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 War and Resistance in the Philippines, 1942-1944

#Reviewing War and Resistance in the Philippines, 1942-1944

Morningstar succeeds in his stated intention to “provide a basis for a fuller discussion of resistance during war as experienced in the Philippines during World War II.” As his work makes clear, localized regional insurgencies, both unified and fragmented, can coincide with and fit into larger symmetric conflicts. However, he ignores the evolution of the scholarship in elucidating the nature of asymmetric war. Specifically, he stops short of critically explaining the conflict that he otherwise ably narrates.

Melting the SOT Snowman: #Reviewing On Operations

Melting the SOT Snowman: #Reviewing On Operations

On Operations is both well-written and a solid work of theory supported by strong historical research. One may argue against Friedman’s conclusions on the utility of the operational level of war as a valid concept, and a much smaller and more logical SOT Snowman, but one cannot argue that the arguments are not well constructed. Similarly, his articulation of operational art and its constituent disciplines are both logical and clear. Operational art represents something of a niche topic, but for those studying it, Friedman’s work is the proverbial must read.

#Reviewing The Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Way of War

#Reviewing The Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Way of War

The book is bold and provocative. Its ideas deserve serious consideration across the services—particularly in the Marine Corps, where maneuver warfare was most fully adopted. It is nonetheless paradoxical: strong in many respects but not in others, beautifully balanced in several key arguments but also weaker in others, ultimately reducing the strength of Robinson’s central argument that Boyd was a blind strategist whose theories did much more harm than good in the American military establishment. Specifically, while Robinson addresses specific weaknesses in Boyd’s theory and approach effectively, he misses or ignores its strengths.

Reviewing: Clear, Hold, and Destroy: Pacification in Phú Yên and the American War in Vietnam

Reviewing: Clear, Hold, and Destroy: Pacification in Phú Yên and the American War in Vietnam

The American response to the dilemma of creating a democratic society while waging a guerilla war was pacification, a European concept born out of colonization that was relatively new to Americans. In Clear, Hold, and Destroy, Army University Press historian Robert J. Thompson III closely analyzes Phu Yen, a mountainous and agricultural coastal province in Vietnam’s central highlands, to understand the gestation of American pacification, how it was implemented, and why it ultimately failed. In this study of the American commitment in Vietnam, Thompson underscores the centrality of conventional military forces in the implementation of pacification.

#Reviewing First Platoon

#Reviewing First Platoon

Annie Jacobsen shows the reality of the concept of identity dominance over a population in First Platoon. She weaves together her main themes through four questions—what are the boundaries of a persistent surveillance state enabled by advances in biometrics; who should own and have access to biometric data of a population; how has the face of battle changed in an identity dominance environment; and what is justice in this new environment?

#Reviewing: Understanding Peacekeeping, 3rd Edition.

#Reviewing: Understanding Peacekeeping, 3rd Edition.

In the midst of ongoing armed conflicts in Yemen, Ethiopia, and myriad other locations, understanding potential tools for mitigating these crises is necessary. Paul Williams and Alex Bellamy’s third edition of Understanding Peacekeeping is timely. In this volume, Williams and Bellamy continue to build out their original 2004 release by evaluating and providing in-depth discussions of the changes in the international landscape and the drivers of peace operations over time. This is a textbook of peace operations centered on those endeavors that incorporate military personnel, which provides students and scholars in-depth analysis. For academics and students interested in peace operations, this book is a necessary research edition that could be used as a primary text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses.

#Reviewing Sid Meier’s! Lessons in Game Design: Civilization and Wargames

#Reviewing Sid Meier’s! Lessons in Game Design: Civilization and Wargames

Constructing open worlds and the freedom to develop innovative strategies that incubate strategic minds or threaten authoritarian societies are the unexplored frontiers. The lessons in game design that Civilization offers are important for the developing wargame research community to understand as decision-making games become a critical part of the military education process.

#Reviewing: Battle Tested!: Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders

#Reviewing: Battle Tested!: Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders

Battle Tested! focuses on the three decisive days of battle—July 1 to 3, 1863—between George Meade’s Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia near the sleepy town of Gettysburg. The chapters provide historical and biographical background and then present a “Leadership Moment” for the reader, asking what they would do in a particular commander’s shoes at that point. Then the authors present several leadership qualities at play in the scenario, explain the importance of each, and provide modern examples to supplement their analysis.

#Reviewing Hoarding Memory

#Reviewing Hoarding Memory

Overall, Hubbell’s work illustrates how literature, history, and art refract the memory of the Algerian War. These memories are multiple, varied, and ultimately accretive, which impedes healing and progress for both French and Algerians across both sides of the Mediterranean. Hubbell’s book will be of great interest not only to scholars of France and Algeria, but also to anyone examining memory, trauma, and contested historical narratives.

A Year in #Reviewing

A Year in #Reviewing

How do you read? It’s a simple question, but it may not have a simple answer. In a time when we are seeing less of each other, whether because of a pandemic, increased telework as a result of the pandemic, or self-imposed technological isolation, how we read has the potential to vary as much as how we interact with others on a daily basis. Some of us have difficulty ingesting books that are not printed on dead trees while others embrace the freedom of having someone else read books to us while we drive, hike, or run on a treadmill. ‘To read’, like a book itself, holds many different meanings.

