Readings

Books to Purchase

Amazon logo Wilson, James Q. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1991. ISBN: 9780465007851.

Amazon logo Christensen, Clayton M. The Innovator's Dilemma. New York, NY: HarperBusiness Essentials, 2003. ISBN: 9780060521998.

Amazon logo Krepinevich, Andrew. The Army and Vietnam. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780801836572.

Readings by Class Session

SES #TopicsREADINGS
1Introduction

Amazon logo Wilson, James Q. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1991, chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, and 12. ISBN: 9780465007851.

Wilson, James Q., and Peter Clark. "Incentive Systems: A Theory of Organization." Administrative Science Quarterly 6 (1961): 129-166.

Guillen, Mauro F. "The Age of Eclecticism: Current Organizational Trends and the Evolution of Managerial Models." Sloan Management Review (Fall 1994): 75-86.

2Military innovation theories

Amazon logo Huntington, Samuel P. "Officership as a Profession," and "The Military Mind: Conservative Realism of the Professional Military Ethic." Chapters 1 and 3 in The Soldier and the State. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1981, pp. 7-18 and 59-79. ISBN: 9780674817364.

Amazon logo Janowitz, Morris. "Technology and Decision-Making," "Discipline and Combat Goals," and "The Military Hierarchy." Chapters 2, 3, and 4 in The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait. New York, NY: Free Press, 1964, pp. 21-37, 38-53, and 54-75.

Amazon logo Moore, Lt. Gen. Harold, and Joseph L. Galloway. "Into the Valley," and "The Storm of Battle." Chapters 5 and 8 in We Were Soldiers Once...and Young. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1993, pp. 55-64, and 92-105. ISBN: 9780060975760.

Amazon logo Wilson, James Q. "Innovation in Organization: Notes Towards a Theory." In Approaches to Organizational Design. Edited by James D. Thompson. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1966, pp. 195-218. LCCN: 65-26336.

Amazon logo Posen, Barry R. "The Importance of Military Doctrine," and "Explaining Military Doctrine." Chapters 1 and 2 in The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany Between the World Wars. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984, pp. 13-33, and 34-80. ISBN: 9780801416330.

Amazon logo Rosen, Stephen P. Winning the Next War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994, chapters 1 and 9, pp. 1-55 and 251-262. ISBN: 9780801481963.

Amazon logo Christensen, Clayton M. The Innovator's Dilemma. New York, NY: HarperCollins Business Essentials, 2003, pp. 1-96, and 187-212. ISBN: 9780060521998.

Sapolsky, Harvey M. "On the Theory of Military Innovation." Breakthroughs 9, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 35-39.

3Strategic airpower

Amazon logo Frankland, Noble. "The Combined Bomber Offensive: Classical and Revolutionary, Combined and Divided, Planned and Fortuitous." In Command and Commanders in Modern Warfare: Proceedings of the Second Military History Symposium, U.S. Air Force Academy. Edited by Lt. Colonel William Geffen. Colorado Springs, CO: United States Air Force Academy, 1971, pp. 253-267. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 16.7 MB)

Amazon logo MacIsaac, David. "Voices from the Central Blue: The Air Power Theorists." In Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986, pp. 624-647. ISBN: 9780691027647.

Werrell, Kenneth P. "The Strategic Bombing of Germany in World War II: Costs and Accomplishments." Journal of American History (December 1986): 702-713.

Quester, George H. "The Impact of Strategic Air Warfare." Armed Forces and Society 4, no. 2 (February 1978): 179-205.

Cohen, Eliot A. "The Mystique of U.S. Air Power." Foreign Affairs 73, no. 1 (1994): 109-124.

Amazon logo Meilinger, Phillip S. "Air Targeting Strategies: An Overview." In Air Power Confronts an Unstable World. Edited by Richard Hallion. London, UK: Brasseys, 1997, pp. 51-80. ISBN: 9781857532388.

Sapolsky, Harvey, and Jeremy Shapiro. "Casualties, Technology and America's Future Wars." Parameters 26, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 119-127.

