Warfare and the Third World

As the United States enters into a new form of warfare, a primary battleground will be in the Third World. Critical to understanding the challenges ahead is Harkavy and Neuman's unparalleled examination of the numerous wars in the Third World, from interventions, including the Soviet experience in Afghanistan and that of the United States in Kosovo, to all-out conventional interstate wars such as the serial Arab-Israeli and India-Pakistan battles, to various types of low-intensity conflict, such as Marxist revolutionary and ethno-religious wars today. The authors describe and illustrate how wars have been fought, and how they are different or similar to war as the West knows it. Designed to help the reader better understand these conflicts by focusing on the "how" not the "why" of warfare, the book examines crucial dimension of contemporary armed conflict: the strategies, operations, tactics, doctrines, and weapons of conventional and low-intensity war; military geography; the cultural underpinnings of strategies and tactics; arms resupply; security assistance; and foreign intervention.

Robert E. Harkavy is Professor of Political Science at Pennsylvania State University.

Stephanie G. Neuman is Director of the Comparative Defense Studies Program and an Adjunct Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

The Study of Warfare in the Third World * How the Wars Start: Capabilities, War Aims, Perceptions * Military Geography * How the Conventional Wars Are Fought: Strategies, Doctrines, Tactics, Weapons * Strategies, Operations, Tactics in Low-Intensity Conflict * Culture and Warfare * Security Assistance , Arms Resupply, and Intervention * Conclusions: The Lessons of Modern Warfare