The U.S. national security community contains a slew of superlative political, military, economic, sociological, technological, and other specialists, but comparably qualified generalists prepared to cherry pick their products, then produce integrated policies, plans, programs, and conduct operations that best suit this great Nation’s needs, are exceedingly scarce. The Warlord Loop’s 2012 reading list, which features interdisciplinary topics that cover the conflict spectrum from normal peacetime competition to what Herman Kahn’s classic On Thermonuclear War called a “wargasm,” is explicitly designed to help correct that imbalance.

Contributors include active and retired officials in executive and legislative branches of the U.S. Government, news media representatives, college professors, and military personnel from every service who range in rank from noncommissioned officers to four-star generals and admirals. Males, females, liberals, conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, nonpartisans, assorted age groups, and a few foreigners span the complete range of public opinion. The Warlord recently challenged them to identify two books apiece that would help practitioners and concerned citizens better understand increasingly complex problems and optional solutions despite mutating situational changes that now circle this globe at bewildering speed. A cross-section of responses appears below. Publishers, dates, and synopses are available on the Internet.

Brigadier General Chris Arney, USA (Retired), a professor of mathematics at West Point, focuses on information networks, modeling, intelligence processing, and artificial intelligence.

Mario Diani and Doug McAdam, Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action

Howard Steven Friedman Howard, The Measure of a Nation: How to Regain America's Competitive Edge and Boost Our Global Standing

Lieutenant General David Barno, USA, (Retired), who saw combat in Grenada and Panama, commanded all U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003-2005. He now is a Senior Advisor and Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Eliot Cohen, Supreme Command

Colin Gray, Another Bloody Century

Captain Sean Barrett, USMC, is a Fellow for the Marine Corps Director of Intelligence, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Treasury. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Intelligence Officer.

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

George Orwell, Animal Farm

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bateman, USA, formerly Office of Net Assessment, currently in International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Afghanistan.

Azar Gat, A History of Military Thought

John Lynn, ed., Feeding Mars, Logistics in Western Warfare, from the Middle Age to the Present

Major Sunset Belinsky, USA, was chief Public Affairs Officer (PAO) for the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) in Kabul and now is U.S. Army PAO and student of Public Relations at Georgetown University

Benazir Bhutto, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West

Paul Lockhart, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge

Anita Blair, formerly Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower & Reserve Affairs), now is Deputy Assistant Secretary and Chief Human Capital Officer for the Treasury Department.

Herotodus, Histories

John F. Lehman, Jr., Command of the Seas

Lieutenant Colonel Gary Bloomberg, USA (Retired), a U.S. Army Special Forces officer, currently is NEK Advanced Securities Group’s Senior Vice President for Corporate Development for Visual Awareness Technologies and Consulting.

Robert Caro, The Power Broker

Will Irwin, The Jedburghs

Andrew Borene, Esq, a former U.S. Marine intelligence officer, is Director and Counsel at ReconRobotics, Inc., Adjunct Professor at Macalester College, and Editor, U.S. Intelligence Community Law Sourcebook.

U.S. Marine Corps, Warfighting: MCDP 1

Roger Z. George and Harvey Rishikof, The National Security Enterprise: Navigating the Labyrinth

Dr. Janet Breslin-Smith was Legislative Director for Senator Patrick Leahy, then chaired the National War College Department of National Security Strategy, and now is the wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Michael Oren, Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present

Tamim Ansary, Destiny Disrupted: World History through Islamic Eyes

Shawn Brimley was Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. He now is Director for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council staff.

Robert Kaplan, The Revenge of Geography



Thomas Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today

Paula Broadwell is a PhD student at Kings College London, a Research Associate at Harvard's Center for Public Leadership, an Army Reserve Military Intelligence officer, and co-authored All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.

Edmund Morris, Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy: Theodore Rex, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and Colonel Roosevelt

Jean Edward Smith, Eisenhower: In War and Peace

Lieutenant General Frederic (Rick) Brown, PhD, U.S. Army (Retired), Olmsted Scholar Switzerland, was Chief of Armor/Cavalry and served on the Joint Staff, the National Security Council staff, and in the White House.