Smith, Thomas. "The New Law of War: Legitimizing Hi-Tech and Infrastructural Violence." International Studies Quarterly 46 (2002): 355-374.

Beier, J. Marshall. "Discriminating Tastes: 'Smart' Bombs, Non-Combatants, and Notions of Legitimacy in Warfare." Security Dialogue 34, no. 4 (2003): 411-425.

4Armored warfare

Amazon logo House, Captain Jonathan M. "The Interwar Period." Chapter 3 in Toward Combined Arms Warfare: A Survey of 20th-Century Tactics, Doctrine, and Organization. Fort Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 1984, pp. 43-78.

Amazon logo Bond, Brian. "Mechanization: The Second Phase, 1933-39." Chapter 6 in British Military Policy between the Two World Wars. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1980, pp. 161-190. ISBN: 9780198224648.

Amazon logo Larson, Robert H. "The Years of Experiment: 1927-34." Chapter 5 in The British Army and the Theory of Armored Warfare, 1918-1940. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1984, pp. 132-170. ISBN: 9780874132199.

Amazon logo Cooper, Mathew. "The Battle for Ideas." Part II in The German Army: 1933-1945. New York, NY: Stein and Day, 1978, pp. 113-166. ISBN: 9780812824681.

Amazon logo Johnson, David E. "Alternatives for Armor." Chapter 10 in Fast Tanks and Heavy Bombers: Innovation in the U.S. Army 1917-1945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998, pp. 116-152. ISBN: 9780801434587.

Horowitz, Dan. "Flexible Responsiveness and Military Strategy: The Case of the Israeli Army." Policy Sciences 1 (1970): 191-205.

Amazon logo Griffith, Paddy. "Conclusions." Chapter 11 in Battle Tactics of the Western Front. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996, pp. 192-200. ISBN: 9780300066630.

5Tactical airpower

Amazon logo Boog, Horst. "Higher Command and Leadership in the German Luftwaffe, 1935-1945." In Air Power and Warfare: Proceedings of the Eighth Military History Symposium, USAF Academy 1978. Edited by Colonel Alfred F. Hurley and Major Robert C. Ehrhart. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, Headquarters USAF, and United States Air Force Academy, 1979.

Amazon logo Hallion, Richard P. "The Genesis of Anglo-American Air Support: The British Experience in the Western Desert," and "The Necessary Interlude: Doctrine and the American Experience in the Pacific, Tunisian, and Italian Campaigns." Chapters 12 and 13 in Strike from the Sky: The History of Battlefield Air Attack, 1911-1945. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989, pp. 149-162 and 163-187. ISBN: 9780874744521.

Amazon logo Muller, Richard. "Close Air Support: The German, British, and American Experiences." In Military Innovation in the Interwar Period. Edited by Williamson Murray, et al. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 144-190. ISBN: 9780521637602.

"Smart Bombs." Chapter 8 in Report of the Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy. Washington, DC: The Commission: Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1975, pp. 191-198.

Watts, Barry D. "Unreported History and Unit Effectiveness." The Journal of Strategic Studies 12, no. 1 (1989): 88-98.

6

Submarine warfare

Burns, Richard D. "Regulating Submarine Warfare, 1921-41: A Case Study in Arms Control and Limited War." Military Affairs (April 1971): 56-63.

Amazon logo Cohen, Eliot A., and John Gooch. "Failure to Learn: American Antisubmarine Warfare in 1942." In Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War. New York, NY: Free Press, 2005, pp. 59-94. ISBN: 9780743280822.

Amazon logo Beesly, Patrick. "The First Twelve Months: A Lean Time," "Triton to the Rescue," and "January-May 1942: Climax of the Battle of the Atlantic." Chapters 2, 10, and 11 in Very Special Intelligence: the Story of the Admiralty's Operational Intelligence Centre, 1939-1945. London, UK: Greenhill Books; Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006, pp. ix-xvii, 24-41, 154-171, and 173-185. ISBN: 9781591149248.

