The Battle for Mozambique: The Frelimo-Renamo Struggle, 1977-1992 - Couverture souple

Emerson, Stephen A.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1909384925 ISBN 13 : 9781909384927

Editeur : Helion & Company, 2014

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

The sixteen-year-long war in Mozambique between the Frelimo government and Renamo rebels remains one of the most overlooked and misunderstood of the conflicts that raged across Africa during the height of the Cold War. While usually viewed as a mere sideshow to more high-profile wars in Angola, Rhodesia and within apartheid South Africa itself, it nonetheless is noteworthy in its complexity, duration and destructiveness. Before it was all over in 1992 at least one million Mozambicans would be dead, millions more homeless and the country lying in ruins. Ultimately Frelimo would get its victory not on the battlefield but rather at the polling booth in 1994. Based on more than a decade of meticulous research, a review of thousands of pages of military records and documents, and dozens of in-depth interviews with political leaders, diplomats, generals, and soldiers and sailors, this book tells the story of the war from the perspective of those who fought it and lived it. It follows Renamo's growth from its Rhodesian roots in 1977 as a weapon against Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean nationalist guerrillas operating from Mozambique through South African patronage in the early 1980s to Renamo's evolution as a self-sufficient nationalist insurgency. In tracing the ebb and flow of the conflict from the rugged mountains and savannah forests of central Mozambique across the hot, humid Zambezi River valley and down to the very outskirts of the Mozambican capital in the far south, it examines the operational strategy of Frelimo and Renamo commanders in the field, the battles they fought and the lives of their troops. In doing so it highlights personal struggles, each side's successes and failures, and the missed opportunities to decisively turn the tide of war. Accordingly, this book provides the first real comprehensive military history of a war too long neglected and underappreciated in the chronicles of modern African history. Nominated for the Association of Third World Studies Toyin Falola Africa book award for 2014.

Biographie de l'auteur :

Stephen Emerson has spent more than 30 years of his life studying, researching and working on African political and security issues for the U.S. government and as an academic. He cut his teeth as a southern African regional specialist for the U.S. Department of Defense in the early 1980s, where he provided political and military analysis to senior American policymakers in Washington. Dr Emerson is the author of numerous classified and unclassified publications on African politics, terrorism, counter-insurgency, transnational security challenges and the future of American security and foreign policy engagement in Africa. He has held numerous government and academic positions, including Security Studies Chair at National Defense University's Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington and more recently headed the Africa regional studies program at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Among his degrees is a doctorate in International Relations/Comparative Politics from the University of Florida. He is married to a U.S. Foreign Service Officer and has accompanied her on multiple tours of duty with the Department of State in Africa and Latin America. They currently reside in Orlando, Florida, USA where Emerson still continues to write, consult and lecture on African political and security issues.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Helion & Company
• Date d'édition: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1909384925
• ISBN 13: 9781909384927
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 288