinguishes it from ancient Greek demagogy, and highlights the basic principles and goals to which populist politicians appealed. The authors show that in its original meaning populism was a way of ensuring the participation of the people in politics. Despite all the ambiguity of this phenomenon, a conclusion is made about the objective regularity of the emergence of populism and about its high significance in the conditions of the social, economic and political transformation of the late Roman Republic. In addition, populism can be viewed as a marker of the existence of democratic politics, which presupposes the presence of civic virtues, both among citizens and among politicians, as well as the active participation of the people in political life.

The development of technologies allows the improvement of the algorithms for the operation of aviation systems for the delivery of special means to air and ground objects. The aim is to increase their efficiency, while facilitating the work of the crew in case of lack of time to complete the task. A mathematical model for the operation of this type of aviation systems for the supply of special equipment has been developed, which allows reducing the volume of the existing protocol for the implementation of the crew. It is proposed to use a common ballistic algorithm, combining different groups of special means of delivery to air and ground sites.

La historia política de Colombia se caracterizó a finales del siglo XIX y la primera mitad del siglo XX, por las constantes disputas entre liberales y conservadores por el afán de estos por alcanzar el dominio del poder Estatal. Así, la rivalidad ideológica de ambos partidos afectaba el cotidiano vivir de los colombianos, provocando que estos se identificaran en términos políticos con el color insignia, en este caso -rojo o azul- del partido al cual se adherían ideológicamente. En este sentido, el presente ensayo tiene como objetivo, explicar los orígenes del Frente Nacional (FN) para entender la mecánica ideológica de rojos y azules en la recuperación del poder estatal en el periodo abordado en el contexto colombiano.

Sacking of Lt Col Sidhu Brar Commanding Officer 16 Cavalry , for miserable failure on 11 September 1965,missed by Lt Gen Mahmud’s badly written history , whitewashed by Harbaksh Singh, Praval,Bhupinder Singhs book, Monsoon War
April 2024
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.26061.24807
Agha H Amin

O objeto deste artigo é a tese do Capitão Mário Travassos apresentada na obra intitulada Aspectos Geográficos Sul-Americanos, de 1931. O objetivo foi submetê-la ao crivo das mudanças da política internacional na América do Sul no século XXI, focando na presença dos EUA na região. Concluímos que os seus prognósticos permanecem atuais. 

Con RSSM prende vita la Rivista internazionale di Studi Storici del Mediterraneo che, grazie a una relazione dialettica e fertile con altre discipline, vuole promuovere una prospettiva sugli eventi e i processi storici di questo spazio solido/liquido che superi i confini stabiliti dalla geografia e che rinvii a un Mediterraneo globale, a un Mediterraneo-Mondo.
RSSM marks the birth of the International Journal of Mediterranean Historical Studies, which, through a dialectical and fertile relationship with other disciplines, aims to promote a perspective on the events and historical processes of this solid/liquid space that transcends the boundaries established by geography and refers to a global Mediterranean, to a Mediterranean-World.

