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War and the Art of Governance
- Consolidating Combat Success into Political Victory
- Narrated by: Robin Rowan
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Categories: History, Military
Non-member price: $36.54
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Drawing on decades of firsthand experience as a foreign correspondent and military embed for The Atlantic, as well as encounters with preeminent realist thinkers, Kaplan outlines the timeless principles that should shape America's role in a turbulent world: a respect for the limits of Western-style democracy; a delineation between American interests and American values; an awareness of the psychological toll of warfare; a projection of power via a strong navy; and more.
Publisher's Summary
Success in war ultimately depends on the consolidation of political order. Nadia Schadlow argues that the steps needed to consolidate a new political order are not separate from war. They are instead an essential component of war and victory. The challenge of governance operations did not start with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Army's involvement in the political and economic reconstruction of states has been central to all its armed conflicts from large-scale conventional wars to so-called irregular or counterinsurgency wars. Yet, US policymakers and military leaders have failed to institutionalize lessons on how to consolidate combat gains into desired political outcomes. War and the Art of Governance examines 15 historical cases of US Army military interventions, from the Mexican War through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Improving future outcomes will require US policymakers and military leaders to accept that plans, timelines, and resources must be shaped to reflect this reality before they intervene in a conflict, not after things go wrong.
The book is published by Georgetown University Press.
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- Matthew D. Coburn
- 27-03-2018
Exceptional Depiction of Remaining Challenges
This book captures a very real capability gap in our U.S. national security apparatus. Our senior military leaders continue to fail to ensure the U.S. military is fully prepared to attain complete accomplishment of political objectives because they have returned to a focus on "great power competition" without addressing how to prepare the military for how to consolidate gains through stability operations. Doctrine is not enough. We are in "American Denial Syndrome" and wishful thinking will not save us. All military leaders and civilian policy makers must heed the lessons captured here.
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