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Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: August 20, 2020 at 10:53:43 AM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Venable on Fedorchak, 'Understanding > Contemporary Air Power' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Viktoriya Fedorchak. Understanding Contemporary Air Power. New York > Routledge, 2020. 218 pp. $155.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-138-39379-0; > $42.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-138-39380-6. > > Reviewed by Heather P. Venable (Air Command and Staff College) > Published on H-War (August, 2020) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > In just two hundred brief and accessible pages, Viktoriya Fedorchak > somehow manages to provide the broadest and widest-ranging > introduction to airpower I have yet seen__. I only wish it had been > available when I started learning about airpower. Fedorchack touches > on everything from female retention in air forces to air superiority > and the future of airpower. > > There is no overarching argument, but that is understandable given > her approach. There are several consistent themes, however. They > include the increasing importance of multidomain operations, a > warning not to embrace technology uncritically, and a commitment to > providing as many perspectives as possible in one volume in order to > understand contemporary air power in "different operating > environments." Taken together, perhaps one might identify an > overarching goal of "distinguish[ing] between enduring features and > situational factors" (p. 1). > > Fedorchak, a military historian, has previously published _British > Air Power: The Doctrinal Path to Jointery_ (2019) and currently > teaches at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Her > book provides several introductory chapters to orient the reader, > setting out essentials like the importance of connecting strategy to > political objectives as well as a chapter surveying key trends in > airpower thinking from its inception to today. A subsequent chapter > stresses the importance of enduring political will to the successful > application of airpower, a theme that obviously has significant > relevance to her focus on contemporary airpower. > > She then divides the majority of her remaining chapters into three > conceptual areas of airpower application: conventional airpower, > airpower in counterinsurgencies, and airpower in peace-keeping > operations. The counterinsurgency chapter's examples range from the > Malayan emergency to ISIS. It also includes more unexpected > counterinsurgencies including the Russian employment of airpower > against Chechnya. Likewise, the chapter on peace-keeping operations > ventures into brief but wide-ranging case studies from Bosnia to the > Congo. For peace-keeping operations to receive an entire chapter is a > departure from traditional airpower histories, which tend to favor > the highly kinetic and conventional above all else, but this chapter > certainly merits inclusion in a work on contemporary airpower. > > Fedorchak even contextualizes contemporary airpower in themes of > larger civil-military relations and society as a whole, including an > unexpected but intriguing--albeit brief as expected given the page > count--discussion of post-heroic warfare. In addition to those > topics, a strength of the work is that it is not excessively centered > on the US Air Force, as can be typical. Rather, the author surveys a > number of air forces, including Russia's, China's, Great Britain's, > France's, and Sweden's. She also includes some discussion of space > power that is proportional to the other themes she covers; she even > includes naval aviation, an often omitted consideration in many > land-centric airpower tomes. > > For the most part, there is little to critique about the book except > minor elements and interpretations, but these do not distract from > the work as a whole. At one point, for example, the author draws on > one of her common themes--the importance of "inter-domain > integration" as the "key to success" in World War II--but then > immediately begins discussing the overwhelming importance of the > Battle of Britain, which is notable for being largely an air-only > operation (p. 69). One may also quibble, for example, with the > suggestion that close air support provided a "substantial advantage" > in the Gulf War (pp. 75, 77) since interdiction far outweighed close > air support in employment. Again, though, these minor distractions > are rare in a work that manages to provide a balanced treatment of > airpower to include discussions of capabilities and limitations. > > This book is recommended for a wide audience, including scholars, > analysts, and students as early as beginning undergraduates, as it > should be accessible to anyone with the most basic understanding of > the military. Chapters conclude with helpful discussion questions and > suggested reading. Even those quite familiar with airpower already > may benefit from the wide-ranging mix of intellectual themes, > practical coverage of air forces, and recent case studies that she > interweaves into her account. Fedorchak truly has provided an > impressive introduction to contemporary air power that merits > reading. > > Citation: Heather P. Venable. Review of Fedorchak, Viktoriya, > _Understanding Contemporary Air Power_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. August, > 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55544 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#616): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/616 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76310846/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES<br />#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.<br />#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.<br />#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
