Speaker: Antulio J. Echevarria II
Chair: Jill Russell, Department of War Studies, King’s College London
Location: September 19, 3:00, War Studies Meeting Room, K6.07, King’s Building, King’s College London, Strand Campus, London. WC2R 2LS.
Strife is pleased to host Antulio Echevarria at King’s College London, who will be discussing his new book “Reconsidering the American Way of War, US Military Practice from the Revolution to Afghanistan.” Challenging several longstanding notions about the American way of war, this book examines US strategic and operational practice from 1775 to 2014. It surveys all major US wars from the War of Independence to the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as most smaller US conflicts to determine what patterns, if any, existed in American uses of force. Contrary to many popular sentiments, Echevarria finds that the American way of war is not astrategic, apolitical, or defined by the use of overwhelming force. Instead, the American way of war was driven more by political considerations than military ones, and the amount of force employed was rarely overwhelming or decisive. Echevarria discovers that most conceptions of American strategic culture fail to hold up to scrutiny, and that US operational practice has been closer to military science than to military art. This book should be of interest to military practitioners and policymakers, students and scholars of military history and security studies, and general readers interested in military history and the future of military power.
Antulio J. Echevarria II is a retired US Army lieutenant colonel and is currently the editor of the US Army War College Quarterly, Parameters. Prior to that, he was the Director of Research for the US Army War College. He is the author of several books, including Clausewitz and Contemporary War and Imagining Future War. Dr. Echevarria is a graduate of the US Military Academy, the US Army Command and General Staff College, the US Army War College, and was a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University. He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from Princeton University.