Category Archives: Book Review

Reviews of recent and upcoming foreign policy and maritime books of merit.

Book Review

Running Toward Fire: Following the Warrior Path

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Boaz, Nate. Running Toward Fire: Following the Warrior Path, Barstool Ballads Press, 2024. pp. 290. $34.99 (hardcover, Amazon). ISBN 1649980302.

By BJ Armstrong

The opening scenes of Nate Boaz’s new memoir of his Marine Corps service during America’s recent “long wars” offer a study in contrasts. It begins driving headlong into the crossfire of multiple defensive positions around Saddam Hussein’s palace, his team of human intelligence Marines sitting atop sandbags layered along the floorboards of their HMMWV, the only protection offered in their soft sided and unarmored vehicle. Boaz writes evocatively, with tracers arcing across the sky and the rush of adrenaline and fear mixing as they fight their way into a culminating moment of the run to Baghdad in April of 2003. Boaz tells his readers that the scene “is seared into my memory and is more vivid to me than yesterday.” But from that moment of dramatic combat, he shifts our attention to another place of potential conflict and trauma, the office of his psychologist many years later. There, the description is just as vivid with hot peppermint tea to calm the stomach, the washing of the white noise machine outside the office door, and the comfortable and familiar place on the couch. 

This opening of a memoir, one which takes Boaz from a lower middle-class upbringing in rural Florida to some of the most consequential military operations of our generation, foreshadows something courageous about his reflection on his service and his life after he wore the uniform. He offers up observations on his experiences that are full of vivid detail and clear writing, but which also do not shy away from the complications of how we mentally and emotionally process our experiences in war. His experience and his honesty reminds us that this has an impact on our lives, both during and after our service.

Running Toward Fire follows a generally chronological form and guides the reader through Boaz’s life before, during, and after his service. He is admirably open about his life growing up in Florida, his motivations and interest in becoming a Marine and what led him to the U.S. Naval Academy, and about his early formation as an officer. He relates to the reader the experiences of going from a Marine Corps and a nation at peace to one under attack on an early September morning, leading to involvement in a pair of conflicts on the other side of the world. There are moments of heroism, the dangers of combat, and the murky world of intelligence work in a warzone. Boaz and his small group of intelligence Marines were involved in a series of significant operations during the early years of the war in Iraq, and the reader is brought along in the back of the HMMWV as they help with POW rescues, hunt for high value targets from the infamous “deck of cards,” and interact with the Iranians.

Throughout the chapters that take place deployed overseas, readers are reminded of a few of the realities of war. First, that a creative junior officer and a good team of enlisted Marines or sailors can accomplish an enormous amount if given proper leadership and open mission orders. Second, that our adversaries and enemies are humans as well, which Boaz reminds us a number of times and recalls with the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow observation that “if we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” And, though the war in Iraq was a messy one, all wars (to paraphrase Tolstoy on families) are messy in their own way.

In addition to Boaz’s wartime experience, this memoir helps us understand some of what it is like to come home from war. His reflections on the messages of masculinity and toughness that most of us internalized as young recruits will hit home for many veterans. He reflects that “I had believed that the answer to all things in life was simply ‘be a tougher warrior,’” a belief that led down some dark paths. The realities of struggling to belong and looking for meaning in post-service American society also will resonate for many. And he shares some thoughts on how we can help one another. Boaz offers his own experience and the things that he has learned along the way not as a mentor or a guide but as a good intelligence officer would, warning us of the indications and warnings and the possible implications for the rest of us.

The great strength of Nate Boaz’s memoir is that it is not just about going off to war. It is not just about the combat and the heroic acts of his fellow Marines, although those elements are certainly there and in vivid detail. But Boaz reminds us that war is a human endeavor and humans don’t go off to war in isolation. They leave people behind, they go with shipmates, and eventually the lucky ones return again to people they love and who love them. This story does not treat war in isolation, it acknowledges that human continuum, in both its complications and its blessings. 

In this way, this book joins the memorable memoirs of Marines of the past like Eugene Sledge and Nate Fick, but it also raises the genre to something higher as Boaz brings years of reflection and wrestling with what it means to be an American at war, and an American home from war. Running Toward Fire is both a gripping read and a deep and meaningful offering that gives veterans and Americans things to think about.

BJ Armstrong is a naval professional and a historian who has served more than 25 years with the sea services. He is the author or editor of seven books on naval history, strategy, and the military profession. His book Developing the Naval Mind , with co-author John Freymann, was recently added to the list of books recommended as “CNO’s Professional Reading.” Opinions expressed here are offered in his personal and academic capacity and do not reflect the policies or views of the U.S. Navy or any government organization.

