Sources on this page consist of websites, sources related to the theory of war, and sources relevant to the current application of strategic concepts.
Websites:
- The RAND Corporation conducts detailed analysis on strategic and practical dilemmas encountered by military and foreign policy leaders. Many reports and books are available on their website free of charge.
- The Institute for the Study of War publishes daily situation reports for ongoing conflicts in the middle east.
- The Correlates of War Project has compiled an impressive database of information relating to armed conflict.
- The Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy regularly publishes scholarship pertaining to the study of terrorism and counterterrorism.
- Princeton University has sponsored Empirical Studies of Conflict, which compiles data and publishes reports pertinent to understanding armed conflict.
- The Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas regularly hosts events and compiles the work of various scholars.
Understanding War
- The Histories by Herodotus
- The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
- The Peloponnesian War by Stephen Lattimore
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu
- The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli
- On War by Carl von Clausewitz
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman
- Strategies of Containment by John Lewis Gaddis
- On Strategy: a Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War by Harry G. Summers Jr.
- A Better War by Lewis Sorley
- The Long Game by Derek Chollet
- Sustainable Security: Rethinking American National Security Strategy edited by Jeremi Suri
- Choosing to Lead produced by various authors under the John Hay Initiative
- The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power & The Necessity of Military Force by Eliot Cohen
- Vicksburg: 1863 by Winston Groom
- Patriot Battles: How the War of Independence was Fought by Michael Stephenson
- The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson
Understanding Diplomacy and Soft Power
- Just and Unjust Wars by Michael Walzer
- Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime by Eliot Cohen
- Henry Kissinger and The American Century by Jeremi Suri
- Assuming The Burden: Europe and The American Commitment to War in Vietnam by Mark Atwood Lawrence
- And The Weak Suffer What They Must?: Europe’s Crisis and America’s Economic Future by Yanis Varoufakis
- Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Robert F. Kennedy
- The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev’s Adaptability, Reagan’s Engagement, and The End of The Cold War by James Graham Wilson
- The Violence of Peace by Stephen L. Carter
- Armed State Building by Paul Miller
- At War’s End: Building Peace After Conflict by Roland Paris
- Hostile Intent: U.S Covert Operations in Chile 1964-1974 by Kristian Gustafson
- Planning a Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam by Larry Berman
- Conservative Internationalism: Armed Diplomacy Under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan by Henry Nau
Understanding the Contemporary Environment
- The World America Made by Robert Kagan
- A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne
- Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick
- Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror by Mary Habeck
- The Uses and Limits of Small Scale Military Interventions by Stephen Watts, Caroline Baxter, Molly Dunigan, and Christopher Rizzi
- America’s War for the Greater Middle East by Andrew Bacevich
- Battle of the Casbah: Counterterrorism and Torture by General Paul Aussaresses
- The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by Jake Tapper
- The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
- In The Graveyard of Empires: America’s War in Afghanistan by Seth Jones
- Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan edited by Aaron O’Connell
- Not A Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda by Sean Naylor
- The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty-year Conflict With Iran by David Crist
- The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia by Andrei Lankov
- Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific
- 34 Days: Israel Hezbollah and the War in Lebanon by Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff
- My Share of the Task: A Memoir by General (retired) Stanley McChrystal
- The French War on Al’ Qaida in Africa by Steven Chivvis