Defense and Security Studies Commons^™

Book Review: Resourcing The National Security Enterprise: Connecting The Ways And Means Of Us National Security, Christopher Sandrolini

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Edited by: Susan Bryant and Mark Troutman

Reviewed by Christopher Sandrolini, Foreign Service officer and professor, US Army War College

Foreign Service officer and US Army War College professor Christopher Sandrolini calls this anthology, which contextualizes the defense budget within federal spending, a “well-organized and lucid practical introduction to working within the confines of a bureaucracy.” He highlights and distills Bryant and Troutman’s main arguments, noting, “[m]astering these rules [of bureaucracy] is essential to turn strategies and policies into funded, viable programs.” He also discusses the book’s explanation of how the Department of Defense balances the “four pillars” framework (force …

Book Review: Military Culture Shift: The Impact Of War, Money, And Generational Perspective On Morale, Retention, And Leadership, Rodger M. Kissane

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Corie Weathers

Reviewed by Rodger M. Kissane, graduate student, College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University

Rodger M. Kissane provides a thoughtful review of this important book on “bridging and even transcending generational differences” in the US military. Kissane highlights author Corie Weathers’s “insightful . . . recognition that each generation imprints itself upon the institution in ways that reflect their life experiences.” He also outlines the book’s relevance to leaders in that Weathers addresses “ ‘messy dynamics’ leaders confront in synthesizing . . . various perspectives, ideals, and values.”

Review: Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers And Moscow’S Struggle For Ukraine, Sarah Lohmann

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Anna Arutunyan

Reviewed by Dr. Sarah Lohmann, teaching faculty, University of Washington

Dr. Sarah Lohmann, editor of What Ukraine Taught NATO about Hybrid Warfare (US Army War College Press, 2022), calls Anna Arutunyan's latest book, Hybrid Warriors, a "must-read for senior members of the US defense community" that "encourages strategists to think beyond segmented operations to ensure Russia's broad defeat." Lohmann highlights the book's value in that it provides "perspectives that have not yet been heard in the West," as Arutunyan "relies on Russian sources from media and academia, as well as hundreds of interviews." Lohmann also notes …

Book Review: The War In Nicaragua, Joerg Stenzel

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

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 …

Book Review: Conflict: The Evolution Of Warfare From 1945 To Ukraine, John A. Nagl

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

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 Review: Small Armies, Big Cities: Rethinking Urban Warfare, John P. Sullivan

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Louise A. Tumchewics (editor)

Reviewed by Dr. John P. Sullivan, instructor, Safe Communities Institute, University of Southern California

Dr. John P. Sullivan gives an overview of Louise A. Tumchewics's anthology on the "persistent challenge" of urban warfare and highlights the work's strongest chapters and their value to "commanders and planners of future urban operations." Sullivan mentions chapter author Patrick Finnegan's discussion of "liminality" as particularly valuable and also calls John Spencer's siege discussion "one of the book's core contributions."

Book Review: Waging A Good War: How The Civil Rights Movement Won Its Battles, 1954–1968, Keith Nightingale

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Thomas E. Ricks

Reviewed by Keith Nightingale, retired colonel, US Army

Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas E. Ricks frames the American civil rights movement in terms of a (nonviolent) war, examining the leadership, strategy, and tactics required for success. Ricks also discusses the postwar-like effects the movement had on its participants (such as PTSD), which reviewer Colonel Keith Nightingale (US Army, retired) calls "the most poignant matter in the book." Nightingale also praises the work as "a highly readable dissection of the movement" and "a history of the first order."

Book Review: The Islamic State In Afghanistan And Pakistan: Strategic Alliances And Rivalries, Thomas F. Lynch Iii

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

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 …

Book Review: Violence In Defeat: The Wehrmacht On German Soil, 1944–1945, Daniel Gipper

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

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."

