Strategic Engagement of Force is a compendium of martial arts strategies and tactics. It provides a timeless road map on thinking, acting, and executing with meaning, rather than applying raw force and the mindless trading of blows. Taking the best from the best and combining it into a single volume, Strategic Engagement of Force is a field guide that can be used as a reference and superimposed on top of any martial arts style, system, or program. It provides you the mental skills to make your martial art better. This volume is broken into three logical sections per the title: strategy, engagement, and force. These components provide a balanced three-legged stool of conflict strategy. First, force, and its application, is the most fundamental consideration of warfare. The basic structure of force is reviewed to set the stage for its higher application. Next, engagement, which encapsulates the tactical use of force. Finally, strategy, which focuses on higher forms of thinking, allowing us to use both force and tactics advantageously. Like a good movie that gets better every time you watch it, readers will find themselves immersing themselves in Strategic Engagement of Force again and again.

One of the hallmarks of a true profession is its ability to assess and regulate itself, especially with respect to adherence to its foundational ethos. Such self-examination is difficult and often causes discomfort within the profession. Nonetheless, it is absolutely necessary to enable members of the profession to render the service for which the profession exists. U.S. military professionals have never shied away from this responsibility, and they do not today, as evidenced by this riveting monograph. Discussing dishonesty in the Army profession is a topic that will undoubtedly make many readers uneasy. It is, however, a concern that must be addressed to better the Army profession. Through extensive discussions with officers and thorough and sound analysis, Drs. Leonard Wong and Stephen Gerras make a compelling argument for the Army to introspectively examine how it might be inadvertently encouraging the very behavior it deems unacceptable.

Flying a dangerous rescue into a war-torn country to save his two little orphaned brothers was all in a day's work for air force hero Daniel Baker. But finding Mary Elise McRae stowed away on board–scared, alone and living her life on the run from an ex-husband who wanted her dead–was the last thing he'd ever expected.

A member of General David Petraeus' personal staff provides the first full insider account of the troop surge in Iraq.

While American national security policy has grown more interventionist since the Cold War, Washington has also hoped to shape the world on the cheap. Misled by the stunning success against Iraq in 1991, administrations of both parties have pursued ambitious aims with limited force, committing the country’s military frequently yet often hesitantly, with inconsistent justification. These ventures have produced strategic confusion, unplanned entanglements, and indecisive results. This collection of essays by Richard K. Betts, a leading international politics scholar, investigates the use of American force since the end of the Cold War, suggesting guidelines for making it more selective and successful. Betts brings his extensive knowledge of twentieth century American diplomatic and military history to bear on the full range of theory and practice in national security, surveying the Cold War roots of recent initiatives and arguing that U.S. policy has always been more unilateral than liberal theorists claim. He exposes mistakes made by humanitarian interventions and peace operations; reviews the issues raised by terrorism and the use of modern nuclear, biological, and cyber weapons; evaluates the case for preventive war, which almost always proves wrong; weighs the lessons learned from campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam; assesses the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia; quells concerns about civil-military relations; exposes anomalies within recent defense budgets; and confronts the practical barriers to effective strategy. Betts ultimately argues for greater caution and restraint, while encouraging more decisive action when force is required, and he recommends a more dispassionate assessment of national security interests, even in the face of global instability and unfamiliar threats.