Featured Image: U.S. Marines from the Hawaii-based Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment patrol through back alleys in Haqlaniyah, Iraq, June, 1, 2006. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by SGT Roe F. Seigle, 1st Marine Division)

Book Review

CIMSEC Holiday Reading List 2023

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By the CIMSEC Team

Happy holidays shipmates! The CIMSEC team has once again put our heads together for what is our fourth annual Holiday Reading List. Below you will find a selection of books we have read and enjoyed over the past year and some that we plan on enjoying in the future (and that we think you might enjoy, too). And of course, we have noted when recommended authors have been interviewed by CIMSEC and come on the Sea Control Podcast to talk about their work. So whether you need to find a book for that special navalist in your life, or if you need something to read on the beach with your toes in the sand, or curled up by the fire – we have got you covered. Enjoy, and happy holidays from the CIMSEC team to all our readers and listeners!

Brendan Costello
Sea Control Associate Producer

The Admirals by Walter R. Borneman

Borneman masterfully reviews the naval careers of all four of the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Admirals – Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King – from their humble beginnings in Annapolis to the height of the Second World War, and their instrumental roles therein. Alongside illustrating their influence in the Pacific theater, Borneman simultaneously conveys each admiral’s personal leadership style and mutual interactions that portray their very human flaws and strengths. The Admirals is an intriguing look at the human component of leadership and some of the United States’ greatest military leaders in its greatest moment of crisis. 

The Chinese Invasion Threat by Ian Easton

The Chinese Invasion Threat analyzes the military and political factors of a cross-strait amphibious invasion of Taiwan. Most analysis from the U.S. perspective on a cross-strait conflict emphasizes countering PLA operations in the Western Pacific and largely undervalues the island and its immediate waters. Easton’s analysis not only provides a unique perspective on the strategic importance of Taiwan to a growing discourse on intelligence analysis, but is infused with the author’s cultural, social, and geographic understanding gleaned from years of study and life on the island. For anyone interested in the Indo-Pacific, especially those of the amphibious variety, this is a must-read.

Chip War by Chris Miller

Miller reviews the humble beginnings of the semiconductor, the intricacies of semiconductor design and production, and the microchip’s current and future significance. He seamlessly blends the economic and geopolitical motivations and challenges of every major stakeholder in the industry, revealing that the future of American military dominance, and China’s, hinges on tiny, nano-meter-thick slabs of silicon. If you want to understand the importance of East Asia to American technological development and foreign policy, this is a great place to start.

Dmitry Filipoff
Director of Online Content

The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers by Andrew Krepinevich

Military transformation has had an outsized impact on the course of global events and history. The ability of militaries to effectively transform and be superior learning organizations is closely connected to their ability to win and deter wars. In this deeply illuminating book, Andrew Krepinevich dives into major historical case studies of how militaries transformed themselves and evolved their visions of future warfare. Krepinevich focuses on the key personalities and institutional properties that enable or hinder military transformation. The result is an insightful work that shines a light on how to navigate the often tortuous and risky process of military transformation. Origins of Victory also highlights critical shortfalls in the U.S. military’s ability to be an effective learning organization, its deep-seated struggle to manifest meaningful new operational concepts, and how this bodes for its future competitiveness.

Navy Staff Officer’s Guide: Leading with Impact from Squadron to OPNAV by Dale C. Rielage

Navy staffs perform invaluable work for the fleet, yet formal staff officer training may not effectively prepare officers for all the challenges and opportunities that come with these roles. In the Navy Staff Officer’s Guide, Dale Rielage provides a comprehensive overview of major naval staff functions and responsibilities. Rielage draws on extensive personal experience working on navy staffs to describe critical staff dynamics and offer recommendations on how to succeed. The Naval Staff Officer’s Guide is also infused with practical anecdotes and vignettes that illustrate what and what not to do as a staff officer. This book will long serve as an outstanding resource and in-depth look at how Navy staffs enable critical command functions and serve the fleet. Read CIMSEC’s interview with Dale on the Naval Staff Officer’s Guide here.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

A diplomat arrives in the heart of the capital city of a powerful galactic empire, determined to preserve the independence of her small polity. Yet her arrival is overshadowed by the recent assassination of her predecessor, whose long absence from home obscures the political state of play. Gripped by imperial intrigue and surrounded by violently deteriorating politics, diplomat Mahit Dzmare is inexorably pulled into the highest levels of empire as unconscionable bargains are considered and discovered. A Hugo Award winner, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is a spellbinding story of political machination, brimming with alluring personalities and weighty mysteries. Its engrossing sequel and fellow Hugo Award winner, A Desolation Called Peace, reveals how the politics of fleet commanders and defense ministers can be decisive, especially in an escalating first-contact war.

Andrew Frame
Sea Control Associate Producer

In The Hurricane’s Eye by Nathaniel Philbrick

The American Revolution may have been started on the green in Lexington, Massachusetts, but the end began in the choppy waters off Chesapeake Bay. By late 1780, Washington knew he needed the help of the French Navy. But coordinating a land army with a fleet was next to impossible. On the first of September 1781, the Battle of the Chesapeake – fought without a single American ship – set the last moves in play that would eventually culminate in the victory at Yorktown.

