Major Edgar “Paddy” O'Ballance (17 July 1918,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, Ireland – 8 July 2009, Wakebridge,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, England) was an Irish-born British military journalist, researcher, defence commentator and academic lecturer specialising in international relations and defence problems. He was emergency commissioned a Second Lieutenant from Sergeant in the

Sherwood Foresters The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for just under 90 years, from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment to ...

on 19 January 1941. As a temporary Major he was mentioned in dispatches for service in Palestine between 27 March and 30 June 1948. He served in the British army until 1948. In April 1953 he was commissioned into the Territorial Army as a captain, serving with the Sherwood Foresters. He was promoted major in March 1955. In June 1963 he transferred from the Sherwood Foresters to the General List. In July 1965 he was awarded the

Territorial Efficiency Decoration __NOTOC__ The Territorial Decoration (TD) was a military medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army. This award superseded the Volunteer Officer's Decoration when the Te ...

. In 1968 he transferred from the General List (Territorial Army) to the General List (Regular Army Reserve of Officers) and having achieved the age limit on 17 July 1968 (his 50th birthday) retired retaining the rank of major.London Gazette 12 November 1968 He worked as a journalist for a US Wire Agency from 1948 to 1962, and was thereafter a freelance journalist. He covered over twenty wars and insurgencies and wrote extensively on international relations, defence and strategic problems. He was a member of the

International Institute for Strategic Studies The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been Arundel House in London, England. The 2017 Global Go To Think ...

and Chairman of the London-based Military Commentators' Circle. He wrote many articles for military journals and was the author of over forty books.

Mad dog of the Middle East

O'Ballance was the originator of the phrase "mad dog of the Middle East" when referring to

Muammar al-Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

while on the lecture circuit in the USA. The then-U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, picked it up and used the phrase himself in April 1986.

Books

*No Victor, No Vanquished: the Yom Kippur War *Malaya: The Communist insurgent war, 1948–1960 *The Arab-Israeli War 1948 *The Sinai Campaign, 1956 *The Red Army *The Red Army of China *The Story of the French Foreign Legion *The Indo-China War, 1945–54 *The Greek Civil War, 1944-1949 - 1966 *The Algerian Insurrection 1954-1962 - 1967 *Korea: 1950-1953 - 1969 *The War In Yemen - 1971 *The Third Arab-Israeli war - 1972 *The Kurdish Revolt: 1961-1970 - 1973 *Arab guerilla power, 1967-1972 - 1974 *The Electronic War in the Middle East, 1968-70 - 1974 *The secret war in the Sudan, 1955-1972 - 1977 *Language of Violence: The blood politics of terrorism - 1979 *The Wars in Vietnam - 1981 *The US rapid deployment force - 1981 *Terror in Ireland: The Heritage of Hate - 1984 *The Gulf War - 1988 *Civil War in Bosnia, 1992-94 - 1995. *Wars in the Caucasus, 1990-1995 - 1997. *The Palestinian Intifada 1998 *Civil War in Lebanon, 1975-92 - 1998. *The Congo-Zaire experience, 1960-98 - 2000. *Afghan Wars: 1839 To the Present Day - 2002. *The cyanide war : Tamil insurrection in Sri Lanka, 1973-88. London: Brassey's (UK). .

References

External links

*
Boy soldier explored perils of changing world.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oballance, Edgar 1918 births 2009 deaths British male journalists British military writers British military historians Sherwood Foresters officers

Mad dog of the Middle East

Books

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