Book Review: Forging The Anglo-American Alliance: The British And American Armies, 1917–1941, Dean Nowowiejski

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Tyler R. Bamford

Reviewed by Dr. Dean Nowowiejski, professor and Ike Skelton Distinguished Chair for the Art of War, US Army Command and General Staff College

Professor and historian Dean Nowowiejski presents a thoughtful review of historian Tyler R. Bamford’s study on the “long-term impact of the interwar relationship between army officers” of the United States and Great Britain, which “endured despite tensions” and “despite the absence of guidance and in advance of the political approval that would later lead to the formal alliance.” Nowowiejski highlights Bamford’s emphasis on military exchanges, mechanization, military attachés, and intelligence sharing and notes …

Book Review: Boots And Suits: Historical Cases And Contemporary Lessons In Military Diplomacy, Kenneth Weisbrode

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Philip S. Kosnett (editor)

Reviewed by Kenneth Weisbrode, assistant professor of history, Bilkent University

Historian and professor Kenneth Weisbrode reviews retired US ambassador Philip S. Kosnett’s anthology on “just how contested, and how significant,” military diplomacy is. After highlighting the value of General Kenneth F. McKenzie’s (US Marine Corps, retired) instructive foreword, which defines military diplomacy, Weisbrode outlines the book’s range of case studies across history (from the Confederacy to Afghanistan), author perspectives (“academics and government officials”), and subject matter (“strategy, operations, and tactics”). He distills some of the book’s essential policy lessons for readers and notes the book’s …

Book Review: Number One Realist: Bernard Fall And Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare, John A. Nagl

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Nathaniel L. Moir

Reviewed by John A. Nagl, professor of warfighting studies, US Army War College

Counterinsurgency expert John A. Nagl reviews the “long-overdue” biography of the American political scientist Bernard Fall who, as Nagl writes, was “always a couple years ahead of informed US public opinion” about the Vietnam War. Author Nathaniel L. Moir’s experience as an Afghanistan War veteran informs this examination of one of the most “contentious” topics in American history, and the intersection here of Dr. Nagl’s, Moir’s, and Fall’s expertise provides powerful insights about the persistent question of how best to approach counterinsurgency.

Book Review: Military Dogs Of World War Ii, Wylie W. Johnson

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Susan Bulanda

Reviewed by Reverend Dr. Wylie W. Johnson, chaplain (retired), US Army War College class of 2010

In total war, the nation calls on everyone to direct all resources toward victory—during World War II, that call extended to man’s best friend. Retired military chaplain Dr. Wylie W. Johnson reviews certified animal behavior consultant Susan Bulanda’s Military Dogs of World War II, a photographic history that highlights the value of dogs to the mission of the US military and reminds readers, as Johnson observes, of “the critical contributions made by every level of the force.”

Book Review: Blood And Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931–1945, Jonathan Klug

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Richard Overy

Reviewed by Jonathan Klug, colonel, US Army, and assistant professor, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations, US Army War College

Many track the start of World War II to Poland in 1939.In Blood and Ruins, Richard Overy contends the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria was the start of an Asian war that later merged into the 1939 war in Europe when Japan attacked America. The book addresses policy and strategy as well as operational, technical, and tactical issues.

Book Review: War Of Supply, John A. Bonin

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: David D. Dworak

Reviewed by Dr. John A. Bonin, consultant, US Army War College

The reviewer notes, “While there are thousands of books about World War II, there are relatively few on the war in the Mediterranean and fewer on its logistics.” Dworak provides just that, with a chronological account of Operation Torch in North Africa; Operations Husky, Avalanche, and Shingle in Sicily and Italy; and Operation Dragoon in southern France.

Book Review: Four Battlegrounds: Power In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Robert J. Bunker

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Paul Scharre

Reviewed by Dr. Robert J. Bunker, director of research and analysis, managing partner, C/O Futures, LLC

Award-winning author Paul Scharre’s latest work, Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, envisions artificial intelligence as ushering in a “new industrial revolution” with big military, economic, and political implications. The reviewer sees this “readable, tightly structured” book as “fascinating and important work from a US national security studies perspective” and “after-hours supplemental reading for US military and policy professionals who want to understand the political-military importance of AI and its strategic (in fact, civilizational) implications for the future.”

