MILITARY BOOK REVIEW: Dr. A. A. Nofi reviews Jeremy Black’s Combined Operations: A Global History of Amphibious and Airborne Warfare.

Excerpt:

Black does not limit himself to the Western experience. He looks at trends and events not only across the ages, but also almost literally in every corner of the world. So, for example, Black notes that the decline of northern Canada’s Paleo-Eskimo Dorset culture resulted from the use of superior watercraft by the invading Thule people from Alaska around 1,000 BC, while in more recent times non-state actors such as the Tamil Tigers, Al-Qaeda, and Laskar-e-Taiba have conducted successful operations from the sea, even as their opponents used the sea to support operations against them. In between he gives us looks at riverine warfare on the Niger, the protracted Christian-Moslem struggle for control of the Mediterranean, Mongol efforts to invade Japan, the unification of Hawaii, and much more. He examines the role of sea-borne forces in the Anglo-French contest for North America and the American Revolution, through operations from the sea during the Napoleonic Wars, amphibious operations in the civil wars in the U.S. and Spain, and, of course, covers the world wars in considerable detail.

The very big picture.