Environment as a Weapon  considers how the confluence of war and nature from the time of the Agricultural Revolution (10,000 BCE) to our present day has been represented in works of history, geography, and literature. In the Epic of Gilgamesh,  the Torah and Greco-Roman myths,  warfare is a trope commensurate with environmental disasters, extreme climate, and plague.  In the medieval age myths the Táin,  and Beowulf  environments become allies and enemies.  The equestrian steppeland as foundation of Genghis Khan’s and his heirs  Pax Mongolica  is chronicled in The Secret History of the Mongols and The Travels of Marco Polo.  The West African Griot legend of Sundiata and the Little Ice Age wreck of the Spanish Armada in 1588 speak to oceanic and atmospheric dimensions of warfare.  American Revolution political pamphlets, poetry, diaries and weather logs,  reflect the severe weather and terrain deployed by George Washington’s early campaigns in the war of independence.  Napoleon’s midwifing of Total War is captured in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and Charles Minard’s Carte figurative carto-graph of the disastrous 1812 French invasion of Russia.  The  U.S. Civil War and the organic-industrial assembles of its battles, arguably the first Anthropocene War,  is parsed by the clarifying poetry of Emily Dickinson.  Geopolitik  and geo-hazards of flood and fire feature in the Global War  works of  Samuel Beckett,  Kurt Vonnegut and  James Dickey. The literature of Vietnamese and American war combat veterans reveals how North Vietnam’s Environmental Military Complex stalled the American Military Industrial Complex in the jungles, and R&R districts of southwestern Asia. Finally, he sci-fi of H.G. Wells’ World Set Free and David Mitchell’s Cloud-Atlas frame Oppenheimer’s sub-atomic deployments at Hiroshima and Nagasaki,  James Lovelock’s  ‘Gaia’ and U.S. military discourses situating global warming as a national security threat to America. Indeed, Environment and War  ironically resonates with U.N. Secretary General António Guterres proclamation that “seventy-five years ago, the world emerged from a series of cataclysmic events: two successive world wars, genocide, a devastating influenza pandemic . . . Our founders gathered in San Francisco promising to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” Thus, a holistic approach to studying and mitigating the human and environmental impacts of warfare, must integrate methods from the arts, humanities and sciences. This involves understanding how the historical geographies of the Earth’s planetary systems have been perceived, deployed and emerged as agents of warfare,  with the lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere and atmosphere transformed as arsenals against anthropogenic global warming. This book will be of interest to geographers, historians, and scholars in environmental studies,  climate change, literature and military studies,  as well as the broader environmental humanities.

'Land on the Edge' was commissioned by Historic England and Lincolnshire County Council as part of the wider 'Inns on the Edge' project (Historic England project number 8398). The long, low-lying coastline of Lincolnshire has changed dramatically and repeatedly over the centuries and millennia, and one of the key aims of the Land On The Edge project was to understand its dynamic evolution along the 75 mile-long stretch from Grimsby to Boston.

This report is the main research report for this strand of the project, offering a detailed academic analysis of the coastal landscape evolution of this region (109,784 words). The report is divided into four sections. The first outlines the sources used for this research report and the rationale of the project. The second offers a detailed discussion of the methodology utilised followed by analyses of the landscape evidence from the six identified sub-regions that together make up the project area. The third provides thematic summaries relating to the landscape history of this coastal zone. The fourth and final section looks at the wider relevance and utility of the 'Land on the Edge' project.

At HIDDEN FACES: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance. 2024, Met. Mus. NYC, this Leonardo Da Vinci self-portrait painting (on left) with the d'Este Coat-of-Arms, on the back, was previously owned by Beatrice d'Este and is misattributed as Francesco d'Este by Rogier Van Der Weyden. It is not Early Netherlandish, but Renaissance Italian.

Ethiopia undertakes inordinate opportunities and challenges to shape its education system. Notwithstanding the positive connotations of understanding the Ethiopian educational system, the exact educational configuration should be clarified. Thus, this realist review examined Ethiopian education during the imperial period, its growth patterns, external and internal challenges, and the colonial influences that hindered education transformation. The diversification of political party-oriented leadership in the education system from internal perspectives and hidden neo-colonialist ideology-oriented support from external bodies were identified as enclosing the truth offered by the imperial government in education development. Furthermore, it has been found that the enclosed facts that the imperial government sacrificed for generations to advance education for nation-building have been covered in dust by prudish politicians in the last three decades. It also identified the inhibiting and promoting efforts of international partners during the imperial period in education in Ethiopia.

The king is dead, long live the king!' serves as one of the best-known exclamations for marking changes of monarchical rule. While literally reducing the proclamation of the incumbent's death and his successor's accession to a single (prolonged) held breath, this paper argues that successions of rule cannot always be condensed to such a barely noticeable reflex that focuses solely on emphasising dynastic continuities. Assessing the ruler's body as cornerstone in narrating these moments of change, it is argued that, for instance, notions of the return of a supposedly dead predecessor to restore rulership ultimately run counter to established narrative strategies of dynastic upheavals. How is a ruler believably dead and yet still alive, a change of rule accomplished and yet still in progress, and rulership, thus, there and not? In this paper, such ambivalences are discussed using the change of rule after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 as example.