Alessandra Nisch
Putin’s Wars: Testing Boyd’s Strategy of ...

President Putin made three foundational assumptions in launching his war against Ukraine that should have been correct but were not. First, Putin assumed the invasion of Ukraine would be a quick and easy fight. Second, he assumed the world would denounce the invasion but tacitly allow it. Third, Putin assumed the war would deter NATO expansion.

Putin’s Wars: Testing Boyd’s Strategy of Applied Friction

#Reviewing

#Reviewing Hemispheric Alliances

#Reviewing Hemispheric Alliances

In Hemispheric Alliances: Liberal Democrats and Cold War Latin America, Andrew J. Kirkendall provides a thoughtful analysis of the Latin America policy devised by liberal Democrats in the period running from the 1960s to 1980s. The book’s core argument is that liberals in the Democratic Party attempted to design and implement a foreign policy for Latin America that moved beyond the Cold War strategy of containment. Instead of containment, these policymakers sought to leverage U.S. power to foster economic development, democracy, and human rights in the region.

#Reviewing The Inheritance

#Reviewing The Inheritance

Mara E. Karlin’s new book, The Inheritance: America’s Military After Two Decades of War is a sobering yet necessary read. In looking at the effects of the post-9/11 wars on the U.S. military, she asks—and proposes answers to—two questions. First, “[h]ow did the most capable military in U.S. history—indeed in the history of the world—fight to, at best, a draw in its longest contemporary conflict?” And second, “why has this not been the subject of greater reflection and debate.”

The Management of Violence: #Reviewing Bomber Mafia

The Management of Violence: #Reviewing Bomber Mafia

Malcolm Gladwell is known for telling stories—stories about success, societal change, underdogs, and how people or groups of people misunderstand each other. In his book, The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World. Gladwell brings to life historical figures who were instrumental in developing the United States’ bombing campaigns during World War II.

# Reviewing Intelligence and the State

# Reviewing Intelligence and the State

For a relatively short volume, Intelligence and the State manages to fill a range of gaps in the existing literature on the intelligence community. First and foremost, it provides a timely look at the issues confronting both policy makers and intelligence analysts that will only grow more relevant as technological advances increase the volume of raw information available to the intelligence community. Second, it offers the reader a condensed history of the European and American experiences with developing intelligence communities that would otherwise require combing through a range of academic literature. Finally, author Jonathan House leverages his decades of experience as a U.S. Army intelligence officer with valuable advice that can alleviate some of the pressures on the intelligence community and help the national security establishment avoid missing warning signs in the current environment.

#Reviewing Soldiers of End-Times: Assessing the Military Effectiveness of the Islamic State

#Reviewing Soldiers of End-Times: Assessing the Military Effectiveness of the Islamic State

Soldiers of End-Times: Assessing the Military Effectiveness of the Islamic State is a timely study of the effectiveness of the military tactics and strategy of the Islamic State (IS) from 2014 to 2019. Throughout his study, Levy examines how IS fought their form of an effective conventional war. In examining the effectiveness of IS military operations, Levy is one of the first to attempt to create a larger study on IS. Levy is restricted in his study by the novelty of his subject. The fall of IS is still very recent at the time of publication and many of the U.S. defense sources are still restricted to the general public.

#Reviewing Liberating Libya: British Diplomacy and War in the Desert

#Reviewing Liberating Libya: British Diplomacy and War in the Desert

Rupert Wieloch’s Liberating Libya: British Diplomacy and War in the Desert brings new insights to the story of British military and diplomatic involvement in Libya from the late seventeenth century to the present. The author draws mainly on a vast amount of secondary literature, supplemented with some primary material to tell the long story of British involvement in Libya. His compelling narrative is punctuated by numerous well-developed stories of personal action and sacrifice, and misfortune, which give it vivid depth and detail.

What Shapes Us: #Reviewing Forces

What Shapes Us: #Reviewing Forces

Throughout the collection, the invisible forces that shape the speaker in Stice’s collection move in mysterious and yet predictable ways. The result is a world rich in detail and meaning that is nevertheless captive to the churning rituals of an often faceless and capricious military bureaucracy. Stice captures both the tension and beauty of these unseen forces in poems that celebrate quiet domestic moments and gently interrogate the hardships created by the itinerant lifestyle of a military family.

#Reviewing The Wolves of Helmand

#Reviewing The Wolves of Helmand

Overall, Biggio conveys a great deal of information in a compact, highly-readable form. He touches lightly, but from the heart, on serious topics which makes this an accessible book for even the least militarily-savvy reader. An informed reader will appreciate the tale, while less-knowledgeable readers will enjoy gaining a broad understanding of the events without having to consult references.

That Grenade is a Heart: #Reviewing So Frag & So Bold

That Grenade is a Heart: #Reviewing So Frag & So Bold

The line between poems and jokes runs thin in Randy Brown’s new collection, So Frag and So Bold—but in the best possible way. Brown, in a series of mostly very-short poems, quips, and aphorisms, brings the gallows humor of military life to the stage in a unique, funny, and moving way all at once. These poems feel both very real and also imaginative, almost like a Greek chorus calling out in intervals from stage left, telling you the real thing you need to know.

#Reviewing Habits of Highly Effective Maritime Strategists

#Reviewing Habits of Highly Effective Maritime Strategists

Holmes argues the profession of arms requires habits of mind, heart, and deed that are compatible with, though distinct from, Covey’s principles. The thrust of Holmes’ book is elegant in its simplicity: aspirants and practitioners of military strategy alike should learn from the habits of history’s great strategists and understand how to emulate their behaviors in the present.