Book Review: The Origins Of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines The Fates Of Great Powers, Zachery Tyson Brown

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr.

Reviewed by Zachery Tyson Brown, defense analyst, Office of the Secretary of Defense

Andrew F. Krepinevich has questions for policymakers when it comes to emerging technologies and warfare. In The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers, Krepinevich asks: How do states gain advantages in military competition during periods of disruptive change? How are developmental technologies best incorporated into legacy military structures? Or are entirely new structures necessary?

Book Review: Original Sin: Power, Technology And War In Outer Space, Jeffrey Caton

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Bleddyn E. Bowen

Reviewed by Jeffrey Caton, colonel, US Air Force (retired), and president, Kepler Strategies LLC

Based on three key arguments, Original Sin covers the development of spacepower during the Cold War, space technology’s progress, and the weapons, planning and doctrine that surround space warfare. The reviewer notes, “What sets Original Sin apart from similar books is the outstanding context it provides and its willingness to challenge trite slogans attached to spacepower.”

Book Review: Spies And Shuttles: Nasa’S Secret Relationship With The Dod And Cia, Carlos Barrera, Manuel Carranza

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: James E. David

Reviewed by Professor Carlos Barrera, Mexican Institute for Strategic Studies in National Security and Defence, and Manuel Carranza, defense and security affairs researcher

Starting with the 1957 launches of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 and 2, James E. David’s autobiography “offers a cautionary tale on grandiloquent endeavors and highlights the need to prioritize planning over narrative” in space. David was a curator in the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, which gave him access to newly declassified materials. He put this information to good use in Spies and Shuttles as …

Book Review: The Air War In Vietnam, Vince Alcazar

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Michael E. Weaver

Reviewed by Vince Alcazar, Air Force (retired) planner and fighter pilot, Department of Defense

The Air War in Vietnam addresses President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration’s use of airpower (or lack of it) and why American airpower underperformed, as well as airpower innovations that influenced the US warfare model in the Vietnam War. The reviewer bills this work as “…an indispensable volume of airpower scholarship. It is a richly developed analysis of airpower in a decade-long war with challenging hybrid characteristics and shifting US strategies.”

Book Review: Without Flyers, No Tannenberg: Aviation On The Eastern Front Of 1914—Evolution Of A Critical Role For Modern Warfare, Greg Pickell

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Authors: Terrence J. Finnegan, Helmut Jäger, and Carl J. Bobrow

Reviewed by Greg Pickell, US Army lieutenant colonel (retired)

Providing valuable historical context, Without Flyers, No Tannenberg “offers a wealth of previously unavailable information and provided needed context to the German triumph over the Russian 2nd Army in the opening weeks of the First World War.” The book describes how aviation developed in Germany and Russia and offers detailed maps and graphics. The latter part of the book covers events following the defeat of Russian General Samsonov’s 2nd Army, to include the Battle of the Masurian Lakes and the campaign …

Book Review: Strategia: A Primer On Theory And Strategy For Students Of War, Phillip Dolitsky

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Charles S. Oliviero

Reviewed by Phillip Dolitsky, master’s student at the School of International Service, American University

Strategia: A Primer on Theory and Strategy for Students of War poses the question “What is the true nature of war?” According to the author, even after studying war for 2,000 years, it is still misunderstood. Topics include war on land, war at sea, and war in the air. The reviewer notes that several relevant strategists names are noticeably absent from the work, including J. C. Wylie, Raymond Aron, Colin S. Gray, and Edward N. Luttwak, and even Thucydides.

Book Review: Cyber Intelligence: Actors, Policies, And Practices, Robert J. Bunker

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Constance S. Uthoff

Reviewed by Dr. Robert J. Bunker, director of research and analysis, managing partner, C/O Futures LLC

From intelligence cycles and processes to intelligence agencies, security challenges, and more, Cyber Intelligence: Actors, Policies, and Practices is a solid work that “covers a lot of ground at a reasonable price.” The reviewer sees it as “a practical tool in our understanding of the cyber intelligence and conflict discipline.”

