Islamikaze: Manifestations of Islamic Martyrology

Breaking with the tradition that literature about the direction and coordination of military forces should only deal with technology and procedures, this work also takes into account the underlying domestic conditions of a conflict, including cultural, personal and political relations. The book focuses on two instances, where fundamental assumptions were at loggerheads and provides a theoretical "nuts and bolts" approach introduced within the opening chapters. Firstly, the book investigates the effect of the several armies present "in the field" without any central authority during March 1918. It explores how this expensive luxury, as the Germans threatened to destroy the allied forces, caused internal British disagreements over strategy which weakened the British Expeditionary Force. The second case analyses how Norway tumbled into war in 1940. The Norwegian government had a tacit, incoherent and ill-coordinated plan for how they should once again keep Norway out of war. As a consequence, the de factodecision to resist German aggression was in fact taken by a rather insignificant colonel. This case demonstrates how the underlying conditions of command and control and not the actual directives from the government were the historical focus which determined Norway's destiny.

Raphael Israeli was born in Morocco, and immigrated to Israel as a young boy. He graduated from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in History and Arabic Language (1963), and worked as an Intelligence Officer in the Israeli Army until 1968. He then read for an MA in East Asian History at the University of California, Berkeley (1970); followed by a PhD in Chinese and Islamic Studies at the same institution (1974). This was followed by an appointment as Lecturer (then Professor) of Chinese History and Islamic Civilization at the Hebrew University. He is currently the Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern History at this university