Army Diplomacy

"A new and important interpretation of 'war termination,' something that challenges all victorious armies and governments. Considering the recent reluctance by so many politicians to conduct nation building, it seems ironic that the U.S. Army had such a long and often successful history of doing just that in the twentieth century."—Jonathan House, author of A Military History of the Cold War, 1944-1962

"This book is well worth reading by any serious military historian."—Journal of America's Military Past

"The book does fill a serious gap in the fast-growing scholarly literature on military occupations: it is a perceptive institutional history of over a century of the US Army theory and planning for developments that ensue after wars end. It also demonstrates how plans formed over decades can, to paraphrase Clausewitz, quickly be undone by the fog of peace. Hudson has provided a welcome, thorough longitudinal analysis of the evolution of US Army thinking and policy regarding postwar occupations. He presents a stunningly detailed breakdown of the complex institutional relationships within the US Army and between it and the nation's civilian government bureaucracies."—Michigan War Studies Review

"Anyone interested or concerned with current events in the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan, will find Army Diplomacy a key contribution to the knowledge base of how to successfully conduct occupation and governance 'when war stops and something like peace begins.'"—On Point

"Walter M. Hudson's Army Diplomacy is a well written, thoughtful treatment of the origins of the military governments that the United States established to rule much of Europe and Asia in the aftermath of the Second World War. Army Diplomacy is a fascinating and provocative account of the postwar occupations, and one that any future work on these events will have to engage with."—Army Diplomacy