These are my reviews of books or exhibitions about wars since 1990 (with the exception of ‘Afgantsy’, about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and which provides useful background to the later, Western invasion).

As to the phrase ‘new world disorder’, according to this review by Joseph Larson:

The political scientist Ken Jowitt first used the term ‘new world disorder’ in the title of a 1992 essay. His purpose was to describe the ideological vacuum created by the Soviet collapse; he argued that new ideologies would rise up and challenge the hegemony of liberal democratic capitalism. More than two decades later, Jowitt’s phrase is pervasive in international relations jargon.

The outstanding books here include Michael Ignatieff’s ‘Blood and Belonging’ – which explains the core concepts of ethnic versus civic nationalism with beautiful clarity – in fact the series of Ignatieff’s books go on to discuss what we should make of the terrible wars of the 1990s (Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Somalia), how we in the West should respond to humanitarian crises in the Third World, whether we should intervene and, if so, how much and for how long.

The other star book is Thomas E Ricks’s ‘Fiasco’, which describes in mind-boggling detail the ignorance, arrogance  and incompetence which undermined every aspect of the US invasion of Iraq, not least the chronic undermanning which led to the great looting of Baghdad which Edward Said laments in his 2003 Preface to ‘Orientalism’.

Jack Fairweather’s book does the same sort of thing, detailing the incompetence and bad decisions made by British politicians and Army top brass in the Iraq and Afghan wars, while Frank Ledwidge’s ‘Investment in Blood’ details the costs of Britain’s rash involvement in those two wars, the financial and reputational costs to the UK (the Americans will never trust the British army again) and the terrible physical and psychological legacy of the soldiers who were killed or seriously injured.

The best Africa book is David van Reybrouck’s one about the Congo, which includes a good account of the Rwanda genocide and how that, in turn, triggered the catastrophic Great War of Africa.

What’s missing, apart from one chapter in Antony Loyd’s first book, is anything about Russia’s wars against Chechnya (1994 and 1999-2009) and Georgia (2008). Paul Danahar gives a summary of the Arab world in the immediate aftermath of the Arab Spring but I’d like to read good up-to-date accounts of the civil wars in Libya, Yemen and Syria, which I have so far been unable to find.

Books

Michael Ignatieff

Ignatieff’s books cover modern conflicts in former Yugoslavia, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, and develop theories not only about their origins but their impact on the West and how much we could or should intervene.

• Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism – 1 (1994)
• Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism – 2 (1994)
• The Warrior’s Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience – 1 (1998)
• The Warrior’s Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience by Michael Ignatieff – 2 (1998)
• Virtual War: Kosovo and beyond by Michael Ignatieff (2000)
• Empire Lite: Nation-Building in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan by Michael Ignatieff (2003)
• The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror by Michael Ignatieff (2005)

Antony Loyd

Loyd is an acclaimed British foreign correspondent whose books combine blistering descriptions of war zones with a strong autobiographical element.

• My War Gone By, I Miss It So (1999) [Bosnia, Chechnya]
• Another Bloody Love Letter (2007) [Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq]

Africa

• Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey by Fergal Keane (1995)
• We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch (1998)
• In The Footsteps of Mr Kurz by Michaela Wrong (2000) [Congo]
• Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide by Linda Melvern (2004)
• No One Can Stop The Rain: A Chronicle of Two Foreign Aid Workers during the Angolan Civil War by Karin Moorhouse and Wei Cheng (2005)
• Congo: the epic history of a people by David Van Reybrouck (2010)
• Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa 1998 to 2003 by Jason K. Stearns (2011)
• Blue Dahlia, Black Gold: A Journey Into Angola by Daniel Metcalfe (2014)

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

• Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989 by Rodric Braithwaite (2011)
• Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks (2006)
• Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (2006)
• Sniper One: The Blistering True Story of a British Battle Group Under Siege by Sergeant Dan Mills (2007)
• 3 Para by Patrick Bishop (2007)
• Occupational Hazards: My Time Governing in Iraq by Rory Stewart (2007)
• The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006 to 2008 by Thomas E. Ricks (2009)
• A War of Choice: Honour, Hubris and Sacrifice: The British in Iraq by Jack Fairweather (2012)
• The New Middle East: The World After The Arab Spring by Paul Danahar (2013)
• Investment in Blood: The True Cost of Britain’s Afghan War by Frank Ledwidge (2013)
• The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq by Emma Sky (2015)
• ISIS: The State of Terror by Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger (second edition, 2017)
• Losing Small Wars: British Military Failure in the 9/11 Wars by Frank Ledwidge (second edition, 2017)
• The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East by Christopher Phillips (second edition, 2020)

Exhibitions

• Syria: A Conflict Explored @ the Imperial War Museum London (May 2017)
• Age of Terror: Art since 9/11 @ the Imperial War Museum London (March 2018)
• Journeys Drawn: Illustrations from the Refugee Crisis (November 2018)
• Ukraine: Photographs from the Frontline by Anastasia Taylor-Lind @ Imperial War Museum London (April 2023)
• Road to Recovery @ the National Army Museum (March 2023)
• Fouad Elkoury: Preserving Time @ the Photographers’ Gallery (May 2023) [Lebanon]
• Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington @ the Imperial War Museum (April 2024) [Liberia, Afghanistan, Libya]