Open Access Published by De Gruyter Open Access

Volume 1 Issue 1

January 2020

Issue of Open Military Studies

Contents
Journal Overview

Open Access June 27, 2020

The success of the pike over the bow discussed through the battle of Guinegate, during which the Swiss type infantry clashed with the armies of Louis XI . Twilight of the English military system

Maksymilian Jan Krasoń

Page range: 1-10

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Open Access September 11, 2020

Hitler’s Downfall and the Collapse of the Thousand Years Reich: Multi Fronts and Incapable Allies

Muhammad Ali Baig

Page range: 11-23

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Abstract

The downfall of Adolf Hitler was a significant development in the history of the world. His armies conquered almost all of Europe in a dramatic span of time by the employment of Blitzkrieg tactics. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Hitler assisted General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Later, while still fighting on the Western front, Hitler ordered the Afrika Korps to assist Italians in Northern Africa and in the Balkans region and finally launched Operation Barbarossa by invading the Soviet Union. The Anti-Comintern Pact, Pact of Steel and Tripartite Pact brought the Third Reich, the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Italy onto one page. This paper attempts to probe the multiple fronts and the efficacy of Hitler’s allies including Japan, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Croatia and to try and find the causes behind the downfall of one of the strongest men the world has ever seen from a theoretical perspective. This research did not intend to glorify Hitler or Nazism, but focuses on how the maximization of power and the states’ actions with hegemonic aspirations triggered a balancing coalition and ultimately resulted in punishment from the system itself.

Open Access September 11, 2020

Impact of Domestic and Transboundary Conflicts on Militarization

Hafiz Syed Mohsin Abbas, Xiaodong Xu, Chunxia Sun, Saif Ullah, Muhammad Ahsan Ali Raza

Page range: 24-35

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Abstract

Security issues are the global concern nowadays, which triggers government spending on military equipment and supply chain. This paper analyzes the global perspective of cohesion indicators on Militarization by using 177 countries panel data from the Years 2011-2018 based on middle/lower and high-income groups. By applied OLS and Fixed Effect modelling, we explored the idea that Group Grievance and Population Growth Rate have a significant impact on Militarization in both income groups worldwide. However, middle/lower income group’s Militarization is more fragile than high-income groups due to state cohesion. It further analyses that Security Apparatus and Fractionalization Elite are significant in Middle/ lower-income countries and have an insignificant impact on Militarization in high-income countries. In the end, the study suggested that the United Nations must keenly observe the militarization trends of the less fragile states by considering global peace concerns and should play its role to resolve the bilateral conflicts in the region to maintain world peace environment.

Open Access February 24, 2021

The Defence Needs of Azerbaijani Armed Forces for Peace, Security, and Stability

Muhammad Ali Baig

Page range: 79-87

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Abstract

Azerbaijan is a peace-loving country and a cooperative member of the United Nations Organization. Being a sovereign member of the international community, it has all the rights and privileges entitled to a state. However, the claims of neighbouring Armenia driven by irredentism and revanchism over the contested region of Nagorno Karabakh have led to numerous conflicts between the two. Having the role of ensuring Azerbaijan’s political integrity and sovereign status, the role of its armed forces is demanding yet challenging. This article is geared towards analysing the operational capabilities of Azerbaijani Armed Forces with a special focus on equipment, doctrine, and command and control platforms. It also assesses and prescribes the necessary and immediate needs to deter the threats and to thwart any military conflict. It theorises the potential of Azerbaijan-Pakistan defence relations. Finally, it aspires to take a structural approach in explaining the state behaviour and the relevance of security in contemporary times.

Open Access April 6, 2021

Melian dialogue syndrome in the Indian Ocean: A critical appraisal of Sri Lanka’s “small state dilemma” in the context of Indo-Sino rivalry

Punsara Amarasinghe

Page range: 129-140

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Abstract

Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary’s statement indicating that Colombo would adopt “ India Firs t” foreign policy appears to be a much-consoling phrase for the Indian diplomats. It is a fact beyond any dispute that New Delhi felt anxious about Sri Lanka’s extensive hobnobbing with China for years that has finally seen massive Chinese presence in the island nation. Given Sri Lanka’s strategic location in the Indian ocean as a crucial hub in the Indian ocean governance, Colombo’s relations with Beijing have always created a tense situation in India. However, the newly elected president of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government’s novel approach to profess their foreign policy as India cantered doctrine raises some perplexity with the realpolitik caught by Sri Lanka. This paper seeks to examine the asymmetrical relationship that existed between Indian and Sri Lanka after the independence of both nations, wherein New Delhi used different means to carve Sri Lanka’s external relations for the best interests of India. Furthermore, this paper analyses the unequal position Sri Lanka has been facing as a small nation located near a ricing global power and how Sri Lanka struggles to balance both India and China in their rivalry in the Indian Ocean. The results emerge from this paper will reveal the impossibility of upholding neutrality for a small state before complex geopolitical power struggles.

Open Access August 23, 2021

On Police-Military Cooperation in Peacetime: Constitutional and Ethical-Political Memorandum

Andraž Teršek

Page range: 151-160

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Abstract

Among the more important socio-political issues that have appeared on the surface of the public agenda is the question of cooperation between the police and the army. In the article, the author analyzes this issue both in general and in the specific context of the Republic of Slovenia. He explains that the Slovenian Government did not formally declare a “state of emergency,” although the Slovenian Constitution allows it, but officially declared an epidemic and used a special provision in the Defense Act that allows the Slovenian Army to take action in so-called “exceptional” social circumstances and establish police-military cooperation on the ground. The author explains the constitutional dimensions of such cooperation and its ethico-political perspective.

Open Access December 31, 2021

The impact of the Great Northern War on Poznań and the lives of its inhabitants

Karol Kościelniak

Page range: 161-170

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Abstract

The 18th century began unfavourably for the Commonwealth and for Poznań with the great Northern War (1700-1721), which, with its consequences in the form of war damage, plagues, contributed to the depopulation of Poznań and its suburbs and urban villages. The article was prepared to show the situation of the city before the war and, above all, during the war. Military operations, war destruction, population losses, costs of the war and the actions of the occupiers show the significant changes that took place in the capital of Greater Poland as a result of the Great Northern War. It concludes that Poznań became a participant in the war with all its consequences.

War and military in early modern Europe, ed. by Mariusz Sawicki

Open Access October 31, 2020

Kildare rebellion (1534-1535) in the Annals of the Four Masters

Marcin Böhm

Page range: 36-43

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Abstract

One of the most important Irish historical sources, which are the Annals of the Four Masters, written in the modern period, provide us with unusually valuable information about the history of the Emerald Island. In addition to data from the ancient or medieval periods, it also contains material from the difficult 16th and 17th centuries for Ireland, when it came under the yoke of English Protestants, who were initially represented by the Tudors and then by the Stuart dynasty. The Annals of the Four Masters also witnesses the resistance of the Irish, both those from Hiberno Normans and Gaelic Irish, to the demands of new authorities, including the rejection of Catholicism and total submission to the power of the kings of England. One such attempt, although unsuccessful, was the Kildare rebellion undertaken by Silken Thomas Earl of Kildare in the late 1630s. The laconic nature of Annales’ accounts, as well as the omission by this source of many important data, makes it an auxiliary material related to military history in the case of the Kildare rebellion. This is interesting because, in the context of later revolts that broke out in Ireland against the authority of the Tudors or Stuarts, in the era of further conquest of the island, this source is very valuable research material in this field.

Open Access November 9, 2020

Discipline in Polish-Lithuanian cavalry units during battles in the early modern period

Karol Łopatecki

Page range: 44-61

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Open Access January 29, 2021

Jan Sobieski’s latifundium and the soldiers (1652-1696)

Magdalena Ujma

Page range: 62-69

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Abstract

An analysis of the relationship between Jan III Sobieski and the people he distinguished shows that there were many mutual benefits. Social promotion was more difficult if the candidate for the office did not come from a senatorial family34. It can be assumed that, especially in the case of Atanazy Walenty Miączyński, the economic activity in the Sobieski family was conducive to career development. However, the function of the plenipotentiary was not a necessary condition for this. Not all the people distinguished by Jan III Sobieski achieved the same. More important offices were entrusted primarily to Marek Matczyński. Stanisław Zygmunt Druszkiewicz’s career was definitely less brilliant. Druszkiewicz joined the group of senators thanks to Jan III, and Matczyński and Szczuka received ministerial offices only during the reign of Sobieski. Jan III certainly counted on the ability to manage a team of people acquired by his comrades-in-arms in the course of his military service. However, their other advantage was also important - good orientation in political matters and exerting an appropriate influence on the nobility. The economic basis of the magnate’s power is an issue that requires more extensive research. This issue was primarily of interest to historians dealing with latifundia in the 18th century. This was mainly due to the source material. Latifundial documentation was kept much more regularly in the 18th century than before and is well-organized. The economic activity of the magnate was related not only to the internal organization of landed estates. It cannot be separated from the military, because the goal of the magnate’s life was politics and, very often, also war. Despite its autonomy, the latifundium wasn’t isolated. Despite the existence of the decentralization process of the state, the magnate families remained in contact with the weakening center of the state and influenced changes in its social structure. The actual strength of the magnate family was determined not only by the area of land goods, but above all by their profitability, which depended on several factors: geographic location and natural conditions, the current situation on the economic market, and the management method adopted by the magnate. In the 17th century, crisis phenomena, visible in demography, agricultural and crafts production, money and trade, intensified. In these realities, attempts by Jan III Sobieski to reconstruct the lands destroyed by the war and to introduce military rigor in the management center did not bring the expected results. Sobieski, however, introduced “new people” to the group of senators, who implemented his policy at the sejmiks and the Parliament, participated in military expeditions and managed his property.

Open Access March 30, 2021

Redundant but fashionable. Hussars in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Polish-Saxon union

Tomasz Ciesielski

Page range: 123-128

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Open Access January 28, 2022

Battle of Kircholm (Salaspils) in 1605. The current state of research

Mariusz Balcerek

Page range: 171-189

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Abstract

Background: The article aims to present the state of research on the Battle of Kircholm (Salaspils), which took place in Livonia (now Latvia) on September 27, 1605., between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden. 74% of Swedes were killed, and the winners lost only 3% of their forces. It was an absolute massacre carried out by an army consisting in two-thirds of cavalry against an enemy with an advantage in infantry and artillery, which in theory is more modern. Methodology: The author has analyzed the known and unknown historiography of sources, including archaeological, epistolary, historiographic, iconographic, narrative, and normative materials. He compared the results with previous literature on the subject. Principal Findings/Results: The analysis conducted showed a brilliant tactic by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s army, consisting of combining cavalry with infantry. This, along with many errors in command of the Swedish army, led to the downfall of the Scandinavians. Conclusions/Significances: The success at Kircholm saved the Polish-Lithuanian rule over the Daugava River. Unfortunately, it cemented Polish-Lithuanian nobility in the mistaken belief about the power of the army of the Republic, that without money and reforms, they began to lose advantage over opponents.

History of Russo-Polish military conflicts and cooperation - ed. by. K. Kościelniak

Open Access February 21, 2021

Stanislaviv in the face of the Polish-Soviet War 1939 Polish Garrison – Soviet Garrison

Maciej Franz

Page range: 70-78

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Abstract

In 1921-1939 Stanyslaviv was one the bigger polish garrisons. The approach of the war the reason for leaving the town by polish troops. In September of 1939 the garrison in Stanyslaviv was rather small, consisting of small logistic units. Until now the historians have been interested in the face of this particular garrison in those few September days of 1939th. This is an attempt to showcase the most important events that happened while the polish troops were stationed in town and were still trying to provide peace and safety it and its people.

Open Access February 24, 2021

The Kiev operation and Tukhachevsky’s two offensives in 1920 as attempts at undertaking strategic and operational initiative during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920

Bartosz Kruszyński

Page range: 88-103

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Abstract

The article is an analysis of: 1) the Kiev operation from late April and early May 1920, 2) Tukhachevsky’s first offensive in May 1920, 3) Tukhachevsky’s second offensive launched in July 1920. All the three operations were attempts at undertaking strategic and operational initiative during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920. The first offensive pertained to the Polish army, in the subsequent two cases it was the Soviet Western Front. Tukhachevsky’s second offensive resulted in the battle of the Bug in late July and early August 1920. By discussing each of the operations, the author presents the fighting potential of the armies involved, the tactical and operational goals, the course of the fighting, the turning points, both parties’ planning mistakes and the consequences of the operations.