James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom:The Civil War Era

John Keegan, A History of Warfare

Major Michael Burgoyne, USA, served twice in Iraq, was a Foreign Area Officer in Ecuador, and now is an MA candidate in Security Studies at Georgetown University.

Moisés Naím, Illicit

Max G. Manwaring, Gangs, Pseudo-Militaries, and Other Modern Mercenaries

Major Crispin Burke, USA, is a member of, and handles special projects for, the Commander's Initiatives Group, U.S. Army North.

Thomas E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Robert Boyd Corum, The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

Colonel David “Hubble” CADE, USAF, is the Commander, 12th Air Force Detachment 1, representing the AFSOUTH/CC to Commander USSOUTHCOM and promoting effective interaction between the staffs.

Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State, and War

Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

Colonel Bob Cassidy, USA, PhD, is a military professor at the U.S. Naval War College and a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies.

Barbara Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

Robert Kaplan, Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos

Dean Cheng is the Research Fellow for Chinese Political and Security Affairs at the Heritage Foundation.

J. Bowyer Bell and Barton Whaley, Cheating and Deception

Major Generals Peng Guangqian and Yao Youzhi, The Science of Military Strategy. A translation of a textbook published by the Chinese Academy of Military Science that discusses the Chinese view of military strategy

Ensign Michael Clauser, USNR serves with U.S. Africa Command. He previously served as the National Security Legislative Assistant for Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) of the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees and in Administration of George W. Bush in the Pentagon. In 2011, he was named a Next Generation National Security Leader by the Center for a New American Security.

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

Mark Munn, School of History: Athens in the Age of Socrates

Lieutenant Colonel Chris Coglianese, USA, is the South Asia Branch Chief for Pacific Command J5. He was the first Olmsted Scholar to India and completed four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn

Between War and Peace: How America Ends Its Wars, edited by Matthew Moten.

Colonel John Collins, U.S. Army (Retired), aka Warlord, completed 54 years of Federal service, lastly with the National War College faculty, then the Congressional Research Service.

Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000

Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History

Dr. Sean Collins has been a ballistic missile defense specialist for 30 years and now is Vice President/Chief Technical Officer, Missile Defense Sector, Sparta, Inc.

Richard Rhodes, Arsenals of Folly: The Making of Nuclear Arms Race

Walter A. McDougall, The Heavens and Earth

Colonel William Coultrup, USA, Special Forces, served in Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, then led Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines. He now is Legislative Affairs Director for U.S. Special Operations Command.

Brian McAllister Linn, The Philippine War, 1899-1902

Garcia Burnham, In the Presence of My Enemies

Dr. Audrey Kurth Cronin, recently directed the National War College’s War and Statecraft course. She is now a senior professor at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy.

Beatrice Heuser, The Evolution of Strategy

John Lewis Gaddis, George F. Kennan: An American Life

Dr. Patrick Cronin, formerly Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at National Defense University, now is Senior Advisor and Director of the Asia Program at the Center for a New American Security.

Spenser Wilkinson, War and Policy

Hugh White, The China Choice: Why America Should Share Power

Major Scott Cuomo, USMC, recently was Operations Officer for Battalion Landing Team 2/2. He now is the Director, Marine Infantry Officer Course.

Charles E. White, The Enlightened Soldier: Scharnhorst and the Militarische Gesellschaft in Berlin, 1801-1805

F. J. "Bing" West, The Village

J. Furman Daniel, III, is VP for Research and Operations at Lycurgus Fund, LP and an Adjunct Professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University.

The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, ed. Robert B. Strassler, Richard Crawley, and Victor Davis Hanson

Williamson Murray, Military Adaptation in War: With Fear of Change

COL Zygmunt (Zyg) Dembek, USA (Retired), PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist and biochemist. Currently a Senior Scientist with the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

John W. Kiser, Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader

H.R. McMaster, Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam

John Dickert, a Vietnam War veteran, was a lexicographer for the Defense Technical Information Center, where he managed military strategy, tactics, and intelligence data bases.

Henry Kissinger, A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problem of Peace 1812-1822

Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

David Dilegge, a retired USMCR intelligence officer, is currently Editor-in-Chief of Small Wars Journal and serves as a Director at Small Wars Foundation. He also served as an urban operations and irregular warfare senior analyst for the USMC and U.S. Joint Forces Command.

