BOOK REVIEWS THE OXFORD COMPANION experts in their respective fields. In fact, the editors TO POLITICS OF THE WORLD, have sought out recognized authors for almost every entry — more than 500 contributors are listed, and Second Edition almost every one has been published. This means that Editor in Chief Joel Krieger the handbook is a useful research tool despite its lack London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1018 pages, $79.95. of bibliography and footnotes. Want to know more Reviewed by Major David Last about war? Jacek Kugler wrote the entry. Look him up and you will find his books on political capacity, power icture your first interview with a new com- transitions, the stability of deterrence, and his classic, manding officer. You stand at her door, The War Ledger, which examined the statistics of vio- salute, sit down — what the heck is that brick lent conflict. Did you think Marxism died with the end on the desk? This can’t be a good sign. What of the Cold War? Read August Nimtz on the contribu- muddy-boots soldier or eagle-eyed knight of the air tion of Marxism to the democratic breakthrough, Pwould have The Oxford Companion to World Politics on “…seldom in history has a writing been so prescient as the desk? Times sure have changed. Or have they? the 150-year-old Manifesto of the Communist Party. Look at it from her point of view. Did she get there Much of the document reads better today than when it because of affirmative action? Will she censor the jun- was written…” (529). Like many entries in the hand- ior officer’s critique of defence policy before it is sub- book, this provocative and stimulating reading will mitted to Canadian Military Journal, or censure him leave you wondering how much other stuff was left out after it appears? What do politicians expect of her in of your education. the next ‘humanitarian intervention’ planned for a hot and nasty corner of the world? What will she do with The shorter entries are succinct, but no less the civilian peacebuilding advisor attached to her com- thought provoking. While you are waiting for peace mand (I’m not making this up!)? When the CIDA liai- to break out in Bosnia, read what the grand old man of son officer bleats about democratiza- peace studies, Johan Galtung, has tion and development priorities, or to say on the subject of ‘peace.’ ADM(HR-Mil) sends out a CAN- Galtung participated in the FORGEN on gender equity, are you International Peace Academy’s first going to trust McLean’s for the deep peacekeeping seminars in Vienna in thoughts that will help you make 1970. He was behind the defini- sense of it all? tions in The Peacekeeper’s Handbook, which was adopted by The Oxford Companion to the Canadian Forces as our peace- World Politics will never replace keeping manual until we got around the platoon commander’s tactical to writing our own book in 1993. manual (it won’t fit in a pocket). After you have digested the distinc- But it is as useful as any single tions between positive and negative source can be to make sense of con- peace, as well as physical and cepts that affect the way soldiers do structural violence, those protesters business, or the way citizens are against globalization won’t look influenced by the world around quite the same, and you will have a them. Organized alphabetically like better idea of what you are waiting an encyclopaedia, it has 672 entries, for in Coralici. The extensive more than 80 new ones since its index also makes The Companion first edition. Six essays on critical easy to use. Are you too young to issues provide conflicting perspectives to hone your remember Richard Holbrooke or Jimmy Carter? Look mess-hall debating skills. On the United Nations, for them up in the index! Getting mixed up in Stan-land? example, Lloyd Axworthy writes that it has a vital role Find Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan and in world affairs. John Bolton retorts that it is a deeply Kyrgyzstan on the handy maps at the back, and more flawed institution. Maybe they are both right, and that than a dozen entries in the index (once you learn how is part of the complexity of the world we need to to spell them). understand as managers of violence. Did I mention affirmative action? Glen Loury, once a critic of affir- The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World is mative action, summarizes the arguments for explicit not bedtime reading. It keeps me awake to realize how public efforts to reduce inequality. Lani Guinier, a much I don’t know. It is a valuable tool for anyone try- Harvard law professor, argues that neither ‘merit’ ing to follow world events, or complete courses or Staff placement nor affirmative action produce real equali- College. At over 1000 pages, this book is thick enough ty. How do we decide what is fair in a unit? Other to hold up your monitor ergonomically, but if it is on essays address censorship, the limits of democracy, your CO’s desk, you might want easier access to it. The entitlements, and sustainable development. reading room of the Officer’s Mess, beside the regimen- tal standing orders, would be a good spot for it, but you The 23 interpretive essays each provide a few thou- might want to chain it down. sand words on key concepts. From class and politics to socialism and war, these entries have been written by Dr. David Last teaches political science at Royal Military College. 