Open Access March 1, 2021

The Difficult alliance. Military cooperation between the ruthenian king Daniel and the Piasts of Mazovia

Michał Skoczyński

Page range: 104-112

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Abstract

The article presents the military cooperation between the King of Galician-Volhynian Ruthenia, Daniel Romanowicz, and the Dukes of Mazovia, Konrad and his son Siemowit. The alliance, based as a counterweight for the cooperation between the King of Hungary and the Piast princes of Lesser Poland, who were trying to conquer Ruthenia and dominate all Piast principalities in then fragmented Poland. It lasted for several decades from the 1220’s to the 1260’s and was primarly aimed at mutual protection against the invasions of the pagan Yotvingians and supporting each other in armed conflicts. The text contains an analysis of war expeditions, tactics and ways of support that were given by both sides of the allianace. It is a new point of view on this aspect of political strategy of both sides that in some ways defined the regional situation. Ruthenians granted masovian Piasts some mobile and political uncommited support in fight with their relatives in Poland, and also secured their border with the Yotvingians. On the other hand, masovian knights were an additional strike force in ruthenian plundering expeditions to Yotvingia. The research was based on the analysis of preserved historical sources and scientific literature using historical methodology.

Open Access April 12, 2021

Russian-Polish projects on joining or exchanging of military forces to struggle against Turkey and Crimea in 1660s – 1680s: genesis, history, reasons for failure

Kirill Kochegarov

Page range: 113-122

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Abstract

The paper deals with the history of unsuccessful Russian-Polish military cooperation in the 1660s – 1680s. For approximately twenty years Moscow and Warsaw had been trying to join their military forces against, at first rebellious Ukrainian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars, and then against the Turks too. But all negotiations and attempts to realize plans of military cooperation by joining forces failed because of several reasons. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, hoping firstly to bring to obedience hetman Peter Doroshenko with Russian support, then tried to recapture invaded by Ottomans Podolia and appropriately wanted Russian troops to be moved there, not between Dnepr and Dniester, as it had been agreed before. Another thing that didn’t satisfy the Polish-Lithuanian side was a parity basis of joining troops (later of mutual exchanging of units), fixed in the text of alliance of December 1667. The Polish-Lithuanian army was becoming weaker because of long wars with Turks, Tatars, Cossacks and therefore needed military support, mainly infantry and artillery, more than Muscovite Russia, which had a more numerous army. That’s why Polish commanders tried to receive under their command Russian units without sending any soldiers and officers of the Commonwealth to the Muscovite army. So Russia finally refused to join its forces with the Polish-Lithuanian army and the new alliance of 1686 stipulated that each signatory was to wage war independently.

Open Access May 20, 2021

“How can we free ourselves from this despotic Moscow oppression?” The attitude of Poznan and Kalisz voivodeships noblemen towards the Russian army actions in the years 1758-1759. Contribution to the history of the Seven Years’ War

Grzegorz Glabisz

Page range: 141-150

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Abstract

The aim of the text is to show the attitude of the nobility from the Poznan and Kalisz provinces in the years 1758-1759 during the Seven Years’ War. This area, despite the neutrality of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, became a place of Prussian-Russian fighting. The article is a contribution to reflection on the functioning of the political elites and state structures of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

About this journal

Open Military Studies was an international, open access, peer-reviewed academic journal that welcomed contributions written in English addressing military and defense studies in its various forms and aspects: historical, political, sociological and other. Open Military Studies did not present views of any particular school nor of a particular political organization. The aim of the journal was to promote an international and interdisciplinary dialogue in the field of military and defense studies.

The journal is closed for new submissions.

Published Special Issues:

1821 - A New Dawn for Greece. Greek Struggle for Independence
Guest Editor: Lucien J. Frary, Rider University, US
Submission deadline: September 15, 2021
It all began at Pearl Harbor. The Allied-Japanese Struggle in the Pacific
Guest Editor: John T. Kuehn, U.S. Naval War College / U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, US
Submission deadline: October 31, 2021

Published Special Issues:

War and Military in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Mariusz Sawicki
History of Russo-Polish Military Conflicts and Cooperation, ed. by Karol Kościelniak