Militaries Reaching Out to Each Other

A security analyst once defined “defense engagement” as being “like dating”, that is you reach out and see where it leads. In this book, Prof. Kennedy (King’s College London) has collected ten papers examining case studies from across the twentieth century that provide insights into efforts at the use of military engagement to effect relations and the consequences of those efforts.

The collection opens with an interesting look at the evolution of the role of the military attaché from the late nineteenth century through the end of the Great War,. There follows a paper on the little known British efforts to reach out to Japan during the 1930s, several essays on the role of attachés in building the British-American-Canadian alliance, papers on Japan’s attaché to Germany in World War II, and British military relations with post-colonial Kenya, Egypt, and the U.A.E. The book concludes with a discussion of current British defense engagement policy.

All the essays offer interesting insights into the role of the attaché and military advisors, often with observations about the people involved – some of them later famous – and the contemporary military and political environment.

Defense Engagement since 1900 has some useful material for those with an interest in military diplomacy, the armed services or conflicts covered, or inter-relations in the twentieth century.

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Note: Defense Engagement since 1900 is also available in paper back and e-editions.

StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium