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Command


Ancient Rome

Art of War Scholars Series
Mission Command: in Ancient Rome, 218 BC-AD 100

By MAJ Michael J. Rasak

Published: January 2024

MAJ Michael J. Rasak used extant literary evidence to effectively argue that Rome’s highly offensive and initiative-oriented way of war influenced its development of a command structure that prioritized battlefield dispersion, subordinate autonomy, information sharing, inherently flexible mission orders, and decentralized operations. In this insightful military history Rasak demonstrates how Roman leaders codified and institutionalized these processes and reveals their reliance on concepts resembling modern principles of mission command.


Armies in Retreat: Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences

Armies in Retreat: Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences

By Timothy G. Heck and Walker D. Mills

Published: 2023

In Armies in Retreat: Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences, editors Timothy Heck and Walker Mills have culled together a collection of essays that fills a critical gap in publications and literature covering large-scale combat operations. Every battle has two sides: the victors and the vanquished. This book explores retreating armies—those that maintained cohesion and later succeeded and others that devolved into chaos. Ultimately, this book is about surviving defeat and designed to inform leaders about what to expect when the unexpected happens, to prevent the shock and mitigate some of the terror on every side so they can respond with resilience and cohesion. Retreat, while unpalatable, can ultimately lead to military or national survival, even victory.


A Talent for Logistics: Sustaining the Army of the Potomac in 1862 and 1864

A Talent for Logistics: Sustaining the Army of the Potomac in 1862 and 1864

By Dr. Curtis S. King

Published: 2022

Few Civil War histories review the intrinsic link between logistics and operations. This Leavenworth Paper examines two major Civil War campaigns in Virginia—Maj. Gen. George Brinton McClellan’s 1862 Peninsula Campaign and Lt. Gen. Ulysses Simpson Grant’s 1864 Overland Campaign—and helps fill this gap in scholarship by providing insights into the critical role logistics played in these campaigns. McClellan and Grant possessed a broad grasp of sustainment and its impact on operational reach. Both recognized the capabilities and limitations of their logistical support and tried to maximize their options. Dr. Curtis King’s contribution to the Leavenworth Paper series offers Army Leadership lessons in understanding effective wartime planning.


Climate Change & National Security: Implications for the Military

Climate Change & National Security: Implications for the Military

By Dr. Albert Palazzo

Published: 2022

Climate change poses a major threat to US national security and the survival of the American people. The US military will need to prepare for a more dangerous and disruptive future, both domestically and internationally, to safeguard the nation’s citizens. In Climate Change & National Security: Implications for the Military, the former Director of War Studies for the Australian Army and current adjunct professor at the University of New South Wales, Dr. Albert Palazzo, examines the risks and challenges the military will face in providing for the nation’s security, and the effect climate change will have on the character of war. Additionally, this book provides recommendations for what the military will need to prepare for a climate-affected future.


Army Expansions: Augmenting

Army Expansions: Augmenting the Regular Army during War

By Dr. Barry Stentiford

Published: 2021

In Dr. Barry Stentiford’s latest book for Army University Press, Army Expansions offers readers a primer on the various versions of “armies” raised in the United States since before the American Revolution and through contemporary operations. Stentiford examines the merits and shortcomings of the methods in expanding armies, highlighting how the military and government crafted guidelines that worked within the bounds of what was practical and acceptable to American values. By exploring these methods used in the past, models are provided for direct commissions and wartime expansion, without the resulting bloat in the post-war officer corps.


The Resupply of Duffer's Drift

The Resupply of Duffer's Drift

By William C. Latham Jr.

Published: 2021

In "The Resupply of Duffer's Drift" William Latham has pulled the lessons from the original 1905 fictional account into the 21st Century. Through a series of dream scenarios, 2LT Anderson relives a mission over and over again, each time failing and learning from those failures in the next scenario until he finally absorbs the lessons and accomplishes the mission. The lessons learned throughout the story provide a framework for young leaders in how to effectively manage time and personnel, while taking into account the importance of leadership in dangerous situations.


