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Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Original Title Page -- Original Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Preface -- 1. Western Europe and its Armies, 1945-85 -- 2. The British Armed Forces since 1945 -- 3. The Danish and Norwegian Armed Forces -- 4. Austria and Switzerland: the Defense Systems of Two Minor Powers -- 5. The Spanish and Portuguese Defense Forces -- 6. The Italian Armed Forces -- 7. French Defense and the Gaullist Legacy -- 8. The Bundeswehr of the Federal Republic of Germany -- 9. The Defense Forces of the Low Countries -- 10. United States Armed Forces in Europe -- Notes on Contributors -- Index.

Scholarlyconcern with Africa is of ancient origin. But modern African studies in departments at major universities date only from the aftermath of World War II. As I approach the age of seventy, I find myself a member of the diminishing group of scholars that helped to create this particular field, as well as also belonging to the last generation which, at one time, wished to serve the British Empire. An intellectual autobiography is not a confession. But this brief account does seek to delineate those forces which shaped my career as an Africanist during the last 40 years.

The Soviet Union and South Africa – on the face of it, no two powers on earth look on each other with greater hostility. For many years, no diplomatic relations have existed between them. South African propagandists never tire of denouncing the Godless Soviet tyranny, and the 'total onslaught' waged against their country by communists at home and abroad. As the official Soviet interpretation would have it, South Africa is governed by a racist clique, and menaces all its neighbours.

Neue Entwicklungen deuten eine erhebliche Veränderung der südafrikanisch-sowjetischen Beziehungen an. Für die südafrikanische kommunistische Partei (S.A.C.P) ist Moskau nicht mehr die zuverlässige Stütze wie in der Vergangenheit. Als besonderes Problem stellt sich die immer noch stark stalinistische Prägung der S.A.C.P. heraus. Ideologische Veränderungen führen immer stärker zu einer realistisch/pragmatischen Einstellung. Die zukünftige Aufnahme diplomatischer Beziehungen erscheint heute um so weniger unmöglich, als sich Moskau möglicherweise derzeit einer ernsteren innenpolitischen Krise gegenübersieht als Pretoria in Südafrika. (DÜI-Hlb)

Thirty years ago, Sir Godfrey Huggins retired as Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Queen raised him to the peerage as Viscount Malvern of Rhodesia and of Bexley in the county of Kent – his choice of title characteristically giving expression first of all to his old public school, then his country of adoption, and finally his birthplace in England. Great universities showered him with honorary doctorates and, quite surprisingly, David Low, the most distinguished of Labour political artists, creator of the archetypal figure Colonel Blimp, published a cartoon that showed Huggins proudly stepping into the pages of history, together with Sir Robert Walpole and Mackenzie King, the only English-speaking Prime Ministers to have shared his political longevity.

Twelve years ago, the present writer made an embarrassingly inaccurate forecast. The Portuguese, he wrote in a paperback, cannot hold out for long in Angola; the country is hard to pacify, the insurgents enjoy many advantages, the metropole is poor and incapable of sustaining a long Indonesian-type conflict.1 At the time, this assessment seemed quite realistic, even to many Portuguese. The left-wing historian Vitorino Magalhães Godinho argued that their society lacked 'social efficiency'; Portugal was a backward country, a land of labour migrants incapable of true development at home, much less of developing an empire.2 Even some conservatives agreed: the metropole was poverty- stricken, and the colonies were but millstones around Portugal's neck.