U.S. Marine Corps, Small Wars Manual

Robert B. Asprey, War in the Shadows (Volumes I and II)

Brigadier General Edward Donnelly, USA, is Deputy Commanding General for Supporting NATO Training Mission -- Afghanistan and Combined Security Transition Command -- Afghanistan.

William J. Bernstein, The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created

Aubrey S. Newman, The Human Element in Leadership (in three Volumes)

Captain Joel Doolin, USN, recently was the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Chief of Staff. He now is Legal Advisor for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance and Director of Naval Intelligence.

Philip Bobbitt, Terror and Consent: The Wars of the 21st Century

Shane Harris, The Watchers: the Rise of America's Surveillance State

Kimberly Dozier, formerly with CBS News, is an Associated Press correspondent covering intelligence and special operations. She authored Breathing the Fire, about surviving a car bomb in Baghdad in 2006.

Three volumes from The Fundamentalism Project: Fundamentalisms Observed; Fundamentalisms and the State: Remaking Polities, Economies, and Militance; and Fundamentalisms and Society: Reclaiming the Sciences, the Family, andEducation, all edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby.

Seth Jones, Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of al Qa'ida since 9/11

Lieutenant Colonel David Duffy, USA (Retired), an Army Special Forces officer who possesses extensive unconventional warfare and information warfare experience, is Vice President of Strategic Studies for NEK Advanced Securities Group.

William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American

Robert Taber, War of the Flea

Major General Charles Dunlap, Jr., USAF (Retired) is the Executive Director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University Law School.

John Andreas Olsen, John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power

Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire

V. L. (Lani) Elliott, at National Intelligence University, emphasizes links between economics, instability, and internal war including terrorism. He co-authored Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy.

Jack Hirshleifer, The Dark Side of the Force: Economic Foundations of Conflict Theory

Walter Enders and Todd Sandler, The Political Economy of Terrorism, 2nd ed

Adam Elkus, a PhD student in International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C., concentrates on military operations and is Associate Editor of Red Team Journal.

Franklin Kramer, Stuart H. Starr, and Larry Wentz (eds), Cyberpower and National Security

James J. Schneider, The Structure of Strategic Revolution: Total War and the Roots of the Soviet Warfare State

Janice Elmore, a retired career Foreign Service Officer, served in eight countries as political officer and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program Director. She currently is consulting and writing a book on the Sudanese Liberation Army and Darfur.

The World Economic Forum Water Initiative (author), Water Security: The Water- Food-Energy-Climate Nexus

The Constitution of the United States

Mieke Eoyang, Director of the National Security Program at Third Way, formerly was Defense Policy Advisor to Senator Edward Kennedy and Professional Staff Member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

L. Britt Snyder, The Agency and the Hill: CIA's Relationship with Congress 1946-2004

Ryan Evans is a Research Fellow at Center for National Policy. He served on a Human Terrain Team in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province and now is a PhD candidate at the King's College London War Studies Department.

Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics

John Bew, Castlereagh: A Life

Joseph Galloway recently retired as Senior Military Correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers and a syndicated columnist. He spent 16 years as a foreign correspondent assigned to Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Singapore, and Moscow.

David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter

Dr. Bernard Fall, Street Without Joy

Lieutenant General Robert Gard, USA (Retired), is past President of National Defense University and Monterey Institute of International Studies. He consults on international security and education issues.

Peter L. Bergen, The Longest War

Mark Perry, Talking to Terrorists

Lieutenant Colonel Allen Gill, USA (Retired) was Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Character, Leadership, and Excellence and now is speechwriter for General Shinseki at the Veteran’s Administration.

James Wright, Those Who Have Borne the Battle: A History of America's Wars and Those Who fought Them

Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death in the American Civil War

Robert Goldich focused on military manpower and history at the Congressional Research Service before retirement. He now is writing a book about the history of conscription.

T. R. Fehrenbach, This Kind of War: Korea, a Study in Unpreparedness

Richard S. Faulkner, The School of Hard Knocks: Combat Leadership in the American Expeditionary Forces

Lieutenant Colonel Steve Grenier, a career Army Special Forces Officer and veteran of eleven combat tours, currently serves in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Robert W. Komer, Bureaucracy at War

Allan Millett and Williamson Murray, eds., Military Effectiveness, Volumes 1-3

Dr. Richard F. Grimmett, recently retired from the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, concentrated on war powers, U.S. intelligence policy and oversight, the international arms trade, and also ranged widely as a Specialist in International Security.

