Summary
Chapter 16 starts on September 11, 2001, when the hopes for global peace were shattered by Islamic fundamentalists killing 3,000 people in terrorist attacks on American soil. President George W. Bush quickly retaliated by sending the U.S. military into Afghanistan because its government harbored the terrorists making the 9/11 attack. Two years later in 2003, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq under the pretext of destroying that nation’s weapons of mass destruction and ousting its dictator, Saddam Hussein. Since 2001, more than 2.5 million Americans have deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq to quell insurgencies and establish democratic systems. As of 2024, it remains unclear if American sacrifices and investments will succeed in the long term. Regardless, fighting these two wars has placed severe strains on the United States and its volunteer military.
President Barrack Obama inherited both long wars in 2009. He continued to fight the Global War on Terror, achieving a significant victory when American special forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. Obama ordered American combat forces to draw down and depart Iraq that same year, yet he ramped up American combat operations in Afghanistan before ending those operations in 2014. Meanwhile, Obama contended with rising threats in Syria and Iran. Choosing to work multilaterally, he succeeded in signing an non-proliferation agreement in 2015 with Iran that regulated its nuclear weapons development.
In 2016, Donald Trump won a surprisingly presidential election victory. He ushered in diffident military and foreign policies from the Obama and Bush administrations. Trump did not pursue neoconservatism or multilateralism. Instead, he embraced what he styled as “America First,” a blend of nationalism and exceptionalism that was new and unique. He spurned allies in NATO, for example, and indulged adversaries like Russia, China, and North Korea. Trump also laid the foundation for American combat forces to leave Afghanistan. Yet, he also increased military expenditure to maintain American power.
After one term, Trump lost his reelection bid to former Vice President Joseph Biden in 2020. Biden inherited the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as tense situations in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and East Asia from Trump. Following up on Trump’s decision, Biden directed the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021. Conversely, Biden reversed Trump and reverted to multilateralism to solve crises such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and increasing Chinese ambitions in Asia-Pacific. Neither of these crisis areas have been resolved as of early 2024.
Glossary
9/11- A terrorist attack by an Al-Qaeda cell on American targets in 2001. Retaliation by the United States led to the Global War on Terror and the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.
Al-Qaeda- Osama bin Laden’s radical terrorist organization responsible for planning and executing the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.
George W. Bush- (1946- ), 43rd President of the United States (2001-2009), son of former president George H.W. Bush. In the wake of the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, Bush led the United States into the Global War on Terror, invading Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 as part of the Bush Doctrine – an attempt to bring the perpetrators of 9/11 to justice and to deter future terrorist attacks against the United States.
Richard Cheney- (1941- ), 46th Vice President of the United States during the George W. Bush administration (2001-2009), as well as secretary of defense during the George H.W. Bush administration (1989-1993). Cheney supported the Bush Doctrine that conceived of the post-9/11 in Cold War terms, making the war on terror a zero-sum game and dividing the world into opponents or supporters of terrorism.
Counterinsurgency (COIN)- Operations to counter rebellions or civil unrest. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century American forces undertook counterinsurgency efforts in the Philippines and disparate areas of Latin America. In the Vietnam War the U.S. military struggled to pacify South Vietnamese communists, and in Iraq and Afghanistan American forces attempted to neutralize radical Islamic terrorists using various COIN methods.
drones- Unmanned aerial vehicles used extensively in the Global War on Terror as both reconnaissance aircraft and as offensive weapons capable of firing guided missiles.
Ann E. Dunwoody - (1953-), The first women to be promoted to the rank of general (four stars) in 2008. She command the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
Fallujah, Battles of- City fighting during the Iraq War in the Al Anbar province. After the first engagement in April 2004 ended the insurgents returned, necessitating the Second Battle of Fallujah in November-December 2004 with the most brutal combat in Iraq in fierce house to house fighting against 3,000 Iraqi insurgents and Al-Qaeda fighters.
Global War on Terror- An American-led campaign against terrorism following the attacks on September 11, 2001 in the name of deterring and preventing acts of international terrorism against the United States, of which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the search for terrorist leadership, including Osama bin Laden, are a part.
