MUST READS
Looking back
(August 2007)
“The Changing Face of War: Lessons of Combat, from the Marne to Iraq,” by Martin van Creveld; Ballantine Books, $24.95.
BY FRANK G. HOFFMAN
“The Changing Face of War: Lessons of Combat, from the Marne to Iraq,” by Martin van Creveld; Ballantine Books, $24.95.
BY FRANK G. HOFFMAN
Glass half empty
(July 2007)
In “Lessons Not Learned,” Roger Thompson takes aim at the overconfident U.S. Navy. He says the Navy is a victim of its own hubris. “It’s overconfidence plain and...
BY EDWARD LUNDQUIST
In “Lessons Not Learned,” Roger Thompson takes aim at the overconfident U.S. Navy. He says the Navy is a victim of its own hubris. “It’s overconfidence plain and...
BY EDWARD LUNDQUIST
War of ideas: Review
(June 2007)
The playground chant of “sticks and stones” is turned on its head in J. Michael Waller’s intriguing book “Fighting the War of Ideas Like a Real War,” in which...
The playground chant of “sticks and stones” is turned on its head in J. Michael Waller’s intriguing book “Fighting the War of Ideas Like a Real War,” in which...
Hill how-to
(June 2007)
Whether you are an experienced government relations pro or new to the business, if you want to understand the process for getting funding for defense programs, Matthew Kambrod’s...
BY EDWARD LUNDQUIST
Whether you are an experienced government relations pro or new to the business, if you want to understand the process for getting funding for defense programs, Matthew Kambrod’s...
BY EDWARD LUNDQUIST
Confirmation bias
(May 2007)
Donald Rumsfeld’s tenure as secretary of defense (2001-2006) will forever be judged through the prism of the war in Iraq. What if the ultimate outcome, which can only be assessed many...
BY RAY DUBOIS
Donald Rumsfeld’s tenure as secretary of defense (2001-2006) will forever be judged through the prism of the war in Iraq. What if the ultimate outcome, which can only be assessed many...
BY RAY DUBOIS
Think backward, plan forward
(April 2007)
The future remains an enigma wrapped in familiar myths and all-too-comfortable illusions. One can try to predict the future, but prognosticating is a difficult art as well as a dangerous...
BY FRANK G. HOFFMAN
The future remains an enigma wrapped in familiar myths and all-too-comfortable illusions. One can try to predict the future, but prognosticating is a difficult art as well as a dangerous...
BY FRANK G. HOFFMAN
Old paradigms in new bottles
(March 2007)
For more than a decade, since Martin van Creveld’s “The Transformation of War” was published in 1991, the security community has been besieged with reconceptualizations of...
By Frank. G. Hoffman
For more than a decade, since Martin van Creveld’s “The Transformation of War” was published in 1991, the security community has been besieged with reconceptualizations of...
By Frank. G. Hoffman
Fighting long small wars
(February 2007)
“Counterinsurgency and the Global War on Terror: Military Culture and Irregular War,” by Robert M. Cassidy; Praeger, $49.95.
BY FRANK HOFFMAN
“Counterinsurgency and the Global War on Terror: Military Culture and Irregular War,” by Robert M. Cassidy; Praeger, $49.95.
BY FRANK HOFFMAN
Challenging the technocrats
(January 2007)
For far too long, American military planners and civilian policymakers have imagined future military capabilities through rose-colored glasses. In the 1990s, the peace dividend was paramount...
By Frank Hoffman
For far too long, American military planners and civilian policymakers have imagined future military capabilities through rose-colored glasses. In the 1990s, the peace dividend was paramount...
By Frank Hoffman
Warfare --- past and present
(November 2006)
Since the end of the Cold War, an internal struggle has taken place between U.S. military “transformationalists” who hyped the wonders of the Information Age versus...
By Frank Hoffman
Since the end of the Cold War, an internal struggle has taken place between U.S. military “transformationalists” who hyped the wonders of the Information Age versus...
By Frank Hoffman
Damage control
(October 2006)
The Navy is in the process of reviving its “brown-water” heritage in order to counter the rise of asymmetric threats and contribute to the Long War. Soon, the Littoral Combat...
BY FRANK HOFFMAN
The Navy is in the process of reviving its “brown-water” heritage in order to counter the rise of asymmetric threats and contribute to the Long War. Soon, the Littoral Combat...
BY FRANK HOFFMAN
Lessons from the last long wars
(September 2006)
Our collective understanding of irregular warfare, while far better than it was at the time of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, is not what it might be. This is less true for soldiers...
By Tom Donnelly
Our collective understanding of irregular warfare, while far better than it was at the time of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, is not what it might be. This is less true for soldiers...
By Tom Donnelly
Countering chaos
(September 2006)
Retired Gen. Tony Zinni is the proverbial E.F. Hutton of defense advice. When he speaks, people tend to listen — and rightfully so. His insights on the intricate dynamics of the Middle...
By Frank Hoffman
Retired Gen. Tony Zinni is the proverbial E.F. Hutton of defense advice. When he speaks, people tend to listen — and rightfully so. His insights on the intricate dynamics of the Middle...
