Books are fuel. They power thinking, communicating, and learning. They fuel this community, providing both the raw material and the context its members use to produce articles, responses, and discussions. It comes as little surprise that books and the love thereof fueled our year.
This year-in-review essay is about identifying commonalities and trends. We here at The Strategy Bridge have a front row seat on many sides of a book’s life. We review books, edit book reviews, and have our own works reviewed by readers. Every step of this process is a discussion. Authors engage with other authors as sources and for inspiration. They work with editors who bring their own perspective and advice. Finally, readers and reviewers close the loop, agreeing, disagreeing, or becoming authors themselves. Just reading books yields little in terms of lessons for those interested in strategy. Engaging with books, through this process of discussion, is the engine of insight.
In all these discussions, one overwhelming trend this year was diversity. Our mission at The Strategy Bridge is to create a community focused on the development of people in strategy, national security, and military affairs; and communities are stronger when they are diverse. No discussion would be worth the time without numerous and conflicting viewpoints. The give and take of disagreement and argument yields just as much, if not more, insight than validation through agreement. A dialectic community, like an engine, requires many varied parts to work.
Another recurring theme this year was the future of war and conflict, which is always murky. Using books to examine the future is not always about the present, however. It is also about examining the past, hence reviews of Homer, Sun Tzu, and Tolstoy as precursors to what was once the future and is now the present. The constant fact of conflict as a human phenomenon ties time itself together. Building and fueling an engine or a community is always done with the expectation of its potential to drive in the future.
The books we reviewed this year reflect a mission and, we hope, our success in driving a discussion spanning geography, faiths, professions, and even time itself. Books fueled a year-long discussion among the members of our community, examining issues in diverse places like Africa and Asia; discussing America’s place in the world; and investigating the past, the future, and their relationship to strategy in the present. It did so through fiction, non-fiction, and prose.
In the end books are about a community of people—writers and readers—communicating with each other across time and distance. We hope this list communicates something for you.
#TheBridgeReads
Jihad & Co.: Black Markets and Islamist Power. Aisha Ahmad. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Read a review by Robert Pulwer here:
Since 2014, there has been a flurry of books seeking to recount the genesis of the Islamic State and to explain the conditions, decisions, and events that allowed the group to rise. As the group’s short-lived period of territorial control recedes into history, we can expect more in-depth scholarship on the economic means that enabled its rise, including donations, taxation and extortion, oil, trafficking in antiquities, and trafficking narcotics. For those seeking to understand more broadly how underground economic activity and Islamist ideologies can work in concert, Aisha Ahmad’s new book, Jihad & Co.: Black Markets and Islamist Power, provides a coherent, lucid, and concise explanation.
The Battle of the Somme: The Story of the Deadliest Battle in WWI. Alan Axelrod. Guilford, Connecticut: LP Books, 2016.
To read a review from B.A. Friedman, click here:
Axelrod’s book is a great and useful volume on the Battle of the Somme, especially given the battle’s place at a midpoint in both the first World War and a transition period in warfare. His expert prose keeps the text readable, accessible, and clear, even where the events themselves are confusing. All of this makes for a good book. His ability to capture both the stories and feelings of individuals in the trenches and the often collective decision-making of high level staffs makes it a great book.
Strategy: Context and Adaptation from Archidamus to Airpower. Richard Bailey, James Forsyth, and Mark Yeisley (Eds). Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2016.
Te read a review by Chris Field, click here:
The value of Strategy: Context and Adaptation from Archidamus to Airpower is its examination of how strategy should be defined and understood. The book outlines multiple approaches to sourcing, examining, and integrating strategic ideas into actionable plans which military, and other, professionals will benefit from considering.
Architects of Occupation: American Experts and Planning for Postwar Japan. Dayna L. Barnes. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017.
For a review by Rob Snow, click here:
The post-World War II U.S. occupation of Japan set conditions that continue to shape today’s dynamic Indo-Asia-Pacific security environment. Architects of Occupation: American Experts and the Planning for Postwar Japan, by historian Dayna L. Barnes, examines the wartime planning processes and resultant policy that enabled Japan’s postwar transformation into a stable international actor and strong U.S. ally. This well-researched contribution to World War II literature thematically explores the policymakers, strategic planners, think tanks, media players and networks that influenced postwar outcomes and set the stage for modern U.S. foreign policy. Though the strategic reader will appreciate this generally persuasive volume’s bureaucratic politics lens, some of the author’s arguments about policy maker influence are imperfectly reasoned.
Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign, 1940-1941. Mike Bechthold. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 2017.
To read a review by R. Ray Ortensie, click here:
Flying to Victory highlights the great contributions that Collishaw, despite his lack of resources, provided the Allies for an ultimate victory not only in the Western Desert but later in Europe. Mike Bechthold ably conveys to the reader that it was in fact Collishaw who developed early air-ground cooperation in the Western Desert, though refined by others, that proved effective and a forerunner to air-land operations conducted in the European Theater. Flying to Victory is necessary for those wishing to understand the early developments of air-ground coordination and the use of air superiority to support ground forces on the battlefield during the early stages of World War II.
Police in Africa: The Street Level View. Jan Beek, Mirco Göpfert, Olly Owen, and Johnny Steinberg (eds). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Read Sam Ratner's review here:
As Police in Africa suggests, to fail at understanding the context in which malleable post-colonial institutions grow is to fail to understand the institutions themselves. Security sector reform advocates, strategists, and all who seek to understand post-colonial institutions would do well to take this book’s message to heart and seek out methods for understanding how police adapt their day-to-day operations in response to shifts in their states’ capacities for violence. Though not uniformly excellent, people interested in this search will find the essays in Police in Africa to be essential reading.
Surviving Amid Chaos: Israel’s Nuclear Strategy. Louis René Beres. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018.
Read a review from Eyal Ben-Ari here:
Since the 1950s, Israel’s intentionally ambiguous nuclear strategy has been a fundamental part of the country’s security stance. Professor Louis René Beres, a long-time commentator on this strategy, has combined a variety of his past writings into a volume that, in a sustained and systematic manner, analyzes the background, options, and key dilemmas Israel’s policy-makers face in formulating and refining the relevant set of policies in the changing Middle East of today. As such, Surviving Amid Chaos provides a good summary of previous essays, lectures, and speeches rather than a departure from previous thinking.
Combined Operations: A Global History of Amphibious and Airborne Warfare. Jeremy Black. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017.
To read a review from B.A. Friedman, click here:
It is easy to see this book becoming required reading for Marine and Airborne communities, but it would be a shame if this book simply languished on the bookshelves of war college professors. As littoral warfare expands and intensifies, islands in the Pacific become more geo-strategically critical (and numerous), and the Joint Force seeks to exploit more domains in battle, Black’s book will serve as a valuable primer for anyone seeking insights into joint warfare and combined warfare as a whole. Black repeatedly makes the case that interservice cooperation across domains is the key to success. For a joint force, that is a lesson that applies to any operation brought into sharp contrast through lucid writing.
The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam. Max Boot. NY, New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2018.
Read Will Selber's review here:
Whether or not one agrees with Boot’s thesis that Lansdale is a Cassandra, Lansdale is critically important to understanding American Cold War history. He is rightly credited with helping Magsaysay and for Diem’s victory in the 1955 Battle of Saigon. Boot’s book, while flawed, is still a worthwhile biography that elevates a long-forgotten spymaster to a wider audience.
Beyond the Beach: The Allied War Against France. Stephen Alan Bourque. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.
Read a review from Benjamin Schneider here:
Beyond the Beach offers its readers an unusually challenging narrative. The Allied bombings in support of the Normandy landings were, by and large, militarily effective and, if not necessary, at least reasonable efforts to gain crucial advantages for an unprecedented and risky amphibious operation. Yet these bombings were, by dint of the inaccuracy of the era’s heavy bombers and the populated areas where their targets were located, incredibly costly in human life. There is no simple way out of the dilemma Bourque presents.
Us vs. Them: The Failures of Globalism. Ian Bremmer. New York, NY: Portfolio, 2018.
Read Molly Dinneen’s review here:
For many years, the world hummed a sweet, optimistic tune about the benefits of globalization. Only recently have a few prominent politicians and scholars in the West flagrantly voiced their opposition to the siren song of globalism. Despite living in a world evermore interwoven, the growing divides between globalization’s winners and losers are expanding. These so-called losers are becoming more vocal, especially now that it significantly impacts the developed world. Recognizing these cries are the result of built-up fear and frustration about social, economic, and political insecurities, Ian Bremmer acknowledges the losers of globalism. In his new book, he tells the tale of those who are left behind by the creative destruction built into a fast-paced global economy.
Tomorrow It Will All Run Backwards. Michael Brett. Bombaykala Books, 2017.
For a review from Randy Brown, click here:
Whatever his personal or professional history, then, Brett is a keen observer of the military mindset and the nature/character dialectic of war. In youth, he made clever historical connections. In the 1990s, he kept both his wits and his words sharp, as countries fractured. In his later work, readers are treated to all of the above, with poetry that expertly captures the terrible imagination—or perhaps the terrible lack of imagination—of our times. Even if the character of war is ever-changing, Brett’s plaintive witness to the nature of it is a shrine that fellow travelers should not miss.
Integrating the U.S. Military: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation Since World War II. Douglas W. Bristol Jr. & Heather M. Stur (eds). Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 2017.
Read Geoffrey W. Jensen’s review here:
Throughout American military history, the armed forces established bulwarks of exclusion designed to prevent, limit, or prohibit outright the service of select minority groups. The military establishment did this for a host of reasons—racial, sexual, and gender based bigotry, for example—but they also believed the inclusion of minority groups would weaken the military efficiency of a squad, platoon, unit, army, or the entirety of the armed forces. Additionally, the leadership of the armed forces maintained concerns over interjecting the military into larger social issues and often sought to avoid becoming a sociological laboratory in any shape, form, or fashion. Lastly, they fostered an earnest desire not to bite the conservative hands—in this case, conservative members of Congress who occupied seats on some of the most prevalent military committees—that controlled its pursue strings. This does not mean there were not those within the ranks who recognized the talents, say, of African American soldiers. More often than not, however, they were in the minority. Their opinions on the matter only reached the vanguard when the necessity of the moment demanded it. As with all change, it did not happen all at once. Nor did it happen rapidly or as progressively as desired. But, change did happen.
Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict. Max Brooks, John Amble, M.L. Cavanaugh, and Jaym Gates (eds). Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2018.
Read a review by Steve Luczynski here:
No new concepts or grand theories were intended to come from this book, but readers are sure to understand better some of the most notable and valuable concepts surrounding modern conflict currently under debate. Anyone with a basic knowledge of the Star Wars universe is sure to enjoy the creative parallels used by these esteemed authors to simplify complex topics. Avid fans with deep knowledge of this universe cannot help but embrace these parallels, think through them more deeply, and dig even deeper into them as they try to support or argue against the authors while also showing off their superior knowledge of their favorite series of movies.
Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire. Randy Brown. Johnston, Iowa: Middle West Press, 2015.
Read a review from Karalyne Lowery here:
The book is an interesting read and may appeal to the casual poetry reader or to those trying a cross sample of the writing generated by individuals who fought this century’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Impact of the First World War on U.S. Policymakers: American Strategic and Foreign Policy Formulation, 1938–1942. Michael G. Carew. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014.
Read a review from Andrew Kirby here:
The U.S. benefited from senior military officers with experience in the coalition and political battles of the First World War and equally from senior politicians with experience of real battle who understood the impact of decisions at home on the front line. This book is certainly worth reading for the modern student of foreign policy, if only to lament what strategically literate policy makers can achieve with the right leadership in spite of torrid public opinion and a world full of menace.