Amazon logo Sapolsky, Harvey M. Science and the Navy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990, chapter 2, pp. 9-36. ISBN: 9780691078472.

Cote, Owen R., Jr. "The Third Battle: Innovation in the US Navy's Silent Cold War Struggle with Soviet Submarines." MIT Security Studies Program, March 2000.

7Cruise and ballistic missiles

Amazon logo Sapolsky, Harvey M. The Polaris System Development: Bureaucratic and Programmatic Success in Government. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972, chapters 1, 2, 4, and 8. ISBN: 9780674682252.

Sapolsky, Harvey M., Eugene Gholz, and Allen Kaufman. "Security Lessons from the Cold War." Foreign Affairs 78, no. 4 (July/August 1999): 77-89.

Liebowitz, S. J., and Stephen E. Margolis. "The Fable of the Keys." Journal of Law and Economics 33, no. 1 (April 1990): 1-25.

Amazon logo Friedman, Norman. Seapower and Space: From the Dawn of the Missile Age to Net-Centric Warfare. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000, chapters 8 and 9, pp. 173-229. ISBN: 9781557508973.

Levine, Henry D. "Some Things to All Men: The Politics of Cruise Missile Development." Public Policy 25, no. 1 (Winter 1977): 117-168.

Art, Robert J., and Stephen E. Ockden. "The Domestic Politics of Cruise Missile Development 1970-1980." In Cruise Missiles: Technology, Strategy and Politics. Edited by Richard Betts. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute, 1981, pp. 359-413. ISBN: 9780815709312.

8Failed innovation: Counterinsurgency

Shafer, D. Michael. "The Unlearned Lessons of Counterinsurgency." Political Science Quarterly 103, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 57-80.

Marquis, Jefferson P. "The Other Warriors: American Social Science and Nation Building in Vietnam." Diplomatic History 24, no. 1 (Winter 2000): 79-105.

Amazon logo Krepinevich, Andrew. The Army and Vietnam. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780801836572.

Hashim, Ahmed S. "Iraq's Chaos: Why the Insurgency Will Not Go Away." Boston Review, October/November 2004.

9Post-Vietnam innovation: The "transformation" of the U.S. Army

Posen, Barry R. "Introduction," "Land Power in Modern Times," and "The New Model Army." Unpublished manuscript.

10Transformation: The Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and beyond

Thirtle, Michael, Robert Johnson, and John Birkler. "The Historical Context for the Predator ACTD." In The Predator ACTD: A Case Study for Transition Planning to the Formal Acquisition Process. RAND Monograph Report MR-899-OSD, 1997, chapter 2, pp. 5-17. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 7.8 MB)

Amazon logo Anderegg, C. R. "Mud Beaters." Chapter 12 in Sierra Hotel: Flying Air Force Fighters in the Decade After Vietnam. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2001, pp. 119-142. ISBN: 9781931839044.

U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. "Summary." Chapter 2 in New Technology for NATO: Implementing Follow on Forces Attack (FOFA). OTA-ISC-309. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, June 1987, pp. 15-46. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 3.7 MB)

Cohen, Eliot. "Change and Transformation in Military Affairs." Journal of Strategic Studies 27, no. 3 (September 2004): 395-407.

Krepinevich, Andrew F., Jr. "Competing for the Future: Searching for Major Ellis." Marine Corps Gazette 80, no. 11 (November 1996): 28-37.

Amazon logo Shapiro, Jeremy. "Information and War: Is it a Revolution?" In The Changing Role of Information in Warfare. Edited by Z. M. Khalizad and J. P. White. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1999, pp. 113-154. ISBN: 9780833026637.

11Student papers 
12Student papers (cont.) 

Related Readings

Amazon logo Sapolsky, Harvey, Benjamin Friedman, and Brendan Green, eds. US Military Innovation Since the Cold War: Creation Without Destruction. New York, NY: Routledge, 2009. ISBN: 9780415777919.

This book brings the course up to date by covering a period unexamined in the existing readings and lectures. For details, see the related resources section.