12/4/22

This book was one of the first books I read by James Dunnigan. I purchased it during my days as an officer in the Army. It helped to put a lot things I was doing in uniform in perspective. Lots of information comparing military equipment, ships and fighting abilities of countries and militaries around the world. The author takes a numerical perspective by assigning relative numbers to the effectiveness of equipment and forces then comparing them.

Dunnigan's background is wargaming so this method of viewing military facts and forces makes sense. Go to Wikipedia to read up on Dunnigan. Interesting guy and experiences.

The book provides some good discussions of how certain types of warfare has evolved and lessons learned of past conflicts.

The book has gone through several revisions over time to adjust to new realities of military forces and world politics... WWII, Vietnam, the cold war, fall of the USSR, smaller conflicts of the 80's and 90's, desert warfare and growth of terrorism. Unfortunately my acquisition and reading of Dunnigan's revised books has not kept pace. Eventually I will catch up. This 3rd Edition represents the time period I served in the military up to 1991. With my son about a year away from commissioning as an officer in the Army, I should look at getting the latest revised book. ( )

An elementary survey of military forces, their use and how one goes about analyzing them. It covers all the relevant material, but (odd for a survey) one gets Dunnigan's own idiosyncratic opinions sprinkled in amidst the factual surveying. Dunnigan's wargaming background also shows through in the drive to aggregate. The book has many tables that attempt to aggregate military power (an exercise on which much effort was exerted during the Cold War and has thankfully died off today).

Stylistically, this edition of the book betrays some poor editing. Certain subjects are addressed multiple times without acknowledging the fact, giving the reader a sense of deja vu as he reads for the second or third time about Dunnigan's views on air defenses or the pathologies of military organizations.

This edition is also obviously dated, though it actually has some benefits because it allows one to more easily filter out Dunnigan's opinions since many of them regard the relative advantages of Western vs. Soviet approaches.

Bottom line, this is a useful survey. It could serve as an introduction or an elementary reference for new students of defense policy analysis. More experienced audiences, however, won't find much new here.

(Alistair) (Back to the non-fiction with this, which I've been reading for quite a while.)

If you want to understand war and military matters well enough to have a meaningful opinion, read this book.

Well, actually, read some military history first, and some more detailed/specialized books on tactics, strategy, and diplomacy afterwards, and then you can embark on your career as an armchair marshal. But if you can only afford the time to read one book on such things, I recommend this one.

As an introduction to modern and near-future warfare and the likely players in it, How to Make War is comprehensive, appropriately detailed, and covers the technical aspects of warfare - not merely technology, but addressing aspects including economics, morale, leadership, and so forth - effectively.

Highly recommended for the interested layman.
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2008/01/how-to-make-war-james-f-dun... ) ( )