Rethinking the Principles of War

By Anthony D. McIvor

Book Overview

This work features the fresh thinking of twenty-eight leading authors from a variety of military and national security disciplines. Following an introduction by Lt. Gen. James Dubik, Commander I... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591144817
• ISBN13: 9781591144816
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr
• Length: 572 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Very Sophisticated Compilation of Essays of Mixed Quality

This book is not really for the novice or newcomer to deep theories about warfare, and as such can be at times very opaque and hard to follow. As with any compilation of Essays it can also be meandering and lack a central theme or definite conclusions. Nonetheless this is a generally very well produced compendium of the current philosophies regarding general military affairs (and the US RMA, Revolution in Military Affairs), operational art/doctrine, irregular warfare, post-conflict and stability operations, and intelligence. The essays cover a very wide ground and almost always divergent and contrasting viewpoints are shown. Some of the essays were particularly interesting and well written, worthy of the price of the book, including standouts such as Ch. 2 by Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales on how to revamp training and education for the services to meet future needs, Ch 3 on whether our commonly called principles of war are actually principles of battle and if a more transcendent set of principles is required, Ch. 5 by Lt. Col. Ralph Peters who is unabashedly aggressive and confrontational but able to argue cogently and persuasively for his beliefs, and Ch. 15 and Ch. 17 on irregular warfare. However, some of the essays seemed of rather poor quality for a variety of reasons and were tedious reads. Practically all of the essays on Operational Art sounded like academics hand waving and using as many big words as possible to sound really smart without really saying much of anything. Others, most particularly Ch. 21 regarding the use of the military in "Human Security Operations", just sounded like "wouldn't that be nice proclamations" of what the authors thought should be the case based on their own feelings and emotions, and less so on the basis of cold hard facts and analysis. The last critique is that based on the current state of the world the number of essays (three) on irregular warfare seemed too small to be justifiably in proportion with those on operational art and intelligence. Despite all these drawbacks -natural for any volume of individually contributed essays- this is a good book with a lot of great information on where people with serious influence think the US military should go. It's a vigorous and meaningful debate, and suggested for people well versed in military history and theory as such will be necessary to follow many of the arguments. I will probably re-read it myself after exposing myself to Clausewitz's "On War" considering the prominence of his thoughts in this book.

MUST HAVE, BUY NOW!!!

This book is a must have. Some of the best and the brightest have contributed to this anthology of 29 chapters. If you are interested in the US Army RMA, Revolution in Military Affairs, Transformation and the GWOT, this book has a lot to offer. If you are deploying, buy this book and make sure you read it beFore you deploy; especially chapters 1,3,4,5, 15,16,17, 20, 21 and 23, In my opinion, the entire book is a real jem and you must read every chapter, footnote and reference. If your deploying and pressed for time, start with the ones I have suggested and then go from there. If you are really pressed for time start with chapter 23 and then chapter 1 and 3 For the Ops and the Intel guys at the UA/Bde level and Below this book will make you think of FM 3-0, SASO and the Battlefield Framework for planning COIN/SASO in an entirely different light. If you have read any of the required professional reading from CAC you probably already are; but this book will give you a scientific moment of Ah-Haa. Terry Tucker,US Army, SGM,Ret; PhD CSTC-Afghanistan Trainer and Doctrine Developer (for the Afghan National Army)

Reflects Changes in the nature of warfare.

From just about as long as there have been wars people have tried to develop basic principles that define how wars are fought. Sun Tzu, writing about 2,600 years ago, and Clausewitz, writing at the end of the Napoleonic period have both been read and studied for centuries. In this book leading thinkers from all of the American services as well as other agencies in intelligence, think tanks, the militaries of other nations and more bring together the current thought on how America and others go to war in the current time. Clausewitz's work was based on the concept that nation-states go to war against each other. Today's time where non-governmental agencies, such as al Queda and the various middle eastern revolutionary groups also engage in war brings new aspects to the problem requiring analysis. Although not an official publication of our Government, this book reflects the thinking that is developing within the military.