Military

A discussion between Napoleon, exiled in St. Helena, and Henry Ellis, returning with Lord Amherst’s embassy to China, about England's international standing.

Only a staff composed of men of military genius, and backed by a decisive and imaginative government at Westminster, could have secured a victory in the American War of Independence. Eric Robson reflects on how men of considerable talent, and of much good-will, failed in an impossible task.

Roger Howard recalls a moment when Israel was rocked by exaggerated claims of a threat posed by Egypt.

The German First World War commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck has been described as the 20th century’s greatest guerrilla leader for his undefeated campaign in East Africa. Is the legend justified? 

Roger Hudson pictures British gunboat diplomacy in Egypt in 1882.

A study of diplomacy in transition by Nicholas Henderson

James Kinross tells the story of the French Foreign Legion, a force famous for fighting in Africa, Russia, Mexico, Indo-China and France itself, as well as across the world.

The mountain country of Kentucky, until very recent years, has been the scene of fierce family feuds, as A.L. Lloyd records here.

In legend, Marathon is one of the decisive battles of the world; in fact, Stuart E.P. Atherley suggests, it marked the repulse of a comparatively small “colonial” expedition from Persia.

J.J. Bell describes a powerful force of raiders on the early modern Scottish Borders.