Operation Drumbeat by Michael Gannon

Fifteen days after Pearl Harbor, U-123 backed out of the submarine pen in Lorient, France, and began a patrol the would bring the war in Europe to the American homeland. Michael Gannon tells the story of the first U-boat attacks along the United States Atlantic Coast during World War Two. For almost seven months, they chewed through shipping unimpeded, demonstrating an incompetence on the part of U.S. Navy leadership that cost dearly in lives, cargo, and ships.

The Ship and the Storm by Jim Carrier

If you are old enough, you may remember Miami-based Windjammer Barefoot cruises, “tall ships” that took passengers on hedonistic Caribbean cruises starting in the late 1950’s. Jim Carrier takes us though the period around October 27, 1998 when Hurricane Mitch sank the 282-foot schooner, taking 31 lives. His narrative explores the lives of the passengers, crew, and the ownership, as the tragedy unfolds against a timeline of National Hurricane Center advisories.

Nathan Miller
Sea Control Co-Host

They Marched Into Sunlight by David Maraniss

While not explicitly a maritime book, They Marched Into Sunlight, is easily the best book on the Vietnam War I have ever read. Maraniss utilizes three narratives in his book (infantrymen on the front lines, student-protestors, and political decision makers) to capture the chaos of the U.S. experience.

Lincoln and His Admirals by Craig L. Symonds

This book does a masterful job of exploring the complex and enthralling characters of the Union Navy in the American Civil War. Symonds investigates not only the strategic and operational aspects of Union efforts, but the interpersonal and political intrigue that typified the top decision makers in that conflict. This book is also a recipient of the Lincoln Prize.

Armada by Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker

Armada is an exhaustive investigation of the Spanish attempt to invade England in 1588. Dr. Colin Martin was also a guest on Sea Control 467 to speak about this seminal work. I was struck not only by the astounding detail, academic rigor, and photos but by the ease with which one can read this book.

Power Up edited by Steven Leonard, Jonathan Klug, Kelsey Cipolla, and Jon Niccum

Steven Leonard came on Sea Control 473 to discuss his most recent work, Power Up. This edited volume explores the character building and leadership themes that make superheroes so compelling. Leonard is also known as Doctrine Man and regularly publishes humorous and insightful cartoons on a variety of social media platforms.

To Be Read:

The Greatest Coast Guard Rescue Stories Ever Told edited by Tom McCarthy

The Greatest Coast Guard Rescue Stories Ever Told is the next book on my “to read” list. It is an edited volume that documents some of the United States Coast Guard rescues that have built its reputation as the preeminent search and rescue (SAR) organization in the world

Walker Mills
Sea Control Co-Host and CIMSEC Senior Editor

The Mediterranean: A History edited by David Abulafia

I read this book while on vacation in Spain and Italy and it helped me understand the places I was visiting in the greater context of Mediterranean history. Abulafia has pulled together nine excellent chapters that cover the maritime and terrestrial history of the Mediterranean, from pre-history to the present ,and work well as an introduction to the region or in challenging some of the history you thought you knew.

White Sun War: The Campaign for Taiwan by Mick Ryan

The latest book from retired Australian general Mick Ryan is fiction and it is a book I quite literally couldn’t put down. A prescient mix of combat narrative, just-out-of-reach technology, and a realistic geopolitical scenario, the book will push readers to think about the possibility of a Taiwan crisis more seriously. It is a worthy companion of books like Ghost Fleet and 2034: A Novel of the Next War. You can also listen to Ryan talk about his approach to “useful fiction” on Sea Control 258.

To Be Read:

Maritime Unmanned: From Global Hawk to Triton by Ernst Snowden and Robert Wood

As the U.S. Marine Corps and other sea services around the world look increasingly toward the capability provided by unmanned systems, understanding the history of unmanned systems in the maritime domain is important. I’m looking forward to digging into this one.

Chris O’Connor
Vice President

Questioning the Carrier by Jeff Vandenengel

Building off the work of Captain Wayne Hughes and Captain Jerry Hendrix (ret.), among others, this is a clear-eyed examination of the fleet design of the U.S. Navy and how it should be changed in the era of missile warfare. The book reads as a short history of naval warfare and technological change with excellent breakdowns of air, surface, and undersea warfare tactics and how they apply to the current carrier-centric fleet. The future “Flex Fleet” that it proposes does not fix all fleet design problems, but the discussion in the book is a vital part of the debate.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Despite this book’s over 1,100-page length, I burned through it. Published in 2000, it is a healthy dose of historical fiction about a Second World War secret crypto detachment, weaved into a plot that takes place in 1999. It is a journey that passes through the history of computing and cryptography, with multiple narratives that weave a conspiracy storyline across generations. I know that I did not get all the programming references in this book, but I found it a fun read that had a healthy balance of the cerebral and the exciting.

Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time by Michael Palin

This book is the perfect holiday read for anyone who is maritime history and geography buff. It chronicles the age of polar exploration for the mid-19th Century Royal Navy, when there was a competition between the maritime nations for geographic and naturalistic discoveries. Its readability keeps the wealth of interesting facts coming with the subtle humor and dry tongue-in-cheek sensibility of the comic mind of a Monty Python member who was also the President of the Royal Geographical Society. Bonus: The audiobook is read by the author!

Addison Pellerano
Sea Control Associate Producer

The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I by Douglas Brunt

This is a little-known history about the inventor and the story behind how the diesel engine came to be. Coupled with the mystery of his disappearance, it is an interesting history book about an episode that changed naval power forever.

On Dangerous Ground: America’s Century in the South China Sea by Gregory B. Polling

Poling details the United States’ history in the South China Sea, between territorial disputes, and the moves that each nation has or has not taken up to the present day.

The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare by Christian Brose

An inside look on how the U.S. government and Department of Defense acquire platforms and weapons to fight America’s wars. Brose argues that we should break from the current model to move towards a model that focuses on the idea of a “Kill Chain” rather than specific capabilities. 

Jared Samuelson
Executive Producer and Co-Host of the Sea Control

The Titanic and the City of Widows It Left Behind – The Forgotten Victims of the Fatal Voyage by Julie Cook

A great story of the forgotten personal impacts from an author with a personal history with the disaster. Listen to the author discuss the book on Sea Control 476. 

Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare From the First World War to the Present Day by Michael Glynn

Whether you are a novice or a professional with a few decades of experience hunting submarines, this book has a lot to offer on one of the most complex tactical problems confronting modern naval officers. Glynn also happens to be a tremendous interview guest and you can listen to him on Sea Control 468.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny & Murder by David Grann

Grann goes into the archives to discuss the arduous journey endured by the crew of the Wager as they wrecked on the southern tip of South America before making their way home. A great story that spurs the reader to ponder what they would do in trying circumstances. Listen to Grann on Sea Control 440. 

In Deepest Secrecy: Dutch Submarine Espionage Operations from 1968-1991 by Jaime Karremann

Most readers will be familiar with Blind Man’s Bluff, the story of U.S. Cold War submarine operations. In this book, Jaime Karremann chronicles operations by the Dutch Navy, to include their initial sorties into northern waters that just barely avoided catastrophe, as well as operations in the Mediterranean against Soviet fleets at anchor. You can find Karremann on Sea Control 444. 

Chris Stockdale
President 

The Deadly Trade: The Complete History of Submarine Warfare from Archimedes to the Present by Iain Ballantyne

Ballantyne’s work charts the early development and use of submarines in warfare and the various roles they played in the First and Second World Wars. Particular analysis is given to some of the most important and impactful missions conducted by more notable boats during the conflict, highlighting the contribution of submarines and their crews. The work also brilliantly covers the Cold War period and gives considerable insight into the roles of submarines during this era and their importance in ensuring and maintaining nuclear deterrence at sea. This is a first-class read, highly interesting, well written and well researched. For those with an interest in submarine warfare, I thoroughly recommend it!

Featured Image: Artwork created with Midjourney AI.

Book Review

Andrew Marshall’s Reflections on Net Assessment

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Andrew W. Marshall, edited by Jeffrey McKitrick and Robert Angevine, Reflections on Net Assessment. Andrew W. Marshall Foundation and Institute for Defense Analyses, 2022, 331 pp, US $10.00., ISBN 978-0578384238.

By BJ Armstrong

Known throughout parts of the American national security establishment as “Yoda,” referred to by The Atlantic as the “Brain of the Pentagon,” and respected worldwide for his decades of strategic work at RAND, the National Security Council, and finally in founding and running the Office of Net Assessment, Andrew Marshall was a critical figure in the Cold War and post-Cold War history of American security and strategy. He was also an intellectual figure who left a limited imprint on the literature of American national security, having written the vast majority of his work for classified audiences and publishing very little in the open.

The two generations of “Jedi” who were trained by him during their time working in the Office of Net Assessment are strategists, scholars, and consultants who prefer their own moniker as “graduates of St. Andrew’s Prep,” and who have published widely and influentially in a myriad of topics. For those who never attended the “prep school” before it closed with his death in 2019, Marshall’s own words and thoughts are much harder to come by. Today’s scholars and practitioners of national and defense strategy are reliant on these acolytes for much of our insight into the running and thinking of ONA. Reflections on Net Assessment, edited by Jeffrey McKitrick and Robert Angevine for the Andrew W. Marshall Foundation, offers a rare glimpse into Marshall’s own thoughts and approaches to strategy and security, and is an insightful contribution to the wider national security community.

