Understanding Warfare: Strategy, Operations, and Tactics

The book will discuss the nature of armed conflict, mostly between nations, but also as civil wars, as a transformational force in world history. It will examine the causes of armed conflict, the different types of military warfare, how wars are waged at the strategic, operational and tactical levels, and the evolution of weaponry throughout the centuries These issues are then applied to how they have played out in significant conventional wars throughout history. Finally, there is a thorough discussion of how wars terminate through victory, defeat, negotiated settlement, or protracted stalemate--an important issue in a world where numerous wars, such as in Afghanistan and between Israel and the Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian Hamas, remain unresolved militarily.