Publication

This monograph examines the issue of strategic surprise and the possibility of achieving decisive results via attacks launched with little or no warning. The author argues that the kind of strategic surprise to which the US is most at risk, and which is most damaging to its national security, is the deep and pervasive connection between war and politics. Although the US is a superior power at making war, it is far less competent in making peace. The author concludes that the current military transformation shows no promise of correcting the long-standing US weakness in the proper use of forces as an instrument of policy.