Summertime is in full swing, which means it’s time for our annual reading list! Every year since 2016, we have shared our favorite picks for our fellow natsec nerds to read while at the beach — or wherever you go to get away from email, texts, and depressing world events! Last year we broke with tradition and listed our favorite (and least favorite) war movies, but now we’ve happily returned to our long-running standard — and hope you will enjoy our 2024 selections!
On Modern War
New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West, by David Sanger. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Sanger draws on his decades of reporting for the New York Times to chart the dangerous rise of China and Russia as powerful threats to the international order. He contrasts the 20-year U.S. focus on two wars in the Middle East with the ways in which Russia and especially China vastly expanded their global influence during the same time. Sanger’s analysis draws on many personal anecdotes to help explain how we got to where we are today and, more importantly, to identify many of the difficult choices facing the United States and its partners in the coming years.
Next War: Reimagining How We Fight, by John Antal. Antal has been featured on this list before, with 7 Seconds to Die in 2022. His most recent book extends the early insights he brought from the wars between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020 to grapple with the staggering changes in warfare playing out in real time today in Gaza and Ukraine. Antal lists nine disrupters of modern warfare that challenge the U.S. way of war, which relies on limited numbers of very expensive and exquisite weapons systems. Even though the U.S. military continues to see itself as “the most lethal fighting force in human history,” Antal’s compelling catalogue of disrupters suggests that its future dominance is by no means assured.
War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World, edited by Hal Brands. Although the war in Ukraine continues to rage on, this volume features essays from an impressive range of scholars analyzing the first two years of the conflict and the consequences it has already had. Standout chapters include those by former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and Robert Person on why the invasion occurred; Lawrence Freedman on Vladimir Putin’s strategy; Kori Schake on the U.S. strategy; Michael Kofman on battlefield dynamics; and Frank Gavin on nuclear lessons.
On Modern War – In Fiction
White Sun War, by Mick Ryan. Two years ago, retired Australian Army major general Ryan published War Transformed, a sober analysis of the changing character of modern warfare coupled with recommendations for adapting military institutions and preparing individuals for future conflicts. To our delight, he then followed it up with a terrific work of speculative fiction about a U.S. war with China over Taiwan in 2028. His engrossing narrative seamlessly blends developments at the tactical, operational, strategic, and geopolitical levels of warfare, across all five domains — including an incredibly clever use of outer space power that helps end the war. Sadly, the least plausible part of the book is how thoroughly the U.S. military has incorporated advanced technologies in a conflict that happens four short years from now. Instead of having equipment by then that can be maneuvered through eye blinks, or soldiers wearing arm screens that provide instantaneous AI translation, the Air Force will still be dominated by manned aircraft, the Navy will still be wedded to its carriers, and innovative technological breakthroughs still won’t be able to compete with deeply entrenched, multi-billion-dollar legacy programs of record.
The Oceans and the Stars, by Mark Helprin. One of your loyal columnists fell in love with one of Helprin’s books as a teenager, and she has read virtually everything he has published since. His latest novel is a beautiful, lyrical tale about modern naval warfare, terrorism, the challenges of command, and the timeless virtues of courage, integrity, and sacrifice. We meet Captain Stephen Rensselaer in the prologue as he awaits the verdict of his court-martial for mutiny. His story then unfolds as he runs afoul of Pentagon and presidential politics, falls in love, and leads his crew through seven unexpected battles. Naval nerds will be delighted at the level of technical detail, while others may be happy that Helprin expressly identifies which pages to skip for “those interested primarily in the story.”
Working with Industry
Unit X, by Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff. This book is a fascinating account of the origins and ongoing efforts of one of the Pentagon’s most unique organizations, the Defense Innovation Unit, penned by two of its founding members. The Defense Innovation Unit was created in 2015 to build bridges between Silicon Valley’s culture of rapid innovation and failing fast and the infamously risk-averse and stultifyingly slow Pentagon acquisition ecosystem. The unit was conceived as a bold workaround modeled on a venture capital firm, with a mission to get cutting-edge technology into the hands of warfighters in months or years rather than decades. The book chronicles its successes but leaves the reader equally sobered by the staggering bureaucracy that slows every new acquisition, no matter how vital to those on the front lines. As the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and the Red Sea highlight how warfare is rapidly changing, the authors offer a stark warning that “our military’s might has been largely eclipsed by the commercial systems our adversaries are bringing to battle.”
