News - Category Parameters Bookshelf

Book Review: Thanks for Your Service: The Causes and Consequences of Public Confidence in the US Military
May 20, 2024 — Civil-Military Relations | Author: Christian Nikolaus Braun | Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel James “Andy” Nichols, US Army War College class of 2023 | Lieutenant Colonel James “Andy” Nichols provides a thoughtful review of Duke University professor Peter D. Feaver’s book on the reasons for—and proposed ways to maintain—the “high public confidence”...

Book Review: Limited Force and the Fight for the Just War Tradition
May 20, 2024 — Military Theory | Author: Christian Nikolaus Braun | Reviewed by Reverend Dr. Wylie W. Johnson, chaplain, US Army War College class of 2010 | Retired US Army chaplain Dr. Wylie W. Johnson reviews Christian Nikolaus Braun’s dissertation-turned-book on a “casuistic” approach to just war informed by the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Johnson...

Book Review: Armies in Retreat: Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences
May 20, 2024 — Military History | Editors: Timothy G. Heck and Walker D. Mills | Reviewed by Dr. J.P. Clark, associate professor of strategy, Basic Strategic Art Program, US Army War College | Dr. J.P. Clark provides a thoughtful analysis of this anthology on retreat, an "under-studied topic in the US military." The book covers case studies spanning from the...

Book Review: Military Culture Shift: The Impact of War, Money, and Generational Perspective on Morale, Retention, and Leadership
April 19, 2024 — Military Culture | Author: Corie Weathers | Reviewed by Rodger M. Kissane, graduate student, College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University | Rodger M. Kissane provides a thoughtful review of this important book on “bridging and even transcending generational differences” in the US military. Kissane highlights author Corie...

Book Review: Resourcing the National Security Enterprise: Connecting the Ways and Means of US National Security
April 19, 2024 — National Security | Edited by: Susan Bryant and Mark Troutma | Reviewed by Christopher Sandrolini, Foreign Service officer and professor, US Army War College | Foreign Service officer and US Army War College professor Christopher Sandrolini calls this anthology, which contextualizes the defense budget within federal spending, a “well-organized and...

Book Review: Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers and Moscow’s Struggle for Ukraine
March 27, 2024 — Dr. Sarah Lohmann, editor of What Ukraine Taught NATO about Hybrid Warfare (US Army War College Press, 2022), calls Anna Arutunyan's latest book, Hybrid Warriors, a "must-read for senior members of the US defense community" that "encourages strategists to think beyond segmented operations to ensure Russia's broad defeat." Lohmann highlights the book's value in that it provides "perspectives that have not yet been heard in the West," as Arutunyan "relies on Russian sources from media and academia, as well as hundreds of interviews." Lohmann also notes how Arutunyan "challenges what she believes to be the Western narrative around the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War."...

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."...

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."...

Book Review: Violence in Defeat: The Wehrmacht on German Soil, 1944–1945
February 22, 2024 — Military History | Author: Bastiaan Willems | Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Gipper, US Air Force, faculty development scholar, Air University | Through an analysis of the German Wehrmacht's "barbarization" toward the end of World War II, Violence in Defeat provides a useful and cautionary case study on military effectiveness, distinction,...

Book Review: The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Strategic Alliances and Rivalries
February 22, 2024 — Counterterrorism | Author: Amira Jadoon with Andrew Mines | Thomas F. Lynch III, PhD, Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of National Strategic Studies, National Defense University | Professor and historian Dean Nowowiejski presents a thoughtful review of historian Tyler R. Bamford’s study on the “long-term impact of the interwar...