66 Stories of Battle Command

66 Stories of Battle Command

By Adela Frame and James W. Lussier, ed.

276 Pages

Published: 2000

The current project was initiated to collect stories from experienced commanders. These stories will supplement the BCDC curriculum by providing a common pool of anecdotes to successive classes. They will also provide a basis for a broader discussion of requirements for future battle command.

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Art of War Papers: Lansdale, Magsaysay, America, and the Philippines

Art of War Papers: Lansdale, Magsaysay, America, and the Philippines

By Andrew E. Lembke, MAJ, US Army

142 Pages

Published: 2013

Historians tend to agree that Ramon Magsaysay’s leadership and his relationship with Edward Lansdale are two of the most important features of the Philippine governments campaign against the Huks from 1946-1954. Yet the nuances of his leadership and the nature of their relationship deserve greater investigation. This thesis seeks to further illuminate Magsaysay and Lansdale’s relationship by focusing on the role of empathy and sociocultural understanding, in defeating the Huks and restoring the Philippine government’s legitimacy.

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Art of War Papers: Military Professionalism and the Early American Officer Corps 1789-1796

Art of War Papers: Military Professionalism and the Early American Officer Corps 1789-1796

By Christopher W. Wingate, MAJ, US Army

138 Pages

Published: 2013

Military history can and should contribute to an understanding of American military professionalism. Investigating the nature of professionalism in the officer corps serving during President George Washington’s administration, the central argument of this study is that early Army leaders demonstrated a particularly American style of military professionalism. The early officer corps grappled with the same elements described by the Army’s current doctrine as fundamentally characteristic of military professionalism: trust, expertise, service, esprit and stewardship. Understanding the strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and limitations of the early officer corps’ approach to professionalism in light of these five key characteristics provides important background and a useful conceptual framework to more fully understand the American military tradition and today’s doctrine concerning military professionalism.

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Art of War Papers: Orde Wingate And the British Internal Security Strategy During the Arab Rebellion in Palestine, 1936-1939

Art of War Papers: Orde Wingate And the British Internal Security Strategy During the Arab Rebellion in Palestine, 1936-1939

By Mark Lehenbauer, MAJ, US Army

108 Pages

Published: 2012

The Arab Rebellion and British Counter-rebellion campaign of 1936 to 1939 in Palestine exhibited many features of modern insurgency and counterinsurgency. This thesis traces the British military thought and practice for countering rebellion as influenced by their Small Wars’ experiences, and it then presents the rebellion and counter-rebellion campaign as a case study in their military and political contexts.

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Art Of War Papers: Survival Through Adaptation - The Chinese Red Army and the Extermination Campaigns, 1927-1936

Art Of War Papers: Survival Through Adaptation - The Chinese Red Army and the Extermination Campaigns, 1927-1936

By Wilbur W. Hsu, MAJ, US Army

196 Pages

Published: 2012

This study analyzes the Chinese Red Army from 1927 to 1936 to determine how the Red Army survived attacks from external military forces and also successfully overcame the threats to its existence posed by changing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies. During this period, the CCP attempted to develop, expand, and professionalize the Chinese Red Army as a way to defend Communist base areas from a series of Kuomingtang (KMT) Extermination Campaigns.

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Cedat Fortuna Peritis: A History of the Field Artillery School

Cedat Fortuna Peritis: A History of the Field Artillery School

By Boyd L. Dastrup, Ph.D.

347 Pages

Published: 2011

From its humble beginnings as the School of Fire for Field Artillery in 1911, the Field Artillery School emerged as a worldwide leader in training and educating field artillerymen and developing fire support tactics, doctrine, organizations, and systems. Recognizing the inadequate performance of the Army’s field artillery during the Spanish-American War of 1898, the emergence of modern field artillery, and indirect fire, President Theodore Roosevelt directed the War Department to send Captain Dan T. Moore of the 6th Field Artillery Regiment to Europe in 1908-1909.