“Iran Deal” – In 2015, President Barack Obama and the Iranians agreed to inspections of Iran’s nuclear research sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency. In return, existing trade and financial sanctions against Iran were ended. This agreement highlighted Obama’s approach to foreign and military policy in that the United Nations, not the United States, received the reports on Iran. American detractors have panned the Iran Deal as appeasement of Iran, while Obama’s supporters praise it as an example of multilateralism.
ISIS – The acronym for the Islam State of Iraq and Syria. ISIS carved out a new state in parts of Syria and Iraq with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as its leader. The ideology of ISIS finds its roots in the radical Sunnite sect of Wahhabism that embraced exceptionally strict interpretations of sharia law. Numbering between 30,000 and 200,000 men, ISIS fighters routinely execute Iraqis and Syrians. These include enemy combatants and civilians, such as more moderate Sunnites, Shi’ites, This made ISIS a mutual enemy.
Barack Obama - (1961- ), 44th President of the United States (2009- ). Obama campaigned on the promise of bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq, realized fully when the last American unit left on December 18, 2011, yet ramped up the military presence in Afghanistan in 2010. Obama’s increased use of drones, and extensive use of special operations units embraces the idea of an agile and lean American military that employs the best new weapons systems in limited ways.
Operation ANACONDA- The last major battle of Operation Enduring Freedom’s second phase, lasting from March 2-17, 2002. Approximately 2,000 heli-borne U.S. soldiers landed in valleys and mountain passes near the Pakistani border and engaged with Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) An American-led invasion of Afghanistan beginning in 2001 in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks with the goals of deposing the oppressive Taliban government, destroying Al-Qaeda, and installing a stable political system.
Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) - An American-led war in Iraq with coalition forces acting on intelligence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. The first was a conventional war beginning on March 20, 2003 with an invasion of Iraq and lasted until an American military victory and the occupation of Iraq, declared by President George W. Bush on May 1, 2003. The second phase was an insurgency of variable intensity lasting until 2011 with a withdrawal of American troops.
Operation NEW DAWN (OND) - Replacement name for Operation IRAQI FREEDOM; beginning in September 2010 Iraqis took more responsibility to maintain the peace between religious factions while American troops began returning home.
Osama bin Laden- (1957-2011), Saudi Arabian-born Islamic terrorist and the founder of Al-Qaeda who perpetrated the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States. After more than a decade of directing insurgencies while in hiding, American efforts to find bin Laden came to fruition during a May 2, 2011 mission in Pakistan when SEAL Team Six killed the terrorist leader.
David Petraeus- (1952- ), A U.S. Army officer until 2011. As commanding general of the Combined Arms Command that produced Field Manual 3-24 Counterinsurgency, Petraeus carried out the population-centric approach detailed in the manual as head of the American effort in Iraq during the “Surge,” and as commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. Following his retirement from the military he became Director of the Central Intelligence Agency until his resignation in late 2012.
Donald Rumsfeld- (1932- ), Secretary of defense in both the Gerald Ford presidency (1975-1977) and the George W. Bush administration 2001-2006. Rumsfeld believed in a neoconservative worldview that called for the United States to exert force in the world to expand American influence and stop potential challenges to U.S. power, lining up with the Bush Doctrine and the Global War on Terror following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“Shock and Awe”- The aerial campaign against Iraqi military and political targets that initiated U.S. combat operations against Iraq in 2003. American policymakers believed that the ferocity and accuracy of U.S. air attacks would distress and overwhelm the Hussein regime and cause it to topple quickly.
The “Surge”- A 2007 U.S. military counterinsurgency strategy that increased the number of troops in Iraq by 20,000, raising the level to 170,000 Americans in-country. A population-centric approach intended to win Iraqi hearts and minds developed and executed by General Petraeus, the “Surge” included eighteen months of intensive operations, ending in July 2008.
Syrian Civil War – 2011-present. After an uprising among Syrians caused by the “Arab Spring,” fighting erupted between the Army of Syria’s dictator President Bashar al-Assad and rebels. By 2013, the Syrian Civil War pitted Sunnite nations supporting the rebels against Assad and Shi’ite nations. Early the next year, a new group of Sunnite extremists— the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or “ISIS”— entered the fray and added more confusion because they attacked all other factions.