South Asia in 2020: Future Strategic Balances and Alliances. Michael R. Chambers, ed. Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2002.
Read Ben Lamont's review here:
An edited volume published in November 2002, the essays of South Asia in 2020 sought to anticipate how the strategic dynamics of the region would look in 2020. Most of the forecasts look impressively prescient today. Broadly speaking, the authors’ consensus predictions about strategic dynamics have played out as anticipated; Pakistan and China have become closer, and so too have India and the United States. The forecasts that were most inaccurate seem to have stemmed from the propensity of U.S. South Asia experts at the time to hyphenate India and Pakistan. As a result, they failed to to recognize India was on a trajectory to dissociate itself from Pakistan in terms of its economic and military power.
Hugging This Rock: Poems of Earth & Sky, Love & War. Eric Chandler. Johnston, IA: Middle West Press, 2017.
Read L. Burton Brender's review here:
If there is nothing else I have learned from my own time at war it is that combat has brought each warrior face-to-face with his or her own humanity and that of the enemy. And that, I assert, is Chandler’s true contribution to the poetry of the Global War on Terror, his honest and beautiful portrayal of what it was like to be alive in the conflict of our generation. In 106 pages, Eric Chandler presents what it is to know the good of the earth and the freedom of the sky, the joy of love and the trial of war. I highly recommend this moving and poignant read.
The Southern Flank of NATO, 1951-1959: Military Strategy or Political Stabilization. Dionysios Chourchoulis. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2015.
Read Dave Blair's review here:
This work closes a gap in the historical research with a comprehensive and extremely detailed look at NATO consolidation during the 1950s. Beneath the surface of that project, the reader can find some fascinating and challenging presentations of a very different world which tempts one to wrestle with an of a number of ‘could-have-beens.’ The role of geography is evident throughout, reminding the reader that some things remain constant—Thrace was shaped the same, whether for Alexander the Great or for Josef Stalin. What I found particularly fascinating were the aspects of this period that could be be mapped onto contemporary problems—Yugoslavian non-alignment as a planning factor might speak to the non-alignment of the Vietnamese in a contemporary South China Sea scenario. Similarly, the prospect of defending the Thracian plain might provide insights for Baltic scenarios. To borrow a line from Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, there’s no “better guide for the way ahead than studying the histories.” Chuourchoulis has added another strong volume to these histories.
Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917. J.P. Clark. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Read a review by Mike Morris here:
Our grizzled mentors, old salts who cut their teeth in Vietnam, stressed to my 1985 cohort of lieutenants that there are only two things Marines do—fight and get ready to fight. In Preparing for War, J.P. Clark emphasizes the latter. In fact, as military historians and national security scholars have long established, nations also ask their military forces to perform other important missions such as exploring untamed wilderness, developing and applying emerging technologies, and coup-proofing a regime. Moreover, only in professional militaries, those that enjoy the luxury to train independent of intrusive political control, do officers of all ranks get to sort out a nation’s preferred ways and means of war. U.S. forces have mostly enjoyed the relative autonomy necessary to figure out what must be done to prepare for combat. Clark’s study confirms that verdict, and illustrates the contentious, but ultimately effective, evolution of the U.S. Army’s doctrine, training, and education regimens in the century that separated the end of the War of 1812 and America’s entry into World War I.
War as Paradox: Clausewitz and Hegel on Fighting Doctrines and Ethics. Youri Cormier. Kingston, Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016.
Read a review by Pauline Shanks Kaurin here:
This book does not necessarily address (nor, I think, has it any intention of trying to do so) how this discourse of freedom, ethics, and war rooted in Kantian and Hegelian thought connects with discourses like Realism in international relations or Just War thinking. But this journey with Clausewitz, led by Cormier and his framing, is clearly rooted in these two powerhouse philosophical figures. While this will be a challenging read for most, the final third of the book has interesting and important arguments that ought to be seriously considered by strategists, military practitioners, and political scientists alike, especially in terms of freedom and the rationality, or irrationality, of war as an instrument of policy. Scholars of Clausewitz, historians, and philosophers will find this volume a fascinating argument about the influence of Kant and Hegel on war theory generally and on Clausewitz's work in particular.
Always at War: Organizational Culture in Strategic Air Command, 1946-62. Melvin G. Deaile. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.
Read a review from Michael Hankins here:
Always at War takes some well-known ideas and expands them, by extension expanding the field of air power history and pointing the way toward further scholarship. In the process, Deaile has created a wonderful distillation of Strategic Air Command into a single brief, enjoyable volume. This book is a useful starting point for research into Strategic Air Command and Air Force culture in the early Cold War.
Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership. GEN(R) Martin Dempsey and Ori Brafman. Berkeley, CA: Missionday, 2018.
Read Steven Foster's review here:
Our world of increasingly louder digital echoes continues to grow in complexity, and the speed of change only gets faster. Leaders, military or civilian alike, must arm themselves with the tools to guide themselves and those they lead through an increasingly volatile and uncertain world. Radical Inclusion is a worthy addition to the library of a leader looking for ways to heed the call.
NATO and Article 5: The Transatlantic Alliance and the Twenty-First-Century Challenges of Collective Defense. John R. Deni. Lanhm, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
Read Marie Robin's review here:
It is said that a book is worthwhile when it raises more questions than it provides answers. Reading Deni left me with an impressive set of inquiries regarding NATO’s future, and his seeking to move the subject beyond a US-centric approach deserves attention by young scholars. Hence, I recommend this book to not only researchers and students, but also decision-makers, who should strive to pose more questions and investigate viable responses to our current state of affairs.
Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914 - 1921. Laura Engelstein. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Read a review by Jon Askonas here:
Russia in Flames, while not a slog, is the kind of long march appropriate to its subject matter. It offers much of interest to the general reader of strategy, and to anyone who hopes to understand the birth of the Soviet Union and the origins of the Second World War. Since the future is likely to look more like the interwar period than the comparatively clear-cut Cold War, an intimate familiarity with the period’s epic complexity is likely to be a useful intellectual tool.
Tiger Check: Automating the US Air Force Fighter Pilot in Air-to-Air Combat, 1950–1980. Steven A. Fino. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.
To read a review by Brian D. Laslie and Tyson Wetzel and an interview with the author, click here:
Fino has written a fine and well-researched academic book that will appeal across disciplines and military services. If the Sabre pilots were tigers, then today’s fighter pilots are tigers in lab coats. Fino should be mandatory reading for fighter pilots, especially those who are not familiar with the genesis of the tactics and trade craft that they ply today. Though highly technical in some sections, it is an eminently readable tome that will also appeal to air power and technical aficionados, and those who seek to understand the origins and the changing nature of air-to-air combat.
Emory Upton: Misunderstood Reformer. David J. Fitzpatrick. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.
For a review by J.P. Clark, click here:
The heart of this biography is the account of Upton’s career as a military reformer from the end of the Civil War until his suicide in 1881. Upton dabbled in several fields—tactics, professional education, personnel policy, and military organization—but his work had a coherence because he instinctively grasped the interconnections among these disparate topics. For instance, tactics fit for well-trained regulars might not be suitable for a hastily trained army of volunteers. Each aspect of an army’s organization, leadership, equipment, and tactics had to fit into a coherent whole—none could be taken in isolation.
Learning to Fight: Military Innovation and Change in the British Army, 1914–1918. Aimée Fox. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
To read Frank Hoffman's review, click here:
All in all, this is a well-executed book that dissipates mythology and discovers insights about the British military of a century ago. The central issue remains relevant today. The United Kingdom’s institutional learning is much improved and was on display in recent operations in Afghanistan. Fox’s archival research into the period is noteworthy for its detail and original sources. In particular, students of military culture and mission command will discover further testimony for the critical contribution these attributes make to the success of armed forces in battle. Learning to Fight will appeal to students of World War I, and is recommended for scholars interested in military sociology, military learning, and combat effectiveness.
The Future of War: A History. Lawrence Freedman. New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2017.
Read a review from Tim Schultz here:
Lawrence Freedman portrays history as a way of asking questions about the Future, particularly the future of war. What makes his compelling book different from the chattering volumes about futurology is that it provides usable insights from how our predecessors have perceived and misperceived future conflict. Freedman reminds us that history “is made by people who do not know what is going to happen next.” People in every age were woefully inept at predicting the future since they, like us, were imprisoned by their own experiences, anxieties, and biases. Sometimes they asked the right questions; often they made spectacularly wrong assumptions. So, this is a valuable book for those interested in how people in the past have thought about the future of war and how those thoughts guided and misguided their actions then and, perhaps, now.
On Tactics: A Theory of Victory in Battle. B.A. Friedman. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2017.
Read Erik Archer's review here:
In sum, Friedman’s On Tactics fills a critical gap and is an important read for both the emerging tactician and seasoned strategist alike. A vital addition to the professional military library for its organizing theory on tactics alone, his substantive appendices and the interwoven historical examples and insights from fellow intellectual heavyweights make this book a must-read for the individual and a must-share for the leader.
“Good kill.” Olivia Garard. In War, Literature & the Arts. Volume 30, 2018.
Read Peter Lucier’s review here:
To excel in the practice of killing is to apply violence justly and proportionately—a good kill is like a good tackle—proper form and technique, inside the white lines. But can a good kill be good? Good like “a Monet or a mausoleum?” This question drives Garard’s skillful poetry debut.
Goodbye Christopher Robin [Motion Picture]. Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly Macdonald, and Alex Lawther, and Simon Curtis (Director). United Kingdom: Glassworks Media.
For a review from Shmuel Shmuel, click here:
The movie Goodbye Christopher Robin is about war, a war so big, so terrible, that it defies description. It is also a movie about a society in denial, where the wounds of war are ever-present, but unseen—in those who came back, but also in those who were left behind waiting for them. It is about expectant mothers who are praying for girls since girls can’t go to war, so one can love them without fear of the future. It is about fathers who can never forget those sounds and smells, that constantly go back there from over here, even when playing with their kids.
The Future of Strategy. Colin S. Gray. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2015.
Read a review from Von Lambert here:
This book is a useful start point for any student of strategy, strategic history, and for those who seek to understand its foundation, formulation, and fallibility. Gray ultimately offers that the future of strategy is contiguous, susceptible to the human condition, and a generally difficult enterprise in which to succeed. Nevertheless, he explains its definition, origins, and utility for the contemporary strategist.
By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783. Michael J. Green, New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017.
To read a review by Robert E. Poling III, click here:
Green deftly demonstrates that America’s ability to shape events is limited, but convincingly argues that an appropriate grand strategy, one that has a regional focus on deterrence, trade, and values will go a long way towards the peaceful management of the balance of power in the region. Given China’s apparent desire to supplant the existing balance of power, coupled with the instability and threat of war on the Korean Peninsula, Green’s work is timely, and decision makers, practitioners, or students of grand strategy and statecraft would do well to add it to their reading list.
The Battle of Arginusae: Victory at Sea and its Tragic Aftermath in the Final Years of the Peloponnesian War. Debra Hamel. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015.
Rose Mary Sheldon reviewed this book here:
Strategists have been studying the Peloponnesian War since Thucydides first put pen to scroll. As a war that spanned more than a generation, one can focus on its strategy in its entirety, or study one of its many parts. Without a doubt, one of the most controversial events of the war was the Athenian naval victory at Arginusae that became one of the most infamous chapters in the history of ancient Athens. Debra Hamel aims The Battle of Arginusae perfectly at a generalist audience with no expertise in Greek history.