#Reviewing Dodgebomb: Outside the Wire in the Second Iraq War

#Reviewing Dodgebomb: Outside the Wire in the Second Iraq War

Dodgebomb works as a story of an Iraq deployment. For those who have deployed, the stories and characters ring true. For someone with no military experience, the stories are relatable, funny, heart-wrenching, and effectively convey that experience. Pepple’s treatment of the hard decisions leaders face in combat is equally effective, leaving the reader understanding them, but not always liking them.

#Reviewing Speed: The Life of a Test Pilot and Birth of an American Icon

#Reviewing Speed: The Life of a Test Pilot and Birth of an American Icon

This book is a testament both to the courage of Bob Gilliland and the ingenuity of Skunk Works at its height. Aviation historians and engineers will appreciate the story while the general public can respect a man’s mark on aviation. The book could have improved if it were more accessible to general readers and if it questioned why there hasn’t been a jet that was as groundbreaking since the SR-71. Nevertheless, the book provides a glimpse of the can-do attitude of the military-industrial complex leaving its readers to wonder whether we can once again scrape the heavens and push the limits of aerospace as Gilliland did nearly 60 years ago.

#Reviewing A Bridge in Babylon

#Reviewing A Bridge in Babylon

Short, accessible, and relatively inexpensive, with an appealing cover, the paperback could easily serve as the basis for a discussion group, such as a church Bible study or a chaplains’ support group. Individually or collectively, it will be read profitably by chaplains and other service members looking for the words to describe their feelings; by policymakers and other stakeholders seeking insights into the recent lived experiences of military chaplains; and by the wider public, including future historians and other scholars of the chaplaincy and of the Iraq War.

#Reviewing The Folly of Generals: How Eisenhower’s Broad Front Strategy Lengthened World War II

#Reviewing The Folly of Generals: How Eisenhower’s Broad Front Strategy Lengthened World War II

Writing counterfactual history is always of tremendous difficulty, reminding me of astronomer Carl Sagan’s quip that history could only be a science if one possessed a time machine with which to run hypothesis-testing experiments. One can neither prove nor falsify the claims on offer here, but only guess at their plausibility. Such analytical exercises are welcome, and occasionally fruitful. The Folly of Generals will and should be welcomed by military enthusiasts, and is worthy of debate in staff colleges and other institutions of military education.

1Q22 Call for Strategy Bridge Submissions

1Q22 Call for Strategy Bridge Submissions

The imperative to make choices in the face of constrained resources, to devote resources to some purposes and to sacrifice other purposes, remains a perennial concern, handed down from the founding of the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS) and the Systems Analysis effort founded under Robert McNamara in 1961, and it is on this question that The Strategy Bridge focuses in our first series of 2022. Submissions should conform with our guidelines and must be received no later than 12 January 2022.

The First (and Only) Law of Robotic Warfare

The First (and Only) Law of Robotic Warfare

Will the future autonomous fighting systems be a boon or an ultimate threat to humanity? I argue that while real, the danger is not that the machines will rebel, but that they will be too obedient to their programmers, destroying each other and their creators. To avoid the possibility of Mutual Assured Destruction re-enacted by robotic warfare, it is in the interest of all combatants to program their war machines to follow the Golden Rule, instilling in them the fear of their own annihilation.

Don’t Be Evil: America Needs Its Mantra Back

Don’t Be Evil: America Needs Its Mantra Back

America and its conflicts are not so different from those in the Mahabharata. America has been called a shining city upon a hill, borrowing from the Christian Bible. Like the Pāṇḍavas in their moral miscalculation, however, America has forgotten the importance of virtue. Does America rise to fight simply because challenged, with little to gain but much to lose? Does it honestly assess the continuing costs of war?

From Debacle to Triumph: India’s Civil-Military Relations at War 1962-1971

From Debacle to Triumph: India’s Civil-Military Relations at War 1962-1971

In the span of just ten years India waged three conventional conflicts against peer competitors with radically divergent results. During the 1962 Sino-Indian War, India was humiliated by China in a short conflict that saw the Chinese occupy substantial Indian territory. Three years later, during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, India was able to reach a stalemate, successfully defending Kashmir but proving unable to defeat Pakistan on the plains of Punjab. Lastly, during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, India achieved a stunning success, decisively defeating Pakistani forces in East Pakistan in just thirteen days. The roots of these three divergent outcomes can be traced to the varied condition of Indian civil-military relations and its impact on pre-war defense planning, wartime operations, and war termination.

Past as Prelude? Envisioning the Future of Special Operations

Past as Prelude? Envisioning the Future of Special Operations

It stands to reason that as global conditions point to steady competition, the United States will need a force capable of understanding local conditions, building relationships with an array of partners, combating disinformation through truthful narratives, fostering resilience, raising costs of aggression, and selectively imposing costs through a variety of creative means. The solution to today’s challenges cannot only be material or technological in nature—there is no deus ex machina for human-centric competition. Special operations forces could fill the void as a competitive force once more, and campaign to provide outsized benefits in support of the nation’s priorities.

Mind the Gap: How the U.S. Coast Guard Can Navigate the Window of Vulnerability in the Indo-Pacific

Mind the Gap: How the U.S. Coast Guard Can Navigate the Window of Vulnerability in the Indo-Pacific

When the U.S. Coast Guard’s unique capabilities, authorities, and less threatening white hulls are considered in totality, novel solutions that mesh with the service’s strengths emerge. Cooperation on mutually beneficial Coast Guard missions serves as an opportunity to develop confidence-building measures and knit a resilient architecture that will inoculate two superpowers from conflict.