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Continued education is a crucial part of being a professional warrior. This quarter's reading recommendations offer a perspective to tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow. (U.S. Air Force illustration/Nick Medrano)
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General Schwartz recommends reading selections
Posted 7/1/2010
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by Janie Santos
Defense Media Activity-San Antonio
7/1/2010 - SAN ANTONIO (AFNS) -- The Air Force chief of staff announced his latest reading recommendations July 1, all from the CSAF reading list.
"Defining events across the globe continue to shape our service in very consequential ways," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said. "Rising regional tensions, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and worldwide economic challenges are just a few of the multi-dimensional challenges impacting global security and stability.
"Today's military thinker must appreciate the many dimensions -- political, environmental, economic, informational and others -- that comprise international security," General Schwartz continued.
This year's CSAF reading list, containing 13 books, is divided into three areas: Mission, Doctrine and Profession, focusing on leadership and the Air Force mission; Our Nation and World, highlighting current events that will have a lasting effect on national military strategy; and Military History, recalling lessons that could be applied today.
General Schwartz recommends these four books from the list for this quarter:
The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One, by David Kilcullen, assists in the understanding of American counterinsurgency objectives. The author argues that current doctrine is incomplete as counterterrorism models are enemy-centric, and counterinsurgency models are population-centric. Neither model reflects the current challenges, which are highlighted by an amalgam of many small local conflicts and a worldwide radical Islamist movement. He warns that U.S. actions to combat terrorism have tended to blur the distinction between local and global struggles, thus enormously complicating the challenges.
Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs, by Ray Takeyh, not only provides the history of Iran's relations with the world since the Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah in 1979; it also describes how three forces -- Islamism, pragmatism, and great power pretensions -- have competed in each of the four primary periods of modem Iranian history. Iran's paradoxical policies seem to be a series of compromises between the hardliners and the moderates, often with wild oscillations between pragmatism and ideological dogmatism. America must find strategies that address Iran's confounding, occasionally objectionable behavior in an increasingly vital but volatile region.
Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 2Ist Century, by P.W. Singer, highlights the significant effects of robotics on the current battlefield. The complicated interactions of politics, economics, laws and ethics that surround war itself are not fully vetted for remote or autonomous war making machines. Mr. Singer advocates that the development of the appropriate doctrine for using unmanned systems is essential to the future of the force allowing the United States to win the wars of tomorrow.
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon, by Neil Sheehan is an account of General Schriever's effect on both America's fledgling strategic deterrent capability in the 1960s and the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union. Mr. Sheehan's description of General Schriever's buccaneering techniques, bureaucratic struggles and shrewd collaborations highlight the resourcefulness of one of the Air Force's greatest generals.
The other books in this year's reading list are:
On Nuclear Terrorism by Michael Levi
MacArthur's Airman General George C. Kenney and the War in the Southwest Pacific by Thomas E. Griffith
Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of The Berlin Airlift June 1948 - May 1949 by Richard Reeves
Seven Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century by Andrew Krepinevich
Rivals: How the Power Struggle between China, India, and Japan will Shape our Next Decade by Bill Emmott
Lemay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis Lemay, by Warren Kozak
In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan, by Seth Jones
A History of Air Warfare, by John A. Olsen
Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar, by Martin C. Libicki
More information on these and other suggested books can be found at http://www.af.mil/information/csafreading/index.asp. |
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