By Frank Hoffman
Divided nation
(August 2006)
Nathaniel Fick’s account of his time as a Marine Corps officer stands as a monument to this generation of warriors. Using vivid prose to describe remarkable, firsthand experiences,...
By 1st Lt. Micah Andrew Niebauer
Nathaniel Fick’s account of his time as a Marine Corps officer stands as a monument to this generation of warriors. Using vivid prose to describe remarkable, firsthand experiences,...
By 1st Lt. Micah Andrew Niebauer
Now for the hard part
(August 2006)
Old vaudevillians say dying is easy but comedy is hard. For American armed forces, conventional warfare is relatively easy, but stabilization and reconstruction operations are hard.
BY ALAN GROPMAN
Old vaudevillians say dying is easy but comedy is hard. For American armed forces, conventional warfare is relatively easy, but stabilization and reconstruction operations are hard.
BY ALAN GROPMAN
New thinking
(July 2006)
Insurgency. Indigenous forces. Irregular warfare. It’s the modern military version of being able to sketch a lifelike Bambi, which used to be the minimum qualification for admission to...
By TOM DONNELLY
Insurgency. Indigenous forces. Irregular warfare. It’s the modern military version of being able to sketch a lifelike Bambi, which used to be the minimum qualification for admission to...
By TOM DONNELLY
Knowing where to stop
(July 2006)
IN 1864, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, imperial chancellor and foreign minister to Czar Alexander II, dispatched a circular to Moscow’s embassies abroad. Stung by Western...
BY VANCE SERCHUK
IN 1864, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, imperial chancellor and foreign minister to Czar Alexander II, dispatched a circular to Moscow’s embassies abroad. Stung by Western...
BY VANCE SERCHUK
Hidden history
(June 2006)
Why has the U.S. Air Force gotten so bad at studying its own history? In the wake of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the secretary of the Air Force commissioned the “Gulf War Air Power...
By Christopher J. Bowie
Why has the U.S. Air Force gotten so bad at studying its own history? In the wake of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the secretary of the Air Force commissioned the “Gulf War Air Power...
By Christopher J. Bowie
Lessons unlearned
(June 2006)
Any publication with insurgents and terrorists in its title is certain to attract a certain amount of attention these days, but a 2003 book by James S. Corum and Wray R. Johnson deserves to...
By Thomas A. Keaney
Any publication with insurgents and terrorists in its title is certain to attract a certain amount of attention these days, but a 2003 book by James S. Corum and Wray R. Johnson deserves to...
By Thomas A. Keaney
Going native
(April 2006)
It wasn’t so long ago that empire was in. For a brief, strange, almost Olympian moment earlier in this decade, it was just about all America’s foreign policy establishment wanted...
By Vance Serchuk
It wasn’t so long ago that empire was in. For a brief, strange, almost Olympian moment earlier in this decade, it was just about all America’s foreign policy establishment wanted...
By Vance Serchuk
Echoes of Abyssinia
(April 2006)
One of the happier unintended consequences of the global war on — oops, the “long war” for the greater Middle East — has been a flowering of thoughtful writing about...
By Tom Donnelly
One of the happier unintended consequences of the global war on — oops, the “long war” for the greater Middle East — has been a flowering of thoughtful writing about...
By Tom Donnelly
Memoir’s of a president’s man
(March 2006)
“I would be the only paramount authority figure — other than dictator Saddam Hussein — that most Iraqis had ever known.”
By Michael Rubin
“I would be the only paramount authority figure — other than dictator Saddam Hussein — that most Iraqis had ever known.”
By Michael Rubin
Monitoring China’s meddling
(March 2006)
American strategists have, since the end of the Cold War, been a day late and a dollar short in appreciating the change in relations with the People’s Republic of China. The first...
By Tom Donnelly
American strategists have, since the end of the Cold War, been a day late and a dollar short in appreciating the change in relations with the People’s Republic of China. The first...
By Tom Donnelly
Rising star
(February 2006)
Did you know that 220 billion text messages were sent over mobile phones in China last year? Or that one in 10 American jobs is at risk of being outsourced to the People’s Republic?...
By Dan Blumenthal
Did you know that 220 billion text messages were sent over mobile phones in China last year? Or that one in 10 American jobs is at risk of being outsourced to the People’s Republic?...
By Dan Blumenthal
Well-traveled minds
(February 2006)
In what we are still prone to call the “post-Cold War period,” Americans continue to have a difficult time sorting their way through first-order strategic questions. At the same...
By Tom Donnelly
In what we are still prone to call the “post-Cold War period,” Americans continue to have a difficult time sorting their way through first-order strategic questions. At the same...
By Tom Donnelly
Fallujah: The iconic battle
(January 2006)
There is considerable bloodshed, but little battle, in most accounts of the war in Iraq. Acts of terrorism and small-unit skirmishes, not the clash of armies, define the conflict. And...
By Vance Serchuk
There is considerable bloodshed, but little battle, in most accounts of the war in Iraq. Acts of terrorism and small-unit skirmishes, not the clash of armies, define the conflict. And...
By Vance Serchuk
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Destroyer flip-flop
Posted 9/2/2008 by Administrator
Posted 9/2/2008 by Administrator
Audacious blueprint
Posted 9/2/2008 by Administrator
Posted 9/2/2008 by Administrator