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Book Review: Putin’s War on Ukraine: Russia’s Campaign for Global Counter-Revolution
Lionel M. Beehner
Author: Samuel Ramani
Reviewed by Dr. Lionel M. Beehner, senior Russia analyst, Foreign Military Studies Office, and senior editorial director, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs
Senior Russia analyst Dr. Lionel M. Beehner provides thoughtful praise and critiques on Samuel Ramani’s 2023 book, Putin’s War on Ukraine, calling it “a must-read for diplomats and defense experts.” According to Beehner, Ramani provides “a front-row seat to the war,” helpfully “recalls incidents that may be buried in readers’ minds,” and “masterfully shows the chaos within Russian leadership circles near the invasion.” Beehner also distills and explains Ramani’s main point—that the reason behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “not fear of NATO encirclement but of regime change and popular revolution from within” (or “counter-revolution”).
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Book Review: The New Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age
John C. Erickson and John A. Nagl
Editor: Hal Brands
Reviewed by John C. Erickson, senior engineer, Axiom Technologies, and John A. Nagl, professor of war-fighting studies, US Army War College
John Erickson and John Nagl provide a useful overview of the latest (third) edition of Princeton University Press’s anthologies on modern strategy, directing readers to the most salient chapters of the book and giving insight into why “this third edition is the most interesting yet” and “are of immeasurable importance for students, practitioners, and scholars alike.” Erickson and Nagl write that “[the] essays provide excellent starting points for research on almost any topic relevant to practitioners, and many of them will endure as the best summaries of thinking on their respective subjects until the next edition is published.”
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Book Review: War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World
John C. Erickson and John A. Nagl
Editor: Hal Brands
Reviewed by John C. Erickson, senior engineer, Axiom Technologies, and Dr. John A. Nagl, professor of war-fighting studies, US Army War College
John Erickson and John Nagl review Hal Brands’s 2024 anthology on the Russia-Ukraine War, including a thorough and helpful overview of the parts and chapters. They supplement the review with a contextualization of the war and its significance for the rest of the world. They call Brands’s book, “a scholarly appraisal of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that may mark the first blows of World War III.”
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Book Review: Unwinnable Wars: Afghanistan and the Future of American Armed Statebuilding
Erik Goepner
Author: Adam Wunische
Reviewed by Dr. Erik Goepner, US government analyst, Colonel (US Air Force, retired)
Dr. Erik Goepner reviews analyst Adam Wunische’s Unwinnable Wars, which, according to Gopener, offers a “timeless reminder—American power has limits.” Goepner provides a helpful outline of Wunische’s four “major preexisting conditions that severely limit the success of armed state-building efforts.” Wunische argues that preexisting conditions are “beyond the control of the intervening power” and “often foreordain the failure of such missions” (such as Afghanistan, the book’s main case study).
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