Taliban – An Islamic fundamentalist political movement that rose to power in Afghanistan during the 1990s and provided sanctuary to terrorist groups. The 2001 American-led invasion of Afghanistan targeted the Taliban in response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) – The primary justification for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. President George W. Bush deemed Saddam Hussein’s alleged development of WMDs and destabilizing presence in the Middle East to be threats. There was historical precedence for Iraq using WMDs, as Hussein used poison gas against the Kurdish population in northern Iraq in 1988, killing at least 3,000 and injuring another 7,000.
Women in combat – An ongoing debate that occurred throughout the post-Vietnam U.S. military. President Obama and the Defense Department lifted the ban on female combatants on January 24, 2013, effectively opening up almost every Military Occupational Specialty to women who comprise 14 percent or 200,000 members of the U.S. military.
Neoconservative – A worldview embraced during George W. Bush's presidency (2001-2009) that calls for the United States to exert force to expand American influence across the globe and to stop potential challenges to that influence.
Xi Jinping – The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party as of 2012 and then the country’s president in 2013.
Trump’s National Security Strategy of December 2017 – Four pillars: “protect the homeland, promote American prosperity, preserve peace through strength, and advance American influence.”
Operation INHERENT RESOLVE – The United States' war to combat ISIS begun during Barrack Obama's presidency (2009-2017) and continued under Donald Trump's presidency (2017-2021).
January 6, 2021 – The greatest threat to the American political system since the American Civil War.
Joint Doctrine – “Presents fundamental principles that guide the employment of US military forces in coordinated and integrated action toward a common objective. It promotes a common perspective from which to plan, train, and conduct military operations.”
Cyber attacks – Computer-based attacks that shut down or manipulate targeted computer systems. American policy makers often worry about the vulnerability of those utilized for crucial infrastructure such as power grids and transportation networks.
Drones – Operated remotely by human pilots. Yet they also possess the capacity to function autonomously, without any direct oversight, in reconnaissance missions and combat operations.
PTSD – Acronym for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, PTSD is a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event, such veterans or active-duty military personnel who have experienced combat.
Russo-Ukraine War – A war started on February 24, 2022, when the Russian military launched full-scale invasions of northern, eastern, and southern Ukraine. New weapons have been tested during combat. Combat operations are ongoing.
Fort Moore – Name of Army post changed from Confederate General Henry L. Benning to Fort Moore to honor Lieutenant General Harold Moore, Jr, and his wife Julia Compton Moore. This occurred because of calls to stop honoring Confederate officers with Army post names.
“Pivot to the Pacific” – Starting in 2010s, a change in American strategic priorities toward the western Pacific and eastern Asia. The American military footprint in the region has grown larger as additional personnel and material moved into the region, with U.S. forces enhancing their training preparation for potential conflict.
Multilateralism – Several nations cooperating through the United Nations, NATO, or other arrangements to reach common goals. Presidents Barrack Obama and Joseph Biden utilized multilateralism in their foreign policies.
Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) – President Barrack Obama signed the legislation repealing DADT into law on December 22, 2011, because he believed this ban against military service by openly gay men and women denied them their rights as citizens.
Lisa Franchetti – The first woman promoted to be the Chief of Naval Operations in 2023, and the first women to sit on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
MQ-1B “Predator” – Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone) that can provide close air combat support as well as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance collection.
Flashcards
Annotated Bibliography
Bailey, Beth, and Richard H. Immerman, eds. Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New York: New York University Press, 2015.
The co-editors bring together contributors who have written chapters on the diplomatic, military, cultural, and political aspects of the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The contributors also examine topics such as the origins of the conflicts, the limitations of American power, the costs of the costs of the conflicts, and legacies of the American efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The resulting mosaic of interpretations is rich and textured.
Biddle, Stephen. Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022.
This book challenges the assumption that nonstate actors (such as terrorist groups) utilize insurgent tactics and thus fight differently that state actors that undertake conventional military operations. Biddle argues that nonstate actors operate across a wide spectrum that runs from insurgencies through set piece battles. He warns that strategist and policy makers can make serious errors if they do not understand that wide spectrum.
Boyle, Michael J. The Drone Age: How Drone Technology Will Change War and Peace. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Boyle examines the existing drone capabilities and projects what future capabilities may look like. These capabilities include safe operating platforms for pilots, longer loiter times over battlefields, increased surveillance and reconnaissance options, among others. Boyle also explores the possible effect of drone operations on strategic and policy level decision making.
