How to Fight a War

Has any war in history gone according to plan? Monarchs, autocrats and elected leaders alike have a dismal record on launching and prosecuting wars. From pursuing over-ambitious goals, to making decisions without considering intelligence, terrain, morale or the enemy’s capabilities, they have all erred. This not only wastes the lives of civilians, the enemy and one’s own soldiers, but also means a failure to accomplish your objectives.

Conflict scholar and former soldier Mike Martin takes the reader through the hard, elegant logic of how to fight an interstate war on land, including the factors that are often overlooked: the importance of psychology, training, getting the logistics right, and maintaining your esprit de corps. He then explains how to orchestrate the building blocks of military force–from infantry, artillery and air support, to information and cyber warfare–in order to prevail over your adversary.

How to Fight a War explains in cool and precise prose the art of using extreme violence to convince your enemy that they should submit. It should be read by everyone who seeks to understand today’s conflicts and those to come–and by all those who wish to lead us through the next decade of wars.