Tag Archive for: Book Reviews
My top reads of 2023
My top reads of 2023 As the year comes to an end, I wanted to share my top reads from 2023! ✨📚 Each of these titles has been a journey…
Kapuściński and the Autocrats
Source: Book and Film Globe | Neal Pollack
The late Polish journalist, like no other writer, understood societies in crisis
Everyone’s busy checking Orwell out of the library and pretending to read 1984 right now, because apparently we live in an “Orwellian” reality. But if you really want to understand, or at least try to understand, what’s going on in America, I recommend reading Ryszard Kapuściński instead. Kapuściński was a Polish journalist who had more courage on an average Tuesday than you or I have had in our entire lives. He spent decades reporting from the most dangerous war zones on Earth. He would find what’s going on in the States tragic and comic in equal measure. Kapuściński saw what really happens when societies descend into revolt.
[…] Kapuściński had many specialities as a writer, but his best literary trick was explaining autocrats, how they work, and how societies function under them. In particular, his masterpieces, Shah of Shahs, about the end of the Iranian monarchy and the rise of the caliphate, and The Emperor, about the terrifying reign of Ethopia’s monarch Halie Selassie, can help shed some understanding on what’s going on today.
[…]
The Emperor
Ethiopia doesn’t exist in the American consciousness at all, except for guilt-making commercial pleas for aid during period famines, and as the source of culinary delicacies like injera bread and zilzil tibs for urban sophisticates. In the middle of the 20th century, though, it was a larger player on the world stage, first because Mussolini’s Italy invaded it, in a precursor to World War II. Then it’s “Emperor”, Halie Selassie, became a favored pet among the Western elite, even receiving Time’s “Man of the Year” award for resisting Mussolini even though he was hiding in the English town of Bath at the time.
In reality, as Kapuściński writes in his brilliant book The Emperor, Selassie was merely a savvy bureaucrat who wheedled his way to the throne, whispering society to bend to his whims and stealing countless billions to deposit into Swiss bank accounts. Whereas Shah of Shahs is a more on-the-ground “you are there” style of book, The Emperor comes in after Selassie death in 1975, when it’s relatively safe to talk about him and his misdeeds. Kapuściński, who covered Ethiopia during Selassie’s reign as well, seeks out the surviving members of Selassie’s court, as well as some of his former servants, to provide an account of life in the insanely privileged court of a country suffering from inconceivable poverty and starvation.
The pattern is somewhat similar to Iran’s: an elaborate system of favors and rewards, hoodwinking naive Westerners into donating capital and cash, and absolute incompetence at every level of society. Monstrous violence follows. Eventually, and pathetically, Selassie falls in a military coup. The palace empties. The Emperor has no clothes.
Aftermath
Kapuściński is equally harsh on these societies after the autocrats fall. What replaces the strongman is often just as murderous as before, if not more so. The mullah-ruled Iran is a mess of repression, spying, superstition, renunciations, and meaningless, bloody street demonstrations. In post-Selassie Ethiopia, he writes of the bizarre phenomenon of “fetasha“, which authorizes every citizen to search every other citizen at all times, without explanation:
“To get things under control, to disarm the opposition, the authorities order a complete fetasha [Amharic for search], covering everyone. We are searched incessantly. On the street, in the car, in front of the house, in the house, in the street, in front of the post office, in front of an office building, going into the editor’s office, the movie theatre, the church, in front of the bank, in front of the restaurant, in the market place, in the park. Anyone can search us because we don’t know who has the right and who hasn’t, and asking only makes thing worse. It’s better to give in. Somebody’s always searching us. Guys in rags with sticks, who don’t say anything, but only stop us and hold out their arms, which is the signal for us to do the same: get ready to be searched. They take everything out of our briefcases and pockets, look at it, act surprised, screw up their faces, nod their heads, whisper advice to each other. They frisk us: back, stomach, legs, shoes. And then what? Nothing, we can go on, until the next spreading of arms, until the next fetasha. The next one might be only a few steps on, and the whole thing starts all over again. The searchers never give you an acquittal, a general clearance, absolution. Every few minutes, every few steps, we have to clear ourselves again.”