Brands, Hal. American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump. Washington: Brookings Institute, 2018.
In looking at first the year of Donald Trump’s presidency in 2017, Brands tries to make sense of the uncertainty and upheaval in American grand strategy. This book sets the context for Trump’s presidency by tracing the evolution of grand strategy back to Barack Obama’s presidency. Brands questions whether Trumps’s “America First” platform could mean a withdrawal from global relations that would have disastrous effects for United States and the world.
Brands, Hal, ed. The New Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023.
In what is effectively the third edition of Makers of Modern Strategy (previously published in 1943 and 1986), more than forty authors contribute chapters on strategy. They examine strategists, military practitioners, and political leaders like Alfred Thayer Mahan, Napoleon, Mao Zedong, Gamal Abdel Nasser, David Ben-Gurion, and many others. This anthology gives significant coverage to grand strategy in non-European and non-Western contexts. The author demonstrate how grand strategy affects military, politics, economics, and technology, and how in turn these factors affect grand strategy.
Bolger, Daniel. Why We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.
This book represents a biting, if not bitter, critique of American military decisions and operations in Middle East, as written by a retired Army general who experienced the Global War on Terror first-hand.
Report of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy. Rand Corporation: Washington, DC, 2024.
Created via the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, the commission’s report proffers an independent critique of the most recent National Defense Strategy.
Dobel, J. Patrick. “Prudence and Presidential Ethics: The Decisions on Iraq of the Two Presidents Bush.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 40, no. 1 (2010): 57-75.
This article contrasts the Presidents George H.W. Bush (1989-1993) and George W. Bush (2001-2009) using ethics as a lens for analysis. Patrick focuses on “prudence” as a key factor in each president’s decision-making processes as they determined how and why to attack Iraq in 1991 and in 2003 respectively. The first President Bush prudently opted for a limited conflict with limited goals, but his son, the second President Bush imprudently allowed the United States to get sucked into a decade-long conflict that did not reach its goals.
Fedorchak, Viktoriya. Understanding Contemporary Air Power. London: Routledge, 2020.
This book explains the use of air power in several operational scenarios: conventional, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and counterinsurgency. Each requires a different mindset to apply air power assets in successful ways. In addition, the author includes analyses of public opinions, force structures, and cross domain integration in current and future environments.
Fitzgerald, David, and David Ryan. Obama, US Foreign Policy and the Dilemmas of Intervention. Basingstroke, UK: Palgrave Pivot, 2014.
This book analyzes the foreign policy decision-making processes of Barrack Obama’s presidency. The authors find three goals in his foreign policy: feel good, feel safe, and feel strong. The “dilemmas” can be seen in how and why those three goals affected Obama’s decisions regarding military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria.
Kaplan, Fred. The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2013.
Kaplan examines the small group of soldier-scholars who revamped the U.S. military from the inside during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Concentrating on David Petraeus and his lieutenants such as H.R. McMaster and John Nagl, Kaplan shows how these men rebuilt the U.S. Army to fight wars that were more about nation building than conventional operations.
Kilcullen, David, and Greg Mills. The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan. London: Hurst, 2022.
The authors seek to answer how and why the United States failed to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan in the years after 9/11 attack and subsequent American invasion in 2001.
This book demonstrates that the American failures were not only military but also in diplomacy, politics, and economics. The authors treat Afghanistan as a cautionary tale for what not to do in peacebuilding.
Lundy, Michael D., “Meeting the Challenge of Large-Scale Combat Operations Today and Tomorrow,” Military Review (September-October 2018), 233-239.
Lundy - at the time the commanding general of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and the commandant of the Command and General Staff College on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas - called for the U.S. Army to switch from the brigade-centric contingency and counterinsurgency missions it undertook the Middle East from 2001 through 2018 to learning, training, and preparing for large scale conventional operations against near-peer competitors like Russia and China.
Malkasian, Carter. The American War in Afghanistan: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Acclaimed as “the first authoritative history,” Malkasian’s book sets up the context for the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and then traces the phases of fighting and governance during American occupation of the nation for the next two decades. The author draws on his own experience working as American advisor in Afghanistan and his knowledge of the Pastho language. This book explains how and why the United States did not succeed in establishing a legitimate Afghan democracy that could maintain power without American military support.
