Military Adaptation in War
Military Adaptation in War
$45.99
USDMilitary 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.
- An in-depth study of the problems that military forces confront in adapting to the ambiguous, uncertain and complex environment that is war
- Examines the importance of innovation in the distinctive contexts of a number of wars throughout history
- A crucial, yet rarely examined, military issue
Reviews & endorsements
' … [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.' 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, www.strategypage.com
Product details
October 2011Hardback
9781107006591
352 pages
235 × 158 × 25 mm
0.61kg
Temporarily unavailable - available from TBC
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. Introduction: the background to military adaptation
- 2. The historical framework of adaptation
- 3. Complex adaptation: the Western front 1914–1918
- 4. Flawed adaptation: German adaptation and the opening battles of World War II
- 5. The battle for the British Isles: June 1940–May 1941
- 6. Adaptation in the air war: RAF bomber command and Luftwaffe's air defenses (15 May 1940 to 7 May 1945)
- 7. The 1973 Yom Kippur War
- 8. Conclusion: adaptation and the future.
