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Summary:

"Since the early 1960s, there have only been twelve years in which American troops have not been in combat, either in a formally declared conflict or otherwise. The vast majority of these have ended in failure, or something close to it. Why has the US been so ineffective, given the fact that the American armed forces are universally recognized as the best in the world? This is the key question James Warren answers here in Outmaneuvered. Most scholars and analysts believe that the primary cause of our abysmal war record since Vietnam has been the US military's overwhelmingly conventional approach-which favors kinetic operations, highly mobile precision firepower, and sophisticated systems of command and control. Here, Warren argues that the more formidable obstacle to success has been pervasive strategic ineptitude at the highest levels of Washington, including the executive branch, congress, and the national security council responsible for shaping US foreign policy. Time and time again, American presidents have committed military forces to operations in foreign countries whose politics and cultures they did not fully understand. Presidents of both political parties, including Kennedy, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama have overestimated the capacity of US forces to alter the social and political landscape of foreign nations, and underestimated the ability of insurgents and terrorists to develop strategies that draw out conflict and wage effective propaganda campaigns to curtail Washington's will to carry on the fight. Warren concludes the book by advocating for a less hubristic foreign policy and a broader conception of warfare as a political and military enterprise. For readers of political, military, and US history-as well as anyone interested in international relations and geopolitical strategy-this book offers unparalleled insights into America's prior-and potentially future-military conflicts"-- [Provided by publisher]

Table of Contents:

• Irregular warfare and the American military tradition
• Vietnam : the anatomy of defeat
• The Vietnamese communists : masters of irregular warfare
• The Iranian Revolution and Washington's thrust into the Middle East
• The CIA and the Soviet-Afghan War
• Lost in Lebanon, 1982-1984
• The indispensable nation syndrome and mission creep in Somalia
• The rise of Islamic extremism and al-Qaeda
• Terrorism and counterterrorism in the 1990s
• The global war on terrorism
• The war in Afghanistan : phase one
• Invading Iraq
• Iraq : stumbling from insurgency to Civil War
• Iraq : the surge and afterward
• Losing Afghanistan
• The rise of special operations forces
• Reflections.

Author/Creator:

Warren, James A. , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Outmaneuvered: America's tragic encounter with warfare from Vietnam to Afghanistan [by Warren, J.A.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: Outmaneuvered [by Warren, J.A.] (First Scribner hardcover edition; New York : Scribner, 2025 — ISBN 9781668004555; LCCN 2024041737)

Subjects:

United States — History, Military — 20th century

United States — History, Military — 21st century

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on March 18, 2025).

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Call Numbers:

E745 .W387 2025eb

ISBNs:

9781668004579 (electronic book)
1668004577 (electronic book)
9781668004555 (hardcover) [Invalid]

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2024041738

Other Control Numbers:

EBC31363030 (source: MiAaPQ)
[Unknown Type]: ybp308070635