66 Canadian Military Journal ● Spring 2002 BOOK REVIEWS BASTARD SONS: Although this began with the 1st Canadian Parachute AN EXAMINATION OF CANADA’S Battalion, this capability was not established, as some might think, to meet operational requirements evolving AIRBORNE EXPERIENCE 1942-1995 in Europe. Horn notes that the stated purpose of the unit By Lieutenant-Colonel Bernd Horn was for home defence, even though the rationale of St Catherines: Vanwell Publishing Limited, 2001, 288 pages, $40.00. home defence had been rejected previously for lack of IN SEARCH OF PEGASUS: relevance — there was no credible threat to Canada. THE CANADIAN AIRBORNE EXPERIENCE 1942-1999 At the end of the war, the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was disbanded. Army Headquarters anticipat- By Bernd Horn and Michael Wyczynski ed no requirement for airborne forces in the post-war St Catherines: Vanwell Publishing Limited, 2001, 254 pages, $39.95. Army — an Army that was expected to return to the Reviewed by Major J.C. Stone small cadre that existed before the war. What saved the capability was the need to provide an airborne and/or air astard Sons is the first assessment of transportable force as part of the 1946 US/Canada Base Canada’s airborne experience that goes Security Plan. beyond the Canadian Airborne Regiment’s Somalia mission of the early 1990s. The Next, Colonel Horn discusses the MSF being used book relies heavily on primary source mate- as the rationale for the paratroop capability. Within Brial, and is not limited to a simple discussion on the the MSF, specific infantry rifle companies were desig- demise of the Canadian Airborne Regiment in 1993. nated for an airborne role, while the remainder of the The main thesis of the book is that the lack of a clear- infantry battalions were to be air-transportable. Horn ly defined, credible and enduring role for the use of argues that the MSF was in large measure a concept airborne forces in Canada undermined any chance for rather than a reality and, like the airborne capability, long-term and substantive political and military sup- was never fully accepted as being credible. The MSF port for an airborne capability. and the airborne/air-transportable Lieutenant-Colonel Horn argues that capability it represented diverted this has always been so, whether limited military resources from UN deciding to follow the British and and NATO tasks — the real tasks American deployment of airborne throughout the 1950s and early forces during the Second World War 1960s. However, in the 1960s, a as the spearhead for operations into change of government, unification of Europe, or to act as the primary the three services and a change in defence of Canada in the 1970s and defence policy focus rekindled the 1980s. Colonel Horn notes that the discussion about the need for a para- “Canadian attitude to airborne troop capability. forces has always been schizo- phrenic and driven by political pur- Horn discusses the creation of the pose rather than doctrine and opera- Canadian Airborne Regiment, a 1200- tional necessity.” man parachute special force to be kept at high readiness and able to The essence of this issue is that deploy worldwide at a moment’s the leadership, both military and notice. Horn demonstrates that it was political, never believed that airborne only the determination of the Minister forces represented a credible national of National Defence and the Chief of requirement. For example, in the the Defence Staff that ensured the aftermath of the Second World War, unit’s creation — too many other peo- the government used airborne forces as part of the ple thought it would not come to fruition if enough Mobile Striking Force (MSF) to defend against a hostile obstacles were put in place. More important, however, incursion into the Arctic. Airborne forces were an inex- the rationale for its existence was never really recon- pensive option during a time when reducing defence ciled with a valid and justifiable operational require- expenditures was a government priority.