17.483
US Military Power
Examines roles and missions of U.S. conventional military forces, with a focus on developing ability to rigorously analyze military operations. Topics include grand strategy; organization of the military; defense budget; capabilities and limitations of naval, air, and ground forces; intelligence; counterinsurgency; and implications of new technologies and nuclear weapons. Military history and simple models of warfare used to explore how variations in technology and battlefield conditions can drastically alter effectiveness of conventional forces. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Spring 2015 · U.S. Military Power
Topics
- Introduction: The Past, Present, and Future of the U.S. Force Structure
- U.S. Grand Strategy
- The Fundamentals of Campaign Analysis
- History and Role of Airpower
- The Last Fair Fight? The Battle of the Bulge, 1944
- Intelligence and Military Operations
- Naval Power and Power Projection
- The Guadalcanal Campaign
- The New U.S. Way of War: Desert Storm to Operation Iraqi Freedom
- Afghanistan, Iraq, and Counter-insurgency: An Old Problem Returns
- “Humanitarian Military Intervention”: Kosovo and Related Applications
- The Nuclear Age and Nuclear Proliferation
Readings
- Introduction
- Context of American Defense Planning
- ———. Chapter 3 in Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle . Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 28–51. ISBN: 9780691128023.
- Central Intelligence Agency. CIA Analysis of the Warsaw Pact Forces: The Importance of Clandestine Reporting . Edited by Joan Bird and John Bird. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. ISBN: 9781497352377.
- Major Modern Air Campaigns
- Keaney, Thomas, and Eliot Cohen. “What Did the Air Campaign Accomplish?” Chapter 3 in Gulf War Air Power Survey Summary Report . United States Government Printing, 1993, pp. 55–119. ISBN: 9780160419508.
- Air Power, Allies, Limited War
- Weigley, Russell. Eisenhower’s Lieutenants: The Campaigns of France and Germany, 1944 – 45 . Indiana University Press, 1981, pp. 1–31. ISBN: 9780253206084.
- Cole, Hugh. The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge (U.S. Army in World War II - The European Theater of Operations) . Center of Military History (United States Army), 1994, pp. 52, 649–60, and 685–6.
- MacDonald, Charles B. Chapters 6, 12, 13, and 14 in A Time for Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge . William Morrow Paperbacks, 1997, p. 629. ISBN: 9780688151577.
- MacDonald, Charles. A Time for Trumpets . William Morrow, 1985 is recommended in its entirety for those interested in ground warfare when it does not go entirely right. Alternatively, students may wish to review Dupuy, Trevor. Hitler’s Last Gamble: The Battle of the Bulge, December 1944-January 1945 . Perennial (HarperCollins), 1995. ISBN: 9780060921965.
- Naval Operations: The Nexus of Air and Surface Warfare
- Smith, Gordon. Battle Atlas of the Falklands War 1982 . Naval-History, 2006. Chapters 8, 9, and 24. ISBN: 9781847539502.
- Hastings, Max, and Simon Jenkins. The Battle for the Falklands . Book Club Associates, 1983. Read pp. 82–84 before the Woodward piece and pp. 150–7 after Woodward.
- Admiral (retired), and Sandy Woodward. One Hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander . Naval Institute Press, 1997, pp. 1–22 and 146–64. ISBN: 9781557506528.
- Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW)
- Cohen, Eliot, and John Gooch. “Failure to Learn: American Antisubmarine Warfare in 1942.” Chapter 2 in Military Misfortune: The Anatomy of Failure in War . Free Press, 1990, pp. 59–94. ISBN: 9780029060605.
- Roskill, S. W. “The Pacific and Indian Oceans.” Chapter IX in The War at Sea 1939 – 1945, Vol. 2: The Period of Balance . Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1956.
- For orientation, skim: Gordon, Michael, and Bernard Trainor. Chapters 18–20 in The Generals: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf . Back Bay Books, 1995. ISBN: 9780316321006.
- Krepinevich, Jr., Andrew F. The Military-technical Revolution: A Preliminary Assessment . Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (2002): 11–22.
- For orientation, skim: Gordon, Michael, and Bernard Trainor. Chapters 13 and 14 in Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq . Atlantic Books, 2006. ISBN: 9781843543527.
- Lessons from Israel / Lebanon War 2006
- Biddle, Stephen, and Jeffrey Friedman. The 2006 Lebanon Campaign and the Future of Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy . CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2008, pp. xi–xix. ISBN: 9781461085003.
- Fontenot, Gregory, E. J. Degen, and David Tohn. Chapters 3–6 in On Point: The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom . Combat Studies Institute, 2004. (Skim these pages to get a sense of how the campaign unfolded. Also review maps and other graphics in these sections.)
- Theory and Strategy
- Long, Austin. Chapter 4–5 in On Other War: Lessons from Five Decades of RAND Counterinsurgency Research . RAND Corporation, 2006, pp. 21–55. ISBN: 9780833039262.
- Sewall, Sarah. The U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual . University of Chicago Press, 2007, plus pp. 1–24 and 1–29. [foreword] (U.S. Army and Marine Corps, FM 3–24)
- Long, Austin. Chapter 6 in On “Other War”: Lessons from Five Decades of RAND Counterinsurgency Research . RAND, 2006, pp. 57–73.
- ———. Begin at “COIN Doctrine, 2003 to 2005.” In Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence: The U.S. Military and Counterinsurgency Doctrine, 1960 – 1970 and 2003–2006 . RAND Corporation, 2008, pp. 20–29. ISBN: 9780833044709.
- The Logic and Definition(s) of Humanitarian Intervention
- Operation Allied Force
- Waltz, Kenneth N. “Peace, Stability, and Nuclear Weapons.” Chapter 22 in The Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics . 5th ed. Edited by Robert Art and Kenneth Waltz. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999, pp. 357–71. ISBN: 9780847695546.
Prerequisites & course information
Subject meets with 17.482 Prereq: Freshmen need permission of instructor U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2015
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.