Choice of Force: Special Operations for Canada

[James]

Choice of Force: Special Operations for Canada by David Last

Has anyone read or heard of this book? I'm looking for a good book on special forces, mainly Canada's. I came across this book on the Chapters website. Here is a little bit about the book:

"Twenty years from now, security issues may dictate that counter-terrorism is more important than operations to secure stability and rule of law. Security at the border, ethnic demography, and the perspective of the next generation will determine what strategic choices Canada will make about special military operations and the elite forces developed to carry out special missions.

In Choice of Force military and academic researchers survey what political and bureaucratic leaders expect of special operations and analyse contemporary operations, new challenges, and the factors that will shape Canadian special operations in the coming decades."

It's going for $30.

 

[MdB]

Title: Force of Choice: Perspectives on Special Operations Directed by: Bernd Horn, J. Paul de B. Taillon, and David Last Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press Number of pages: 228 p. Release Date: November 2004 ISBN: 1-55339-042-3 I'm currently reading it. It's very good. It's in the form of academic articles (so it's not for everybody...) from many proficient military, ex-military members as well as from the SF community (ex. Allan Bell who was 10 Royal Marines and 12 in SAS, Lt.-Col. Bern Horn, Lt.-Col. David Last, Gen. Shoomaker). I read Clancy's Special Forces before it, so I already knew the history of US SOF and skipped pages. The first part is on theoretical framwork about SF in general and in Canada. It discuss what is in our reach and studies what alternatives we have (mainly coming from US, Australia, France, Germany, UK and US which have different capabilities). Precisely concerning that, we could say that our CIMIC capabalities would be a SF skill, but it's just not labelled that in here and not necessarily an SF-only skill (think about reserves). The second part is on historical case studies, as the SF experience in Vietnam, the evolution of GSG 9 (German SOF), the Mogadishu rescue, the Falklands. The third part is envioning SF capabilities in the future. Articles from Shoomaker, Scott More and Davide Last. This book is part 1 of 2. Choice of Force: Special Operations for Canada is also available (release date: June 2005). Top-ranking military officers and historians consider the future role of Special Forces. Twenty years from now, security issues may dictate that counter-terrorism is more important than operations to secure stability and rule of law. Security at the border, ethnic demography, and the perspective of the next generation will determine what strategic choices Canada will make about special military operations and the elite forces developed to carry out special missions. In Choice of Force military and academic researchers survey what political and bureaucratic leaders expect of special operations and analyse contemporary operations, new challenges, and the factors that will shape Canadian special operations in the coming decades.

 

[James]

I picked up Tom Clancy's Shadow Warriors book. It's about 80 pages in. It's pretty good. I'll probably pick up part 1 of the Force of Choice series when I'm done because it sounds really interesting.