Alliances are curious beasts, at once abstract and concrete, distant and immediate. They are means of maximizing power, managing allies, and deterring adversaries, but also expressions of communities who identify their own security with the security of others. In the latter case, alliances are based on solidarity, an abstract concept until it’s translated into “dying … Continue reading Of Bonds and Bands: Alliances, Military Doctrine and Warfare in The Lord of the Rings – Part I