Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   March/April 2019 Capsule Review

We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages, and Ransom

This excellent and careful book asks tough questions about whether and how governments should negotiate with kidnappers to get hostages released. 

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Intelligence   March/April 2019 Capsule Review

Operation Columba—The Secret Pigeon Service: The Untold Story of World War II Resistance in Europe

Corera's vivid account shows how the homing pigeons used by British intelligence agencies during World War II revealed daily life under the Nazis and valuable...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

War & Military Strategy   March/April 2019 Capsule Review

The Girls Next Door: Bringing the Home Front to the Front Lines

From 1918 until the end of the Vietnam War, every time young American men were sent to fight overseas, they would be joined by small groups of young women who would...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Security   March/April 2019 Capsule Review

Rampage

Scott reconstructs the Battle of Manila, interspersing accounts of massacres with happier moments of liberation. 

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Strategy & Conflict   March/April 2019 Capsule Review

Strategy Strikes Back: How “Star Wars” Explains Modern Military Conflict

This illuminating, if uneven, collection of essays is united by the idea that the Star Wars movies are valuable for their insights into leadership, strategy,...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   January/February 2019 Capsule Review

Terrorism, Betrayal, and Resilience: My Story of the 1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings

Bushnell's book is an autobiography and an account of the 1998 attack. 

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

War & Military Strategy   January/February 2019 Capsule Review

Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945–1975; Road to Disaster: A New History of America’s Descent Into Vietnam

These two books take on a familiar topic but manage to be original and thought provoking—and very different from each other.

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

War & Military Strategy   January/February 2019 Capsule Review

Haig’s Enemy: Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germany’s War on the Western Front; The First Soldier: Hitler as Military Leader

Military history tends to be seen through the eyes of the victors, but these two books show the two world wars from the perspective of the defeated Germans.

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Cybersecurity   November/December 2018 Capsule Review

LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media

Many books have charted the use and misuse of social media, but this is one of the most comprehensive and up to date.

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Defense Policy   November/December 2018 Capsule Review

Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual

Hans Speier was one of the many German intellectuals who left Germany for the United States before World War II and later came to play a major part in the war effort...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Security   November/December 2018 Capsule Review

The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel

This clever and gripping book, written in the manner of the 9/11 Commission’s report, takes as its starting point the United States’ failure to get North Korea to give...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Security   November/December 2018 Capsule Review

Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the Regulation of Armed Conflict

Ever since World War II, countries have been reluctant to officially declare war on one another, even after they appear to be fighting one. Because a declaration of...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

War & Military Strategy   November/December 2018 Capsule Review

War Isn’t the Only Hell: A New Reading of World War I American Literature

Gandal argues that much of the American literature generated by World War I was about emasculation more than danger. 

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Security   September/October 2018 Capsule Review

Recent Books on Nuclear Strategy

Ever since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, no nuclear weapons have been used in combat. This limits all efforts to develop theories...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Security   September/October 2018 Capsule Review

On Grand Strategy

This illuminating and erudite book explores the meaning of grand strategy by recounting some of history’s most fateful decisions, many of which were also its most ill...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Strategy & Conflict   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

The West Point History of the American Revolution

The essays in this authoritative collection illuminate the origins and conduct of the American War of Independence, with a particular focus on the transformation of...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Strategy & Conflict   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

The Last Battle: Victory, Defeat, and the End of World War I

Hart’s history of the final year of World War I opens just after the major German offensive of 1918 had ground to a halt and as the Allies geared up for their own...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

Security   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War

Scharre, a former U.S. Army Ranger, has thought more than most about the implications of autonomous weapons.

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

War & Military Strategy   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

The Saboteur: The Aristocrat Who Became France's Most Daring Anti-Nazi Commando

This gripping account of the French resistance to the Nazi occupation is told through the remarkable experiences of Robert de La Rochefoucauld, a Frenchman from an...

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.

War & Military Strategy   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam

During the mid-1950s, the U.S. Air Force officer Edward Lansdale served as the CIA’s liaison to South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.

Lawrence D. Freedman

This article is paywall-free.