#Reviewing The Immigrant Superpower

#Reviewing The Immigrant Superpower

This book is relevant today as Americans constantly disagree on the impact of immigrants. It will also continue to remain relevant as immigrants will always be a point of contention for years to come. The United States may not be perfect, but Kane argues for immigrants making it better, not worse. Any American would benefit from reading this book and educating themselves on the impact immigrants have on the U.S. and why they contribute to making this country a true world superpower.

#REVIEWING Promising Young Woman

#REVIEWING Promising Young Woman

We need to be willing to push through the perception of oppression and subsequent defensiveness if we want to have any hope of creating a cultural system of respect and dignity, to combat and dismantle the firmly established and thriving cultural system that keeps women as unsafe as they are. Much of this work lies with us who like to consider ourselves clean-handed simply because we are not overt predators. We need to be in the arena and willing to fail embarrassingly in front of our peers, who will judge us, cast us out, and retaliate against us for violating their cultural system, the system built for us, and from which we benefit.

#Reviewing Her Cold War: Women in the US Military, 1945-1980

#Reviewing Her Cold War: Women in the US Military, 1945-1980

Her Cold War by Tanya Roth offers an insightful explanation of how, contrary to the popular narrative, Cold War era servicewomen were essentially the pioneers of the second wave feminist push for gender equality in the United States. The book focuses on the period between 1945 and 1980—a deceptively small window of time for such an impactful period both for women in the military and in U.S. culture more broadly. In 1945, there was no Department of Defense, separate Air Force, or a permanent place for women in any existing branch of the military. By 1980, only two generations later, the first groups of women were piloting military aircraft and graduating from military service academies.

Viewing Russia’s Actions Through the Lens of Imperialism: #Reviewing Leo Blanken’s Rational Empires

Viewing Russia’s Actions Through the Lens of Imperialism: #Reviewing Leo Blanken’s Rational Empires

The literature on international security for the last three decades has primarily focused on the twin problems of terrorism and insurgency as the principal threats to the global status quo, and in doing so has neglected the role of conquest as an instrument within great power competition. The emerging era of bare-knuckled territorial aggrandizement by revisionist great powers, therefore, has largely caught the academy underprepared. Given this, I offer a ten-year anniversary review of a book that could assist in shaping our understanding of the changing nature of the international system today.

#Reviewing A Machine-Gunner In France

#Reviewing A Machine-Gunner In France

Captain Ward Schrantz has written a detailed account of his personal experiences during a 22-month deployment covering his mobilization in the United States, his combat involvement on The Western Front, and his demobilization back to the United States during the First World War. Schrantz’s account was executed with minute details that highlight the sacrifices and hardships endured by the soldiers of Company A, and a general reader with limited knowledge of the 35th Infantry Division’s role in the First World War may not benefit as much from the elaborate detail left by Schrantz or the archival work added by Patrick. But this is ultimately a book about one soldier before, during, and after the First World War.

Sanctuary as a Concept in the Cold War and the Global War on Terror: #Reviewing Streets Without Joy

Sanctuary as a Concept in the Cold War and the Global War on Terror: #Reviewing Streets Without Joy

Innes’ work is an important starting place for any scholar or practitioner seeking to understand the significance of sanctuary as a guiding concept as well as the evolution of Cold War thinking through the era of globalization and the U.S. Global War on Terror. His book is a superb example of blending real world experience with in-depth research and analysis. Its insightful examination of the shifting definitions and uses of the concept of sanctuary offers important cautions for the present as it reveals the blind spots of the past.

A More Talkative Place: Why the Human Domain Still Matters in Strategic Competition — #Reviewing Brutality in an Age of Human Rights

A More Talkative Place: Why the Human Domain Still Matters in Strategic Competition — #Reviewing Brutality in an Age of Human Rights

Culture and, more specifically, human terrain has not gone away with the returned focus on strategic competition. Drohan’s work highlights the tensions between moral and immoral and legal and illegal ways of seeking to defeat insurgencies as well as how governments shape and disseminate narratives that will be equally important in more conventional conflicts of the future. From winning hearts and minds to large-scale combat operations themselves, morality—indeed the whole expanse of human terrain—is just as important as lethality, not only to strategic narratives but to strategy itself.

Playing at Ethics: #Reviewing Military Ethics Education Playing Cards

Playing at Ethics: #Reviewing Military Ethics Education Playing Cards

The KCME Military Ethics Education Playing Cards Deck is an exceptionally versatile tool that has great utility for both individual reflection and organizational-level ethics education. It should become part of professional military ethics education toolkits across the U.S. Armed Forces and its allies and partners. As more military practitioners use the Deck, they should contribute their own stories and perspectives to KCME to make the tool even better.

#Reviewing Time of the Magicians

#Reviewing Time of the Magicians

The continent-wide desolation of the First World War left its impact on the philosophical landscape of Europe. We cannot yet know what effects the Global War on Terror will have on the philosophy of the future. The philosophical problems and solutions will certainly be different, but the reality of war experiences, although varied, will no doubt precipitate new attempts at unraveling the mysteries of human lived experience. We must give attention to this influence and the diverse ways it may manifest itself in the lives of those both directly and indirectly affected by war…Eilenberger’s able account is necessary reading, for its creativity, its depth of philosophical understanding, and its exploration of the “decade that reinvented philosophy,” whose insights have significant resonances and cautions for our own time.