David P. Auerswald is professor of security studies at the National War College. His books include Congress and the Politics of National Security. Stephen M. Saideman holds the Norman Paterson Chair in International Affairs at Carleton University. His books include For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism, and War.
This book is very impressive, relying on some 250 interviews with key policy makers, including defense ministers, as well as senior military commanders. No other study provides such wide assessment of caveats. The authors provide in-depth case studies of the countries that provided he most troops to this operation. . . . The authors also devote an excellent chapter to NATO decision making procedures, which helps produce such different levels of political commitment to military operations, and results in contributing states fighting wars in their own unique ways. --Choice The relationship between theoretical and empirical work contribution is certainly the great strength of this book, which demonstrates once again the importance of education in political science to the understanding of strategic phenomena. . . . [This] book deserves to become required reading for anyone interested in the conflict in Afghanistan the future of NATO. --Olivier Schmitt, War Studies Publications