war Archives - DJ Wez G

July 10, 2023 wezg

Review: Moscow Rules: What Drives Russia To Confront The West – by Keir Giles

I am a new member of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London. On a recent visit, I made use of the vast resources of a very well-stocked library at Chatham House and this book is the

June 19, 2023 wezg

Chatham House: How Effective Are The United States’ Sanctions? 19.06.2023

Chatham House is the Royal Institute ofInternational Affairs. It is based in St. James’ Square, Mayfair, London, a short walk from Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. I have been a member of Chatham House for several months but with me being based

June 18, 2023 wezg

Review: Before Bletchley Park – The Codebreakers of The First World War – by Paul Gannon

I have previously read a lot of material on World War 2 codebreakers and the likes of Alan Turing and their critical work against Enigma and the invention of modern computing during that period. Of course, codebreaking and cryptography is

June 17, 2023 wezg

Review: Queens of the Crusades – by Alison Weir

I had previously read Alison Weir’s most excellent book specifically on Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine many years ago so the author was familiar to me. I chanced upon this title in my local library (Caldicot) and thought I’d give it

June 4, 2023 wezg

Erdoğan’s Third Term as President of Turkey and What It Means

On May 28th 2023, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was giving a victory speech to the excited Turkish masses, who had democratically elected him to a third term as President of Turkey. He achieved 52.2% of the vote in the second round

May 26, 2023 wezg

Review: MI9: A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two – by Helen Fry

I randomly found this book on the shelves of Caldicot library. I read a lot of books on U.K. Intelligence services: MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. During the war…. Mt grandfather (GaGa) was in 618 Squadron RAF and 143 Coastal Command.

May 18, 2023 wezg

Review: Defending The Realm – MI5 and The Shayler Affair – by Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding

This is just another one of the many books I’ve read on the security services / spies / intelligence agencies in general. I guess I have a morbid fascination. Non-fiction throws up some pretty weird stuff – Life itself is

May 16, 2023 wezg

Review: The Assault On Truth – Boris Johnson and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism – by Peter Oborne

I think everyone that has ever heard of Boris Johnson associates him with lies. Oborne, who is an established veteran political journalist, in this relatively brief text, exposes the extent of the former Conservative Prime Minister’s almost total aversion to

April 4, 2023 wezg

Zlata’s Diary – A Child’s Life in Sarajevo – by Zlata Filipović

What’s a grown 45 year old male doing reading a little Bosnian girl’s diary you might ask yourself. Well, it cropped up as a recommendation in a documentary on the war in the former Yugoslavia, a subject to which I

April 4, 2023 wezg

Review: Zlata’s Diary – A Child’s Life in Sarajevo – by Zlata Filipović

February 4, 2023 wezg

Review: War and Peace – by Leo Tolstoy

‘War and Peace’ needs no introduction. It holds its place in the minds of contemporary society as a literary classic. One cannot pick up a newspaper article on great books without a passing mention of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece. Like other

January 16, 2023 wezg

Review: Cybersecurity: The Beginner’s Guide – by Dr Erdal Ozkaya

I am just about to embark in an online professional cybersecurity course with Masterschool in Tel Aviv, Israel. I am a relative novice in this field and in order to be as prepared as possible for the new academic venture

January 14, 2023 wezg

Review: The Dragons and the Snakes – How The Rest Learned to Fight The West – by David Kilcullen

This is one of the very best books I have ever read. It is up to date material and full of cutting edge military theory and ideas and I believe is critical essential reading for any politician or military personnel,

January 14, 2023 wezg

Review: The Dragons and the Snakes – How The Rest Learned to Fight The West – by David Kilcullen

January 8, 2023 wezg

Review: The Last Assassin – The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar – by Peter Stothard

‘Et tu Brute’ – these are the immortal words of Shakespeare, recounting the treacherous death of one of Rome’s greatest Emperors, Julius Caesar. This book, by Peter Stothard, is a historical novel, recounting the last days of Caesar and the

December 12, 2022 wezg

Review: Our Final Invention – Artificial Intelligence and The End of The Human Era – by James Barrat

This book is a quite alarming discussion on artificial intelligence (AI) and how it has the future potential to make the human race extinct. The concept of AGI or human level artificial intelligence is not thought to be that far

