thomas hammes

As we start new wars, let’s see an expert at COIN review a classic textbook about COIN

By / 2 Comments / 7 January 2018

Summary:  As our war against al Qaeda evolves into a worldwide war against insurgents who look Islamic, it’s worth some time to ponder the original texts that put us on this road — with an almost uniform record of failure by foreign armies fighting local insurgents.  Here we see Thomas Hammes, one of our top experts, discuss one of the classic …

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Bing West tells us about “Grit, Strategy and the Way Out of Afghanistan”

By / 31 Comments / 7 January 2018

Summary:  Today we have a review of what seems likely to be a major genre of military literature for the next generation, if our experience in Vietnam repeats itself — why we lost in Afghanistan, and how we could have won.  It’s a well-researched, thoughtful book, reviewed by a top professional.  Both the book and …

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Arrows in the Eagle’s claw – solutions to 4GW

By / 10 Comments / 15 May 2009

This series describes the various types of solutions to modern warfare, herein called fourth generation warfare (4GW).  It will attempt to show their relationship to one another and their relative potential.  4GW appears to be the dominant form of warfare in the 21st century, so mastery of it might prove necessary for America’s prosperity or even survival.  This is …

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The Fate of Israel

By / 26 Comments / 12 November 2017

Summary:  This is chapter two in a series of articles about grand strategy in our era, when 4GW has become the dominate form of war. This post shows the difficulty of distinguishing strong from weak in 4GW, and that choosing a wrong grand strategy can be terminal for a state.  It could easily prove fatal for …

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