BOOK REVIEW: Naval Advising and Assistance – History, Challenges, and Analysis

Edited by Donald Stoker and Michael T. McMaster

A, so far, unique, fascinating and very valuable compilation of twelve excellent essays describing a century of global naval advisory history this book is a must read for naval and military historians.

Covering American, British, Italian, French, Japanese and Soviet advisory missions to countries as diverse as Egypt, China, the Ottoman Empire, Japan, Peru, Poland, Vietnam and East Germany, the book describes a comprehensive array of these little known activities. The uniformly high quality essays by fourteen notable naval historians offer very valuable background to current geopolitics.

While the histories of the individual missions make for great adventure stories in themselves, there is much to be learnt also about how navies are created, developed and organised. Modern naval leaders and the politicians who direct them could gain some very valuable insights into their own operations by carefully studying this work.

Available from Casemate, Oxford, UK.

Web: www.casematepublishers.co.uk