Marinus, “Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations: Is the Marine Corps Abandoning Maneuver Warfare?” Marine Corps Gazette 106 (April 2022), 102-107.
Written by anonymous authors, this article is an opinion piece that speaks to the debate between an older “manueverist” faction in the U.S. Marine Corps and the other which favored the newer concept of expeditionary advanced base operations proffered in 2021. The maneuverists (like the article’s authors) argue that the USMC should maintain the warfighting doctrine of maneuver warfare first adopted in 1989. The opposing faction supports that USMC’s current force structure and doctrinal shifts to island-based operations in naval campaign in the western Pacific Ocean. This article asks whether this new doctrine will permanent changed the USMC, and the manuervist authors pessimistically answer yes.
Mueller, Karl P., ed. Precision and Purpose: Airpower in the Libyan Civil War. Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2015.
Mueller and several contributors examine the air operations during the Libyan Civil War in 2011 conducted several nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). These air campaigns – Operation ODYSSEY DAWN in March and subsequently Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR from March to October – stopped the forces of Libya’s dictator Muammar Qaddafi and later helped the Libyan rebels to overthrow Qaddafi. The book begins with a strategic and political introduction and then looks at the operational experiences of each NATO nation to include the United States. The book concludes that Libyan rebels achieved victory “through (not by) by airpower.”
Mundey, Lisa M. Fighting the Forever War: The U.S. Service Member Experience in Afghanistan, 2001-2014. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2022.
This study of the war in Afghanistan focuses on the American soldiers’ boots-on-the-ground perspective. Mundy uses oral history interviews and letters to explore the challenges that the soldiers faced during their deployments to Afghanistan. Mundy’s thematic chapters examine the effects of living conditions, combat, training Afghans, and working with Afghans on the American soldiers. The book ends with a chapter on meaning and memory.
Renshon, Stanley A., and Peter Suedfeld, eds. The Trump Doctrine and the Emerging International System. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
The contributors to this anthology seek to evaluate the meanings and ramifications of President Donald Trump’s “America First” slogan in international contexts. Various chapters portray America First as part of the Trump Doctrine and an expression of American nationalism; look at case studies of Trump’s interactions with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, or North Korea’s Kim John Un; as well as compare and contrast Trump’s foreign policies with those of preceding presidents.
Ricks, Thomas. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
One of the first histories on American military operations and occupation of Iraq, Ricks’ begins with the initial planning stages and concludes with the increase in violence that promoted the troop surge of 2007. Access to internal documents makes Fiasco one of the most reliable accounts of the war and gives validity to Ricks’ criticisms of the U.S. military performance in Iraq, particularly that leaders failed to recognize the conflict as an insurgency, and attempting to combat it with conventional methods.
Swells, Tim, et al., eds. Beyond Ukraine: Debating the Future of War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2024.
This anthology peers into the future to prepare for strategic, operational, and tactical developments using the Russo-Ukrainian War as a touchstone. Among the contributors are Antulio Echevarria, Azar Gat, Frank Hoffman, and T.X. Hammes. Understanding war in the 21st century requires understanding of military factors, as well as political, ideological, technological, cultural, and other factors.
Tangredi, Sam J. Anti-Access Warfare: Countering A2/AD Strategies. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2013.
In this important book, Tangredi outlines lessons from past amphibious operations (offensive and defensive) and looks for principles that might be applied to the current and future amphibious operations. This book is especially relevant given the U.S. military’s strategic pivot to the Pacific.
Tangredi, Sam J., and George Galdorisi, eds. AI at War: How Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning are Changing Naval Warfare. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2021.
The contributors to this anthology try to determine how artificial intelligence can be best applied in modern warfare, especially relating to the roles played by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. The chapters analyze a wide range of topics, such as strategy, policy, doctrine, weapons, operations, ethics, and organizational culture, and they explore how AI could solve problems with more rapidly and practically that human beings can. AI is not, however, treated as a panacea, but rather a new tool that needs to be better understood.
Vandenengel, Jeff. Questioning the Carrier: Opportunities in Fleet Design for the U.S. Navy. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2023.
