News

Book Review: Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine
March 27, 2024 — 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." Nagl focuses on what he believes are Petraeus's main contributions to the book (the chapters on Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan) and calls the chapter on Iraq the "heart of the book." He also highlights the book's value to "[f]uture commanders and staff officers" and to "[a]ll Army officers and national security officials," who will benefit from learning how Petraeus engaged with the "four major tasks" regarding "big ideas" that all leaders "must master."... 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."

Review Essay: The War in Nicaragua
March 27, 2024 — Colonel Joerg Stenzel (German Army), an instructor at the US Army War College, lends his expertise in strategy to this review of "the most famous and successful" filibuster featured in William Walker's 1860 work, The War in Nicaragua. As Stenzel notes, the book is Walker's "personal description of his own war in Nicaragua" that it is "arguably biased" and written "in the third person in a style that differs greatly from his earlier editorials." Stenzel provides an overview of Walker's life and contextualizes his actions in relationship to slavery, North-South rivalries, the Gold Rush, and Manifest Destiny, noting that "A closer look at Walker and his actions shows that Central America, with its instabilities and turmoil, had and still has significant geopolitical relevance for the US government."... MORE

Colonel Joerg Stenzel (German Army), an instructor at the US Army War College, lends his expertise in strategy to this review of "the most famous and successful" filibuster featured in William Walker's 1860 work, The War in Nicaragua.

Book Reviews - Spring 2024
March 7, 2024 — Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers and Moscow’s Struggle for Ukraine and Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine by David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts... MORE

Emerging Technologies in Terrorism: A Report from NATO’s COE Defence Against Terrorism
March 7, 2024 — For the last several years, the Army’s focus has turned increasingly toward competition and large-scale combat operations (LSCO)—and rightfully so. The global threat landscape as articulated in the most recent National Security Strategy clearly highlights China and Russia as the most pressing strategic challenges. The pervasive threat of terrorism still exists in earnest, however, and we must not lose sight of how this threat is evolving, particularly through advanced and readily available technologies... MORE

Building a Purposeful Research Agenda
March 7, 2024 — In this second installment of the CLSC Director’s Corner, Joshua Arostegui, the Center’s research director and chair of China studies, and I discuss the Center’s research agenda. Previously, I outlined the center’s mission and how the research agenda answers large campaign questions across the perspectives of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the United States, and US allies and partners... MORE

The Art of Avoiding Strategic Miscalculation
March 7, 2024 — This examination of British War Secretary George Cornewall Lewis and the gold standard memorandum he penned in 1862 (that proved instrumental in preventing British intervention in the American Civil War) offers insights for modern leaders on how to avoid institutional barriers to effective strategic thinking and political-strategic miscalculation through insightful analysis of potential liabilities and policy assumptions. It shows how outstanding strategic thinkers possess an informed and reflective filter to evaluate past, present, and anticipated events— developed through a good education, diverse practical experience, lifelong intellectual curiosity, empowerment, and access to senior leadership... MORE

Strategy as Problem-Solving
March 7, 2024 — This 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... MORE

Rethinking the Relevance of Self-Deterrence
March 7, 2024 — Self-deterrence is critically understudied in deterrence theory. Similarly, deterrence practitioners prefer to focus on adversaries’ threats rather than seeking to account for the full scope of fears influencing the decision calculus of policymakers. Through historical case studies, this article identifies where self-deterrence has occurred, highlights the benefits of incorporating the concept in future strategic planning and intelligence assessments, and recommends that policymakers, strategists, and analysts acknowledge self-deterrence as an important factor when preparing for future wars... MORE

The Politics of Restraint in the Middle East
March 7, 2024 — Domestic 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... MORE

International Law, Self-Defense, and the Israel-Hamas Conflict
March 7, 2024 — This article examines the international law of self-defense as it applies to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict to determine whether the October 2023 attacks by Hamas against Israel can be interpreted under Article 51 of the UN Charter as an “armed attack” that gives Israel the right to use military force in self-defense against non-state actors. It situates the conflict within ongoing legal and political debates, shows how this conflict fits into a changing global reality where the most dangerous security threats do not exclusively emanate from other states, and concludes that Israel’s resort to force in the current conflict appears to have a sound basis in international law... MORE