Michael E. O'Hanlon Book order

In Defense 101 , a concise primer for understanding the United States' $700+ billion defense budget and rapidly changing military technologies, Michael O'Hanlon provides a deeply informed yet accessible analysis of American military power. After an introduction in which O'Hanlon surveys today's international security environment, provides a brief sketch of the history of the US military, its command structure, the organization of its three million personnel, and a review of its domestic basing and global reach, Defense 101 provides in-depth coverage of four critical areas in military • Defense Budgeting and Resource detailed budget and cost breakdowns, wartime spending allocations, economics of overseas basing, military readiness, and defense budgeting versus US grand strategy• Gaming and Modeling wargaming, micro modeling, nuclear exchange calculations, China scenarios, and assessments of counterinsurgency missions• Technological Change and Military use of computers, communications, and robotics, cutting-edge developments in projectiles and propulsion systems• The Science of War, military uses of space, missile defense, and nuclear weapons, testing, and proliferation For policy makers and experts, military professionals, students, and citizens alike, Defense 101 helps make sense of the US Department of Defense, the basics of war and the future of armed conflict, and the most important characteristics of the American military.

Michael O'Hanlon and Hassina Sherjan provide a compelling analysis of the current strategy in Afghanistan, drawing on their extensive knowledge and experience. This insightful work is essential for those seeking to understand the complexities of the conflict and the way forward. Through a unique collaboration, the authors present a concise overview of Afghanistan's situation, offering policy recommendations for the future. They share personal experiences while outlining tactics to protect the Afghan population and combat insurgents. Key topics include police reform, improvements in the prison system, tribal engagement, and anti-corruption efforts. The authors address the Afghan resistance, detailing the Taliban's resurgence and the necessary steps for their defeat. They also challenge prevalent myths about Afghanistan, such as the misconception that its people harbor animosity towards foreigners. Additionally, they emphasize the importance of metrics, like those in the Brookings Afghanistan Index, to assess the effectiveness of strategies during 2010 and 2011. Policy suggestions include enhancing the Afghan army and police, promoting Afghan businesses for economic recovery, increasing involvement from other Muslim nations, and establishing a robust international aid coordinator to complement NATO's military efforts.

Despite worldwide internecine ethnic and political conflict, humanitarian intervention by the international community has been effective in several high-profile cases, helping save thousands of lives in Somalia and ending genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo. However, a sufficient capacity for multilateral humanitarian intervention does not yet exist. In this volume, Michael O'Hanlon presents a blueprint for saving lives through force. He suggests new ways of spreading the responsibility for intervention forces onto regional powers. Ultimately, hecontends, individual countries must develop the aggregate capacity to react nearly simultaneously to several crises of varying scale and severity.

After eleven weeks of bombing in the spring of 1999, the United States and NATO ultimately won the war in Kosovo. Serbian troops were forced to withdraw, enabling an international military and political presence to take charge in the region. But was this war inevitable or was it the product of failed western diplomacy prior to the conflict? And once it became necessary to use force, did NATO adopt a sound strategy to achieve its aims of stabilizing Kosovo? In this first in-depth study of the Kosovo crisis, Ivo Daalder and Michael O'Hanlon answer these and other questions about the causes, conduct, and consequences of the war. Based on interviews with many of the key participants, they conclude that notwithstanding important diplomatic mistakes before the conflict, it would have been difficult to avoid the Kosovo war. That being the case, U.S. and NATO conduct of the war left much to be desired. For more than four weeks, the Serbs succeeded where NATO failed, forcefully changing Kosovo's ethnic balance by forcing 1.5 million Albanians from their home and more than 800,000 from the country. Had they chosen to massacre more of their victims, NATO would have been powerless to stop them. In the end, NATO won the war by increasing the scope and intensity of bombing, making serious plans for a ground invasion, and moving diplomacy into full gear in order to convince Belgrade that this was a war Serbia would never win. The Kosovo crisis is a cautionary tale for those who believe force can be used easily and in limited increments to stop genocide, mass killing, and the forceful expulsion of entire populations. Daalder and O'Hanlon conclude that the crisis holds important diplomatic and military lessons that must be learned so that others in the future might avoid the mistakes that were made in this case.