The Direction of War

Military historian Hew Strachan argues that the West's failures in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 grew out of a basic misreading and misuse of strategy itself. Those wars left frustration and a growing sense of failure, with poor strategy taking much of the blame, and in both the United States and Britain public inquiries and defence think tanks found inconsistent direction, weak communication and poor coordination across government. Strachan contends that the wars since 2001 were not as new as many assumed, and that contemporary strategy needs a more historical approach to show what is really changing in how wars are fought. If war is to serve the aims of policy, he holds, war must first be understood.

James Mattis included it on the list of favorite books in an appendix to Call Sign Chaos.