Crain Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution

Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco: The American Adventure in Iraq

Colonel David Gurney, USMC (Retired), former Harrier squadron commander, J3 of Joint Task Force-Panama, then Editor of Joint Force Quarterly, now is Vice President of Tropic Oil Company and Deputy Warlord.

Friedrich August Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Fiftieth anniversary edition)

Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations

Robert Haddick, formerly a Marine Corps captain, is a director at the Small Wars Foundation. Until recently he wrote the "This Week at War" column for Foreign Policy magazine and was Managing Editor of Small Wars Journal.

Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766.



Gideon Rose, How Wars End: Why We Always Fight the Last Battle.

Richard Halloran is a free lance writer in Honolulu, formerly with The New York Times as a foreign correspondent in Asia and military correspondent in Washington.

Ralph D. Sawyer, editor and translator, The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China

Susan L. Shirk, China: Fragile Superpower

Colonel T.X. Hammes,, PhD, USMC (Retired), a counterinsurgency authority and author of The Sling and the Stone, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at National Defense University.

Colin Gray, The Strategy Bridge

Walter Russell Mead, God and Gold

Lieutenant Colonel Donald Hanle, PhD, USAF, is Graduate Program Director, College of Strategic Intelligence, National Intelligence University.

Andrew Gordon, The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command

Carl H. Builder, The Icarus Syndrome: The Role of Airpower Theory in the Evolution and Fate of the U.S. Air Force

Dr. Jacqueline L. Hazelton studies the uses of military power; U.S foreign policy; military intervention; counterinsurgency; and terrorism. She is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, the University of Rochester.

Thomas Schelling, Arms and Influence

Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars

Lieutenant Colonel Steven R. Heffington, USAF, is a Security Forces officer currently serving as an Afghanistan-Pakistan Hand. He previously was an advisor/liaison in the Executive Office of the President of Afghanistan.

Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It

Ha-Joon Chang, Institutional Change and Economic Development

Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hoffman, USMCR (Retired), formerly the Navy Department’s Deputy Director, Office of Program Appraisal, now is Director, National Defense University Press and a Senior Research Fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies.

Colin S. Gray, Another Bloody Century: Future Warfare

MacGregor Knox, W. Murray, and Al Bernstein, The Making of Strategy: Rulers, States and War

Dr Michael Horowitz, an associate political science professor at Pennsylvania University and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, studies assorted national security issues.

Dennis E. Showalter, Railroads and Rifles: Soldiers, technology, and theunification of Germany

Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics

Dr. Timothy Hoyt is Professor of Strategy and Policy and John Nicholas Brown Chair of Counterterrorism at the U.S. Naval War College, with particular attention to Pakistan, the British Isles, and Mexico.

Sir Julian Corbett, Some Principles of Maritime Strategy

Colin Gray, The Leverage of Sea Power

Mark Jacobson, who spent 19 years in the Army and Navy Reserves, is a former Deputy NATO Senior Civilian Representative - Afghanistan, a Senate Armed Services Committee staffer, and supported the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence

Giulio Douhet, Command of the Air (USAF Warrior Studies), trans. by Dino Ferrari

Colonel David E. Johnson, Ph.D. USA (Retired), a Senior Political Scientist on leave from the RAND Corporation, is the Director, Chief of Staff of the Army Strategic Studies Group.

Elting E. Morison, Men Machines and Modern Times

Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Lieutenant Colonel Dave Jonas, USMC (Retired), Senior Executive Service, Department of Energy, Office of the General Counsel, was the first Defense Department lawyer to argue a case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Phillip Bobbitt, Shield of Achilles

Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn

Sean Kay, who chairs international studies at Ohio Wesleyan University and Mershon Associate at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at the Ohio State University, is a specialist in global security issues and NATO.

Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics

E.H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis

Noel Koch, served 11 months as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, Wounded Warrior Transition Policy, was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa.

