Adaptation Under Fire, Lt. General David Barno
Adaptation Under Fire, Lt. General David Barno
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Adaptation Under Fire
How Militaries Change in Wartime

Author: Lt. General David Barno, Nora Bensahel

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 13 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/28/2021

Synopsis

Every military must prepare for future wars despite not really knowing the shape such wars will ultimately take. In the face of such great uncertainty, militaries must be able to adapt rapidly in order to win. Adaptation under Fire identifies the characteristics that make militaries more adaptable, illustrated through historical examples and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Authors David Barno and Nora Bensahel argue that militaries facing unknown future conflicts must nevertheless make choices about the type of doctrine that their units will use, the weapons and equipment they will purchase, and the kind of leaders they will select and develop to guide the force to victory.

Barno and Bensahel start by providing a framework for understanding adaptation and include historical cases of success and failure. Next, they examine US military adaptation during the nation's recent wars, and explain why certain forms of adaptation have proven problematic. In the final section, Barno and Bensahel conclude that the US military must become much more adaptable in order to address the fast-changing security challenges of the future, and they offer recommendations on how to do so before it is too late.

About Lt. General David Barno

Lt. General David Barno, USA (Ret.) is a visiting professor of strategic studies and senior fellow at the Philip Merrill Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is also a contributing editor and columnist for War on the Rocks. General Barno completed a thirty-year active duty Army career where he commanded at every level. He served with Army Ranger battalions in combat during both the Panama and Grenada invasions. General Barno was the overall commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Wilson

Outstanding book by these two authors. Being on both sides of the net (operational and supporting establishment), the authors laid out a great overview of how well-intended policies end up having unintended consequences of hurting capability development, fielding, and testing. I’ve long believed that......more

Goodreads review by Jeff

Well written with a lot of solid theoretical underpinnings to its application to recent conflicts. Nonetheless, I found myself wishing for more time spent on case studies beyond OIF and OEF. I also wished for a better exploration of military acquisitions beyond the over-simplified trope of “the FAR......more

Goodreads review by Phillip

As a US army officer with over 21 years of service, I found this book interesting. I nodded along with it at many points. I didn't agree with all of them, but I understood the authors' position. Specifically, I agreed with the position on decentralized versus centralized decision making. I think it'......more

Goodreads review by Dan

Well researched (almost 100 pages of references) and well organized. The book is both descriptive and proscriptive, and should be on every defense professional’s DESK. Knowing what to do and how to do it is important, but the question to the authors is: how do we get rid of that which is no longer n......more

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