Review by Choice Review
Assigning peacekeeping roles to traditional militaries has created something of a crisis for those militaries, as their extant doctrines were inadequate or even counterproductive in carrying out new missions. Cassidy (U.S. Army) argues that military strategic culture largely determines how states respond to this doctrinal challenge. He first traces the historical development of such culture in the British and American militaries and assesses what peacekeeping doctrine existed in those organizations at the end of the Cold War. Case studies of the US military in Somalia and the British military in Bosnia respectively during the early 1990s are used to illustrate how peacekeeping doctrine evolved in reaction to those operations. This work is densely written, and will be of most interest to professional military audiences. It reveals more about military culture and doctrine, as opposed to peacekeeping, despite the title. As peacekeeping doctrine is something of a moving target, there is the risk that the descriptive parts of this book will shortly be outdated, although the theoretical argument about military culture will endure. ^BSumming Up: Optional. Professionals and practitioners. P. F. Diehl University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