Across seven chapters, Reflections offers transcripts of a series of oral history interviews primarily conducted and transcribed by Kurt Guthe during the 1990s. The interviews included Guthe and Marshall, as well as a number of unnamed colleagues who likely were contemporary or former members of the ONA staff, in dialogue about a wide range of topics. It appears, from several comments made during the interviews, that Marshall was considering writing a book or memoir reflecting on his then nearly five decades of service. He ultimately never wrote the book. However, the content of the interviews overlaps so clearly with the content and details included in former ONA staff members Andrew Krepinevich and Barry Watts’ book, The Last Warrior: Andrew Marshall and the Shaping of Modern American Defense Strategy, that it seems likely they carried forward on Mr. Marshall’s intent by writing the book themselves based largely on these oral histories. For Reflections, McKitrick and Angevine took the transcripts made by Guthe and formatted and edited them, created short contextual essays to remind readers of the milestones in American history which the interviews often mentioned, and overall did an excellent job of organizing the book for publication.

As is the case when reading raw or lightly edited oral histories, anyone looking for insights will be taken on a circular trip. In the case of the interviews with Marshall this often includes fascinating minor details of his background and education, insights into the inner workings of multiple Presidential administrations and their Departments of Defense, and occasionally sharp personal opinions and foibles. In the case of these transcripts, the interviewers themselves often head off on tangents sharing their own memories and interests. While this sometimes derails Marshall’s intended subject, and sometimes moves the conversation away from Marshall’s personal insights (even occasionally trying to answer questions for him rather than letting us read what he really thought), it is also likely the price of admission for such candid discussions with interlocuters who themselves are likely highly accomplished and intelligent strategists and researchers.

In addition to the fascinating look inside the mechanisms and intellectual infrastructure of American national security and strategy making, three key insights from Marshall repeatedly rise to the surface of the conversations included in this book. First, the importance and role of asking good questions. Second, the nature of influence within the American national security establishment. And finally, the ability, or lack of ability, of security organizations to do intellectual work together or share insights, and the training or lack of training of the members of these organizations in deeply intellectual work.

Marshall repeatedly shares that his primary goal throughout his career was not to find solutions to American defense and security problems, but instead to find ways of asking the right questions. By finding and researching the right questions, his view of net assessment was that it could present the military with the real parameters of the problems that needed to be solved. He quite clearly believed that the military services themselves were the real experts at determining the tactical, operational, and strategic solutions to the challenges of the Cold War (and eventually post-Cold War world). But he seemed to believe that they often struggled to do the deep work and research needed to ask the right questions and determine what the root challenges actually were.

In this respect, Marshall was a deeply inductive thinker. His instructions to members of his staff to “go read everything” on a topic in order to get started, presupposed his intense dislike of strategic work that tried to shoehorn threats or challenges into an already existing framework or the use of a deductive model that insisted on following a theory. He described two types of defense analysts, “theory oriented” versus “reality oriented” people, and lamented that there were far too few focused on reality. In this approach, inductive instead of deductive, Marshall might be seen more as a historical thinker than the social scientist he was by training, and his ideas followed in the wake of strategists of prior generations like Corbett and Clausewitz.

When considering the nature of influence within the American national security establishment, Marshall was far more sanguine that someone of his reputation might be expected to be. Despite being held up as something like the godfather of American success in the Cold War, Marshall instead saw influence as a far more nuanced and limited thing. He did not seem to believe that very many of the reports and studies conducted by ONA or for ONA really affected the military services or overall national strategy very much. As he repeatedly points out, his audience was actually the Secretary of Defense individually in an effort to (once again) get the Secretary thinking about how to ask the right questions.

In Marshall’s opinion, new ideas often simply resulted in the services rebranding things they were already doing. In the case of both “competitive strategies” and the “revolution in military affairs,” which described the development of the reconnaissance and precision strike complex of the future, Marshall and his staff described how the services merely attached those labels to programs or new weapons that were already in development or in service. Marshall claimed that real influence only came when you changed the vocabulary of strategic discussions, and moved beyond the initial re-labelling phase to get service staffs to rethink their approaches by forcing them to consider the ideas behind the new labels. This kind of influence, interestingly, was not something Marshall believed he genuinely could control once released into the wild.

Finally, Marshall returns in his discussions to the relationships between the organizations inside the intellectual infrastructure of American national security and strategy making. The National Security Act of 1947 fundamentally reformed the American government’s security elements just as Marshall’s career was beginning. Across almost six decades he observed how new organizations, like the CIA and the National Security Council, changed over time. One of his strongest observations was how over time, convinced of their own expertise, these organizations became less collaborative and less open to outside ideas, either from government or civilian sectors. As organizations built their own internal cultures they entrenched and became less and less likely to share ideas or information. These organizations and their enclosed cultures, Marshall observed, also became less and less capable of producing the kind of inductive and deep-thinking analysts in their newer generations of employees. By the Reagan Administration, not only were the military services treating each other as bureaucratic adversaries, but so was much of the intelligence community and other elements of the intellectual infrastructure of American security and strategy.

