Seven twisted voices, seven outrageous stories.True Wit is a beach-ready collection of off-kilter tales from seven of today’s most original humorous authors from around the globe.What makes you laugh?In Benefit of Hindsight for Ghosts, a disoriented spirit gets more than he bargained for when he ends up haunting a jail against his will. Or dive into a bizarrely comic tale of mistaken identity in The Curious Case of a Murder Being Announced at Dos...

In the midst of the First World War, an extraordinary intelligence unit operated from Cairo’s Savoy Hotel, combining the skills of archaeologists, academics and soldiers to revolutionise how Britain gathered information and shaped events in the Middle East. Overshadowed by Lawrence of Arabia, the Arab Bureau’s true significance has remained hidden in plain sight ever since.This fascinating study uncovers the Bureau’s remarkable story through newly discovered Arabic documents and pr...

For three decades after the Cold War, NATO member states no longer faced a major threat, and focussed on out-of-area operations. They took the opportunity to reduce defence spending and foster their own national defence industries; interoperability was limited to air and maritime missions on a small scale.The 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and war by proxy in eastern Donbass was a wake-up call, while China’s creeping seizure and fortification of islands in the South China Sea, a...

What is military strategy today? In an era when European states seek to de-escalate and avoid armed conflict, and where politicians fear the consequences of protracted operations or tactical hazards, does military strategy have any relevance?This is the first volume to examine current military risks and threats for NATO from a military strategy vantage point. Which strategies are needed? Is ways—ends—means thinking possible as a strategic template today? The contributors probe the ...

How can you off-balance your enemy? When is the best moment to deliver a counter-attack? What is the effect of shock action or defence in depth? Certain tactical concepts have stood the test of time. This ground-breaking book examines, in a series of case studies, 25 of the key tactics that have achieved victory through the ages. Drawing on examples of battles from around the globe, on land, at sea and in the air, and across history, the authors reveal the enduring value of each tactic in ...

Mental Crudites – Appetizers for the Creative Mind gives the aspiring Science Fiction writer lots of ideas for building their future worlds. This volume, Helping Science Fiction Writers Get Their Ideas Off The Ground, contains fourteen chapters describing different spaceship propulsion systems that authors can use to move their characters from a planet's surface to orbit, between planets in a star system, or across the interstellar void. Journeys can take weeks, y...

Silence isn't golden; in business, it's a liability.Communication is often cited as a "soft skill," but in Overcommunicate, Rob Johnson proves it is the hardest-and most vital-work a leader does. Real alignment doesn't happen in a single memo or a quarterly town hall; it happens in the intentional, repetitive, and adaptive ways we connect with our people.Drawing on candid conversations with top business leaders, Johnson highlights the nuances of executive presence....

This book examines the key dimensions of 21st century war, and shows that orthodox thinking about war, particularly what it is and how it is fought, needs to be updated.Accelerating societal, economic, political and technological change affects how we prepare, equip and organise for war, as well as how we conduct war – both in its low-tech and high-tech forms, and whether it is with high intensity or low intensity. The volume examines changes in warfare by investigating the key fea...

This new work examines how the European states, the United Kingdom and the United States will approach the defence and Security of Europe in the medium and long-term. It is often assumed that Brexit, the United Kingdom’s departure from the political and commercial European Union, would affect defence and security profoundly, but the basis of that assumption is rarely analysed. Bringing together a panel of specialists from Europe, the UK, the EU, and the United States, this volume evaluates...

What was British imperialism and was it an important element of modern globalization? Were economic, political or military factors paramount in imperial expansion? Do post-colonial theories assist or mislead historians? How have histories of imperialism changed, and are current analyses satisfactory?Robert Johnson's invaluable guide offers a succint, easy-to-follow introduction to the key issues and historiography of British imperialism from its origins to the conversion to the Com...

The First World War in the Middle East swept away five hundred years of Ottoman domination. It ushered in new ideologies and radicalised old ones - from Arab nationalism and revolutionary socialism to impassioned forms of atavistic Islamism. It created heroic icons, like the enigmatic Lawrence of Arabia or the modernizing Atatürk, and destroyed others. And it completely re-drew the map of the region, forging a host of new nation states, including Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and S...

Central Asia is likely to become a new arena of international interest in the twenty-first century, not least because of its volatile cocktail of abundant oil and gas, Islamic Jihadist groups, dictatorial regimes and the political and economic rivalry of the United States, Russia, China and Iran. Some believe that it could become the ‘new Middle East’ – a battleground for access to precious resources, religious fundamentalism and democratic politics. Narcotics, ethnic tensions and impoveri...