This compelling book provides the first global history of the evolution of combined operations since Antiquity. Beginning with amphibious warfare in the ancient world of the Romans, Vikings, and Mongols, Jeremy Black advances through the Gunpowder Revolution, the rise of maritime empires and the formation of nation-states, the early Industrial Revolution and the adaptation of modern technology to warfare, the twentieth-century world wars, the Cold War, and concluding with the modern age of irregular and asymmetric conflict. Black’s informed and analytical narrative emphasizes conflicts around the world, focusing not only on leading powers but also regional combatants. His case studies include amphibious operations in the Mongol invasions of Japan, the War for American Independence, and the Gallipoli campaign of World War I. He also explores the development and effectiveness of airborne operations as a way to project military power inland. Offering a balanced assessment of strategic, operational, and technical developments over time, Black considers both the potential and limitations of amphibious and airborne warfare―past, present, and future. “This volume, one of a series that Black is writing on the several dimensions of warfare (land, sea, air, and now combined) is an essential read for anyone interested in military operations from the sea.” ― Strategy Page “Jeremy Black has been one of the world’s premier military historians for years, so it’s no surprise that he’s the one to finally pull the thread through that long and bloody history and produce a landmark text on the subject. Moreover, Black includes airborne operations along with amphibious operations under the subject of Combined Operations.... It is easy to see this book becoming required reading for Marine and Airborne communities . . . [and] a valuable primer for anyone seeking insights into joint warfare and combined warfare as a whole. Black repeatedly makes the case that interservice cooperation across domains is the key to success. For a joint force, that is a lesson that applies to any operation brought into sharp contrast through lucid writing.” ― The Strategy Bridge “This is a very necessary, and long overdue, book that sheds light on a neglected facet of military and naval history: the combined operation. Adopting a global context, Jeremy Black explains the evolving strategic, tactical, and political purposes of combined operations from the ancient world to the modern day. In so doing, he demonstrates that these organizationally complex operations have mapped the fluctuating character of war over time and remain a potentially effective asymmetrical engagement in global conflict.” ―KAJ McLay, Canterbury Christ Church University “Jeremy Black has produced an outstanding and comprehensive history of combined military operations. The main emphasis is on the eighteenth century to the present, but Black also expertly analyzes and chronicles the non-Western military tradition and history from the ancient to the modern world, a little-examined but critical subject. As with his previous books on world military, strategic, and operational history, this work is a tour de forceaddressing the fundamental dynamics inherent in combined military operations.” ―Stanley D. M. Carpenter, U.S. Naval War College “Jeremy Black offers a unique overview of the evolution of combined operations in warfare from antiquity to the twenty-first century, using historical examples from all parts of the world. These comparisons between diverse regions and periods provide true insight into military history and a comprehension of the critical factors involved. Black demonstrates how logistical and cooperative challenges between services are as important today as they were 2,500 years ago, and how the strategic asymmetries between attacker and defender remain influential on the outcome.” ―Gunnar Åselius, Swedish Defence University Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter, UK, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, USA.