World Conflicts: A Comprehensive Guide to World Strife Since 1945

In this meticulously researched book, Patrick Brogan allows specialists and general readers alike a view behind the headlines and news reports from throughout the world, detailing the violent conflicts that now afflict the world, together with chapters on past conflicts that still seriously effect events. The first edition, published in 1989 under the title The Fighting Never Stopped, accurately predicted the collapse of the Soviet Bloc; this new edition provides a substantial update. Each eye-opening chapter in World Conflicts benefits from the strength of the first edition and Brogan's continued research into the relationship between humanity, violence, history, and politics. Organized by country, it provides important statistical data and discusses the historical origins of the tensions, describes the parties involved, delineates the main events of each conflict, and examines the possible outcomes and their effect upon the prospect of peace. Armed with the thesis that the greatest dangers to peace at the end of the century are caused by ethnic animosity, Brogan provides a coherent account of the uneasy peace in Central America, Southeast Asia, and Southern Africa, and other current or seemingly-imminent conflicts around the world. World Conflicts is a balanced, forward-looking study of a world that continues to be at war. It is essential reading for anyone who needs precise, detailed information on current conflicts. This work will be an invaluable tool for journalists, libraries of all types, and students and teachers of International Affairs.

About the Author :
Patrick Brogan has spent over twenty years as a foreign correspondent on assignment for The Times London, the New York Daily News, and The Observer. He has reported on many of the conflicts covered in this book.

Review :
...essential...it deserves to be in every library. Highly useful for undergraduates, graduate students, and general readers; recommended for undergraduate and public libraries and libraries supporting military studies. ... strength of this book is its writing and organization. Brogan has a good understanding of the warring factions and personalities involved and shows a very good grasp of military operations. Nowhere else will you find a more accessible and insightful examination of warfare today...This is essential reading... This thick but manageable volume has a lively historical narrative style, making it a joy to read...Patrick Brogan is to be commended on this fine work. It is highly recommended for private, public, college, university, and government reference collections. 'War makes rattling good history,' as Thomas Hardy once wrote; and this book undoubtedly proves his point. World Conflicts is essentially a reference book on war, however, it is one of narrative and not a mere compilation of facts...a highly readable and above all useful work. It can be dipped into at any point for an overall, big picture of each situation and its history. ...this is a very good reference work for any student of the twentieth-century world...Brogan's organization is straightforward and logical. The author's thoughtful essays on modern terrorism and drug wars are noteworthy...Brogan's work is a valuable reference tool. Brogan's wide-ranging and thorough look at the world's instability is a wonderful point of departure for anyone seeking either to begin research on any of these areas, or for anyone who wishes to gain a brief understanding of what has gone on to make so many places in the world so dangerous.