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Crossing the Line of Departure

Crossing the Line of Departure

By John J. McGrath

305 Pages

Published: 2006

John McGrath’s Crossing the Line of Departure is a wide-ranging historical overview of that most difficult aspect of military leadership, the art of battle command. McGrath leads the reader through case studies beginning with Alexander the Great leading up to the recent war in Iraq. Among others, he analyzes Napoleon’s technique, French and British practices in World War I, the German experience with “Blitzkreig” in World War II, and the Soviet approach to battle command.

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CSI Report No. 5 Conversations with General J. Lawton Collins

CSI Report No. 5 Conversations with General J. Lawton Collins

By MAJ Gary Wade

13 Pages

Published: 1983

Former Army Chief of Staff J. Lawton Collins was inducted into the Fort Leavenworth Memorial Hall of Fame on 17 May 1983. The Hall of Fame was established to honor American soldiers who have contributed significantly to the defense of the United States. General Collins, recognized as the "best" corps commander during World War II, was elected by a panel of distinguished historians.

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CSI Report No. 7 World War II Division Commanders

CSI Report No. 7 World War II Division Commanders

By MAJ Gary Wade

30 Pages

Published: 1983

One of the most spectacular feats of the United States Army during World War II was its expansion from a force of 235,000 men in May 1940, to nearly six million men by 1945. No less a personage than Winston Churchill, the great wartime leader of Britain, declared that the magnificent American management of the growth of its war time forces (coupled with its lend-lease supplies to its Allies) had no precedent in history.

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CSI Report No. 9 The Directed Telescope

CSI Report No. 9 The Directed Telescope

By LTC Gary B. Griffin

54 Pages

Published: 1991

“War is the realm of chance. No other human activity gives it greater scope: no other has such incessant and varied dealings with this intruder. Chance makes everything more uncertain and interferes with the whole course of events.” So wrote Karl von CIausewitz in his classic, On War This inherent uncertainty in war, when combined with exertion, danger, and chance, produces an ever-present friction. The commander’s role throughout military history has been to reduce the uncertainties of war for his own side and increase them for his enemy.

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CSI Reprint: Cannae

CSI Reprint: Cannae

By Alfred Schlieffen

420 Pages

Published: 1931

This book was first brought to the attention of this School in 1916 by a lecture delivered by Colonel Wilson B. Burtt, Infantry, as to the observations of the United States military mission headed by General Joseph E. Kuhn on its visit to the German armies in 1915 and 1916. It was subsequently translated at The Army War College and individual officers in attendance there sought copies. At various times efforts were made to have it published in English.

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CSI Reprint: A Short History of the NCO

CSI Reprint: A Short History of the NCO

By Patricia Rhodes, ed.

59 Pages

Published: 1991

The following is a short history of the U.S. Army Noncommissioned Officer. This work is produced in hope that it will prove useful to the wide variety of NCOs in the field and to visitors of the U.S. Army Museum of the Noncommissioned Officer, who seek additional information on NC0 history.

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CSI Reprint: Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure

CSI Reprint: Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure

By J. F. C. Fuller.

102 Pages

Published: 1936

‘FOE what art can surpass that of the general?-an art which deals not with dead matter but with living beings, who are subject to every impression of the moment, such as fear, precipitation, exhaustion-in short, to every human passion and excitement.

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CSI Reprint: The U.S. Intervention in Lebanon, 1958

CSI Reprint: The U.S. Intervention in Lebanon, 1958

By MG David W. Gray

60 Pages

Published: 1984

Lebanon was chosen because there was ample documentation, much of it only recently declassified, and because Dr. Roger Spiller had set the strategic and tactical stage in Leavenworth Paper No. 3, "Not War But Like War": The American Intervention in Lebanon. In the course of my investigation, I decided to contact several military officers who had participated in the operation. Major General (Retired) David W. Gray was one of those contacted.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Centennial Bibliography

Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Centennial Bibliography

By Elizabeth R. Snoke

124 Pages

Published: 1990

In 1981, the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, published an excellent selected bibliography of periodical articles and dissertations on Dwight D. Eisenhower compiled by Robert D. Bohanan (see Bibliographies and Indexes). My intent has been that my bibliography, published in commemoration of the centennial of Eisenhower’s’birth, would be an adjunct to the Bohanan work.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower: The Centennial