December 3, 2022 wezg

Review: In The Shadow of Papillon – Seven Years of Hell in Venezuela’s Prison System – by Frank Kane with John Tilsley

Frank Kane and his girlfriend, Sam, after their business was failing in the U.K. made the fateful decision to become cocaine drug couriers in Venezuela. Whilst attempting to fly out from the airport on Caribbean Island, Isla de Margarita, the

November 19, 2022 wezg

Review: Russians Among Us – Sleeper Cells & The Hunt for Putin’s Agents – by Gordon Correra

I’ve read Gordon Correra’s previous work in espionage literature and for this reason I was drawn to seek out this new offering. In the current climate of the Russian invasion of Ukraine under ex KGB spy, Vladimir Putin, I felt

November 19, 2022 wezg

Review: On War – by Carl von Clausewitz

In addition to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, this book authored by Prussian officer Carl von Clausewitz is the quintessential classic book on military theory. The book (although this edition was only an abridged version) puts forward in detail theory

October 14, 2022 wezg

Review: A Great Perhaps? Colombia: Conflict and Convergence – by Dickie Davis, David Kilcullen, Greg Mills and David Spencer

David Kilcullen has had a few books included on my shelf recently. As a military expert on Guerrilla Warfare, I was thrilled to find this new book on the Colombian Civil War which he coauthors with a group of specialists

October 14, 2022 wezg

Review: A Great Perhaps? Colombia: Conflict and Convergence – by Dickie Davis, David Kilcullen, Greg Mills and David Spencer

October 6, 2022 wezg

Review: The Near East Since The First World War – by M.E.Yapp

This book was written in 1990 and is thus a bit dated. The postscript announces the start of the first Gulf War after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Post World War 1 saw most of the current political boundaries drawn

September 1, 2022 wezg

Review: Blood Year – Islamic State and the Failures of the War on Terror – by David Kilcullen

This is the second book that I have read by David Kilcullen. The author is a former Australian soldier and a senior advisor to the US Military in addition to being a leading theorist of modern warfare. This book looks

September 1, 2022 wezg

Review: Unrestricted Warfare – Wake Up, America! China’s Master Plan to Destroy America

Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui are from a new generation of Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers. They have mused upon the situation of modern military affairs and developed this theoretical book on war to describe the status quo as it

September 1, 2022 wezg

Review: Out of the Mountains – The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla – by David Kilcullen

David Kilcullen is an experienced Australian military professional. He is a senior advisor to the US Military. In this book, Kilcullen describes the recent Western conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq as relative anomalies in the progress of future wars and

July 31, 2022 wezg

Review: Wired for War by P.W.Singer

Although by the time I finally finished reading this book it was perhaps over a decade old and hence due the hi-tech nature of the subject, perhaps dated, I gained a lot of new knowledge about the robotics industry, technological

December 5, 2016 wezg

Account For The Nationalist Victory In The Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War lasted for three years from 1936 to 1939 and was ultimately won by the Nationalists. This victory was far from certain at various points of the conflict and this essay shall explore the many factors that

July 10, 2016 wezg

Review: The Edge – Is the Military Dominance of the West Coming to an End – by Mark Urban

Only a short volume, this well-written work documents the weakening of the West in the geopolitical arena. The book first focuses on the reductions in military power of Western nations, both in terms of their military budgets and also their

July 1, 2016 wezg

Review: Women and the Second World War in France, 1939-1948: Choices and Constraints – by Hanna Diamond

This book focuses on the role of French women during World War 2 and the immediate aftermath. It is clear that the women of France bore the brunt of dealing with the occupier, very often their men away, detained as

May 17, 2015 wezg

Review: Franco and The Spanish Civil War – by Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses

This book is a nice, concise look at the Spanish Civil War. I used it for revision purposes, to remind myself of some of the details of heavier tomes that I have encountered on this subject. The author’s analysis of

January 10, 2015 wezg

History Of Translation

Various scholars have highlighted the importance of translation history. To what extent would you agree and why? Discuss and exemplify, making reference to at least two theorists. Translation history mimics history itself. Any post-Babel relationship between tribes, nations, continents, peoples,

July 29, 2014 wezg

Review: A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’d encountered Hemingway through his ‘Death in the Afternoon’ foray into bullfighting. I have always wanted to tackle some of his pure fiction and thought I’d delve

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