The U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers are symbols of American power and substantive means to protect that power. Vandenengel tries to strike a balance between the U.S. Navy’s dependence on the expensive aircraft carriers as its premier warships and the rapidly advancing technologies and weapons systems that put the carriers at serious risk of damage or destruction. He explores possibilities of restructuring the fleet components and carrier roles to maximize the carriers’ usefulness and limiting those risks.
Vindman, Alexander. Here, Right Matters: An American Story. New York: Harper, 2021.
Vindman emerged on the national stage in October 2019 when, while working for the U.S. National Security Council, he reported that President Donald Trump purposefully demanded Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky help damage the reputation of Trump’s political rival Joseph Biden. He later testified about the Trump administration’s illicit actions before Congress. His memoir tells the story of an officer trying to act in accordance with the Army’s values with honor and courage in the face of relentless persecution by Trump’s allies.
Warren Aiden, and Joseph Siracusa. Understanding Presidential Doctrines: U.S. National Security from George Washington to Joe Biden, 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2022.
This survey offers candid and concise analyses of the United States’s attempts to influence global affairs while trying to rise above international conflicts. Too often these attempts resulted in bloodshed and suffering. Topics include American attempts to promote democracy, open markets, support self-determination, and secure political stability.
Expanded Bibliography
Bacevich, Andrew J. The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2008.
Easton, Ian. The Chinese Invasion Threat: Taiwan’s Defense and American Strategy in Asia. Manchester, UK: Eastbridge Books, 2021.
Echevarria, Antulio J., II. Operating in the Gray Zone: An Alternative Paradigm for U.S. Military Strategy. Carlisle, PA: Army War College Press, 2012.
Friedman, Norman. Unmanned Combat Air Systems: A New Kind of Carrier Aviation. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2010.
Galula, David. Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006.
Haun, Phil, et al., eds. Air Power in the Age of Primacy: Air Warfare since the Cold War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021
Kilcullen, David. Counterinsurgency. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Klein, John J. Understanding Space Power: The Art of War in Space. London: Routledge, 2020.
Krieg, Andreas. Subversion: The Strategic Weaponization of Narratives. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2023.
Mahnken, Thomas G. Technology and the American Way of War since 1945. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
Metz, Steven. Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2008.
Morgan, Wesley. The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan’s Pech Valley. New York: Random House, 2021.
Murray, Williamson, and Robert H. Scales, Jr. The Iraq War: A Military History. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2005.
Naylor, Sean. Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda. New York: Berkley Books, 2005.
Ricks, Thomas E. The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006–2008. New York: Penguin, 2009.
Rico, Johnny. Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green: A Year in the Desert with Team America. New York: Presidio Press, 2007.
Ryan, Mick. The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation under Fire. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2024.
Sadler, Brent D. U.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century: A New Strategy for Facing the Chinese and Russian Threat. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2023.
Scharre, Paul. Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. New York: W.W. Norton, 2024.
Singer, P.W., and August Cole. Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War. Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.
Tow, William T., and Douglas Stewart, eds. The New US Strategy toward Asia: Adapting the American Pivot. London: Routledge, 2017.
Townsend, Brad. Security and Stability in the New Space Age: The Orbital Security Dilemma. London: Routledge, 2020.
Ucko, David H. The New Counterinsurgency Era: Transforming the U.S. Military for Modern Wars. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2009.
Williams, Brian Glyn. Counter Jihad: America’s Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.
Wright, Donald et al. A Different Kind of War: The U.S. Army in Operation Enduring Freedom, October 2001–2005. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, May 2010.
Annotated Weblinks
Site: U.S. Government Printing Office, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
URL: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=PPP
Description: This link will take you to the U.S. Government Printing Office’s website for all presidential writings, addresses, photographs, and remarks of a public nature, from George W. Bush to Joseph Biden.
Site: West Point, The War in Afghanistan Battle and Campaign Maps
URL: https://www.westpoint.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/digital-history-center/atlases
Description: Visit this link to see the United States Military Academy’s detailed map of operations in Afghanistan.
Site: West Point, The War in Iraq Battle and Campaign Maps
URL: https://www.westpoint.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/digital-history-center/atlases
Description: Visit this link to see the United States Military Academy’s detailed map of operations in Iraq.
