Readings
The library and the Web offer a vast selection of material that is relevant to this
module. The trick is to read critically, and with an eye to working out what matters
from a strategic perspective. As a starting point, here’s a brief list of general readings.
Edward Mead Earle, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy From Machiavelli to Hitler
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1943)
In many respects the better of the two editions. The chapters on Clausewitz and Ludendorff
are particularly valuable
Azar Gat, A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Very good on the intellectual influences feeding into strategy
Williamson Murray, MacGregor Knox & Alvin Bernstein, eds, The Making of
Strategy: Rulers, States, and War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
As tends to happen with edited volumes, this one is of variable quality. Have a look at J.W.
Honig’s review in Survival, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Winter 1997-98), pp. 188-190
Peter Paret, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986)
Another collection of variable quality, but useful nonetheless
What follows is a list of additional readings that are more closely focused on the
lecture topics, which should provide you with a starting point for your own
explorations. Wherever possible, I’ve included texts that are available electronically.
Unless otherwise indicated, the journal articles are available via the library’s ejournal
collection. I have also provided some hyperlinks to other sources.
What is strategy and how does it work?
Carl von Clausewitz, On War, tr. J. J. Graham (London: N. Trübner, 1874), rev. edn
F. N. Maude (London: Kegan & Paul, 1908), esp. Bk 1, Ch. 1
More literal and consistent in its choice of terms than the Howard & Paret edition, although
somewhat less readable. The text is now available online via this LINK. If you’re interested in
buying a copy you might consider the 2004 reprint (NY: Barnes & Noble), which contains a
very useful introduction by J.W. Honig. You can also read the latter online at LINK
The French Revolution & Napoleon
Anja V. Hartmann & Beatrice Heuser, eds, War, Peace and World Orders in Europe
(London: Routledge, 2001), Ch. 15 LINK
Charles Ingrao, ‘Paul W. Schroeder’s Balance of Power: Stability or Anarchy?’,
International History Review, Vol. 16, No. 4 (November 1994), pp. 681-700
Political context to eighteenth-century warfare. No electronic version available
‘Crimes of Reason’, Economist, 16 March 1996, pp. 113-15
An excellent little summary of the philosophy of Enlightenment
Paret, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy, Ch. 4
Solid, traditional account. Useful, but keep your critical faculties engaged when reading
Prussian / German Strategy
Earle, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy, Chs 8 & 13
Antulio J. Echevarria II, ‘Moltke and the German Military Tradition: His Theories
and Legacies’, Parameters (Spring 1996), pp. 91-99
A neat little article on Moltke
Azar Gat, ‘Ideology, National Policy, Technology and Strategic Doctrine between the
World Wars’, Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3 (September 2001), pp. 1-18
Holger H. Herwig, ‘The Prussian Model and Military Planning Today’, Joint Force
Quarterly (Spring 1998), pp. 67-75
Military efficiency is not enough….
Murray et al, eds, The Making of Strategy, Chs 9 & 12
Paret, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy, Chs 10, 11 & 19
US Strategy
Campbell Craig, Destroying the Village: Eisenhower and Thermonuclear War (N.Y.:
Columbian University Press, 1998)
Eisenhower considered that any war fought between nuclear powers would tend to the
extreme
Earle, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy, Ch. 20
Lawrence Freedman, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, 3rd edn (Houndsmill:
Palgrave, 2003)
The standard account, now with a post-cold war update. Earlier editions are still useful for our
purposes, however
Aaron L. Friedberg, ‘Why Didn’t the United States Become a Garrison State?’,
International Security, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Spring 1992), pp. 109-42
Some reasons why the US put nuclear weapons at the centre of its cold-war strategy
Fred Kaplan, The Wizards of Armageddon (N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1983)
Lively account of developments in US nuclear strategy. For an interesting review see
Edward N. Luttwak, ‘Of Bombs and Men’, Commentary, Vol. 76, No. 2 (August
1983), pp. 77-82
James E. King Jr, ‘Nuclear Plenty and Limited War’, Foreign Affairs, Vol. Vol. 35,
No. 2 (January 1957), pp. 238-56
Maurice Matloff, ‘The 90-Division Gamble’ LINK
Chapter from official account of US forces during the Second World War
Murray et al, eds, The Making of Strategy, Chs 8 & 14
Paret, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy, Chs 15 & 25
David Alan Rosenberg, ‘The Origins of Overkill: Nuclear Weapons and American
Strategy, 1945–1960’, International Security, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Spring 1983), pp. 3–71
Lots of operational detail on the subject
X [George Kennan], ‘The Sources of Soviet Conduct’, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 25, No. 4
(July 1947), pp. 566-82
Kennan’s famous articulation of the policy of Containment
Vietnam / Gulf / Balkans
Cohen & Shelton’s statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on
Kosovo After-Action Review (1999) LINK
NATO didn’t really know how it won in Kosovo?
