Books
The Heart of War: Misadventures in the Pentagon
To Boldy Go: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond
To Boldy Go: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond
Dr. Heather Reilly has been an anti-war activist since her brother died fighting the Taliban. But her crushing student loans drive her to take a job working on a peace plan for Afghanistan, in the last place on Earth she ever thought she'd be employed: the Pentagon.
To Boldy Go: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond
To Boldy Go: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond
To Boldy Go: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond
"Sun Tzu, Ender and the Old Man" explores the need to cultivate strategic empathy - and some of the critical barriers that the United States must break down in order to understand its adversaries. In short: know thyself.
How and Why States Defect from Contemporary Military Coalitions
How and Why States Defect from Contemporary Military Coalitions
How and Why States Defect from Contemporary Military Coalitions
This book identifies contemporary military coalition defections, builds a theoretical framework for understanding why coalition defection occurs and assesses its utility for both the scholarly and policy practitioner communities. Ultimately, it concludes that coalition defection is prompted by heightened perceptions of political and mili
This book identifies contemporary military coalition defections, builds a theoretical framework for understanding why coalition defection occurs and assesses its utility for both the scholarly and policy practitioner communities. Ultimately, it concludes that coalition defection is prompted by heightened perceptions of political and military risk. Yet the choice of how to defect— whether to completely withdraw forces or instead find another, less risky way to participate—is largely a function of international and alliance pressures to remain engaged.
War Time: Temporality and the Decline of Western Military Power
How and Why States Defect from Contemporary Military Coalitions
How and Why States Defect from Contemporary Military Coalitions
"Civilian Casualties and Contemporary Coalition Operations The Case of Afghanistan" argues that different perceptions of temporality—between coalition partners, and between the tactical and strategic levels—help explain why the Afghanistan campaign may have been mismanaged, extending its duration and increasing the number of civilian cas
"Civilian Casualties and Contemporary Coalition Operations The Case of Afghanistan" argues that different perceptions of temporality—between coalition partners, and between the tactical and strategic levels—help explain why the Afghanistan campaign may have been mismanaged, extending its duration and increasing the number of civilian casualties, despite clear dedication to norms of civilian protection.¹ The chapter offers a reflection upon the Afghanistan experience in the hope that meaningful contemplation of US and allied shortcomings might encourage current and future military campaign practitioners to avoid repeating avoidable mistakes.
Select articles
Gender Wars Are an Early Warning Sign for Authoritarianism
Women’s rights are at the forefront of security risks—and resistance.
Why Americans Still Need NATO
Although the U.S. security guarantee for its NATO allies has been at the heart of the alliance’s political-military framework, and the United States has spent considerable sums on the maintenance of defense capabilities as a result, this has never been a one-way bargain. These treaty relationships have afforded the United States a position of strategic leadership. As a result of America’s central role in trans-Atlantic and international relations that NATO cemented, Americans have enjoyed enormous economic prosperity and freedom.
The Competitive Advantages & Risks of Alliances - The 2020 Heritage Index of U.S. Military Strength
Since the end of World War II, successive Administrations have also determined that, despite these philosophical reservations and everyday frustrations, the contemporary system of U.S. alliances and cooperative security partnerships has conferred a number of strategic advantages that make the hassle worth its attendant risks. This “hub-and-spoke” alliance system is unique in human history; it has evolved into an unprecedented set of institutions and collaborative patterns that undergird a higher degree of global stability among sovereign states than history might otherwise have predicted.
Congress, Civilian Control of the Military, and Nonpartisanship
The possible use of federal armed forces as part of the U.S. executive branch’s response to incidents of violence during racial justice protests has raised questions about how the military is controlled by domestic political institutions and the U.S. military’s relationship with American society. Article I of the U.S. Constitution grants specific powers to Congress, making the legislative branch a key actor in governing, overseeing, and funding the U.S. military.
Strategists Have Forgotten the Power of Stories
wo armies faced each other for 10 years without victory in sight. The Trojans, who favored Ares—the god of war, tactics, and brutality—sat behind their walls and endured the siege. But the Greeks, claiming as their patron Athena—the deity for strategy, art, and war—decided that conventional warfighting approaches would not turn the tide in their favor. Through a combination of creativity and disinformation, the Greeks not only built a giant horse filled with soldiers; they managed to convince the Trojans to bring the massive statue through Troy’s gates. As a result, the Greeks bested the Trojans, Athena humiliated Ares, and the whole episode underscored that militarism without strategy and creativity is a losing proposition. The long shadow of the Trojan War reminds us that creative methodologies are essential components of the national security and foreign-policy toolkit.
Star Wars, Cyclical History, and Implications for Strategy
In: Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict
Mark Twain once supposedly said that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”Charles Hill reminds us that great fiction and literature provides a creative, methodologically unbound way to contemplate our circumstances, including statecraft. Star Wars is no exception. Many, of course, maintain that the Star Wars movies are merely a lengthy space opera with the occasional camp line thrown in for good measure. This is true, but they are also so much more. The movies represent a way to reflect on history as a series of cycles to find individual agency within those cycles. In other words, the Star Wars movies are an elegant, if somewhat lengthy, exploration of history’s inherent rhymes—and what can be done about them.
The most successful film franchise of all time, Star Wars thrillingly depicts an epic multigenerational conflict fought a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But the Star Wars saga has as much to say about successful strategies and real-life warfare waged in our own time and place. Strategy Strikes Back brings together over thirty of today’s top military and strategic experts, including generals, policy advisors, seasoned diplomats, counterinsurgency strategists, science fiction writers, war journalists, and ground‑level military officers, to explain the strategy and the art of war by way of the Star Wars films.
What Difference Does It Make?
What does having women sitting at international affairs decisionmaking tables actually get us? This Smart Women, Smart Power report sheds light on the powerful contributions that women make in some of the most influential spaces in the world.