As the U.S. Navy continues deeper into the twenty-first century, talk of a “new” Cold War is common and there has been a strong tendency to reach back on the successful methods of the “old” Cold War. The history of ONA and Mr. Marshall’s methods seem ripe for replication in our contemporary world as we face the challenge of China, the resurgent but chaotic Russia, and regional challengers in a multipolar world. There will be a temptation to ask about the “competitive strategies” necessary to overcome our adversaries, or to determine the next “offset” in a new “revolution” in military affairs that will lead to success. But, following Marshall and his interlocutors through their circling discussions of his experiences and approaches, this starts to appear exactly like the kind of “theory-oriented” thinking that he lamented from defense analysts. In order to be “reality-oriented,” perhaps we need to return to the roots of Marshall’s insights.

Today, who is making sure that the U.S. Navy is asking the right questions? Who is defining the vocabulary and the intellectual infrastructure of how we think about our contemporary challengers? And are we learning from each other, and developing the next generation of analysts who will be creative and intelligent enough to do the deep work, “read everything,” and come up with creative new ideas rather than rehashing old models? Andy Marshall believed in focusing on finding the right questions and defining their parameters. In Reflections on Net Assessment, naval and national security practitioners and analysts can still learn a great deal from Yoda in his own words, if we do the reading and remain reality-based in our search for wisdom in confronting the challenges of the 21st century.

BJ Armstrong is a historian and Principal Associate of the Forum on Integrated Naval History and Seapower Studies. He is the co-author of Developing the Naval Mind and author/editor of the forthcoming revised and expanded second edition of 21st Century Mahan: Sound Military Conclusions for the Modern Era. Opinions expressed here are offered in his personal and academic capacity and do not reflect the policies or views of the U.S. Navy or any government organization.

Featured Image: Andy Marshall attends his retirement farewell ceremony at the Pentagon on Jan. 5, 2015. (Photo by Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz/U.S. Air Force)

Book Review

The CIMSEC Holiday Reading List 2022

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By the CIMSEC Sea Control Podcast Team

Happy holidays Shipmates! We’ve have put our heads together for our third annual Holiday Reading List. Below you’ll find a selection of books that we’ve read and enjoyed over the last year and some that we plan on enjoying in the future (and that we think you might enjoy, too). And of course, it should come as no surprise that we’ve interviewed more than a few of the authors we have recommended. Enjoy, and happy holidays from the CIMSEC team to all our readers and listeners!

Joshua Groover
Sea Control Associate Producer

Freaks of a Feather by Kacy Tellessen

The book that started it all, Freaks of a Feather led me down a rabbit hole of memoirs written by Marines. Tellessen, a Marine Corps machine gunner and the alleged only Marine to ever carry a .50-cal receiver the full 20 kilometers during the final hike at the School of Infantry, tells the story of his time in the Marine Corps. He was deployed twice to Iraq and saw significant combat during his first deployment. Tellessen’s relaxed tone and honesty make for an interesting read that grapples with the trials of combat, and its long-term impacts on the individual.

Guns Up! by Johnnie M. Clark

My favorite read this year, Guns Up! follows Johnnie Clark, a Marine Corps machine gunner in the famed 5th Marine Regiment, through the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. The book is a gripping testament to the courage, dedication, and grit displayed by Clark and his fellow Marines during the Tet Offensive – I could hardly put it down when I was reading it!

With The Old Breed by E.B. Sledge

A Marine Corps and American Classic, With The Old Breed puts you in the shoes of E.B. Sledge aka “Sledgehammer” through his time in the Pacific during the Second World War. Sledgehammer served as a mortarman in the 5th Marine regiment. He chronicles the heroism, bravery, and sacrifice shown by Marines fighting in the Pacific, and the horrors and ravaging effects of war through his experiences at Peleliu and Okinawa.

19 Stars by Edgar F. Puryear Jr.

If you are looking for a book on leadership in the military, look no further. 19 Stars documents the “military character and leadership” of generals George S. Patton, Jr., Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, and George C. Marshall. The book is informative and provides the reader with excellent templates on how to lead themselves.

To Be Read:

The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan by Elliot Ackerman

Very excited to read this book given how recent the US withdrawal from Afghanistan occurred. Ackerman is a retired Marine and former CIA paramilitary officer who spent considerable time deployed to Afghanistan. He also played a significant role in the evacuation of Afghan nationals who helped the Coalition in Afghanistan. In the book, Ackerman documents this and other events that occurred in the week leading up to the U.S. withdrawal. The first part of the book sucked me right in – can’t wait to read the rest! Ackerman talked to us for Sea Control 247 about his recent book War in 2034.

