News - Category Parameters Bookshelf

Book Review: The Air War in Vietnam
September 21, 2023 — 76th Birthday of Air Force | 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...

Book Review: Spies and Shuttles: NASA’s Secret Relationship with the DoD and CIA
September 21, 2023 — 76th Birthday of Air Force | James E. David | Reviewed by Professor Carlos Barrera, Mexican Institute for Strategic Studies in National Security and Defence, and Manuel Carranza, defense and security affairs researcher | Starting with the 1957 launches of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 and 2, James E. David’s autobiography “offers a cautionary tale...

Book Review: Original Sin: Power, Technology and War in Outer Space
September 21, 2023 — 76th Birthday of Air Force | Bleddyn E. Bowen | Reviewed by Jeffrey Caton, colonel, US Air Force (retired), and president, Kepler Strategies LLC | Based on three key arguments, Original Sin covers the development of spacepower during the Cold War, space technology’s progress, and the weapons, planning and doctrine that surround space warfare...

Book Review: Without Flyers, No Tannenberg: Aviation on the Eastern Front of 1914—Evolution of a Critical Role for Modern Warfare
September 21, 2023 — 76th Birthday of Air Force | Authors: Terrence J. Finnegan, Helmut Jäger, and Carl J. Bobrow | Reviewed by Greg Pickell, US Army lieutenant colonel (retired) | Providing valuable historical context, Without Flyers, No Tannenberg offers a wealth of previously unavailable information and provided needed context to the German triumph over the...

Book Review: Strategia: A Primer on Theory and Strategy for Students of War
August 29, 2023 — Strategy | Author: Charles S. Oliviero | Reviewed by Phillip Dolitsky, master’s student at the School of International Service, American University | Strategia: A Primer on Theory and Strategy for Students of War poses the question “What is the true nature of war?” According to the author, even after studying war for 2,000 years, it is still...

Book Review: Cyber Intelligence: Actors, Policies, and Practices
August 29, 2023 — From intelligence cycles and processes to intelligence agencies, security challenges, and more, Cyber Intelligence: Actors, Policies, and Practices is a solid work that “covers a lot of ground at a reasonable price.” The reviewer sees it as “a practical tool in our understanding of the cyber intelligence and conflict discipline.” ...

Book Review: How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them
August 29, 2023 — How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them was written to acquaint readers with “the conditions that give rise to, and define, modern civil war” to “[understand how] close modern America is to erupting into conflict” (xviii). The reviewer notes, “American military officers, sworn government agents, and officials will find the work troubling” and praises its “nonpartisan exploration and objective analysis” in tackling a difficult topic...

Book Review: Team America: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, Eisenhower, and the World They Forged
August 29, 2023 — Although early twentieth-century America’s Army was small, meagerly funded, short on equipment, and rife with other struggles, it saw the rise of great leaders.Team America: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, Eisenhower, and the World They Forged focuses on four of them. They came from different backgrounds, yet “Together they accounted for 19 stars; together they brought about victory in their generation. Two became Chief of Staff of the Army. One rose to become the US Commander in Chief.”...

Book Review: The Good Captain: A Personal Memoir of America at War
July 21, 2023 — Strategic Leadership | Author: R. D. Hooker Jr. | Reviewed by Joseph J. Collins, PhD, retired US Army colonel | Retired Army colonel Rich Hooker’s The Good Captain is a memoir spanning the Cold War through the Global War on Terror. Hooker’s deployments take up the bulk of the book and include Grenada with the 82nd Airborne Division, Somalia to work...

Book Review: Corruption in the Americas
July 21, 2023 — Regional Studies | Editors: Jonathan D. Rosen and Hanna S. Kassab | Reviewed by Dr. José de Arimatéia da Cruz, professor of international relations and comparative politics, Georgia Southern University, and visiting professor, Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College | Jonathan D. Rosen and Hanna S. Kassab argue in Corruption in the...