Assessing War : The Challenge of Measuring Success and Failure

Description

Today's protracted asymmetrical conflicts confuse efforts to measure progress, often inviting politics and wishful thinking to replace objective evaluation.In Assessing War, military historians, social scientists, and military officers explore how observers have analyzed the trajectory of war in American conflicts from the Seven Years'War through the war in Afghanistan. Drawing on decades of acquired expertise, the contributors examine wartime assessment in both theory and practice and, through alternative dimensions of assessment such as justice and proportionality, the war of ideas and economics. This group of distinguished authors grapples with both conventional and irregular wars and emerging aspects of conflict—such as cyberwar and nation building—that add to the complexities of the modern threat environment. The volume ends with recommendations for practitioners on best approaches while offering sobering conclusions about the challenges of assessing war without politicization or self-delusion.Covering conflicts from the eighteenth century to today, Assessing War blends focused advice and a uniquely broad set of case studies to ponder vital questions about warfare's past—and its future. The book includes a foreword by Gen. George W. Casey Jr. (USA, Ret.), former chief of staff of the US Army and former commander, Multi-National Force–Iraq. Cover Contents Foreword Introduction: The Challenge of Wartime Assessment I. THEORY 1 Principals, Agents, and Assessment 2 Civil-Military Relations and Assessments 3 Wartime Strategic Assessment: Concepts and Challenges II. HISTORICAL CASES 4 Assessing Proxy Forces: A Case Study of the Early Years of the Seven Years’ War (1754–63) in North America 5 Assessing War: The Revolutionary War 6 Assessing Enemy Civilian Will: The United States Goes to War, 1861 7 “Keep ’Em Moving”: The Role of Assessment in US Cavalry Operations against the Plains Indians 8 Assessing the Philippine War 9 Putting the Fuse to the Powder: Strategic Assessment in the First World War 10 Assessment in World War II 11 Measuring Gains on the Battlefield and at the Peace Table: Shifting Assessments during the Korean War 12 Choosing Progress: Evaluating the “Salesmanship” of the Vietnam War in 1967 III. CURRENT CASES 13 Assessing Counterinsurgency: The Iraq War, 2004–5 14 Circular Logic and Constant Progress: IW Assessments in Afghanistan 15 Monitoring from Afar: How Al-Qaeda Assesses Its Progress IV. ALTERNATIVE DIMENSIONS OF ASSESSMENT 16 Assessment, Proportionality, and Justice in War 17 Assessing Cyber War 18 Assessing the War of Ideas during War 19 Assessing Economic Outcomes in Nation-building Operations Conclusion: Can We Learn from the Assessment of War? Contributors Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z