The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease & the End of an Empire. Kyle Harper. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Read Williamson Murray's review here:
Professor Harper has produced a wonderful case study that demands a general rethinking of how we view the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. It turns much of the earlier views on Rome’s decline into surface explanations and places the chance happenings of nature in a driver’s seat that we can barely comprehend. It should also give us pause in how we think about the future. Tyche in the most terrible sense of the Greek word is out there waiting for us.
The Odyssey. Homer, translated. by Emily Wilson. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2018.
Read a review from Seth Herbst here:
Ultimately, Wilson’s pellucid clarity—whatever its sacrifices for a certain casualness of style—opens a fresh window onto the richly imagined world of The Odyssey. What we see is a poem of extreme contrasts: neither an escapist fantasy nor a brief on post-traumatic stress, it is a blend of the mythical and the real, the beautiful and the gruesome, war and peace—one of Western culture’s great originals. Wilson’s compelling new translation will not replace Fitzgerald, Lattimore, Fagles, or Lombardo on my shelf, but it will certainly stand beside them, renewing contemporary readers’ engagement with a subtle masterpiece of ancient Greek epic.
Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898-1945. Trent Hone. Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2018.
To read a review by Stephen Stein, click here:
this is an important study that dramatically advances our understanding of innovation and the importance of non-technological factors, particularly the development of learning systems, in successful innovation. It will be of use to scholars of both innovation and the U.S. Navy, as well as those with a general interest in those subjects. It offers a valuable case study in successful, long-term innovation in a complex, bureaucratic setting.
Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century. Alistair Horne. NY, New York: Harper Collins, 2015.
To read a review from Walker D. Mills, click here:
The last book Horne published before passing away in 2017, Hubris is the final word by a writer who spent more sixty years writing about modern warfare, a fitting epitaph for warfare in the twentieth century.
Blood in the Forest: The End of the Second World War in the Courland Pocket. Vince Hunt. Solihull, UK: Helion & Company, 2017.
Read Timothy Heck’s review here:
Hunt has written a book that challenges the modern strategist to process how we end our wars and how we deal with their excesses. Furthermore, Hunt challenges how we, as a whole society, commemorate these wars and their participants through the morally complicated saga of the Latvian Legion. The book’s moral weight is palpable as we attempt to answer some of those questions in the modern era.
Taliban Narratives: The Use and Power of Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict. Thomas H. Johnson. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Read a review from Tyrell Mayfield here, and another from Omar Sadr here:
The American-led effort in Afghanistan has, it would appear, lost the battle of the narrative. What Johnson provides here is an important post-mortem on the still living corpse of this conflict. Taking that pulse, this book has true utility, and Johnson lays out the core Taliban messages, which are easier to recall than those of the United States. Therein lies both the crux of the problem and its practical demonstration: the Taliban can articulate why they fight in a way that resonates with Afghans, and the West can not.
The Turn of the Tide in the Pacific War: Strategic Initiative, Intelligence, and Command, 1941-1943. Sean M. Judge. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2018.
Read a review from Perry Colvin here:
Overall, this is an interesting book, and while it has some flaws, those are largely attributable to the fact that Judge passed away in 2012 and it was posthumously edited into its current form. This work would be useful as an introduction to strategic studies and also to those looking for a detailed examination of the early stages of the World War II in the Pacific, though it would be best as a companion to more comprehensive works. It would be especially effective in a graduate seminar setting because of Judge’s excellent citations and engagement with the extended literature surrounding strategy and the military history of the Second World War.
Pershing's Tankers: Personal Accounts of the AEF Tank Corps in World War I. Lawrence M. Kaplan (ed). Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2018.
Read Patrick Donahoe’s review here:
Kaplan has provided a window into the thoughts, struggles, fears, and triumphs of these soldiers from a century ago as they fought the Germans while mastering the most advanced technologies of their modern world. They were not much different that those who soldier on today in the face of fast-paced change and an evolving character of war. These personal reminiscences of service in the tanks illustrate the fortitude required to fight the enemy, bureaucracy, and non-believers in fielding the capabilities needed to win on the modern battlefield. It was required then. It is required in any era of tremendous disruption, in facing the challenges of mastering new technologies, and in convincing hidebound senior leaders of the value of an emerging form of warfare.
Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America's Role in the World. Robert D. Kaplan, New York, NY: Random House, 2017.
Read Ty Mayfield's review here:
Kaplan is at the top of his game in these pages. It’s a beautiful drive to the coast, and Kaplan has a keen eye for details that even Paul Theroux would appreciate. Every scene is set with intimate details, yet we never meet an American by name. Instead, we come to know them as we know ourselves, in new and important ways. This is an enjoyable read that illuminates great troubles with big ideas presented conversationally. It’s essential reading for Americans involved in our foreign policy—whether you’re drafting it, debating it, paying for it, or implementing it with a rifle in your hand.
The Free Sea: The American Fight for Freedom of Navigation. James Kraska & Raul Pedrozo. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.
To read a review by James Risk, click here:
When one picks up The Free Sea: The American Fight for Freedom of Navigation by James Kraska and Raul Pedrozo, they will soon find themselves asking if this book is a diplomatic history, a history of the merchant marine, a naval history, or a political history. The Free Sea is, in fact, all of these. From the Quasi-War between the United States and France France to China’s recent harassment of U.S. naval vessels in the South China sea, Kraska and Pedrozo highlight the United States Navy’s two-century struggle to protect the right to free navigation. In highlighting the Navy’s challenges, Kraska and Pedrozo complicate the narrative that the United States Navy is the most powerful maritime force in the world. Instead, The Free Sea depicts a more realistic and accurate image of the United States as an assertive-but-equal, and sometimes vulnerable, maritime player.
Architect of Air Power: General Laurence S. Kuter and the Birth of the US Air Force. Brian D. Laslie. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2017.