Truong Chinh, The Resistance Will Win

David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerrilla

Dr. Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos, who specializes in health systems research, is an adjunct professor at George Mason University and until recently headed the Health and Family Planning Systems Programme in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

J. Diamond, Disease and Conquest: Guns, Germs and Steel

Jerry Jenkins, Disaster Relief: The Night the Giant Rolled Over

Major Ryan Kranc, USA, was aide to the Saudi Arabian National Guard Modernization Program Manager. He now is the Regimental Operations Officer for the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Irwin, California.

Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom, The Starfish and the Spider

Avigdor Kahalani, The Heights of Courage: A Tank Leader's War on the Golan

Colonel Cliff Krieger, USAF (Retired), was JCS Strategy Division Chief, held the National War College JCS Chairman’s Chair, and co-authored a National War College history.

Correlli Barnett, The Audit of War: The Illusion and Reality of Britain As a Great Nation

General Kenney Reports: A Personal History of the Pacific War

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Krohn, USA (Retired), an author and Vietnam veteran, formerly was Deputy Chief of Public Affairs, U.S. Army.

Charles Miller, Battle for the Bundu

Lewis Sorley, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost the Vietnam War

Lieutenant Joshua (JD) Kristenson, USN, is a Surface Warfare Officer; an Olmsted Scholar (2009, Beijing, China); a graduate of Tsinghua University; and a Fellow at the China Maritime Studies Institute of the Naval War College.

Henry Kissinger, On China

George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower, U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776

Commander John Kuehn, PhD, USN (Retired), formerly a naval flight officer in the electronic warfare community, now is Associate Professor of Military History U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He won the Society of Military History Moncado Prize in 2010.

Edward Miller, War Plan Orange

Al Nofi, To Train the Fleet for War

Colonel James Kurtz, USA (Retired), served extensively in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and on the Joint Staff before he became Deputy Director of the Joint Advanced Warfighting Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses.

Amy B. Zegart, Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC

Robert M. Chesney, Military-Intelligence Convergence and the Law of the Title 10/Title 50 Debate (a paper available online here)

Colonel Richard A. Lacquement, Jr., PhD, USA, an Army strategist who emphasizes the military profession, stability operations and counterinsurgency, is the Dean of the School of Strategic Landpower, U.S. Army War College.

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow

Charles Hill, Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft and World Order

Jon Lellenberg, a career OSD Policy official, was directing the Policy and Strategy office in SOLIC’s Special Operations & Combating Terrorism bureau when he retired in February 2006.

Michael Howard, The Continental Commitment: The Dilemma of British Defence Policy in the Era of Two World Wars

David Stafford, Churchill and Secret Service

Commander Thomas Mahnken, U.S. Navy, occupies the Jerome E. Levy Chair of Economic Geography and National Security at the U.S. Naval War College and is a Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Merrill Center for Strategic Studies

Carl von Clausewitz, On War

Zhang Yuliang, The Science of Campaigns(2006 edition)

Al Mauroni, a senior policy analyst for Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, focuses on homeland security issues and ways to counter weapons of mass destruction. He has authored six books and numerous journal articles.

Michael Handel, Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought

Lieutenant General Frederic Brown, Chemical Warfare: A Study in Restraints

Colonel David Maxwell, US Army Special Forces (Retired) is the Associate Director of the Center For Security Studies and the Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Colin S. Gray, War, Peace, and International Relations: An Introduction to Strategic History (2d Edition)

John Lewis Gaddis, George F. Kennan: An American Life

Dr. Sean McFate, a former Army paratrooper, is an Assistant Professor at National Defense University and Adjunct at the RAND Corporation.

C. E. Callwell, Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice

R. Fisher, et al., Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

Rear Admiral James McPherson, USN (Retired), was the Navy’s Judge Advocate General, then the General Counsel for DoD’s Counterintelligence Field Activity, and now is Executive Director of the National Association of Attorneys General.

Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln on Leadership

James MacGregor Burns, Leadership

Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger, USA (retired), remained on active duty nearly 40 years, much of it as a Ranger. His final assignments were as CSM for the Multi-National Force - Iraq (Aug 04 - May 07), then CSM, U.S. Army Materiel Command.