Anna McNeil
Sea Control Co-Host

Best Cutters of the Best Coast Guard by The Claw of Knowledge

This much-anticipated Kickstarter project is the author’s second book. Written to honor the crews of the Coast Guard’s most famous ships by connecting their efforts in a long blue line, this effort reflects on just how significant (and often overlooked) an impact each ship can have over the span of their operational service. Illustrated with the plucky sort of self-effacing humor that has endeared the author to Coasties everywhere, this book is nonetheless an extensively researched and smartly assembled account of relatable events given historical context. You won’t want to miss it, and we simply must have the author on the podcast once he or she is ready for a book tour!

Maritime Cybersecurity by Dr. Gary Kessler and Dr. Steven Shepard 

This 2022 refresh to the highly regarded original has been well0received by maritime security professionals everywhere. Chock full of case studies and practical content, this is an excellent reference written by experts in their craft. Check out CIMSEC Sea Control Episode 293 to hear from Dr. Kessler and Dr. Diane Zorri on cyber threats and chokepoints.

This is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth

Recommended to me by an academic well-versed in both engineering and legal disciplines, this New York Times Best-Seller is a journalist’s account of how a single conversation overheard by chance led her down a winding path of intrigue and strategic competition. This book promises to be an interesting read, and to give context to how we have arrived in an era of modern ‘bug bounty’ programs. 

The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George Spafford

This book is a fictional account an Information Technology employee at a big business. You might not think this is for you at first blush, but it was recommended to me when asked IT professionals for a case study on successful ‘steering the boat’ of an enterprise’s security architecture to head in a new direction. If you’d like a pragmatic solution which gives you hope for your own organization’s security architecture challenges, you might want to read this book. Not to be confused with The Phoenix Program.

Red Famine by Anne Applebaum 

Recommended to me by a geopolitical analyst as “the best book for understanding Russia’s history of punishing Ukraine, and why Ukraine is fighting so hard to push them back.” An Economist best book of the year.

Walker Mills
Sea Control Co-Host
CIMSEC Senior Editor

Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific by Robert Kaplan

After starting with Kaplan’s book Monsoon about the Indian Ocean before a trip to Sri Lanka, I have become a huge fan of Kaplan’s style and read several more of his books. Kaplan’s blend of travel writing and geopolitical analysis make his work easy reading but leave the reader with lasting impressions of foreign lands. Asia’s Cauldron (2014) is just old enough to be prescient and a great place to start for anyone interested in learning more about the complex South China Sea region.

The End of the World Is Just Beginning by Peter Zeihan

Zeihan is a self-professed geopolitical strategist and bestselling author. He writes in an easy-to-read bordering on flippant style that mask a barrage of data that will challenge your preconceptions on economics, geography, security and great power competition. While I didn’t love the style or agree with all of Zeihan’s conclusions, I have spent more time thinking about this book than any other I have read in the past year.

Oil and War: How the Deadly Struggle for Fuel in WWII Meant Victory or Defeat by Robert Goralski and Russell W. Freeburg

After having reread this book for a class at the Naval Postgraduate School, I am again recommending it to everyone I can. Originally written in the 1980s, it is not ground breaking historical research (Adam Tooze’s magisterial Wages of Destruction would be a better bet for that), but it makes abundantly clear the importance of energy, particularly oil, to military operations. Russian logistical incompetence during the initial stage of their invasion of Ukraine make clear how relevant Oil & War remains, and a reprint from Marine Corps University means you can download it for free.

Magdalena: River of Dreams, a Story of Colombia by Wade Davis

After spending the last three years living and working in Colombia, this is one of the best books about the country that I have read. It comes from an unusual source, Wade Davis is a Canadian who fell in love with the country as a student, but sometimes it takes an outside to truly understand and convey the essence of a place. The book is really an explanation of modern Colombia with the narrative following the Magdalena River from its source in Central Colombia to the Caribbean – passing not only through the stunning landscape of Colombia and it’s rich history, but also all of the strife, conflict, and tragedy that have shaped the country over the last 500 years.

To Be Read:

Adriatic: A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age by Robert Kaplan

Adriatic is Kaplan’s most recent book (2022) and it is part travelogue and part memoir, with a healthy dose of Kaplan’s reminisces about the region. After enjoying several of his other books like Balkan Ghosts, Asia’s Cauldron, and Monsoon, I can’t wait to tear into his newest work and I’m stoked that it’s centered around a body of water.

Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II by Paul Kennedy

Victory at Sea is one of those books that I’ve heard so much about but have not been able to read yet. I just picked up a copy and I’ve already take some time to look at the beautiful illustrations by Ian Marshall. If you want a teaser or a recap, we did a great episode with Dr. Kennedy about his book for Sea Control 378.

Jared Samuelson
Sea Control Executive Producer

Adrift: The Curious Tale of LEGO Lost at Sea by Tracey Williams

My wife started laughing the instant I took this book out of its packaging: “This is literally all of your interests in a single book.” She was correct and you can listen to the podcast we did with Tracey, Sea Control 340, is great. It’s as much a scrapbook as it is a book, including beautiful maritime art, pictures of Tracey’s own finds, and poetry. There are also informative sections on the long-term impact of plastic on our oceans. 