Janice Fleck, ‘Limited War Theory in Vietnam: A Critique According to Clausewitz’
(1994) LINK
An interesting essay from a student at the US National Defense University. Is her argument
about strategic objectives quite correct?
Lawrence Freedman & Efraim Karsh, ‘How Kuwait Was Won: Strategy in the Gulf
War’, International Security, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Autumn 1991), pp. 5-41
Useful article on the subject
Lawrence Freedman, ‘Victims and victors: reflections on the Kosovo war’, Review of
International Studies, Vol. 26 (2000), pp. 335-58
Useful discussion of the constraints operating on the application of force
Robert A. Pape Jr, ‘Coercive Airpower in the Vietnam War’, International Security,
Vol. 15, No. 2 (Autumn 1990), pp. 103-46
Stephen Peter Rosen, ‘Vietnam and the American theory of limited war’,
International Security. Vol. 7, No. 2 (Fall 1982), pp. 83-113
A typical response to the failure of limited war in Vietnam. Is he correct?
John Stone, ‘Air-Power, Land-Power and the Challenge of Ethnic Conflict’, Civil
Wars, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 26-42
The argument about politicizing strategy is the relevant section for our purposes
John Stone, ‘Politics, Technology and the Revolution in Military Affairs’, Journal of
Strategic Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3 (September 2004), pp. 408-27
The ‘theoretical’ section is a bit awry, but useful nevertheless
Insurgency & Counterinsurgency
Che Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare
A selection of writings available in various editions. The library also has an electronic version
Régis Debray, Revolution in the Revolution? Armed Struggle and Political Struggle in
Latin America, tr. Bobbye Ortiz (N.Y.: MR Press, 1967)
Joshua Johnson, ‘From Cuba to Bolivia: Guevara’s Foco Theory in Practice’,
Innovations, Vol. 6 (2006), pp. 26-32 LINK
José A. Moreno, ‘Che Guevara on Guerrilla Warfare: Doctrine, Practice and
Evaluation’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 12, No. 2 (April 1970),
pp. 114-133
See also the response by Edward Friedman in the same journal
Selected Military Writings of Mao-Tse Tung (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1963)
Mao-Tse Tung, On Guerrilla Warfare, tr. Samuel. B. Griffith (N.Y.: Prager, 1961)
You can read an electronic version at LINK
Paret, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy, Ch. 27
Robert Thompson, Revolutionary War in World Strategy, 1945-1969 (London: Secker
& Warburg, 1970)
Roger Tranquier, Modern Warfare: A French view of Counterinsurgency, tr. Daniel
Lee (London: Pall Mall Press, 1964)
You can read an electronic version at LINK
The ‘War on Terror’
Nigel Alwyn Foster, ‘Changing the Army for Counterinsurgency Operations’,
Military Review, Vol. LXXXV, No. 6 (November-December 2005), pp. 2-15
A much-cited critique of early US strategy in Iraq
Peter R Neumann & MLR Smith, ‘Strategic Terrorism: The Framework and its
Fallacies’, Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 28, No. 4 (August 2005), pp. 571-95
A good introduction to the strategic dimension of terrorism
Bruce Riedel, ‘Return of the Knights: al-Qaeda and the Fruits of Middle East
Disorder’, Survival, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Autumn 2007), pp. 107-20
Al-Qaeda’s strategy in its wider context
Daniel Byman, ‘US Counter-terrorism Options: A Taxonomy’, Survival, Vol. 49, No.
3 (Autumn 2007), pp. 121-50
Some options reviewed
FM 3-24 / MCWP3-33.5, Counterinsurgency (December 2006)
US Army and Marine Corps doctrine for counter-insurgency
Lawrence Freedman, ‘Iraq, Liberal Wars and Illiberal Containment’, Survival, Vol.
48, No. 4 (Winter 2006), pp. 51-65
The wider context
Philip H. Gordon, ‘Winning the Right War’, Survival, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Winter 200708), pp. 17-46
Has too much emphasis been placed on the use of force in the ‘War on Terror’?
Sarah E. Zabel, ‘The Military Strategy of Global Jihad’ (Strategic Studies Institute,
2007)
Very useful. You can find it at LINK