Dwight D. Eisenhower: The Centennial

By U.S. Army Center of Military History

29 Pages

Published: 1990

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a master craftsman in the demanding art of leadership. For twenty years, first as a soldier and then as a statesman, he bore the daily responsibility for difficult decisions that had far-reaching consequences for the nation. An obscure Army officer in 1940, he was internationally known four years later as the Supreme Allied Commander who was leading the Allied armies, navies, and air forces in the crusade in Europe.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower: The Professional Soldier and the Study of History

By U.S. Army Center of Military History

84 Pages

Published: 1990

INTRODUCTIONDwight D. Eisenhower, general and president, was a life-longstudent of history. The materials reprinted here demonstratethat his interest was not just casual but that his reading washighly disciplined. Indeed, chapter III of his autobiography, AtEase: Stories I Tell to Friends, is self-revealing not only inexposing the depth of General Eisenhower's personal study ofthe Battle of Gettysburg but in reflecting a well-developedphilosophy of history, particularly in the importance attachedto chronology and the deep study of battle history-what todaywe call battle analysis.

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Forgotten Decisive Victories

Forgotten Decisive Victories

By Richard V. Barbuto and Jonathan M. House

215 Pages

Published: 2017

​The Army University Press is pleased to announce the publishing of "Forgotten Decisive Victories" by the faculty of the Department of Military History, US Army Command and General Staff College. This anthology is a collection of essays on forgotten decisive battles in history, each of which examines a battle that, in its time, altered the strategic balance between the belligerents in a lasting way. Although many of the battles described herein are less well known today even among scholars, their impact on the lives of the people, armies, and states involved ranged from significant (the Somme) to existential (Pusan Perimeter). The factors influencing the sequence & outcome of each battle are of course unique to each circumstance. It is applicable equally to the military professional, the interested layman, and the student of humanity. All seek better to understand the drivers of human conflict. The study of such conflicts from a wide swath of human history offers the best way to understand those drivers of conflict and thus offers us a chance to mitigate their influence on our world. (From the introduction by Dr. Thomas E. Hanson, Director, Department of Military History, CGSC.) This and all other Army University Press publications can be accessed here.

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The Fort Leavenworth Ethics Symposium Report

The Fort Leavenworth Ethics Symposium Report

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas - April 2015

By Kristy G. Russell and Ted G. Ihrke

246 Pages

Published: 2016

In April 2015, the US Army Command and General Staff College and the CGSC Foundation held its annual symposium on “The Professional Ethic and the State.” The conference focused on the ethical relationships that exist between the US Government and its military forces. The presentations given at this conference discussed a wide array of topics including moral lapses by senior military leaders, ethical obligations toward veterans, and the relationship between American society and the military.

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The Fort Leavenworth Ethics Symposium Report

The Fort Leavenworth Ethics Symposium Report

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas - April 2016

By Kristy G. Russell and Jeffrey T. McKinney

179 Pages

Published: 2018

The report of the 2016 Fort Leavenworth Ethics Symposium is now available. This symposium focused on the ethical issues inherent in humanitarian military operations and interventions. In this report, readers will find discussions on a broad series of topics such as the ethical challenges posed by genocide, hybrid warfare, and humanitarian operations conducted in megacities.

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From One Leader to Another

From One Leader to Another

By CSM Joe B. Parson (Gen. Ed.)

404 Pages

Published: 2013

This work is a collection of observations, insights, and advice from over 50 serving and retired Senior Non-Commissioned Officers. These experienced Army leaders have provided for the reader, outstanding mentorship on leadership skills, tasks, and responsibilities relevant to our Army today. There is much wisdom and advice “from one leader to another” in the following pages. CSI - The Past is Prologue!

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From One Leader to Another

From One Leader to Another Vol II

By CSM Joe B. Parson (Gen. Ed.)

322 Pages

Published: 2014

This outstanding resource contains a wealth of knowledge from some of the most experienced Non-Commissioned Officers from across our Army. Every NCO can learn important lessons from fellow NCOs and I encourage you to pass on that knowledge to your Soldiers.