On Wide Seas by Claude Berube

Dr. Berube is one of the most vocal CIMSEC supporters and a phenomenal Sea Control guest, but that’s not why his book is here. He’s used the book to produce a study of the U.S. Navy in the 1830s, a period overshadowed by the War of 1812 and American Civil War. There’s a particular focus on Andrew Jackson’s relationship with the Navy, technical developments and the intellectual growth of the Navy’s officer corps.

Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding by Hannah Farber

“I went looking for adventure, and instead I found insurance,” was how Dr. Hannah Farber explained her research for this book when she joined us on Sea Control 380. The extent to which marine insurance impacts international trade and economic relationships has become more obvious as a result of the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent negotiations over Black Sea grain, but before that it played a critical role in the birth of the United States.

Cats in the Navy by Scot Christenson

You’re going to approach this book expecting a lot of pictures of cats on ships, and you won’t be disappointed. But amongst all the stills of cats lounging in adorable hammocks, there’s a lot of information packed in: the reason cats started going to sea, cats as a recruiting tool, superstitions, and more. Coming to a Sea Control episode near you!

Working Boats – An Inside Look at Ten Amazing Watercraft by Tom Crestodina

A spectacular addition to any children’s book collection. Incredible detailed artwork by the author and great explanations for all sorts of shipboard gear. If you’ve ever struggled to explain to a younger relative what it’s like to go to sea, this book will help start a conversation with some immersive visual aids. 

To Be Read:

Forging Wargamers: A Framework for Professional Military Education Edited by Sebastian Bae

Sebastian is going to read this and shoot me a note written with the tone a disappointed grandfather would use when addressing his grandson who broke a garage window. I will get to it and it looks excellent! One other great benefit to this book: because it’s published by Marine Corps University Press, it’s free! Click that hyperlink. The whole thing is there! Sebastian has been a repeat guest on the Sea Control podcast.

Marie Williams
Sea Control Associate Producer

The Constitution of Knowledge by Jonathan Rauch

This book is about the epistemic crisis in our public life. “How we know what we know.” How our shared social knowledge matters. And how our institutions matter. Writing in clear, easy prose, Rauch makes a strong case for both defending democracy and not losing touch with reality (it never works out well, he writes). I came away feeling armed, at least in my mind, for modern information warfare. 

Dmitry Filipoff
Director of Online Content

Dying to Learn: Wartime Lessons from the Western Front by Michael Hunzeker

Wartime learning and adaptation is a convoluted but necessary business. Militaries need to do their absolute best to properly understand and adapt to future war in peacetime, but many concepts and capabilities will break in the naturally unforeseen chaos of conflict. Institutions must be well-designed to translate combat lessons into rapid military reform in the midst of pressing combat operations. Michael Hunzeker’s Dying to Learn is a gripping analysis of wartime learning in WWI and lays out how the various powers on the Western Front adapted their doctrine and their institutions during the course of great power war. Hunzeker assesses the fundamental building blocks of effective force development, including centralized training, decentralized experimentation, and how leaders properly manage these functions. All modern militaries can benefit greatly from these insights and mitigate the extent to which their warfighting methods will collapse in future combat crucibles. Read CIMSEC’s interview with Hunzeker on Dying to Learn here.

The Inheritance: America’s Military After Two Decades of War by Mara Karlin

There are plenty of books on the Global War on Terror, yet few if any have systematically attempted to capture the comprehensive impact these conflicts have had on the U.S. military. After having served in civilian national security roles for five different Secretaries of Defense, Mara Karlin is well-positioned to understand how the military has been deeply affected by the Global War on Terror. Karlin interviewed more than 100 individuals for this book, most of whom served as senior general and flag officers during the Global War on Terror. They offered their candid and deeply personal perspectives on the legacies of this conflict. But The Inheritance reveals much more than the personal psychological scars of these wars, which have considerable policy implications. It highlights the fault lines that have emerged between American society and its military, and the military and its civilian masters, which may pose significant consequences for how America will go to war in the future.

Collin Fox
CIMSEC Senior Editor

Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II by Paul Kennedy

The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost by Cathal J. Nolan 

Victory at Sea is a brilliant and beautifully illustrated capstone on Kennedy’s classic, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. It traces the rise of the U.S. Navy through the Second World War to unrivaled dominance in the post-war era. The Allure of Battle is a millennium-spanning survey of mostly land wars. Despite their differing scope and focus, both books converge toward a similar compelling thesis: The outcome of war is usually decided by the latent strength and endurance of the belligerents. Novel technologies, innovative tactics, brilliant commanders, and pitched battles are interesting and often exciting, but both books argue persuasively that these factors rarely decide the final outcome of a war. Factors of national power and geography are presented as far more predictive of victory and defeat. Also be sure to check out Sea Control 378 with Dr. Kennedy.