Ballard, John R. 1957-

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Ballard, John R. 1957-

PERSONAL:

Born March 30, 1957. Education: Catholic University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—National War College, 300 D St. S.W., Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC 20319-5078.

CAREER:

Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand, former professor; National War College, Washington, DC, professor. Military service: U.S. Marines; served in Iraq War; became full colonel.

WRITINGS:

Upholding Democracy: The United States Military Campaign in Haiti, 1994-1997, foreword by John J. Sheehan, Praeger (Westport, CT), 1998.

Continuity during the Storm: Boissy d'Anglas and the Era of the French Revolution, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2000.

Fighting for Fallujah: A New Dawn for Iraq, Praeger Security International (Westport, CT), 2006.

Triumph of Self-Determination: Operation Stabilise and United Nations Peacemaking in East Timor, Praeger Security International (Westport, CT), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

John R. Ballard is a retired Marine Corps colonel who saw active duty during the American-led invasion of Haiti in 1994, as well as during the Iraq War a decade later. He is also the author of several works on military-political history, ranging from the French revolution to the 2004 battle for Fallujah in Iraq. As a professor at the National War College, Ballard has specialized in strategic studies. This background serves him well in such books as Upholding Democracy: The United States Military Campaign in Haiti, 1994-1997. Here Ballard, who served with the joint analysis and assessment team under U.S. Atlantic Command (ACOM) in the Haiti mission, provides an inside account of the U.S. military effort to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in 1994 after he was ousted in a military coup fours years earlier. When coup leaders refused to give up power, the United Nations Security Council finally sanctioned a humanitarian intervention, with the U.S. military taking the lead. Though the operation was planned initially as a large-scale invasion, the U.S. military scaled back its numbers once last-minute diplomatic efforts succeeded in convincing the coup leaders to leave peacefully. Still, over 50,000 U.S. troops ultimately served in Haiti, where they were less a military than a police presence, restoring order to the country rather than fighting a war.

Many critics found the forces woefully unprepared for such a role. Ballard, however, "offers a more upbeat view that focuses on the joint operations," according to Foreign Affairs contributor Kenneth Maxwell, who further termed Ballard's book "a detailed and thorough work." Ballard draws on published sources, as well as numerous interviews with key planners of the Uphold Democracy mission, in order to provide a brief overview of Haitian history, the planning of the joint task force, and the implementation of that force. Ronald H. Cole, writing in the Joint Force Quarterly, noted that Ballard's concluding chapter "presents some lessons learned on flexible planning, command and control, joint interoperability, media relations, managing transitions between forces, theater strategic coordination, joint training, interagency coordination, and ‘mission success.’" Maxwell added: "Given Ballard's self-congratulatory tone, one gets a sinking feeling that the Pentagon and White House learned the wrong lessons from Haiti in the end." A more positive assessment was offered by Cole, who termed Upholding Democracy a "comprehensive account" that is "readable and valuable for the depth and clarity of its analysis," despite "some triumphal language and pedantic asides." Cole also conceded, however, that "the talk of mission success in Upholding Democracy rings hollow."

In his year 2000 study Continuity during the Storm: Boissy d'Anglas and the Era of the French Revolution, Ballard presents a revised version of his doctoral dissertation. D'Anglas, a French politician, served in government positions from 1789 to 1826, thus working during the Revolution, the Empire, and the Restoration. This in itself was a remarkable feat of survival, and was made possible by his panoply of beliefs: in religious tolerance, freedom of expression, and equality before the law. Ballard's argument is that d'Anglas was able to survive exactly because of these moderate beliefs. History reviewer Eric A. Arnold, Jr., felt that "Ballard has thoughtfully and carefully read every one of Boissy d'Anglas's numerous writings, most of which exist only in manuscript form and are not readily available, no small accomplishment in itself." Arnold recommended the book "for those with more than a passing interest in the French Revolution." G.P. Cox, writing in Choice, also praised the work, noting: "Ballard's recounting of Boissy d'Anglas's career is an interesting examination of the politics of survival and accommodation."

In his 2006 title Fighting for Fallujah: A New Dawn for Iraq, Ballard returns to military affairs and, as with Upholding Democracy, does so with an insider's knowledge: he commanded the Marine Corps' 4th Civil Affairs Group during the November 2004 battle against insurgents in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Employing his own first-person account, blended with interviews and official documents, Ballard details the inception of this battle, beginning in March 2004, when insurgents brutally killed civilians working for the Blackwater security company operating the region. The next month, U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces attempted to cordon off insurgents in Fallujah, protecting the rest of the civilian population of that city, which once had a population of 350,000. These early operations were not successful, and this led to the Marines retaking the city from Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army the following November in an action known as Operation Al Fajr (New Dawn). Ballard's account also includes mention of the free elections held in the city in January 2005. A reviewer for Reference & Research Book News thought Fighting for Fallujah was "of value in its descriptions of particular force movements and the like," but also warned that the book "toes the US military line to the point of obfuscation on such topics as the impact of the attack of the local population, the effect it had on the anti-occupation insurgency, and the scale of reconstruction following the battle." Military Review critic Dennis S. Burket had a more positive assessment of the work, however, commenting: "Written in a style that is both educational and easy to read, Fighting for Fallujah is an important contribution to understanding the complexity of urban operations in Iraq." Similarly, Gordon W. Keiser, writing in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, concluded that Ballard's "extensive research and well-written work will be of great value to serious students, both military and civilian."

In his 2008 work Triumph of Self-Determination: Operation Stabilise and United Nations Peacemaking in East Timor, Ballard uses first-person accounts, interviews, declassified documents, and secondary background sources to give an in-depth study of the years between 1999 and 2006 as the people of East Timor struggled for independence. Ballard begins his narrative with a historical overview of the country that takes the reader up to the intervention by the United Nations in 1999. The author also covers the referendum in which the people of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia, and the ensuing operations by United Nations peacekeeping forces to stabilize the country. Ballard additionally deals with the fledgling country's first national elections, the writing of a constitution, and the formation of a new national government, concluding the work with a comparison of United Nations operations in East Timor to those in other trouble spots, including Haiti and Somalia.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Asian Affairs, November 1, 2007, Michael Rose, review of Fighting for Fallujah: A New Dawn for Iraq, p. 385.

Choice, April 1, 2001, G.P. Cox, review of Continuity during the Storm: Boissy d'Anglas and the Era of the French Revolution, p. 1524.

Foreign Affairs, July-August, 1999, Kenneth Maxwell, review of Upholding Democracy: The United States Military Campaign in Haiti, 1994-1997.

History, March 22, 2001, Eric A. Arnold, Jr., review of Continuity during the Storm, p. 123.

Joint Force Quarterly, winter, 2000, Ronald H. Cole, review of Upholding Democracy, p. 109.

Marine Corps Gazette, April 1, 2007, "Fallujah Revisited," p. 69.

Middle East Journal, fall, 2006, Aaron Reese, review of Fighting for Fallujah, p. 830.

Military Review, July 1, 2006, Dennis S. Burket, review of Fighting for Fallujah, p. 115.

Reference & Research Book News, November 1, 1998, review of Upholding Democracy, p. 60; November 1, 2000, review of Continuity during the Storm, p. 25; August 1, 2006, review of Fighting for Fallujah.

U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, June, 2006, Gordon W. Keiser, review of Fighting for Fallujah, p. 85.