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Gathering at the Golden Gate: Mobilizing for War in the Philippines, 1898

Gathering at the Golden Gate: Mobilizing for War in the Philippines, 1898

By Stephen D. Coats

318 Pages

Published: 2006

As the US Army shifts from being a forward-deployed force to a continental United States (CONUS)-based force, it must concurrently develop new plans and methods for rapidly deploying large numbers of units to contingency areas outside CONUS. Historically, the US Army has often been challenged in trying to rapidly deploy large forces from CONUS to the theater of operations.

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General Douglas MacArthur Military Leadership Writing Competition Command and General Staff College 2012 Award Winning Essays

General Douglas MacArthur Military Leadership Writing Competition Command and General Staff College 2012 Award Winning Essays

Award Winning Essays

74 Pages

Published: 2013

During each session of the Intermediate Level Education Course, the Command and General Staff College holds the General Douglas MacArthur Military Leadership Writing Competition. Students author and submit papers on various leadership topics. Winning papers are selected by a panel of judges and are evaluated on originality, scholarship, writing style and value to the profession.

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Great Commanders

Great Commanders

By Christopher R. Gabel, Ph.D. & James H. Willbanks, Ph.D., (eds.)

220 Pages

Published: 2012

With the publication of Great Commanders, the Combat Studies Institute continues its mission of publishing CGSC Faculty scholarship and adding to the body of historical literature the thoughts and research of these distinguished Professors. These analyses are both interesting and useful in their discussion of what attributes and circumstances yield an extraordinary commander of martial forces.

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How Much Obedience Does an Officer Need?

How Much Obedience Does an Officer Need?

By Ulrich F. Zwygart

38 Pages

Published: 1993

Major Ulrich F. Zwygart's essay, "How Much Obedience Does an Officer Need?" was awarded second place in the 1992-93 MacArthur Writing Award competition. The excellence of Major Zwygart's accomplishment is especially remarkable in that he wrote in a language other than his own. It is fitting that the Combat Studies Institute publish Major Zwygart's work in conjunction with the commemoration of the centennial of international officer participation at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC).

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Innovative cover

Innovative Learning: A Key to National Security

General Editors: Ralph Doughty, Linton Wells II, and Theodore Hailes

218 Pages

Published: 2015

This book reflects work by the members of the International Transformation (ITX) Chairs Network and is the fourth book in a series covering transformation across the spectrum of government activities. This book and its immediate predecessor examine the implications of various approaches to learning for different aspects of national security. The previous book, titled “Changing Mindsets to Transform Security: Leader Development for an Unpredictable and Complex World,” was produced in conjunction with NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT).

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In Tribute to General William E. DePuy

In Tribute to General William E. DePuy

By Generals Thurman, Talbott, and Gorman

25 Pages

Published: 1993

General William E. DePuy changed the U.S. Army. As the first commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), he created the mechanisms to restore the Army’s self-image as a conventional combat force trained and configured for continental warfare. He made it a doctrinal Army for the first time in its 200-year history. He laid the foundation for the training revolution that followed in the 1980s and for the development and fielding of the extraordinary combat systems that proved themselves in Operation Desert Storm.

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John F. Morrison Lecture in Military History

John F. Morrison Lecture in Military History

By Gerald Linderman

32 Pages

Published: 1988

The Morrison professorship honors Major General John F. Morrison (1857-1932), whose contributions at Fort Leavenworth made it the center of tactical study for the U.S. Army. An 1881 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Morrison had been a student in the second class at the School of Application for Infantry and Cavalry in 1885 and had taught at Leavenworth for one year just before the Spanish-American War. His broad understanding of troops and tactics developed while serving on the frontier in the 1880s and in Cuba where he received a Silver Star for gallantry in action against Spanish forces at El Caney in 1898.