For a review by Michael Hankins and an interview with Brian Laslie, click here:
Biographies are often among the best-selling history books, but for many academic historians they are among the most difficult to write. The attraction to some subjects over others has also led to limitations in the literature. Many biographers are attracted to top-level commanders or to the lower level individuals making tough combat decisions in the tactical realm. Rarely do mid-level managers get a thorough treatment that can accurately relate the importance of their work to the larger trends of history. This is exactly what Brian Laslie’s new book Architect of Air Power seeks to remedy for General Laurence S. Kuter. In this brief but lively survey of Kuter’s life, Laslie successfully argues that although Kuter may not have risen to the fame of other Air Force leaders of his day, he nonetheless deserves recognition. Kuter was the father of the United States Air Force’s history program and a key developer of U.S. Air Force doctrine from the Second World War through the early days of the Cold War. As Laslie claims, he was the architect of American air power.
Aerial Warfare: The Battle for the Skies. Frank Ledwidge. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Read Brian Laslie's review here:
This single volume is perfect for the student or military accession looking for a fantastic introduction on the history of war in the air. Serious scholars might consider going so far as to obtaining multiple copies of this work to hand out to colleagues in other fields. It is a book perfect for classes on the history of warfare. It will find itself on numerous college syllabi and a place as one of the great air power textbooks for the foreseeable future.
Safeguarding Democratic Capitalism: U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security, 1920-2015. Melvyn P. Leffler. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Read a review by Spencer Bakich here:
Safeguarding Democratic Capitalism is a masterful work of diplomatic history. Not only will Leffler’s volume be of long-standing interest to historians and international relations scholars, but it is of immense value to strategists and policymakers whose charge it is to ensure American national security.
Oceans Ventured: Winning the Cold War at Sea. John Lehman. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2018.
Read Ryan Hilger's review here:
Secretary Lehman’s Oceans Ventured, is not only a tale well told, but more importantly is a veritable fount of wisdom on developing and executing a maritime strategy, something the U.S. Navy is relearning as recent world events shift back into the maritime domain from the mountains of Afghanistan and the deserts of Syria and Iraq. This book needs to be read and internalized at all levels.
Pandora’s Box: A History of the First World War. Jörn Leonhard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.
Read a review by Richard Fulton here:
Leonhard sets out not simply to write a history of events, but to help his reader understand the greater meaning of the war for the participants (who included virtually everyone in the world to one extent or another) and to us in the twenty-first century. And to arrive at that understanding he identifies a collection of leitmotifs that provided the living reality for the people of the time: realities of social condition, class, economics, demographics, relationship to local culture as well as to state and nation for example, but also of aspirations, possibilities, experiences, expectations, and people’s (ruling elite, bourgeoisie, working class) general knowledge of both the world and the local neighborhood. Pandora’s Box is unique in being a close study of all of these key contexts with clear maps to how they created the new world of the World War.
Islamic Seapower During the Age of Fighting Sail. Philip MacDougall. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: The Boydell Press, 2017.
Read a review by B.J. Armstrong here:
The patterns of Islamic seapower illustrated by MacDougall appear again in the present day. By engaging with this important book, modern naval and military thinkers will begin to develop an understanding of how naval and maritime power has been developed in the region in the past. This can result in a better framework for them to consider developments and naval strategy in the present and the future. Seapower is not exclusive to one ocean, one region, or one methodology. It was, and is, the first worldwide expression of national power and military strength, and must be viewed through a wide, global vision.
Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Rise of the Islamic State. Carter Malkasian. NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
To read a review from Will Selber, click here:
Malkasian’s book largely succeeds in analyzing the rise of the Anbar Awakening movement and diagnosing its ultimate failure. Although this book isn’t on par with War Comes to Garmser, it is one of the first salvos in what is likely to be a lengthy battle over the history of the Iraq War and adds much needed context to an often over-hyped story. Malkasian’s efforts are to be commended. His book should be read as a cautionary tale for policy makers and senior officers who often see tribal militias as an easy fix to complex problems. The story of the Anbar Awakening is remarkable without hyperbole. American forces showed tenacity and not only outfought their adversary but also politically outmaneuvered them in a foreign culture. That is a feat that has not been repeated in either Iraq or Afghanistan.
The Invisible Injured: Psychological Trauma in the Canadian Military from the First World War to Afghanistan. Adam Montgomery. Montreal & Kingston: McGill Queen’s University Press, 2017.
Read Michael Peterson's review here:
This is a book that should command the attention of military leaders charged with the welfare of their personnel. Montgomery brings the reader to the edge of a haunting ethical question. If the small military of a middle power has faced such large problems of mental health in relatively modest operations, then what problems will all western militaries and governments face in caring for the veterans of a large conflict? The question is certainly one of the highest responsibility for militaries, and for political leaders who casually threaten to unleash them.
Leading from the Front: No-Excuse Leadership Tactics for Women. Angie Morgan and Courtney Lynch. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education, 2017.
Read Heather Venable's review here:
In a small sea of books offering insights into Marine Corps leadership, this book stands apart by virtue of its focus on women. That focus, however, is most valuable for women who have no knowledge of military leadership.
Ways of War: American Military History from the Colonial Era to the Twenty-First Century. Matthew S. Muehlbauer and David J. Ulbrich. New York, NY: Routledge, Second Edition, 2018.
For a review by Mark Bernhardt, click here:
Overall, Ways of War provides a solid history of the military and warfare in the United States from the colonial era to the present. It is not without its shortcomings, though considering its objectives as a textbook for survey classes, needing to provide enough information for students to become knowledgeable in the field while also not losing them in the details and keeping the amount of material manageable for the time constraints of a course, it accomplishes a lot
The Life and Work of General Andrew J. Goodpaster: Best Practices in National Security Affairs. C. Richard Nelson. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
Read a review by Annie Adams here:
Nelson’s biography is comprehensive when it comes to Goodpaster’s education and roles. He strikes a good balance between describing Goodpaster the Army officer and public servant and Goodpaster the family man. But a more critical––that is, an interpretive and analytical––examination of Goodpaster’s life will better get to the heart of why he, as opposed to so many other Cold War officials, should be celebrated and why his collaborative approach to national security was novel and necessary. Goodpaster may well have been every bit as capable and exceptional as existing biographies suggest, but one suspects he was man as well as myth.
