Recent Publications

Opidata #8: The BRICS Summit, China, and the Emerging Illiberal Counter-Order
November 14, 2024 — The 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan solidified an anti-liberal «counter-order,» challenging the rules-based international system. With its expansion to 23 members, the bloc, financially led by China, seeks to evade global restrictions and advance its agendas, though it faces coordination challenges and diverse objectives among its members. ... MORE

Opidata #8: The BRICS Summit, China, and the Emerging Illiberal Counter-Order | Dr. R. Evan Ellis

Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine
March 27, 2024 — Strategy | Book Review: Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to UkraineAuthors: David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts | Reviewed by Dr. John A. Nagl, professor of warfighting studies, US Army War College | Dr. John A. Nagl provides readers a roadmap to navigate—and a lens with which to interpret—General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts's... MORE

Dr. John A. Nagl provides readers a roadmap to navigate—and a lens with which to interpret—General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts's best-selling book, Conflict, which Nagl considers "'[t]he closest thing to a memoir" of Petraeus and "likely . . . the best first-person account in history of [Petraeus's] efforts and results in Iraq and Afghanistan that made him the most important Army officer of his generation."

The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers
October 17, 2023 — Book Review: The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers Author: Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr. | Reviewed by Zachery Tyson Brown, defense analyst, Office of the Secretary of Defense | Andrew F. Krepinevich has questions for policymakers when it comes to emerging technologies and warfare. In The... MORE

Book Review: The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers
https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters_bookshelf/28
Author: Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr.
Reviewed by Zachery Tyson Brown, defense analyst, Office of the Secretary of Defense

Andrew F. Krepinevich has questions for policymakers when it comes to emerging technologies and warfare. In The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers, Krepinevich asks: How do states gain advantages in military competition during periods of disruptive change? How are developmental technologies best incorporated into legacy military structures? Or are entirely new structures necessary?

The Air War in Vietnam
September 21, 2023 — 76th Birthday of Air Force | Book Review: The Air War in Vietnam Author: Michael E. Weaver | Reviewed by Vince Alcazar, Air Force (retired) planner and fighter pilot, Department of Defense | The Air War in Vietnam addresses President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration’s use of airpower (or lack of it) and why American airpower underperformed, as... MORE

Book Review by Vince Alcazar of
The Air War in Vietnam

Author: Michael E. Weaver
Reviewed by Vince Alcazar, Air Force (retired) planner and fighter pilot, Department of Defense

The Air War in Vietnam addresses President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration’s use of airpower (or lack of it) and why American airpower underperformed, as well as airpower innovations that influenced the US warfare model in the Vietnam War. The reviewer bills this work as “…an indispensable volume of airpower scholarship. It is a richly developed analysis of airpower in a decade-long war with challenging hybrid characteristics and shifting US strategies.”

War in the Villages: The U.S. Marine Corps Combined Action Platoons in the Vietnam War
April 21, 2023 — 50th Anniversary of Vietnam War in the Villages: The U.S. Marine Corps Combined Action Platoons in the Vietnam War by Ted N. Easterling | Reviewed by Dr. William Thomas Allison, professor of history, Georgia Southern University | Former Marine and Vietnam War veteran Ted Easterling evaluates the Marine Combined Action Platoons and their... MORE

War in the Village
US Army War College Press Parameters Bookshelf -- Online Book Reviews

Review and Reply: On “Why America’s Army Can’t Win America’s Wars”
March 13, 2023 — Since achieving victory in World War II, the United States military has a less than enviable combat record in irregular warfare. This exchange provides differing perspectives on where past decisions and doctrines have led to defeat and where they may have succeeded if given more time or executed differently. This episode responds to John A. Nagl’s article, “Why America’s Army Can’t Win America’s Wars,” published in the Autumn 2022 issue of Parameters (vol. 52, no. 3). ... MORE

“Why America’s Army Can’t Win America’s Wars”
August 10, 2022 — Since achieving victory in World War II, the United States military has a less than enviable combat record in irregular warfare. Through a detailed historical analysis, this article provides perspective on where past decisions and doctrines have led to defeat and where they may have succeeded if given more time or executed differently. In doing so, it provides lessons for future Army engagements and argues that until America becomes proficient in irregular warfare, our enemies will continue to fight us at the lower levels of the spectrum of conflict, where they have a good chance of exhausting our will to fight... MORE

Strategic Insights: Lost in Translation
August 17, 2017 — Author: Dr M Chris Mason In a change from the Vietnam War—where the U.S. military trained at least 45,000 deploying service members to speak Vietnamese and probably twice that number—for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, apart from some remotely-based intelligence specialists doing classified work, the U.S. military trained almost no deploying... MORE

The Strategic Lessons Unlearned from Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan: Why the ANSF Will Not Hold, and the Implications for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan
June 25, 2015 — Author: Dr M Chris Mason View the Executive SummaryThe wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were lost before they began, not on the battlefields, where the United States won every tactical engagement, but at the strategic level of war. In each case, the U.S. Government attempted to create a Western-style democracy in countries which were decades... MORE

Stand Up and Fight! The Creation of U.S. Security Organizations, 1942-2005
April 30, 2015 — Authors: COL Ty Seidule, Dr Jacqueline E Whitt View the Executive SummaryStand Up and Fight is a collection of essays that explores how new National Security Organizations are stood up—that is, formed, organized, funded, and managed—in the first years of their existence. From Joint ventures to combatant commands to cabinet-level departments, each... MORE

The Paracel Islands and U.S. Interests and Approaches in the South China Sea
June 24, 2014 — Author: LTC Clarence J Bouchat (USAF, Ret) View the Executive SummaryThe Paracel Islands and South China Sea disputes require better understanding by U.S. policymakers in order to address the region’s challenges. To attain that needed understanding, legal aspects of customary and modern laws are explored in this monograph to analyze the differences... MORE

An Army Transformed: The U.S. Army’s Post-Vietnam Recovery and the Dynamics of Change in Military Organizations
September 1, 2010 — Author: LTC Suzanne C Nielsen During the 2 decades preceding the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the U.S. Army went through tremendous reform and rejuvenation. In explaining this important case of military change, this paper makes four central arguments. First, leaders within military organizations are essential; external developments most often have an... MORE

Cover for An Army Transformed: The U.S. Army's Post-Vietnam Recovery and the Dynamics of Change in Military Organizations