Patricia Driscoll, Hidden Battles on Unseen Fronts: Stories of American Soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD

Eric Hammel, The Root: The Marines in Beirut, August 1982-February 1984

Lieutenant Colonel Andy Morgado, USA, now the G3, Brigade Modernization Command at Fort Bliss, Texas, served 30 months in Iraq in a variety of command and staff positions.

Ian Kershaw. Fateful Choices. Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940- 1941

Dietrich Dorner. The Logic of Failure: Recognizing And Avoiding Error In Complex Situations

Carson Morris is a Member of Board of Directors, Association for Intelligence Officers; Advisor to U.S. Government Intelligence Agencies and Congressional Committees; and Chief Execeutive Officer, Intelsec Corporation.

Henry Crumpton, The Art of Intelligence

John Keegan, Intelligence in War: The Value--and Limitations--of What the Military Can Learn About the Enemy

Captain William (Liam) Murphy, New York Naval Militia (Retired), spent 29 years with the Office of Emergency Management, Westchester County. He now is Adjunct Instructor, Emergency Management, State University of New York Maritime College.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War, translated by Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith

Bloodworth, Dennis & Ching Ping, The Chinese Machiavelli: 3,000 Years of Chinese Statecraft

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Myers, U.S. Army (Retired), served in Latin America and Afghanistan. He is a PhD candidate in Auburn University’s Public Policy program focusing on terrorism and homeland security.

Ahmad Ibn Al-Naqib Al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law Umdat Al-Salik, translated by Noah Ha Mim Keller

Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers

Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl, PhD, USA (Retired), a counterinsurgency specialist, is Minerva Professor in the History Department at the U.S. Naval Academy and a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest

James Wright, Those Who Have Borne the Battle: A History of America's Wars and Those Who Fought Them

Colonel Scott Nestler, USA, the Warlord Loop Administrator, is an Army operations research analyst currently studying at the Army War College.

Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff, The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life

Robert Powell, In the Shadow of Power: States and Strategies in International Politics

Michael Noonan, a former Army reserve armor captain and advisor with the Iraqi Army 2006-2007, directs the national security program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

General D’Armée André Beaufre, An Introduction to Strategy: with Particular Reference to Problems of Defence, Politics, Economics, and Diplomacy in the Nuclear Age

Jakub Grygiel, Great Powers and Geopolitical Change

Aki Peritz, formerly with the Counterterrorism Center (CTC) and National CTC, now is Third Way’s senior national security advisor and is writing a book about al Qaeda after 9/11.

James E. Baker, In the Common Defense: National Security Law for Perilous Times

Graham Greene, The Quiet American

Commander Michele Poole, USN, is a Surface Warfare Officer, PhD Candidate in Strategic Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School, and an Afghanistan-Pakistan Hand assigned to the Afghanistan Division of the Joint Staff.

Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country

Alex Strick Van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan, 1970-2010

Christopher Preble, is Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute and a former Navy Surface Warfare Officer.

Ernest R. May and Richard E. Neustadt, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers

Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World

Thomas Ricks is a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a contributing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, and author of several military books that include The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today (forthcoming)

David Crist, The Twilight War

Timothy Noah, The Great Divergence

Dr. Joshua Rovner is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College and adjunct professor in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Richard K. Betts, American Force

John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment

Command Sergeant Major Robert Rush, USA (Retired) is a PhD at the Army Center of Military History who specializes in small unit cohesion and has deployed twice to Iraq as a command historian.

Richard Neustadt and Ernest May, Thinking in Time

Jacques Barzun, Darwin, Marx and Wagner

Mark Safranski is an educator and author. His Zenpundit.com blog connects national security issues with historical context, futurism, cognition, and other esoteric topics.

Venkatesh Rao, Tempo: Timing, Tactics and Strategy in Narrative Driven Decision Making

Charles Hill, Grand Strategies

Major General Robert Scales, USA (Retired), a former Army War College Commandant, is now President of Colgen, Inc, specializing in landpower, wargaming, and strategic leadership.

Robert Graves, Good-bye to All That

George McDonald Fraser, Quartered Safe Out Here: Recollection of War in Burma

Frank Schell, business consultant and former international banking executive, worked in India, teaches at Chicago University’s Harris School, and serves on the editorial board of Chicago's National Strategy Forum.

Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game

John L. Esposito, Georgetown University, What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam

Captain Eleanor Schoonover, USNR (Retired), Intelligence Officer/Info Dominance Corps, Bioscience Coordinator, Hampton Roads Technology Council.

David McCullough, The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris

David McCullough, John Adams

Colonel Michael Shaler, USA (Retired), is the Special Advisor for Strategic Leader Development to the Chief of Staff, Army, a position he has held for the past three Chiefs of Staff.

Harry Summers, On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War

Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

Dr. Joshua Sinai, Senior Manager, National Security Programs, Infinity Technology, LLC, McLean, VA.

Thomas Fingar, Reducing Uncertainty: Intelligence Analysis and National Security

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples

Stanley Sloan, PhD, was the Senior Specialist in International Security Policy at the Congressional Research Service after serving in the Central Intelligence Agency and as an Air Force officer. He now writes/lectures/ teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Wallace J. Thies, Why NATO Endures

Stanley R. Sloan, Permanent Alliance? NATO and the Transatlantic Bargain from Truman to Obama

Lee Smith, a Senior Editor at the Weekly Standard and a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, writes extensively on Arab and Islamic affairs and U.S. Middle East policy.

Angelo Codevilla, Advice to War Presidents: A Remedial Course in Statecraft

Elie Kedourie, The Chatham House Version: And Other Middle Eastern Studies



David Southworth, currently a civilian US Air Force analyst, has previously supported the Human Terrain System and Office of the Secretary of Defense, Program Analysis and Evaluation (now Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation).

Barbara W. Tuchman, The Guns of August

Sebastian Junger, War

John Sullivan, a senior research fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies on Terrorism, is a lieutenant and urban operations specialist with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

Manuel Castells, Communication Power

Saskia Sassen, Territory-Authority-Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages

Christopher Taylor is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Novitas Group, a global strategic and professional services firm that seeks solutions for extremely difficult security, economic, social, technology, and public health problems.

Richard Neustadt and Ernest May, Thinking in Time

Vijay Vaitheeswaran, Need, Speed, and Greed

Brigadier General Paula Thornhill, (USAF, Retired) is director of the strategy and doctrine program, RAND (PAF) and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS).

J.C. Wylie, Military Strategy: A General Theory of Power Control

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Lin Todd provides international security advice and support to a number of U.S. government departments and agencies and international organizations. He is president of Global Risk.

JFC Fuller, Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Paul Tompkins, USA (Retired), Army Special Forces, is Director of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command’s Assessing Revolutionary and Insurgent Strategies project with Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory.

John Steinbeck, The Moon is Down

Robert Taber, War of the Flea

Lieutenant General Bernard “Mick” Trainor, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), former director of plans, policies, and operations, U.S. Marine Corps; coauthor of two books, including The General’s War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf.

Chris Bellamy, Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War

Russell Weigley, The American Way of War

Lieutenant General Richard Trefry, USA (Retired), was the Army Inspector General, then ran the Army Force Management School at Fort Belvoir from 1992 to 2010. He now is a board member at American Military University and consults on military affairs.

John Keegan, Churchill’s Generals

Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, The President’s Club

Dr. Marc Tyrrell is a Senior Research Fellow at the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies, an Instructor in Interdisciplinary Studies and a symbolic anthropologist.

Bronislaw Malinowski, The Dynamics of Culture Change

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan

John Walcott was Washington bureau chief of McClatchy and Knight-Ridder. He now is National Security and Foreign Affairs Team Leader, Bloomberg News



David Crist, The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran

Joseph Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality

General Volney Warner, USA (Retired), led the 9th Infantry Division, then XVIII Airborne Corps, and capped his career as Commander in Chief, U.S. Readiness Command. He now heads V.F.Warner & Associates.

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

R. Ernest Dupuy, Men of West Point

Captain John Allen (Jay) Williams, USNR (Retired), is Professor of Political Science at Loyola University Chicago and Chair and President of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. He also is editor of The National Strategy Forum Review.

Sam C. Sarkesian, Revolutionary Guerrilla Warfare: Theories, Doctrines, and Contexts

Theodore Ropp, War in the Modern World

Rear Admiral George Worthington, USN (Retired), was first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict and culminated his career atop Naval Special Warfare Command.

Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully, Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of Midway

Walter R. Borneman, The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King