Shadowplay: Behind the Lines and Under Fire: The Inside Story of Europe’s Last War by Tim Marshall (PDF)

Description

A gripping eyewitness account of a major 20th-century military conflict by the UK’s most popular writer on geopoliticsThe shattering of Yugoslavia in the 1990s showed that, after nearly 50 years of peace, war could return to Europe. It came to its bloody conclusion in Kosovo in 1999.Tim Marshall, then diplomatic editor at Sky News, was on the ground covering the Kosovo War. This is his illuminating account of how events unfolded, a thrilling journalistic memoir drawing on personal experience, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with intelligence officials from five countries. Twenty years on from the war’s end, with the rise of Russian power, a weakened NATO and stalled EU expansion, this story is more relevant than ever, as questions remain about the possibility of conflict on European soil. Utterly compelling, this is Tim Marshall at his very best: behind the lines, under fire and full of the insight that has made him one of Britain’s foremost writers on geopolitics.In his gripping new book The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World, Marshall digs deep into the past, present and future of the new ‘astropolitics’ that are set to change the face of life on Earth. Available to PRE-ORDER NOW in hardback, ebook and audio – out 27th April 2023

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Oh, the memories of being bombed when you’re 14… I remember how deeply hurt I was when I realized the miserable war-zone country in all the news is my country now. Tim was the face of that – I vividly remember watching Sky news on satellite on the first night of bombing, trying to understand what he was saying (my English wasn’t so good back then) and wondering if where I live was going to turn into Hollywood war movie scenery. Tim’s book clearly depicts how pointless and egotistical the whole affair was from both sides. Hating Albright as much as Milošević makes sense again.It also reveals the inconvenient truth of how much the foreign intelligence services had to do with both making the case for bombing (KVM being run by CIA, the Rambouillet ultimatum etc.) as well as organizing the opposition to topple Milošević. Is that democracy? Serbia is in the same situation today with Vučić, but no one seems to care, as he suits the west.Finally, having spent 10 years in the region, and having used so few of the local words, it’s amazing how many spelling mistakes Tim manage to make in this book (Batjanica, Gotev je, persistently writing dj instead of đ and many more).Important contribution to putting together the 20th century history of the region, and a book definitely not for the novices on the subject.

⭐Anserses a lot of important questions, very informative.

⭐True to the events

⭐If there is anyone interested in the history of Milosevic Serbia – buy this book. And it is so easy in kindle edition.

⭐This book contains some interesting bits and is valuable I think in giving more space to this conflict which received plenty of coverage at the time but which has, as the author notes, been forgotten to a certain extent in the wider world. However, it feels as though it is a bit of a dash through the period. Some things, including the eventual removal of Milosevic, are covered in detail but there are other aspects I would have liked to have heard more about, beginning with some more background to this precise conflict. I felt it was a little lacking in that regard.I also found the writing lacking in self awareness but overly imbued with self importance at times, a bit like Martin Bell’s book about covering Bosnia. As if they are writing for an audience of their colleagues. Marshall, too, often used inverted commas when he felt something was so-called, when I thought he ought then to have described why he felt this way.Fair, in all.

⭐This book is a memoir of the author’s experience as a journalist in the Kosovo war, but it also tries to be a lot more and fails pretty badly.The cover, showing all Yugoslavia, suggests that the book will examine a lot more than just Kosovo- in practice it’s focused on the author’s experience in Kosovo, though he was also present in the Bosnian war. Even still, it’s focus is narrow; Marshall was based in Serbia proper for most of this time and so the book covers only this perspective, focusing more on NATO bombings of Serbia and discussing remarkably little about events in Kosovo. In fact individual Kosovo Albanians are only mentioned four times total in the entire book; if you’re looking to learn anything about Kosovo beyond the very basics you won’t find it here.That narrow focus can be excused from a memoir, since the author can’t help what he was and wasn’t present to see. But it becomes a problem since the author is in fact willing to discuss other things, moving from memoir into history. Given that, the book’s total lack of any coverage of Kosovo itself becomes baffling. When Marshall chooses to discuss things other than his own experiences, it’s usually machinations in Washington or Whitehall, without much insight beyond a pretty firm conviction that British foreign policy is good and America’s bad. All the attention he pays to this creates a rather inflated impression of the importance of these countries in the events beyond the NATO bombing.When getting into that diplomatic territory, Marshall begins to quote a lot of unnamed inside sources, which may be unavoidable- but in fact he barely provides any sources at all, with a feeble bibliography. Another of his digressions from his own experience is his coverage of the ‘Bulldozer Revolution’, and though one can’t fault him for discussing the event despite his absence, he seems to draw everything all from one source.The bulk of the book was written in the early 2000s, and so a short introduction and conclusion seek to bring it up to the present; unfortunately the latter is mostly focused on Russia.As simply a memoir of the author’s experiences in the conflict this book is maybe alright. When it tries to do anything else it does so pretty poorly.

⭐This book is amazing, and personally my favourite by him.This book provided great detail of facts, from trivial ones to ones that won and lost the war. With facts he also recognised the tactics, strategies, problems and leadership shown by the two sides, NATO and Yugoslavia.What puts apart the other books that Marshall wrote from this book is how much he was involved in it. From joining up with the american army at the height of the war, to being one of the last reporters in Yugoslavia, to being the reporter from Sky in the town where the Russians marched through, you can tell that Marshall knows what he is talking about.All in all, a very enjoyable read and would recommend to anyone who wants to know more about a countries thinking in wartime

⭐As someone who lived through this conflict (in what is now Croatia at the time) I only had part of the story. This book completes it. Personally found it a fantastic insight into the conflict, reasons and outcomes.

⭐This book is well-written and engaging. It offers a very balanced and rational overview of the conflict from someone who saw the lives impacted on all sides. It is a must read if you have an interest in the last Cold War conflict or the Balkans. Marshall injects humour and opinion in a non-invasive manner, allowing the reader to laugh at the sometimes futile situation for journalists in the heat of conflict. One of the most interesting parts of this book was the depth of understanding and secret service sources. Not only does it cover what the overt players were doing, it also explains the work from the CIA and MI6 in the region.

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