C. Dale Walton

Understanding Modern Warfare has established itself as a leading text in professional military education and undergraduate teaching. This third edition has been revised throughout to reflect dramatic changes during the past decade. Introducing three brand new chapters, this updated volume provides in-depth analysis of the most pertinent issues of the 2020s and beyond, including cyber warfare, information activities, hybrid and grey zone warfare, multi-domain operations and recent conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Syria. It also includes a range of features to maximise its value as a learning tool: a structure designed to guide students through key strategic principles; key questions and annotated reading guides for deeper understanding; text boxes highlighting critical thinkers and operational concepts; and a glossary explaining key terms. Providing debate driven analysis that encourages students to develop a balanced perspective, Understanding Modern Warfare remains essential reading both for officers and for students of international relations more broadly.

Understanding Modern Warfare has established itself as a leading text in professional military education and undergraduate teaching. This third edition has been revised throughout to reflect dramatic changes during the past decade. Introducing three brand new chapters, this updated volume provides in-depth analysis of the most pertinent issues of the 2020s and beyond, including cyber warfare, information activities, hybrid and grey zone warfare, multi-domain operations and recent conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Syria. It also includes a range of features to maximise its value as a learning tool: a structure designed to guide students through key strategic principles; key questions and annotated reading guides for deeper understanding; text boxes highlighting critical thinkers and operational concepts; and a glossary explaining key terms. Providing debate driven analysis that encourages students to develop a balanced perspective, Understanding Modern Warfare remains essential reading both for officers and for students of international relations more broadly.

Understanding Modern Warfare has established itself as the leading introduction to the issues, ideas, concepts and context necessary to understand the theory and conduct of warfare in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is an invaluable text for military professionals and students of military history. Key features include: incisive coverage of the debates surrounding contemporary and future warfare; accessible, yet sophisticated, discussion across the land, sea, and air environments; and coverage of contemporary topics such as drones, cyber warfare, and hybrid warfare. The book makes extensive use of text boxes to explain key concepts and to reference extended examples, and it includes annotated guides to further reading and key questions to promote the reader's further thinking. This second edition has been fully revised and updated to take into account new debates and recent events in Syria, Iraq and Ukraine, and it has also been restructured to further improve its usefulness as a teaching tool.

This book examines the role and importance of the Presidency in the formulation and conduct of US grand strategy. The text discusses US strategic history, with particular emphasis on the period from the end of the Cold War to the present day. While the United States periodically has enjoyed exceptional presidential leadership in the past, this book argues that few future presidents will meet high standards of leadership in foreign affairs. In turn, this will undermine the ability of the United States to construct and maintain a coherent grand strategy appropriate to the multipolar world of the twenty-first century. Grand Strategy and the Presidency explores the role that the holders of the presidential office have played in the past development of the United States as a great power. Drawing upon examples from history, the textual analysis is shaped around the description of the long-term strategic development of the United States. The author then considers what the events of recent decades portend for the future of US strategy and foreign policy. This book will be of interest to students of Presidential Studies, US foreign policy, Strategic Studies, and IR/Security Studies in general.

This book examines the role and importance of the Presidency in the formulation and conduct of US grand strategy. The text discusses US strategic history, with particular emphasis on the period from the end of the Cold War to the present day. While the United States periodically has enjoyed exceptional presidential leadership in the past, this book argues that few future presidents will meet high standards of leadership in foreign affairs. In turn, this will undermine the ability of the United States to construct and maintain a coherent grand strategy appropriate to the multipolar world of the twenty-first century. Grand Strategy and the Presidency explores the role that the holders of the presidential office have played in the past development of the United States as a great power. Drawing upon examples from history, the textual analysis is shaped around the description of the long-term strategic development of the United States. The author then considers what the events of recent decades portend for the future of US strategy and foreign policy. This book will be of interest to students of Presidential Studies, US foreign policy, Strategic Studies, and IR/Security Studies in general.

This book argues that in the twenty-first century Eastern Eurasia will replace Europe as the theatre of decision in international affairs, and that this new geographic and cultural context will have a strong influence on the future of world affairs. For half a millennium, the great powers have practised what might be called ‘world politics’, yet during that time Europe, and small portions of the Near East and North Africa strategically vital to Europe, were the ‘centres of gravity’ in international politics. This book argues that the ‘unipolar moment’ of the post-Cold War era will not be replaced by a US-China ‘Cold War’, but rather by a long period of multipolarity in the twenty-first century. Examining the policy goals and possible military-political strategies of several powers, this study explains how Washington may play a key role in eastern Eurasian affairs if it can learn to operate in a very different political context. Dale Walton also considers the rapid pace of technological change and how it will impact on great power politics. Considering India, China, the US, Russia, Japan, and other countries as part of a multipolar system, he addresses the central questions that will drive US policy in the coming decades. Geopolitics and the Great Powers in the 21st Century will be of interest to students of international security, military history, geopolitics, and international relations.

This book argues that in the twenty-first century Eastern Eurasia will replace Europe as the theatre of decision in international affairs, and that this new geographic and cultural context will have a strong influence on the future of world affairs. For half a millennium, the great powers have practised what might be called ‘world politics’, yet during that time Europe, and small portions of the Near East and North Africa strategically vital to Europe, were the ‘centres of gravity’ in international politics. This book argues that the ‘unipolar moment’ of the post-Cold War era will not be replaced by a US-China ‘Cold War’, but rather by a long period of multipolarity in the twenty-first century. Examining the policy goals and possible military-political strategies of several powers, this study explains how Washington may play a key role in eastern Eurasian affairs if it can learn to operate in a very different political context. Dale Walton also considers the rapid pace of technological change and how it will impact on great power politics. Considering India, China, the US, Russia, Japan, and other countries as part of a multipolar system, he addresses the central questions that will drive US policy in the coming decades. Geopolitics and the Great Powers in the 21st Century will be of interest to students of international security, military history, geopolitics, and international relations.