In a special treat this week, Michael Taylor, Associate Professor of History at SUNY Albany is back (he has written here once before). This time Michael is taking a look back at what is probably "he most influential book on any aspect of military history in the last fifty years" and I'd argue probably the … Continue reading Michael Taylor on John Keegan’s The Face of Battle: A Retrospective
Tag: Military Theory
Collections: Strategic Airpower 101
This week, I'm going to offer a fairly basic overview of the concept of strategic airpower, akin to our discussions of protracted war and nuclear deterrence. While the immediate impetus for this post has been Russian efforts to use airpower coercively in Ukraine, we're going to focus more broadly on the topic: what is strategic … Continue reading Collections: Strategic Airpower 101
Collections: Nuclear Deterrence 101
Thanks to our ever helpful volunteer narrator, this post is now also available in audio format. This week I wanted to expand on something I touched on only briefly in our 'explainer' on Putin's War in Ukraine: the "delicate balance of terror" of nuclear deterrence. Of course this is a complex and much debated topic, … Continue reading Collections: Nuclear Deterrence 101
Collections: How the Weak Can Win – A Primer on Protracted War
Thanks to our volunteer narrator, this post is now available in audio format. This week, in an effort to fill in some of the theoretical basis for thinking about how weaker powers think about fighting against or defending themselves from stronger powers, I'm going to give you all a basic 101-level survey of the theory … Continue reading Collections: How the Weak Can Win – A Primer on Protracted War