The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain and Germany Between the World Wars

This is a scholarly and conceptually ambitious work which seeks to explain how military doctrine takes shape and its role in "grand strategy," defined as "that collection of military, economic and political means and ends with which a state attempts to seek security." The core of the study examines military doctrines in the interwar period, discussing the German blitzkrieg and British air defense system as successes, and the French army's Maginot Line doctrine as a great failure. Posen develops many intriguing ideas and theoretical insights, and debates those of his academic peers, in a rich volume that has to be studied as well as read.