Win Wars Research Articles

Sleep of death

BBC2 Horizon: “Against the Clock” 25 April Question: What do Winston Churchill and a marmoset have in common? Answer: They are both polyphasic strategists. Get it? Oh. Well, a polyphasic strategist is someone who takes catnaps. And apart from helping you collect nuts and win wars, catnaps also stop you crashing airliners quite so readily. While British and European pilots are allowed to take little naps while flying us around, American pilots are not, even if there are several people perfectly capable of flying the plane crammed into the cockpit goggling at the same nothingness for hours at a stretch. When American aircrew are allowed to take 40 minute planned …

Constraints on America's Conduct of Small Wars

It is the characteristic military dilemma of a world power that it finds itself forced to prepare for two entirely different kinds of wars, large-scale conflicts on the continent of Europe, on the one hand, and lesser battles on its periphery or on other continents, on the other. This difficulty perplexed British statesmen throughout the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; it is now the problem of the United States, Britain's heir as the foremost global power. This article examines the constraints on America's ability to prepare for, wage, and win wars. It is often argued that American statesmen will find themselves constrained from using force in the future by public and Congressional repugnance over a repetition of the Vietnam experience. There is some truth in this. What follows, however, will suggest that institutional constraints and to a lesser extent foreign pressures, rather than the vagaries of public opinion, will inhibit American leaders from commencing such wars, and from prosecuting them successfully. We begin by addressing three questions: What precisely do we mean by the term small war? Why is there reason to think that such wars are inevitable? How do the requirements of preparing for such wars differ from the normal military measures of a Great Power?

Right Words Help Win Wars

Right Words Help Win Wars