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Large-Scale Combat Operations: The Division Fight

Large-Scale Combat Operations: The Division Fight

Art of Tactics Series

By Dennis S. Burket

325 Pages

Published: 2019

This new compendium is the first volume in the Art of Tactics series, sponsored by the Department of Army Tactics, US Army Command and General Staff College. This collection examines various aspects of division-level operations, to include Fires, Wet Gap Crossings, and Consolidating Gains, as part of the Army’s effort to refocus the force on large-scale combat against near peer and peer adversaries.

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Military History and Professional Development: Suggestions to Units and Formations (1985)

Military History and Professional Development: Suggestions to Units and Formations (1985)

By Lieutenant Colonel Gary L. Bounds, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Hixson, Lieutenant Colonel Gary H. Wade, Major Gary B. Griffin, Major Scott R. McMichael, Major Andrew N. Morris, Major Claude R. Sasso, Captain Thomas P. Odom

39 Pages

Published: 1985

This pamphlet is designed to provide ideas for the use of military history and military history related activities in fostering professional development. The ideas presented here, with some exceptions, do not require great expertise in the historical arena for their implementation. They are simply designed for use by service members, unit commanders, and school commandants to enhance soldier awareness of the past and thereby to instill in us pride and esprit de corps in our profession. This pamphlet is not limited to ceremonial programs and exhibits but encompasses a wide range of activities, such as battle analyses and staff rides. The broad scope of the pamphlet will aid the user in picking those ideas that best fit the needs of the individual, unit, or organization.

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On Strategy: A Primer

On Strategy: A Primer

By Nathan K. Finney

276 Pages

Published: 2020

This book is a collection of essays that provide historical insight, lessons learned from experience, and illustrations of strategy in practice. Designed as a primer for mid-career military professionals, On Strategy culls the expertise of a diverse group of strategists who represent the brightest minds of the field. They offer a succinct breakdown and instruction on how to think and act strategically at every level. It is a comprehensive and useful book that connects foundational theory to contemporary complexities.

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Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR: V Corps in Bosnia-Herzegovina 1995-1996

Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR: V Corps in Bosnia-Herzegovina 1995-1996

By Dr. Harold E. Raugh, Jr.

302 Pages

Published: 2010

The Dayton Peace Accords, signed on 14 December 1995, formally ended the ethnic and religious conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina and established a framework for full implementation of the provisions of the peace settlement.1 The following day, the UNSC (United Nations Security Council) adopted UNSC Resolution 1031, which authorized the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) “to establish a multinational IFOR (Implementation Force) under unified command and control”2 to help ensure compliance with the provisions of the Dayton Peace Accords.

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Press On! Selected Works of General Donn A. Starry (vol. 1)

Press On! Selected Works of General Donn A. Starry (vol. 1)

By Lewis Sorley

732 Pages

Published: 2009

The Army is planning to meet the numerically superior and increasingly sophisticated threat of the next decade through improved tactical concepts and the introduction of advanced materiel systems. An almost complete replacement of the Army’s major systems, as well as the introduction of system capabilities not now present, is envisioned by 1986. Speed and continuity of combat will put individuals under stress not previously experienced in warfare. Complexity of new systems will require new training strategies. The magnitude of the changes caused by incorporating these systems into the Army requires that an evaluation and modification of the battlefield organization be conducted to provide a basis for orderly transition from today’s units to those of the mid-1980s.

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Press On! Selected Works of General Donn A. Starry (vol. II)

Press On! Selected Works of General Donn A. Starry (vol. II)

By Lewis Sorley

654 Pages

Published: 2009

Many recent media presentations, both written and visual, have portrayed the soldier in the Army as a lackadaisical, slow-witted, poorly trained, and poorly motivated individual. Usually this portrayal is accompanied by a raft of statistics that are skewed this way or that to prove whatever point is being made. Many in the Army, in attempting to refute the allegations made, have answered in kind with still another avalanche of statistics.

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Railroad Generalship: Foundations of Civil War Strategy

Railroad Generalship: Foundations of Civil War Strategy

By Dr. Christopher R. Gabel

32 Pages

Published: 1997

Since the dawn of history, military strategy has been dominated by the inexorable calculus of Iogistics-distance, time, transport capacity, and consumptian. For thousands of years, every army that waged war relied upon the muscles of its men and animals to carry it across the countryside. It is sobering to consider that, up until 1830, every soldier that ever went into battle got there on his own feet or by the efforts of an animal. Every weapon, every round of ammunition, every pound of food eaten by an army, every tent peg, and every bandage reached the battlefield by muscle power.

