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The Politics of Restraint in the Middle East
Get PDFDomestic constraints make it difficult for the United States to pursue a coherent program of restraint in the Middle East. As events in Gaza revive debates about the appropriate size and scope of the military footprint in the region, this article shows the importance of grounding any revised posture on a firm domestic foundation. Going beyond accounts that blame the obstructionism of a foreign policy establishment, it explores barriers to strategic adjustment and supports its claims through a case study of the Obama administration’s record, drawn from relevant literature, data on the distribution of military capabilities, and interviews with senior officials
Strategy as Problem-Solving
Get PDFThis article proposes a new definition of strategy as problem-solving that challenges the focus on goals and assumptions of order within many post–Cold War approaches to strategy. It argues that the military needs strategy to diagnose the complex problems of the twenty-first century before they can be solved. Inspired by practitioners such as Andrew Marshall and George F. Kennan, this new definition clarifies what strategists do and offers a logic for distinguishing the use of the term strategy. Practitioners will also find problem-solving tools and pedagogies they can adopt today
Book Review: Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission over the Roof of the World
Get PDFAuthor: Caroline Alexander
Reviewed by Dr. Heather Venable, course director, Airpower Strategy and Operations, Air Command and Staff College
Dr. Heather Venable, course director, Airpower Strategy and Operations, at the Air Command and Staff College, insightfully analyzes multifaceted author and translator Caroline Alexander’s latest history of the China-Burma-India Theater. Venable overviews the book’s four main elements and the two structural topics—the “ ‘Hump’ of the Himalayas” and the land bridge. She praises the author’s “beguiling human and geographical detail” that “brings the CBI Theater to life while casting a critical eye on the human frailties of her research subjects.”https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters_bookshelf/1055/thumbnail.jp
Book Review: Unwinnable Wars: Afghanistan and the Future of American Armed Statebuilding
Get PDFAuthor: Adam Wunische
Reviewed by Dr. Erik Goepner, US government analyst, Colonel (US Air Force, retired)
Dr. Erik Goepner reviews analyst Adam Wunische’s Unwinnable Wars, which, according to Gopener, offers a “timeless reminder—American power has limits.” Goepner provides a helpful outline of Wunische’s four “major preexisting conditions that severely limit the success of armed state-building efforts.” Wunische argues that preexisting conditions are “beyond the control of the intervening power” and “often foreordain the failure of such missions” (such as Afghanistan, the book’s main case study).https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters_bookshelf/1061/thumbnail.jp
What American Policymakers Misunderstand about the Belt and Road Initiative
Get PDFAmerican accounts of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) contend that it is a coherent grand strategy that reflects Beijing’s geopolitical ambitions. These accounts ignore the BRI’s fragmented nature, whereby Chinese provinces have been pivotal actors in its development and implementation. Furthermore, these accounts disregard the agency of participant countries and their capacity to shape the BRI. This article illustrates this fragmentation and agency by studying the Yunnan province and its domestic and international neighbors. It contends that these dynamics indicate that the BRI lacks coherence and that Beijing’s capacity to extract geopolitical benefits will remain limited
Closing the Gap: Officer Advanced Education STEM+M (Management)
Get PDFThe Army has made insufficient progress in arming its officers with science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and management (STEM+M) knowledge. The contemporary battlefield is faster paced, technologically enabled, and data driven, requiring officers to possess more skills, knowledge, and experience. We examine the Army’s history with STEM education and show that, in terms of education, the current Army officer corps has fallen behind its requirements for technology-enabled forces and modern society. We conclude with recommendations on how the Army can close the STEM+M education gap through advances in higher education and adopting talent management practices
Book Review: Cold Rivals: The New Era of US-China Strategic Competition
Get PDFEditor: Evan S. Medeiros
Reviewed by Dr. Jeffrey Reeves, associate professor, Naval War College, Naval Postgraduate School
Naval War College associate professor Dr. Jeffrey Reeves provides a thoughtful critique of this anthology on relations between the United States and China. After a brief note on US-Chinese relations during the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations, Reeves offers suggestions for further reading and implies that the book, while providing a “historical account of US-China relations and [chronicling] its evolution,” is not unique in its contributions compared to similar literature, though he does praise two chapters on economics and technology that “stand out.”https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters_bookshelf/1053/thumbnail.jp
Book Review: Age of Danger: Keeping America Safe in an Era of New Superpowers, New Weapons, and New Threats
Get PDFAuthors: Andrew Hoehn and Thom Shanker
Reviewed by Dr. John A. Nagl, professor of warfighting studies, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations, US Army War College
Dr. John A. Nagl overviews Andrew Hoehn and Thom Shanker’s contributions with their recent book, Age of Danger, which is “well worth readers’ attention.” Nagl describes Hoehn and Shanker’s emphasis on the importance and relationship between the US intelligence community and the US Department of Defense. His review also focuses on the US relationship with China and Russia, the latter of which is featured as “[t]he acute threat” in what Nagl calls “the book’s best chapter.”https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters_bookshelf/1052/thumbnail.jp
The Forward Edge of the Fifth US Army War College
Get PDFThe US Army War College recognizes the requirements for continued adaptation during periods of systemic and technological change. Currently on the forward edge of its fifth evolution, the college is adapting to provide assessment-based, tailorable education to its students and deliver impactful leader-development programs, research, and war gaming to inform strategic leaders about critical national security choices. Adapting strategic education to keep pace with the needs of the future operational force is essential to maintain the war-fighting edge for the Army of 2040 and beyond. This fifth evolution of the Army War College reinvigorates education requirements in the global application of Landpower. In a testament to the quality of adaptive curricular processes and design, the college is envisioning new means and methods to answer the call that Secretary of War Root issued more than a century ago, “[n]ot to promote war but to preserve peace through intelligent and adequate preparation to repel aggression.