Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   September/October 2018 Capsule Review

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The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy: Why Strategic Superiority Matters; When Proliferation Causes Peace: The Psychology of Nuclear Crises; The Brink: President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare of 1983; Hacking the Bomb: Cyber Threats & Nuclear Weapons

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

Security   September/October 2018 Capsule Review

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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

Strategy & Conflict   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

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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

Strategy & Conflict   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

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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

Security   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

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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

War & Military Strategy   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

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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

War & Military Strategy   May/June 2018 Capsule Review

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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

Security   March/April 2018 Capsule Review

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Withdrawal: Reassessing America’s Final Years in Vietnam

Daddis shows that the narrative of military victory snatched away by Congress and antiwar sentiment misses a vital point.

Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   March/April 2018 Capsule Review

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The Virtual Weapon and International Order; Digital World War: Islamists, Extremists, and the Fight for Cyber Supremacy

The debate about how digital communications technology is transforming conflict takes place on a spectrum.

Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   March/April 2018 Capsule Review

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The Pentagon’s Wars: The Military’s Undeclared War Against America’s Presidents

The book is an enthralling, gossipy account of the interplay between senior U.S. military and political leaders since the end of the Cold War.

Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   March/April 2018 Capsule Review

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The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner

His experiences have led Ellsberg to argue that however much he might like to see nuclear weapons abolished, the first step in addressing the danger must be to make...

Lawrence D. Freedman

U.S. Foreign Policy   January/February 2018 Capsule Review

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Harold Brown: Offsetting the Soviet Military Challenge, 1977–1981

The Carter administration represented a momentous, if transitional, period in U.S. national security policy, and it remains curiously understudied.

Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   January/February 2018 Capsule Review

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War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-first Century

Patrikarakos has gone to the frontlines of modern warfare to interview representatives of a species he calls Homo digitalis.

Lawrence D. Freedman

WMD & Proliferation   January/February 2018 Capsule Review

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The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age; Man of the Hour: James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist

Two substantial biographies shed new light on the scientific breakthroughs that led to nuclear weapons and the massive organizational effort required to get the bombs...

Lawrence D. Freedman

Strategy & Conflict   January/February 2018 Capsule Review

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Sons and Soldiers: The Untold Story of the Jews Who Escaped the Nazis and Returned With the U.S. Army to Fight Hitler

During World War II, almost 2,000 young Jewish men who had escaped to the United States from Austria and Nazi Germany and who now wished to serve their new country...

Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   November/December 2017 Capsule Review

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On Tactics: A Theory of Victory in Battle

Friedman demonstrates that some core lessons are timeless—the advantage of combined arms, the importance of having the right mix of mass and firepower—even though...

Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   November/December 2017 Capsule Review

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The Darkening Web: The War for Cyberspace; Understanding Cyber Conflict: Fourteen Analogies

Almost every online transaction, however routine and innocent, has the potential to become part of an unseen maneuver to cause mischief, steal money, bring down vital...

Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   November/December 2017 Capsule Review

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Turning to Political Violence: The Emergence of Terrorism

Sageman sets out to explain why people with radical political agendas turn to violence.

Lawrence D. Freedman

Security   November/December 2017 Capsule Review

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The Exile: The Stunning Inside Story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Flight

Lawrence D. Freedman

  September/October 2017 Capsule Review

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At the Edge of the World: The Heroic Century of the French Foreign Legion

Lawrence D. Freedman