Freedom’s Forge, by Arthur Herman. As we watch the wars in Ukraine and Gaza consume huge amounts of materiel and the Department of Defense prepares for a potential future conflict with China, Herman reminds us of the astonishing U.S. industrial transformation that made America the literal arsenal of democracy in World War II. The United States might not have been able to deliver the goods that ultimately helped win the war if not for the civilian titans of industry who joined the war effort — one of whom even donned three stars to head U.S. Army industrial production — and, as Herman shows, ended up producing more than 286,000 warplanes and 85,000 tanks in just four years. It’s hard to imagine a similar degree of cooperation between industry and the Pentagon in the future — even though the war of attrition raging in Ukraine clearly demonstrates that the U.S. industrial base is completely unprepared to support a prolonged, high-intensity war.
New Perspectives on World War II
When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day, by Garrett M. Graff. Author Graff went through more than 5,000 memoirs, stories, and oral histories to compile this remarkable volume of what Operation Overlord was like for those who fought in it. He deftly weaves together
testimonies from more than 700 individuals into a story that reads like a novel, adding only a small amount of supplemental text to provide context. You’ve never read a book about D-Day that’s quite like this one before. For as Graff powerfully notes, “It’s here — at the human level — where we find the greatest and most true story of D-Day.”
Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, by Craig L. Symonds. Admiral Chester Nimitz is arguably the single most important figure responsible for America’s decisive victory over Imperial Japan in World War II. Yet he is also among the least well-known and recognized, largely because of his self-effacing personality and quiet, collaborative leadership style. Nimitz led the U.S. military in the Pacific back from its stunning defeat and demoralization after Pearl Harbor in 1941 to the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay less than four year later. In an age too often marked by shameless self-promotion and the shirking of responsibility by CEOs and social media influencers alike, this new account sheds a fresh light on one of the military’s most effective organizers and motivators — and provides a unique leadership example of how to come back from devastating failures.
The Wonders of Air and Space
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey. This short and stunning novel propels the reader into the tiny compartments of an orbiting space station to accompany its six space travelers through 24 hours — 16 sunrises and sunsets — above the stunning blue and green planet Earth below. Harvey’s elegantly breathtaking language borders on poetry, describing the otherworldly experience of astronauts encountering one sunrise and sunset after another, broken by stunning vistas of a fragile Earth slowly unfolding below — a glimpse of eternity. You will never think about space travel — or our delicate planet — in the same way again.
Wind, Sand, and Stars, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. First published by the famed French pioneering pilot and adventurer in 1939, this little-known work evokes awe and astonishment as Saint-Exupéry brilliantly describes his journeys through the unforgiving sky in peace and war. The breadth and reach of his astonishing adventures continue to amaze, but his most important message comes from the insights he provides about “the land of men” below. Reflective, thought-provoking, and deeply human, this work takes us back to a time when aviation was still novel — and the marvels of flight have arguably never been more poetically captured.
Just for Fun
Everyone Knows But You, by Thomas E. Ricks. Many of our loyal readers will recognize Ricks for his Pulitzer Prize–winning journalism and his many important books about the military and the recent wars. This time, Ricks turns to fiction, with a captivating thriller set on a fictitious island in Maine — near the area where Ricks has lived for many years. FBI agent Ryan Tapia has been exiled to a remote corner of a remote state, investigating the mysterious death of a fisherman. Ricks takes us deep into the world of Maine lobstermen and the local indigenous tribe to figure out whodunnit and why.
Swan Song, by Elin Hilderbrand. Hilderbrand — who is often described as “queen of the beach read” — brings an uncanny knack for brilliant plots, engaging characters, and cracking suspense to her series of novels set on Nantucket Island off the New England coast. This 27th and final book in her Nantucket series weaves a compelling mystery around the sudden comeuppance of wealthy outsiders who disrupt the island’s quiet life but soon leave a body and torched mansion behind. Pure fun, and a delightful end to a much-loved series.
Well, that’s a wrap for the summer of 2024! Strategic Outpost is now officially on our summer break! As we hurtle toward the dog days of August, we hope that all of you hard-working readers have some well-deserved plans for a long vacation, far away from emails, texts, SCIFs, and Zoom meetings. We hope that you come back rested, refreshed, and ready to return to the real world in September! Enjoy!
Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, U.S. Army (ret.), and Dr. Nora Bensahel are Professors of Practice at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and are also contributing editors at War on the Rocks, where their column appears periodically. Sign up for Barno and Bensahel’s Strategic Outpost newsletter to track their articles as well as their public events.
Image: Syd Wachs via Unsplash
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