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  3. Military Adaptation in War
  • Cited by 36
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2014
Print publication year:
2011
Online ISBN:
9781139005241
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139005241
Subjects:
American History: General Interest, Area Studies, American Studies, Military History, History
Information

Book description

Military Adaptation in War addresses one of the most persistent problems that military organizations confront: namely, the problem of how to adapt under the trying, terrifying conditions of war. This work builds on the volume that Professor Williamson Murray edited with Allan Millett on military innovation (a quite different issue, though similar in some respects). In Clausewitzian terms, war is a contest, an interactive duel, which is of indeterminate length and presents a series of intractable problems at every level, from policy and strategy down to the tactical. Moreover, the fact that the enemy is adapting at the same time presents military organizations with an ever-changing set of conundrums that offer up no easy solutions. As the British general, James Wolfe, suggested before Quebec: 'War is an option of difficulties'. Dr Murray provides an in-depth analysis of the problems that military forces confront in adapting to these difficulties.

Reviews

‘ … [the author] has produced not only an excellent historical account of adaptation in twentieth-century warfare, but a forensic dissection of the common factors and approaches that can be applied to improve the chances of a military organization successfully adapting to future challenges. It is the best single-volume study of the subject yet written, and deserves a place on the bookshelf with Smith’s The Utility of Force and Cohen and Gooch’s Military Misfortunes: the Anatomy of Failure in War - and alongside Sun Tzu and Clausewitz.’

Source: Survival

‘… an important work for those interested in the events it covers, as well as for anyone concerned with how armed forces tick.'

A. A. Nofi Source: www.strategypage.com

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