Book Review: Team America: Patton, Macarthur, Marshall, Eisenhower, And The World They Forged, Wylie W. Johnson

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Robert L. O’Connell

Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Wylie W. Johnson, US Army War College class of 2010

Although early twentieth-century America’s Army was small, meagerly funded, short on equipment, and rife with other struggles, it saw the rise of great leaders. Team America: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, Eisenhower, and the World They Forged focuses on four of them. They came from different backgrounds, yet “Together they accounted for 19 stars; together they brought about victory in their generation. Two became Chief of Staff of the Army. One rose to become the US Commander in Chief.”

Book Review: How Civil Wars Start And How To Stop Them, Robert J. Bunker

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Barbara F. Walter

Reviewed by Dr. Robert J. Bunker, director of research and analysis, managing partner, C/O Futures LLC

How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them was written to acquaint readers with “the conditions that give rise to, and define, modern civil war” to “[understand how] close modern America is to erupting into conflict” (xviii). The reviewer notes, “American military officers, sworn government agents, and officials will find the work troubling” and praises its “nonpartisan exploration and objective analysis” in tackling a difficult topic.

Book Review: The Military And The Market, Ryan Orsini

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Editors: Jennifer Mittelstadt and Mark R. Wilson

Reviewed by Major Ryan Orsini, Infantry officer, US Army

The Military and the Market is filled with historical and political science case studies to help US policymakers and practitioners navigate the interrelationships between the Department of Defense and the private market. The studies present the success and failure “of regulation and adaptation of individual markets, from on-post housing to local prostitution, and their impact on the military mission and overall social equity.” This book is well suited for policymakers and practitioners at the local and national levels.

Book Review: Corruption In The Americas, José De Arimatéia Da Cruz

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Editors: Jonathan D. Rosen and Hanna S. Kassab

Reviewed by Dr. José de Arimatéia da Cruz, professor of international relations and comparative politics, Georgia Southern University, and visiting professor, Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College

Jonathan D. Rosen and Hanna S. Kassab argue in Corruption in the Americas that corruption is not only an industry but has also become an integral part of Latin American societies. The book also notes that support for democracy in many Latin American countries (despite years of authoritarianism) is at an all-time low. The reviewer recommends this book saying, “The book highlights the …

Book Review: The Good Captain: A Personal Memoir Of America At War, Joseph J. Collins

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: R. D. Hooker Jr.

Reviewed by Joseph J. Collins, PhD, retired US Army colonel

Retired Army colonel Rich Hooker’s The Good Captain is a memoir spanning the Cold War through the Global War on Terror. Hooker’s deployments take up the bulk of the book and include Grenada with the 82nd Airborne Division, Somalia to work with legendary Ambassador Bob Oakley, Zaire to coordinate humanitarian operations in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Kosovo as a parachute infantry battalion commander, the Sinai Peninsula for peacekeeping operations, command of the Dragon Brigade in Iraq and, in his last year of service, Afghanistan with the …

Book Review: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler And Stalin, Rev. Dr. Wylie W. Johnson

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Timothy Snyder

Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Wylie W. Johnson, US Army War College class of 2010

Covering the rules of Hitler and Stalin between 1933 and 1945, Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin, explores three periods of genocide in which “two great ideological powers that worked out their Darwinian fantasies at the expense of peoples they identified by religion, ethnicity, ideology, and location.” In addition to military casualties, 14 million noncombatants died. The reviewer notes, “Bloodlands is an important book for US military leaders of all ranks for two reasons. First, it is a stark warning to …

Book Review: Managing Sex In The U.S. Military: Gender, Identity, And Behavior, Mary Raum

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Editors: Beth Bailey, Alesha E. Doan, Shannon Portillo, and Karen Dixon Vuic

Reviewed by Dr. Mary Raum, professor of national security affairs, US Naval War College

This compilation of scholarly, practical, and historical writings presents a running record of events gleaned from research on government policies from the eras of World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the War in Afghanistan. It provides greater insight into the complexities of gender issues with direct ties to defense systems. While service examples and dialogues are primarily aimed at the Army, the Navy and Marine Corps are also included. Historical …