Titan: The Art of British Power in the Age of Revolution and Napoleon. William R. Nester. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.
Read Thomas Sheppard's review here:
The titanic struggle between Britain and France (and their respective allies) has been told many times, but the narrow focus here on Britain’s use of power is a welcome addition indeed, and Titan builds a compelling case for what made British victory possible. It will certainly prove useful to strategists and foreign policy practitioners, for while much has changed in the realm of war and diplomacy since the early nineteenth century, the need for smart power will not be ending anytime soon.
The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home. Patrick K. O'Donnell. New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2018.
Read David Retherford's review here:
The majestic Arlington National Cemetery located in Arlington, Virginia is the final resting place for the nation’s honored military and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The simple, yet powerful, words written on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are all that is known about this fallen American: "Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God." The tomb is a place where Americans pay their respect to unidentified fallen soldiers of wars past. Yet, it serves a dual purpose by allowing the veterans who did return home to reconcile their experience of war and for all the unknown soldiers, not just those interred at the tomb, to be honored. Soldiers who stayed on the battlefield are equally as important as those who survived war.
The Sovereignty Wars: Reconciling America With the World. Stewart Patrick. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2018.
Read a review from Ali Wyne here:
In his September 19, 2017 address before the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump stated that in the United States, “the people govern, the people rule, and the people are sovereign.” While many observers noted his emphasis on sovereignty—President Trump used that word and the word sovereign a combined twenty-one times—few of them, understandably, expended much effort on defining it. Given how often policymakers and analysts use it, after all, one could be forgiven for presuming its meaning to be self-evident. As Stewart Patrick demonstrates in his new book The Sovereignty Wars, however, it is a complicated, multifaceted construct; he notes, in fact, that “when Americans invoke the term, they often imply very different things—and thus talk past one another.”
The Psychology of Strategy: Exploring Rationality in the Vietnam War. Kenneth Payne. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Strategy, Evolution, and War: From Apes to Artificial Intelligence. Kenneth Payne. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2018.
Read a review of these books from T. Greer here:
A new science of human behavior has emerged over the past two decades. This new science has linked together the research of neuroscientists, cognitive and evolutionary anthropologists, decision theorists, social and cross cultural psychologists, cognitive scientists, ethnologists, linguists, endocrinologists, and behavioral economists into a cohesive body of research on why humans do what they do. Research in this field rests on two propositions about the human mind. The first, that the mind is embodied; the second, that it is evolved. When behavioral scientists say the mind is embodied, they mean the mind is a biological thing and the study of decision making cannot be divorced from the architecture of the biological machinery that makes the decisions. Their research suggests most of the mind’s machinery works under the hood, below the level of conscious awareness. Researchers have their favorite object of study: for some it is hormones and emotions, for others it is specialized cognitive modules evolved in the deep human past to solve problems faced by our hominid ancestors, and for yet others it is culturally created cognitive gadgets impressed into the biological structure of brains at an early age by the societies in which we grew up. When behavioral scientists say these attributes of human psychology are evolved, they mean only that, as a biological thing, the human mind was created by the same evolutionary process that crafted the function and form of every other living thing. “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” (as one famous biologist declared several decades ago), and this is as true for the study of the human mind as it is for the study of bacteria or butterflies. What does this have to do with war or strategy? Everything, answers Kenneth Payne, professor in the War Studies department at King’s College London.
Does My Suicide Vest Make Me Look Fat? John Ready. Soldier Press, 2013.
Read Katharine Petrich's review here:
Ready offers a necessary antidote to the lionization of American military service, as well as an honest picture of the challenges of coming home to normal life. This is a book that will speak to anyone who’s worked in a large, complex bureaucracy, anyone who had to explain to their guys that they were taking an ‘operational pause’ because somebody forgot to pack enough batteries, and anyone who’s had a useless boss in any job, not just the military.
Strategy and the Sea: Essays in Honour of John B. Hattendorf. N.A.M. Rodger, J. Ross Dancy, Benjamin Darnell, and Evan Wilson (eds). Suffolk, United Kingdom: Boydell Press, 2016.
Read a review from John Kuehn here:
About half the anthology is about naval strategy in the modern era (since the 16th century) and the other about how those who lead naval institutions, as well as those scholars who write and teach naval history, might better study, use, and employ naval history to improve understanding and professional judgment. It is really two books in that sense, and thus worth reading for either purpose. To say there is something here for everyone would be something of an understatement.
Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony. Kori Schake. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Read a review from Olivia Garard here:
What emerges from this eminently readable, incisively argued, and keenly erudite history is how precarious such passage was: a contingently calm transition, only tranquil because universal ideals mollified the augured storm. To grasp the contingency though, requires its own journey. We set off, initially, to revisit the great war between Athens and Sparta, as well as its modern interpretation, highlighting what that conflict suggests about how nations interact. To expose the nuance of that interaction, however, involves a further detour through propositional logic and the theory of idealization and ideals. With these conceptual tools, we then return to Schake’s Safe Passage with an informed perspective with which to fully appreciate what a unique beacon it is.
Lincoln’s Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac. Stephen W. Sears. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.
For a review written by Alexandre F. Caillot, click here:
Stephen W. Sears, author of twelve prior Civil War volumes, reassesses the Eastern Theater in Lincoln’s Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac. It explores two topics germane to the modern military. Strategists will note that the Army of the Potomac was the most important Northern force and fought in the preeminent theater. Russell F. Weigley claims that this area “offered the most promising opportunity for a short war and thereby the limitation of costs and destructive violence.” Students of civil-military relations will focus on the relative politicization of the officer corps and whether President Abraham Lincoln could impose his strategic vision on commanders.
Draw Your Weapons. Sarah Sentilles. New York, NY: Random House, 2017.
