Understanding Modern Warfare (2^nd Ed., Revised edition)

Understanding Modern Warfare has established itself as the leading introduction to the issues, ideas, concepts and context necessary to understand the theory and conduct of warfare in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is an invaluable text for military professionals and students of military history. Key features include: incisive coverage of the debates surrounding contemporary and future warfare; accessible, yet sophisticated, discussion across the land, sea, and air environments; and coverage of contemporary topics such as drones, cyber warfare, and hybrid warfare. The book makes extensive use of text boxes to explain key concepts and to reference extended examples, and it includes annotated guides to further reading and key questions to promote the reader's further thinking. This second edition has been fully revised and updated to take into account new debates and recent events in Syria, Iraq and Ukraine, and it has also been restructured to further improve its usefulness as a teaching tool.

Preface; Introduction; Part I. Strategy: 1. The study and theory of strategy; 2. Strategy defined; 3. The practice of strategy; Part II. Land Warfare: 4. Concepts of land warfare; 5. Modern land warfare; 6. Future land warfare; Part III. Naval Warfare: 7. Concepts of naval warfare; 8. The evolution of naval warfare; 9. Naval warfare in the twenty-first century; Part IV. Air and Space Warfare: 10. Concepts and characteristics of air and space warfare; 11. The evolution of air and space power; 12. Air and space power in the contemporary era: 1990–2030; Part V. Irregular Warfare: 13. Key concepts and terms of irregular warfare; 14. The historical practice of irregular warfare; 15. Current irregular warfare; Part VI. Weapons of Mass Destruction: 16. Weapons of mass destruction: radiological, biological, and chemical weapons; 17. Weapons of mass destruction: nuclear weapons; Conclusion; Glossary; Index.

David Jordan is a Senior Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King's College London, and is based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Shrivenham, UK. Prior to this, he was a Lecturer in the Department of Modern History at the University of Birmingham. He has been Academic Director for the air power aspects of the Advanced Command and Staff Course, Departmental Director of Teaching, and is currently the Air Warfare Historian to the Higher Command and Staff Course. He is a co-director of the RAF Centre for Air Power Studies, a member of the Chief of the Air Staff's Air Power Workshop and serves on the editorial board for the RAF's Air Power Review.
Dr James D. Kiras is an Associate Professor of Strategic Studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Joint Special Operations University, Tampa, Florida. His first book was entitled Special Operations and Strategy: From World War II to the War on Terrorism (2006). Dr Kiras has published extensively on the subjects of irregular warfare, special operations, and terrorism.
David J. Lonsdale is Director of the Centre for Security Studies at the University of Hull. As a lecturer in strategic studies, his main area of research is strategic theory and its application to historical and contemporary strategic settings. His publications include The Nature of War in the Information Age: Clausewitzian Future (2003), Alexander the Great: Lessons in Strategy (2007) and Understanding Contemporary Strategy (2012).
Ian Speller is Senior Lecturer in Military History in the Department of History and Director of the Centre for Military History and Strategic Studies at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He also lectures at the Irish Military College and has lectured on maritime strategy and naval warfare at the UK Defence Academy and at NATO headquarters in London and Naples. He is the author of Understa