Overview
Nevertheless, for many years that war seemed a probable and sometimes even a likely threat. Politicians and strategists devoted a great deal of intellectual energy to the question of nuclear war, how to fight it and, more importantly, how to avoid it. At the same time the military industrial complex dedicated itself to producing new and more advanced weapons systems. Meanwhile, the super powers tested each other's resolve and their own military concepts and technologies by playing out their struggle in a series of wars that, although many, fell short of full-scale global conflict.In this fascinating volume, Lawrence Freedman focuses on the changing expectations of great power war during this period and how these expectations were influenced by the actual experience of limited warfare. It examines the evolution of nuclear strategy and the importance of new arms technology and of arms control. The author then looks at the impact of the limited wars in which the super powers were involved, for example Korea and Vietnam, and at the conflicts that helped to shape views on the nature of contemporary warfare, such as the Arab-Israeli War. The volume ends with the Gulf campaign and the revival of conventional strategy, and raising the possibility of a revolution in military affairs.
Striking and evocative photography complements a strong narrative and thoughtful analysis as Lawrence Freedman guides us through the ideas, technology and events that shaped the Cold War.