New Releases by John R. Schindler

Despite the renewed interest in the First World War, the opening campaigns that decided the course of the global conflict remain under-examined; this is especially true for the Battle for Galicia in August 1914. Not only was Galicia, a historical region located in today''s southern Poland and western Ukraine, the site of the bloodiest battle of the conflict, but the impulses that precipitated the engagement and the unprecedented carnage that resulted also effectively doomed the Austria-Hungarian Empire just six weeks into the war. In "The Fall of the Double Eagle," John R. Schindler draws on extensive archival research, memoirs, and diverse secondary sources in a dozen languages to explain how Austria-Hungary, despite military weakness and the inevitable consequences, consciously chose war in 1914. Through close examination of the Austro-Hungarian military, especially its elite General Staff, Schindler shows how even a war Vienna would likely lose appeared a preferable option to the "foul peace" the top generals loathed. The study considers how the polyglot empire was outgunned and unable to subdue Serbia, resulting in a humiliating defeat that generals sought to cover up. Worse was to come, when Austro-Hungarian divisions launched an offensive into Russian Poland in hopes of defeating the numerically superior enemy. By the time the Russians were halted at the gates of Cracow, over 400,000 Austro-Hungarian troops had been lost in just three weeks, a figure equal to the prewar standing army and a loss from which the empire would never recover. While Austria-Hungary''s ultimate defeat and dissolution was postponed until the autumn of 1918, its fate was preordained in in the late summer of 1914 on the plains and hills of Galicia.

"This book recounts a unique and untold story, that of Naval Reserve (NR) cryptologists--the professional term for codebreakers and codemakers. This has always been a small and select community, one little known to outsiders, and even less understood. Cryptologists have long constituted the most secretive fraternity in America''s armed forces, and Naval Reservists permitted to enter the cryptologic ranks set sail on a journey that placed them apart from the rest of the Naval Reserve, and far apart from their civilian lives. For six decades, through the Cold War and into the age of terrorism, Naval Reserve cryptologists have stood the watch for the Navy and the nation. Yet the highly secretive nature of their work has rendered their service in defense of freedom almost unknown to the public. This volume aims to fill this knowledge gap by telling their story. The Naval Security Group Reserve is an exclusive club with tight lips, and few of its exploits are discussed openly. This work cannot tell the full story--that will have to wait decades until archives are opened and top secret operations are declassified--yet it strives to illuminate what it can, and render an account of Naval Reserve cryptology and its sailors that will be accurate and accessible to all who served in silence."--Page 3.

This timely book synthesizes the perspectives of Osama bin Laden and his fellow Salafi jihadists on how to wage war on their many enemies. A team of experts from the Institute for Defense Analyses working on the Terrorist Perspectives Project undertook the study in order to help U.S. military and civilian policymakers, planners, and educators better understand terrorists. In assembling strategic and operational perspectives of Al Qaida and Associated Movements (AQAM), they focused on the Salafi jihadists'' intellectual leadership and a sampling of their followers, who together comprise the vanguard of the global jihad and share a common enemy-the United States. This project is sponsored by the United States Joint Forces Command.

The first full account of the role the Bosnian conflict--and American policy--played in the transformation of al-Qu’ida from a local terror into a global threat.

This is the first account in English of a much-overlooked, but important, First World War battlefront located in the mountains astride the border between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Not well known in the West, the battles of Isonzo were nevertheless ferocious, and compiled a record of bloodletting that totaled over 1.75 million for both sides. In sharp contrast to claims that neither the Italian nor the Austrian armies were viable fighting forces, Schindler aims to bring the terrible sacrifices endured by both armies back to their rightful place in the history of 20th century Europe. The Habsburg Empire, he contends, lost the war for military and economic reasons rather than for political or ethnic ones. Schindler''s account includes references to remarkable personalities such as Mussolini; Tito; Hemingway; Rommel, and the great maestro Toscanini. This Alpine war had profound historical consequences that included the creation of the Yugoslav state, the problem of a rump Austrian state looking to Germany for leadership, and the traumatic effects on a generation of young Italian men who swelled the ranks of the fascists. After nearly a century, Isonzo can assume its proper place in the ranks of the tragic Great War clashes, alongside Verdun, the Somme, and Passchendaele.