[…]
How to Stage A Military Coup: From Planning to Execution | SWJ Book Review
Source: Small War Journal | Major Aaron Gookins
How to Stage a Military Coup: From Planning to Execution. By Ken Connor and David Hebditch. La Vergne: Sky Horse Publishing, 2017. 187 pages.
The Special Air Service’s (SAS) longest serving member, Ken Connor, with the assistance of a career author and historian, David Hebditch, examine military coup successes and failures from around the globe in their work; How to Stage a Military Coup: From Planning to Execution. As the title suggests, the authors claim to provide a step-by-step guide to planning and executing a military coup but miss the mark. The authors utilize a historical case study method throughout the work with comical interjections, often ill-timed, to present the analysis of over 20 coups. The end result is a book that is historically grounded, supplies a reasonably supported list of indicators of coup likelihood, and entertainment; but fails to offer a true framework for execution.
Confusion and disorganization set in early in this writing as historical vignettes are muddied with fabricated accounts of a plan to overthrow the standing government of the United Kingdom. The 2017 edition of the book addresses the insertion of the fictional account in its forward. The forward, written by Hebditch, is reasonably concise and references the most recent coup attempts in world history (i.e. the North African Arab Spring and the potentially fake 2016 Turkish coup). However, it’s not clear where the fiction stops, and the exposition begins. Also, in later chapters of the work, fictional accounts do not at all support the authors’ arguments. Additionally, Hebditch arbitrarily recounts a North Georgia FBI raid of coup planners, in which a copy of this very book was seized. It is hard to determine if the author is asserting the raid adds credibility to the book’s argument or if he finds the events comical.
At other points, the authors display their knowledge and arguments in an engaging and well supported manner. In the first half of this work it appears that each titled chapter will serve as a single step in coup planning, with the following titles: “The Military in Politics”; “Motivation and Massage”; “Planning the Perfect Putsch”; “Recruitment, Training and Tactics”; and “Keeping Your Coup Covert.” These early chapters, well written and engaging, provide sound assertions supported with historical references from around the globe. The authors’ command of historical knowledge in these chapters as well as operational experience are quite impressive and engaging for readers of all knowledge levels. However, the framework itself is less impressive to readers with military, political, or historical backgrounds. The simplicity of explanation leaves the reader feeling unfulfilled at times as the authors write what appears to be the obvious.
The oversimplification of the authors’ proposed steps is quite obvious to the experienced reader, as the authors are too broad with their analysis and reasoning. The takeaways from each chapter leave the audience wanting to say, “of course you need to do that.” The summation can be more directly put as follows: The political goals and objectives of superpowers, or near superpowers, will impact their decision to support or reject a coup. This in and of itself is a very simple and unoriginal ideal. Coups by their very nature are political, therefore, it stands to reason that decisions of other countries to support or reject coups would also be political in nature. However, although the argument itself is not innovative, the authors adequately support their argument with examples of coups from around the globe. The coup examples in and of themselves are interesting and keep the reader engaged.
The second half of the book feels like an attempt to provide engaging and entertaining reading, but no continuation of the stated argument. The disjointed nature make it seem as though two inherently different writings were forced together to create one literary work. The later chapters in the book dive into U.S. Military intervention in Iraq, irrelevant coups in the Fijian islands, and the utilization of mercenary armies. The Fijian chapter appears to be nothing more than a platform for the author further mythologize a man named “Horse” who he served with in the SAS. The chapter focusing on Iraq feels out of place and a way to force in, what the authors view to be, a failed policy in the Middle East. Additionally, the forced insertion of this chapter makes it even more difficult to transition into the authors’ discussion surrounding the utilization of mercenaries to support a coup. Once the reader is able to refocus, there are reasonable and pertinent points explaining why soldiers for hire lack the constitution to execute a successful coup. Overall, the later chapters have high points but fail to truly support the assertions established through the books title.
In summation, How to Stage a Military Coup: From Planning to Execution provides an entertaining surface level description of various coups throughout the world. The book is not for individuals seeking in depth analysis, but rather wave top level presentations. However, the authors provide several examples of military coups both successful and unsuccessful and provides two useful appendices that comprehensive list of known coups around the globe. While the book fails to rise to its title, it remains an entertaining read for anyone and an informative for a novice historian interested in broadening their understanding of military coups.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.