Site: FM 3-24 and MCWP 3-33.5 The U.S. Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual (2006)
URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20191230013441id_/http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media/pdf/3095.pdf
Description: One of the most important documents of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, Field Manual 3-24 Counterinsurgency influenced the U.S. Army’s low-intensity warfare doctrine after 2006. A product of the time when Lieutenant General David Patreaus served as Commanding General of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Lieutenant General James Amos served as Deputy Commandant of the USMC for Combat Development and integration, the manual was written by a diverse group of officers, academics, journalists, and human rights advocates.
Site: Clemson University Faculty Webpage, The Second U.S.-Iraq War (2003-)
URL: https://edmoise.sites.clemson.edu/iraqbib.html#2war
Description: Already a subject on which scholars, journalists, soldiers, and politicians have widely written, the literature on the Iraq Wars is vast. To assist in navigating these difficult waters, follow this link and reference this exceptionally thorough bibliography.
Site: Library of Congress Web Archives Minerva: Iraq War, 2003 Web Archive
URL: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/lcwa/html/iraq/iraq-overview.html
Description: A Library of Congress project, Iraq War, 2003 Web Archive is a collection of U.S. government sites, foreign government sites, public policy and political advocacy groups, religious organizations, support groups for military personnel, anti-war groups, and new sources that wrote on the invasion of Iraq between March and June 2003. Web sites have been archived, allowing you to step back into 2003 and see the debate that surrounded the American military operations in Iraq.
Site: U.S. Army Center of Military History, Global War on Terrorism
URL: http://www.history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/GWOT/index.html
Description: This link will take you to the U.S. Army Center of Military History’s collection for the Global War on Terrorism. Here you will find published material, art and photos, and some archival material.
Site: The White House, Fact Sheet: Advancing the Rebalance to Asia and the Pacific, 2015.
URL: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/11/16/fact-sheet-advancing-rebalance-asia-and-pacific
This fact sheet released to the public in November 2015 outlines the shift of American strategic focus toward eastern Asia and the western Pacific where the China looms as economic and military competitor. The United States is cast in the role of preserving and enhancing stability and security in the region.
Site: Robert U. Nagel, Kinsey Spears, and Julia Maenza, Culture, Gender, and Women in the Military: Implications for International Humanitarian Law Compliance, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, 2021.
URL: https://giwps.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Culture_Gender_Women_in_the_Military.pdf
A study of women in the U.S. military during the twenty-first century that examines topics such as women in combat and in the military’s decision-making process. It also covers controversial topics such as the women’s physical strength requirement, women in special operations, and sexual harassment and assault.
Site: Government Sources by Subject: Gays in the Military, University of Washington Libraries
URL: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=341739&p=2304282
Description: A set of laws, government documents, and other reports regarding policies about gays serving in the U.S. military. The contents cover the time period from 1991 to 2010.
Site: John A. Nagl and Katie Crombe, A Call to Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the Future, U.S. Army War College Press, 2024
URL: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/968/
Description: This book examines the evolving nature of warfare using the Russia-Ukraine War as a case study. It includes materials on the war’s historical context, the opposing operations, multidomain operations, new weapons technologies, and others with the goal of bettering preparing the U.S. military for future conflicts.
Site: George R. Shatzer and Joshua A. Artostegui, Decisive Decade: PRC Global Strategy and the PLA as a Pacing Challenge – 2023 PLA Conference – Updated and Expanded, U.S. Army War College Press, 2023
URL: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/966/
Anthology from a conference hosted by the U.S. Army War College in February 2023. The topics included the People’s Republic of China’s acceleration of military reforms and its extending reach; how the PRC can use various regional crises to justify military action against Taiwan; countering PRC military strength in Northeast Asia; and the PRC’s growing economic and security engagements with Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and Eurasia.
Site: White House, “U.S Withdrawal from Afghanistan,” 2023.
URL: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/US-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan.pdf
This document outlines the context and justifications for the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2023. Topic in this document include the planning for the withdrawal, the challenges of evacuation, and the effects on Afghan partners and the U.S. military.
Site: War on the Rocks
URL: https://warontherocks.com/
This site includes hundreds of blogs and podcasts that discuss opinions and debates regarding the U.S. military and global military affairs.