The Deputy Secretary of Defense assured the June 2003 graduating Naval War College class that their studies had prepared them to bring fresh ideas to the process of innovation and to study new developments from a critical perspective. The most important development during their year in Newport, of course, was the Iraq campaign—the ultimate classroom for the military profession, with lessons that point to lasting changes in the way the U.S. armed forces will operate in the future.

The Education of “a Modern Major General”
Major General William F. Burns, U.S. Army, Retired

Gilbert and Sullivan’s fictitious Major General Stanley would have had little or no opportunity for formal professional military development. The U.S. military has evolved senior service colleges, including the U.S. Army War College, at which that nineteenth-century “modern major general” would find no place. These colleges must sustain their vital role in educating officers to meet the challenges of the emerging and future world.

A Larger Meaning, a Larger Purpose
Admiral Gregory G. Johnson, U.S. Navy

The Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe, in remarks delivered on 19 June 2003 to the graduating Naval War College class, recalls the decisions early in his career that kept him in the Navy and sent him to the College—and the benefits that the “spirit and legacy of inquisitive and critical study” of that institution brought him.

The Casualty-Aversion Myth
Lieutenant Colonel Richard A. Lacquement, Jr., U.S. Army

It has been, since Vietnam, conventional wisdom that the American public will not accept military casualties. There is, however, no evidence that the public is intrinsically casualty averse. It is a myth that distorts policy making and execution, and it is a issue that in itself has no place in professional military advice and judgment.

Corbett in Orbit
A Maritime Model for Strategic Space Theory
Lieutenant Commander John J. Klein, U.S. Navy

“Where,” it has been asked, “is the theory of space power? Where is the Mahan for the final frontier?” Both can be found in the past. The theory of space power is implicit in thinking about the maritime environment, and its exemplar is the early-twentieth-century theorist Sir Julian Corbett.

China’s Aircraft Carrier Ambitions
Seeking Truth from Rumors
Ian Storey and You Ji

For a decade, the media has been rife with apparent evidence that the People’s Liberation Army Navy wishes to operate an aircraft carrier. However, the aircraft carrier today has no champion in the Chinese navy. Strategic priorities, costs, technical difficulties, and the likely reaction of neighboring countries all now argue against a Chinese carrier battle group. However, the PLAN has not abandoned the idea altogether—merely shelved it.

Debate & Response

Small Navies Do Have a Place in Network-Centric Warfare
Rear Admiral Patrick M. Stillman, U.S. Coast Guard

Still Worth Fighting Over? A Joint Response
P. H. Liotta and James F. Miskel

Commentary

National Security Book List
Congressman Ike Skelton

Review Essays

A Reflection of Saddam’s Biography
Saddam Is Iraq: Iraq Is Saddam,
by Jerrold M. Post and Amatzia Baram
reviewed by Brenda L. Connors

The Korean War Remembered
Rethinking the Korean War: A New Diplomatic and Strategic History,
by William Stueck
Unexpected Journey: A Marine Corps Reserve Company in the Korean War,
by Randy K. Mills and Roxanne Mills
Their War for Korea: American, Asian, and European Combatants and Civilians, 1945–53,
by Allan R. Millett
reviewed by Donald Chisholm

What the Benefits of Enlarging NATO Again Might Be
Coming in from the Cold War: Changes in U.S.-European Interactions since 1980,
edited by Sabrina P. Ramet and Christine Ingebritsen
NATO Enlargement 2000–2015: Determinants and Implications for Defense Planning and Shaping,
by Thomas S. Szayna
Growing Pains: The Debate on the Next Round of NATO Enlargement
edited by Tomas Valesek and Theresa Hitchens
reviewed by Joyce P. Kaufman

In My View

Book Reviews

Asymmetrical Warfare: Today’s Challenge to U.S. Military Power,
by Roger W. Barnett
reviewed by James A. Russell

El Dorado Canyon: Reagan’s Undeclared War with Qaddafi,
by Joseph T. Stanik
reviewed by James Stavridis

Seapower and Space: From the Dawn of the Missile Age to
Net-centric Warfare,
by Norman Friedman
reviewed by William C. Martel

The Geopolitics of East Asia: The Search for Equilibrium,
by Robyn Lim
Chinese Grand Strategy and Maritime Power,
by Thomas M. Kane
reviewed by Bruce Elleman

Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia,
by Ahmed Rashid
reviewed by Amer Latif

Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict,
by Michael T. Klare
reviewed by Peter Dombrowski

The Age of Sacred Terror,
by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon
reviewed by S. Douglas Smith

Prime Time Crime: Balkan Media in War and Peace,
by Kemal Kurspahic
reviewed by Clemson G. Turregano

Military Education: Past, Present, and Future,
edited by Gregory C. Kennedy and Keith Neilson
reviewed by Judith Stiehm

Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts,
by David H. Hackworth and Eilys England
reviewed by Jon Czarnecki

Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA and the Hidden Story of America’s Space Espionage,
by Philip Taubman
reviewed by Frank C. Mahncke

Bipartisan Strategy: Selling the Marshall Plan,
by John Bledsoe Bonds
reviewed by Robert S. Wood

Patrick Blackett: Sailor, Scientist, Socialist,
edited by Peter Hore
reviewed by Chris Eldridge

Navies of Europe,
by Lawrence Sondhaus
Technology and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century and Beyond,
by Phillips Payson O’Brien
reviewed by Christopher Bell

First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power,
by Warren Zimmermann
reviewed by Cole C. Kingseed

Books Received