Military Review back issues from January 2009:
Systemic operational design: learning and adapting in complex missions.
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] NEARLY ALL MISSIONS this century will be complex, and the kind of thinking we have called "operational art" is often now required at battalion level. Fundamentally, operational art requires balancing design and planning while remaining open to learning and ...
The truth is out there: responding to insurgent disinformation and deception operations.
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OPERATION VALHALLA was a completely ordinary engagement, typical of the type of operation U.S. Special Forces units have participated in throughout the Iraq war. Yet, it was, if not a turning point in the war, a perfect example of the challenges fighting ...
Sentinels of Afghan democracy: the Afghan National Army.
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We can help train an army, we can help equip an army, we can help build facilities for the army, but only the Afghan people can breathe a soul into that army. (1) --Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Army SINCE THE LAUNCH of ...
Thickening the lines: sons of Iraq, a combat multiplier.
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them. --T.E. Lawrence, "Twenty-Seven Articles," The Arab Bulletin, 20 ...
Oil, corruption, and threats to our national interest: will we learn from Iraq?
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT knew the insidious impact of corruption in government and society when in 1900 he said, "No man who is corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community." (1) Oil ...
Reconstruction and post-civil war reconciliation.
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHEN WAR IS INTERNECINE, passions run especially high. Sometimes such a war leads to mutual exhaustion or even the virtual extermination of one side. Afterwards, agreements between rival parties at such a war's end are difficult at best. Rarely in history ...
The making of a leader: Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If the mills of the gods grind slowly and exceedingly small, the mills of the War Department seemed to grind to no purpose whatsoever. --Dwight D. Eisenhower, At Ease: Stories 1 Tell to Friends THE LIFE STORY of Dwight David ...
Ethical challenges in stability operations.(1st Place: DePuy Writing Contest)
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN MAY 2003, the United States began the daunting task of nation building in Iraq by rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure and reformulating its political institutions. The military's role in modern stability operations, though seemingly new, fits into a ...
Reassessing Army leadership in the 21st century.(2nd Place: MacArthur Writing Contest)
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] JUST AS IT RECONSIDERED its view of Army operations with FM 3-0, the Army should reassess its leadership philosophy to account for evolutions in U.S. society and the 21st century's complex, uncertain operating environment. While Army leadership and leader ...
The future of information operations.(2nd Place: IO Writing Contest)
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN JOINT PUBLICATION (JP) 3-13, Information Operations, published 13 February 2006, the Department of Defense (DOD) states that all informational efforts must be part of a robust strategic communication capability supporting governmental activities to ...
Current U.S. policy of provoking Russia is fundamentally flawed.(INSIGHTS)
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OUR CURRENT POLICY concerning Russia is flawed and must be reevaluated. We, the United States, seem bent on a collision course with Russia, a course that should be avoided at all costs lest an accidental exchange of fire between our two nations' military ...
Xenophon: The Anabasis of Cyrus.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] XENOPHON: The Anabasis of Cyrus, trans. by Wayne Ambler with an Introduction by Eric Buzzetti, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2008, 304 pages, $49.95. Not long ago Xenophon's Anabasis of Cyrus needed no introduction for the student of ...
Decoding Clausewitz.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DECODING CLAUSEWITZ, Jon Tetsuro Sumida, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 2008, 234 pages, $29.95. FM 3-0, Operations cites only three sources for the manual: Arthur Bryant's biography on the Duke of Welling ton; a 2007 speech by Secretary ...
The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... THE WAR WITHIN: A Secret White House History 2006-2008, Bob Woodward, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2008, 512 pages, $32.00. The War Within, the fourth and final installment of Bob Woodward's chronicle of the Bush administration at war, seems superfluous. Much of this isn't ...
Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... WHY NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT MATTERS, Hans Blix, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008, 95 pages, $14.95. Hans Blix, former United Nations chief weapons inspector in Iraq, former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (1981-1997), and the current chair of Sweden's ...
Occupational Hazards: Success and Failure in Military Occupation.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS: Success and Failure in Military Occupation, David Edelstein, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2008, 248 pages, $35.00. Military occupations are inherently risky affairs. According to political scientist David Edelstein, only seven of the 26 ...
The End of the West? Crisis and Change in the Atlantic Order.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... THE END OF THE WEST? Crisis and Change in the Atlantic Order, ed. by Jeffrey Anderson, G. John Ikenberry, and Thomas Risse, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2008, 312 pages, $59.95. The provocative title of this compendium of works belies the uncontroversial nature of most ...
The Knights of Islam: The Wars of the Mamluks.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... THE KNIGHTS OF ISLAM: The Wars of the Mamluks, James Waterson, Greenhill Books, London, 2007, 288 pages, $39.95. The War on Terrorism has renewed interest in the scholarly history of Islamic militaries. James Waterson's history of the Mamluks contributes a concise examination of ...
Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... TERRORISM FINANCING AND STATE RESPONSES: A Comparative Perspective, Jeanne K. Giraldo and Harold A. Trinkunas, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 2007, 365 pages, $24.95. Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective causes us to ask the following: ...
China Rising: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... CHINA RISING: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia, David C. Kang, Columbia University Press, New York, 2007, 296 pages, $24.95. Whether China's emergence as a global power can peacefully find a place in East Asia and the world is a major issue in today's international political ...
Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... DEATH OF THE WEHRMACHT: The German Campaigns of 1942, Robert M. Citino, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 2007, 431 pages, $34.95. In Death of the Wehrmacht, Robert Citino returns to a thesis he introduced two years ago in his book, The German Way of War: From the Thirty ...
The Civil War and the Limits of Destruction.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... THE CIVIL WAR AND THE LIMITS OF DESTRUCTION, Mark E. Neely Jr., Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007, 288 pages, $27.95. Dr. Mark E. Neely focuses on a unique aspect of the Civil War to challenge a basic premise of many historians: that the war's destructiveness was ...
Buffalo Soldiers in the West: A Black Soldiers Anthology.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... BUFFALO SOLDIERS IN THE WEST: A Black Soldiers Anthology, ed. by Bruce A. Glasrud and Michael N. Searles, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, 2007, 276 pages, $19.95. Professors Bruce A. Glasrud and Michael N. Searles, nationally recognized experts on blacks in the ...
Napoleon: The Path to Power.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... NAPOLEON: The Path to Power, Philip Dwyer, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, and London, 2008, 672 pages, $35.00. Many see Napoleon as the culmination of the French Revolution's energy and the prototype of the new man that emerged from its turmoil. Philip Dwyer concurs and ...
Regarding "Relooking Unit Cohesion".(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 01, 2009 ... MG (Ret) Michael W. Symanski, AUS--I greatly enjoyed MAJ Geoff Van Epps' well-written, valuable prize-winning essay "Relooking Unit Cohesion: A Sensemaking Approach" (Military Review, November-December 2008). He justly deserves the recognition of his fine work. Van Epps'article ...