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Book Review: We Had to Get Out of That Place: A Memoir of Redemption and Betrayal in Vietnam
December 12, 2024 — Dr. Wylie W. Johnson reviews Vietnam War veteran Steven Grzesik’s memoir that, as Johnson explains, shows the effects of “the Army’s institutional policies” and how “[u]nit cohesiveness begins with senior leadership.” Grzesik’s personal experiences and the “isolation, abuse, and sacrifice of individual replacements” (which Johnson identifies as important themes in the book) provide a valuable perspective on “the imperative of caring for soldiers.” ... MORE

Book cover: We Had to Get Out of That Place: A Memoir of Redemption and Betrayal in Vietnam

Book Review: Witness to Neptune’s Inferno: The Pacific War Diary of Lieutenant Commander Lloyd M. Mustin, USS Atlanta (CL 51)
December 12, 2024 — Colonel Jonathan Klug (PhD), the US Army War College’s Admiral William F. Halsey Chair of Naval Studies, identifies David F. Winkler’s contribution to the field with this book. Klug writes, “Winkler adds tremendous value to [Lloyd M.] Mustin’s comments by placing them into their proper historical context and providing insight into the development of a mid-career naval officer into a strategic leader.” Klug also notes that “this book would be especially useful to support the exploration of the opening phases of a transpacific war, a topic that joint professional military education should emphasize.”... MORE

Book cover: Witness to Neptune’s Inferno: The Pacific War Diary of Lieutenant Commander Lloyd M. Mustin, USS Atlanta (CL 51)

Book Review: Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
December 12, 2024 — Lieutenant Colonel James “Andy” Nichols reviews Elizabeth R. Varon’s biography of James Longstreet, which Nichols calls “an engaging, well-researched account of [the general’s] journey through disunion, reconstruction, and reconciliation.” He writes that Varon “lifts Longstreet out of the Lost Cause mythology and, through careful archival work, enables readers understand a man who experienced personal and professional transformation and sought redemption.”... MORE

Book cover: Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South

Book Review: How the Army Made Britain a Global Power: 1688–1815
December 12, 2024 — Senior research historian Dr. James D. Scudieri provides a detailed outline of Jeremy Black’s history of the British Army from 1688 to 1815, highlighting the author’s “theme that the British Army made the empire as much as the Royal Navy—through projecting Landpower.” Scudieri also notes the book’s value to American readers, writing, “American security professionals will see parallel insights from this small regular army within a parliamentary system” and that the “US Army’s evolution in a republic that centers the military establishment in Congress, including wartime expansion and peacetime reductions, developed from this British basis.”... MORE

Book cover: How the Army Made Britain a Global Power: 1688–1815

Book Review: Deterrence in the 21st Century: Statecraft in the Information Age
December 12, 2024 — Analyst Timothy L. Thomas provides a useful overview of “well-documented and thought-provoking compilation of Canadian perspectives on the interaction of modern-day deterrence postures affected by disinformation threats.” Thomas notes that “the book offers many new concepts for senior defense community experts to consider regarding deterrence and disinformation concepts and an expansive bibliography.” He also highlights the book’s treatment of China, Russia, and Hamas and writes that “[t]he numerous deterrence types . . . indicate that classical deterrence alone is inadequate to dissuade an opponent’s attacks in today’s situational and technical context.”... MORE

Cover for Deterrence in the 21st Century: Statecraft in the Information Age

Pretexts for War and the Preinvasion Crisis in Ukraine
December 5, 2024 — The US strategy in the lead-up to the invasion of Ukraine undermined Russian efforts to justify the war. This monograph derives lessons about counterjustification strategy through an exhaustive study of US military, diplomatic, and informational activities during the crisis... MORE

Cover of Pretexts for War and the Preinvasion Crisis in Ukraine by
Ron Gurantz

Parameters | Winter 2024–25
November 21, 2024 — Welcome to the Winter 2024–25 issue of Parameters. This issue consists of an In Focus special commentary, three forums (Indo-Pacific, Security Cooperation, and Historical Studies), and the regular Civil-Military Relations Corner installment... MORE

Contributor’s Guidelines; Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation; and Article Index, Volume 54, 2024
November 21, 2024 — Contributor’s Guidelines; Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation; and Article Index, Volume 54, 2024... MORE

Book Reviews - Winter 2024–25
November 21, 2024 — Book Reviews - Winter 2024–25... MORE

The Military and Democratic Transition: Paradoxes of the Democratic Ethos
November 21, 2024 — This article argues that existing attempts to define the democratic ethos fall short. The article examines different scholars’ definitions of the democratic ethos vis-a-vis the military, their positions on maintaining it, and the paradoxes inherent in these conceptions of the democratic ethos... MORE