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Title: Assessing War

Subtitle: The Challenge of Measuring Success and Failure

Author: Leo J. Blanken, Hy Rothstein, Jason J. Lepore

Narrator: Neal Vickers

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-09-16

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

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 18th 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.

Critic Reviews:

"The enduring value of the work is that it offers qualitative and quantitative means for predicting and assessing wars in the future. Those inside the Beltway who recognize the importance of finding the means to overcome this chronic and historically enduring failure must read it." (Robert H. Scales, MG (Ret.)

Members Reviews:

Critically relevant collection for practitioners and scholars.

Assessing War is one of the, if not the best, collections on measuring outcomes in conflict. This collection of case studies chart how progress, and failure, was determined in a range of historical contexts by those operating within them. This is an important aspect to the book because it avoids presentism. Additionally, the chronological range and widely varying types of conflicts covered in the case studies - a chapter for each - is a particular strength of the book. Readers gain a sense of how tangible and intangible factors contributed to soldiers' and scholars' perception of results and how these were determined by contextual factors, including cultural and political considerations, among others. In one case, readers interested in the Plains Wars, for instance, will find an interesting assessment as to how the US Calvary determined the effects of their 'social disruption strategy.' In a far different type of conflict, readers interested in measurements of effectiveness in the Cyber Domain will get a lot out of Dorothy Denning's excellent essay on the subject. One last comment, the short and succinct structure of the chapters (running approximately 12 to 22 pages each) make it a useful text for classroom discussions. This book helps fill a massive gap in the attempts to make sense of war and why some actions potentially work and why others fail.