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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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Book Review: The Making of a Leader: The Formative Years of George C. Marshall
Wylie W. Johnson
Reviewed by Reverend Dr. Wylie W. Johnson, Chaplain (US Army, retired), US Army War College class of 2010
Dr. Wylie Johnson provides a thoughtful review of Rhodes Scholar Josiah Bunting’s new book on the early life and career of General George Marshall. As Johnson notes, there are many books about Marshall, and Johnson highlights the value of Bunting’s book, which contextualizes Marshall’s early career—from experience as a staff officer (rather than leading troops in combat), to having authority in overseas assignments, to recreation. Johnson notes that “Marshall had a different military career than that which is usually lauded today.” He writes that the book is “a well-written introduction to the art of leadership that senior leaders can recommend to rising junior officers.”
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