Read Olivia Garard's review here:
Draw Your Weapons is an odyssey. It is the story of a pilgrimage to acknowledge both photographs and appreciate how they came to be. Seeking to develop their conceptual, moral, and emotional negatives, she travels to the home of Howard and Ruane Scott to meet the man and see the violin. While teaching, she befriends Miles, an art student taking her critical theory course, who was a soldier in Iraq and a guard at Abu Ghraib. Meeting the subjects of the photos, however, is just the base layer in her collage, which draws on critical theory, her background in divinity studies, philosophy, and art, to name but a few perspectives.
Enlisting Faith: How the Military Chaplaincy Shaped Religion and State in Modern America. Ronit Y. Stahl. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
For a review by Michael Peterson and an interview with the author, click here:
Military chaplains in the United States armed forces occupy a curious position. As commissioned officers, they are religious professionals employed by a government constitutionally constrained to keep out of religion, but, as clergy, they are tasked with supporting the spiritual needs of personnel in an age when religious affiliation is increasingly diverse and individualistic. Thus, while some might see chaplains as anachronistic, or even as an affront to the principle of separation of church and state, Ronit Stahl, a scholar of modern American social history, argues the military chaplaincy has been and continues to be a driver of change in American religion and society.
Permanent Change of Station. Lisa Stice. Johnstown IA: Middlewest Press, 2018.
Read a review by Brooke N. King here:
With every poem, Stice dismantles the notion that military families are accustomed to absence; that it’s easy to make do without the other parent; that the empty side of the bed isn’t cold; that missed dance recitals and holidays are replaceable. She refutes the unspoken military rules that all can be said to a loved one within a five minute phone conversation inside a Morale, Welfare, and Recreation center, and that loneliness is just a phase that each family member will get over. Stice shows it is a bitter pill to swallow when the military tells a spouse that in another six months their soldier will return...and that after the reintegration period, the cycle of military family life will start over again with more packing, another duty station, and another deployment.
The Direction of War: Contemporary Strategy in Historical Perspective. Hew Strachan. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
To read a review from Chris Field, click here:
Providing a home or bridge for strategy is a primary responsibility of military leadership. For example, many military organisations possess headquarters with operational-level planning functions and capabilities. These headquarters develop plans providing strategy a home and create a strategy bridge back to their governments. For military organisations facing the chance, friction, and the uncertainty of war, Hew Strachan’s The Direction of War is a valuable resource to guide military leaders and planners.
Sun Tzu: The Art of War. Peter Harris. New York, NY: Everyman’s Library, 2018.
Read John Sullivan's review here:
We should abandon the Western shibboleth that Sun Tzu represents both the alpha and omega of Chinese strategic thinking. There is a rich vein of historical and military texts within the Sinic strategic tradition that we have left unmined for far too long. It is time to start squeezing blood out of some new (old) stones.
Hadji Murad. Leo Tolstoy. New York, NY: Cosimo Classics, 2006.
Read Robert S. Kim's review here:
Coming to grips with the memories and lessons of America’s long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a task that will occupy those who fought them, and who still fight them, for many years. That ongoing struggle is especially complicated for those whose responsibilities gave them a perspective into the strategic decisions that determined the courses of those wars. The histories of these conflicts and of relevant predecessors will predominate in any thinking about them, but their counterparts in fiction can also convey the subjective and personal aspects of the experience of war in ways that history cannot. For a fictional precursor to these contemporary conflicts, it would be difficult to do better than Leo Tolstoy’s short novel Hadji Murad.
The Burning Shores: Inside the Battle for the New Libya. Frederic Wehrey. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.
Read Stefan DePaul’s review here:
In his book, Wehrey seeks to explain how the hope of the Arab Spring in Libya gave way to the frustration and despair of the conflict that still persists today. Drawing from his background as an Arabic speaker, Oxford PhD, and Air Force veteran stationed in Libya who has provided testimony on the crisis to Congress—and as the current Senior Fellow for the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace—Wehrey has both the access and the academic ability to fully explain the history of the conflict. Unlike the more academic tone of St John’s book however, Wehrey writes with an engaging voice that reads, in parts, more like a thriller than a history. Through conversations with a diverse group of domestic and international players, the human element of what Libya has experienced becomes the core of an authoritative and well-researched narrative. Wehrey’s sense of humanity highlights the messy and complex nature of the conflict and shields it from retrospective simplification. The book’s unflinching embrace of complexity provides its greatest lessons for thinkers at the operational and strategic level: the perils of a broken civil society, the challenge of trust and alliances in that context, and the chaos of a failing state. It offers a rich source of insight for thinking about conflicts, prospective conflicts, and solutions from a whole-of-government point of view.
Churchill’s Secret War with Lenin: British and Commonwealth Military Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918-1920. Damien Wright. Solihull, UK: Helion & Company, 2017.
Read a review by Timothy Heck here:
Modern readers will find parallels and similarities between the intervention of a century ago and those more recent. Churchill’s Secret War with Lenin engagingly illuminates the history of a small war that served as both part of the Great War and the dawn of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. Wright masterfully presents the history of a failed campaign in compelling human and strategic terms through his use of primary sources, synthesis of other works, and his own analysis. Strategists, planners, and tacticians will all take something away from the work.
21st Century Power: Strategic Superiority for the Modern Era. Brent D. Ziarnick (ed). Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.
Read a review by Krisjand Rothweiler here:
For the modern strategist, including those looking at newer strategic challenges such as cyber security, 21st Century Power: Strategic Superiority for the Modern Era provides several points to consider drawn from complex problems of the past. How to conceive the struggle for a domain, the inclusion and balance of offense and defense, unity of control/commonality of purpose, and the importance of civic engagement in relating strategic messages to a larger population are areas which are informed by the experiences of General Power. These are also areas in which the policy and military strategy could improve, though particularly in the area of cyberspace as civil society has a greater stake in ensuring its security as compared to the government, than any other domain which the U.S. is threatened.