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Book Review: Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine
John A. Nagl
Authors: David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts
Reviewed by Dr. John A. Nagl, professor of warfighting studies, US Army War College
Teaser: Dr. John A. Nagl provides readers a roadmap to navigate—and a lens with which to interpret—General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts's best-selling book, Conflict, which Nagl considers "'[t]he closest thing to a memoir" of Petraeus and "likely . . . the best first-person account in history of [Petraeus's] efforts and results in Iraq and Afghanistan that made him the most important Army officer of his generation." Nagl focuses on what he believes are Petraeus's main contributions to the book (the chapters on Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan) and calls the chapter on Iraq the "heart of the book." He also highlights the book's value to "[f]uture commanders and staff officers" and to "[a]ll Army officers and national security officials," who will benefit from learning how Petraeus engaged with the "four major tasks" regarding "big ideas" that all leaders "must master."
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Book Review: The War in Nicaragua
Joerg Stenzel
Review essay by Colonel Joerg Stenzel, instructor, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations, US Army War College
Colonel Joerg Stenzel (German Army), an instructor at the US Army War College, lends his expertise in strategy to this review of "the most famous and successful" filibuster featured in William Walker's 1860 work, The War in Nicaragua. As Stenzel notes, the book is Walker's "personal description of his own war in Nicaragua" that it is "arguably biased" and written "in the third person in a style that differs greatly from his earlier editorials." Stenzel provides an overview of Walker's life and contextualizes his actions in relationship to slavery, North-South rivalries, the Gold Rush, and Manifest Destiny, noting that "A closer look at Walker and his actions shows that Central America, with its instabilities and turmoil, had and still has significant geopolitical relevance for the US government."
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Book Review: Violence in Defeat: The Wehrmacht on German Soil, 1944–1945
Daniel Gipper
Author: Bastiaan Willems
Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Gipper, US Air Force, faculty development scholar, Air University
Through an analysis of the German Wehrmacht's "barbarization" toward the end of World War II, Violence in Defeat provides a useful and cautionary case study on military effectiveness, distinction, and necessity. Reviewer Daniel Gipper highlights the book's particular contributions to the literature, particularly the examination of German "violence against German citizens," which Gipper notes is a "widely overlooked event." Gipper also notes the book's value for reexamining "long-standing assumptions about unit cohesion."
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Book Review: The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Strategic Alliances and Rivalries
Thomas F. Lynch III
Authors: Amira Jadoon with Andrew Mines
Reviewed by Thomas F. Lynch III, PhD, Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of National Strategic Studies, National Defense University
Dr. Thomas F. Lynch III offers his expertise in a thoughtful review of this "essential primer" on the Islamic-State Khorasan Province (ISK). While finding the book's idea that the ISK is currently a "latent, global terrorist threat" to be "less persuasive," Lynch highlights the value of author Amira Jadoon's unique ability "to write with an appropriate level of depth about the complexity of tribal groups, subgroups, fragments, and splinters" and notes that "There is no other published work today with such a high level of insight into this enduring regional terrorist group."
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