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Soldier Extraordinaire: The Life and Career of Brig. Gen. Frank “Pinkie” Dorn (1901–81)

Soldier Extraordinaire

The Life and Career of Brig. Gen. Frank “Pinkie” Dorn (1901–81)

By Alfred Emile Cornebise

266 Pages

Published: 2019

Dr. Alfred Cornebise's biography of BG Frank "Pinkie" Dorn offers a case study of the importance of cultural immersion and foreign language skills in creating flexible and adaptable officers who can successfully work with Allied forces to achieve success in wartime. While serving as an aide to GEN Joseph Stillwell in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater of World War II, Dorn commanded "Y Force," comprised of twenty Chinese divisions engaged in liberating northern Burma and southern China from Japanese control. But it was Dorn's years of service as an "Old China Hand," that enabled him to successfully train, equip, advise, and eventually lead Allied forces in large-scale combat operations. Thus, Dorn's life serves as a model for both Foreign Area Officers (FAOs) who immerse themselves in a foreign language and culture in order to facilitate military cooperation in times of crisis, as well as Soldiers of the new Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs) tasked with training host-nation forces. BG Dorn was undoubtedly one of the Army’s unsung "Engineers of Victory" in World War II.

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Studies in Battle Command

Studies in Battle Command

By CSI Faculty

150 Pages

Published: 2000

In response to the recent Battle Command initiative at Headquarters U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the faculty of the Combat Studies Institute at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College wrote a series of essays analyzing various combat engagement and military leaders throughout history. The unifying theme of these essays was provided by the direct or indirect application to each case of the five Battle Command “competencies:”

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The Proceedings of the CSI 2010 Military History Symposium

The Proceedings of the CSI 2010 Military History Symposium

By Kendall D. Gott

279 Pages

Published: 2011

These Proceedings are the eighth volume to be published in a series generated by the annual Military History Symposium hosted by the Combat Studies Institute. Each year, these conferences bring together both military and civilian historians, as well as formal and informal students of military history, literally from around the world. They gather for the purpose of presenting ideas and points of view on current military issues from a historical perspective.

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Training for Decisive Action: Stories of Mission Command

Training for Decisive Action: Stories of Mission Command

By Operations Group, US Army National Training Center

174 Pages

Published: 2014

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” and “only the dead have seen the end of war” are famous quotes by George Santayana. These are the driving forces for military professionals to study the craft and learn from those leaders before them. As we emerge from a period of one specific type of conflict, we as a military must retain the lessons from the last 11 years of conflict and remember the capabilities we trained so intensely on that prepared us for the initial interventions into Iraq and Afghanistan.

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U.S. Army World War II Corps Commanders-A Composite Biography

U.S. Army World War II Corps Commanders-A Composite Biography

By Dr. Robert H. Berlin

25 Pages

Published: 1989

The corps commander was responsible for coordinating and directing the effort of the corps as a combined arms whole. According to 1942 Field Service Regulation for Larger Units, the corps commander left the details of executing his operational plan t;o division commanders. In combat, be influenced the outcome of the battle by maintaining close contact with the leading divisions and coordinating the use of forces.

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Wrath of Achilles: Essays on Command in Battle

Wrath of Achilles: Essays on Command in Battle

By Colonel Richard D. Hooker, Jr.

220 Pages

Published: 2011

“Sing Goddess, of the wrath of Achilles, Peleus’ son.” So begins the Iliad, the greatest war epic in western culture. Since the dawn of recorded history, the history of man has been nearly synonymous with the history of war, a history that begins with Homer and continues today. Then as now, war remains the ultimate arbiter of human affairs, an awful and ever-present reminder of humanity’s failure to escape its wrathful roots. Seemingly inescapable, war is supremely important because it is the great destroyer of states and populations and whole cultures.

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