Author: Steven D Strauss

ISBN: 1-59257-511-0

A cartoon near the front of Steven D Strauss’ fascinating The Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Conflicts shows two children at bedtime.

One is sitting up in bed, eyes closed and hands together in prayer. “…And for peace on Earth,” he says.T

he boy’s brother stands over him, scowling. “Why don’t you pray for something a little more realistic?” he growls.

That is the problem for someone trying to write a history of the past’s and today’s wars: it is doomed to go quickly out of date. However, Strauss’ book could not have come at a more timely moment. For, although most of us are bombarded with 24-hour news coverage of events from Chechnya to Iraq, the backgrounds to these conflicts are rarely explored by the news media. Strauss certainly attempts to do that and, although readers from outside the United States will note a particular world view, Strauss does present for the most part a balanced and objective essay.

He begins by noting that the attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York and Washington shocked many in the States into realising that “war and conflict can actually happen anytime, anywhere”.

“But,” he adds, “for the rest of the world, the only surprising thing about September 11 was that it took so long for terror to finally reach America’s shores.”

Strauss knows he has his work cut out. There are 192 countries on Earth and during the past half century most have been involved in more than one conflict. The United States has been involved in most, with Israel second and Egypt and Iraq following closely behind.

The book tells us that one third of the world is usually engaged in conflict at any one time.

Strauss guides the reader through the Middle East and Africa, through China, North and South Korea and the nuclear powers of India and Pakistan, and through Europe from Russia and the Balkans to the Irish peace process.

Other sections explore the civil wars of Latin America and the United States’ relationship with Castro’s Cuba and the book ends with a look at how the USA developed into the world’s only superpower.

Strauss includes explorations of the War On Terror – shouldn’t a more objective account make that, as British journalists describe it, the ‘so-called War On Terror’? – and describes some simplistic explanations of US motivation which might not be universally acceptable.

He is also weak on the Iran-Iraq conflict, noting that Iran was “backed by Syria, Libya, North Korea and China” but noting America’s support of Saddam Hussein only in a bracketed aside: the families of the thousands of gassed Iranian soldiers might feel that point deserves greater weight.

Strauss also states, for example: “It might surprise the rest of the world that the United States thinks that by attacking terrorists in other sovereign nations, it is making the world a better place for everyone.”

Statements such as that detract from an otherwise excellent study which has spent around 350 pages explaining that it is often difficult to say who the “terrorists” are.

Similarly, the last line of the book – “The good guys can still win” – sees Strauss slip into an approach that belongs more to Hollywood than a serious study of the most complicated issues on the planet.

That said, I found the book extremely interesting and entertaining. It is a bright guide to which one would expect to continually refer for information and explanations of world events. Strauss may not satisfy all – that would be impossible – but he has made a valiant attempt to guide his reader through a huge and most difficult subject.

The above review was contributed by: Greg Lewis, Freelance Journalist