Content area
Full Text
Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle. By Stephen Biddle. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-691-11645-8. Maps. Tables. Figures. Appendix. Notes. Index. Pp. xi, 337. $7.50.
In Military Power, Stephen Biddle, an associate professor at the Army War College, demonstrates a tremendous knowledge of the technical aspects of war. He restricts his analysis to conventional warfare, and excludes guerrilla and nuclear conflict. Biddle deals only with "middle-intensity" wars represented by recent conflicts in Afghanistan, the Balkans, and the Israeli-Arab wars, and with "high-intensity" wars represented by conventional wars between the great powers.
Biddle maintains that conventional warfare "will remain the central purpose for the majority of the U.S. military, and it will continue to occur between other parties in other parts of the world." In the war on terror, Biddie holds that-while attacks on terrorists will involve "counterintelligence and police work"-conventional warfare will still occur against states that harbor terrorists.
This is a legitimate argument....