DIRECTOR’S

READING LIST

2018

COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE IN DEFENSE OF THE NATION

 DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

As intelligence officers, our most critical asset is our mind. 

Self-study increases our speed, creativity, and confidence. 

Without self-study, our expertise is limited to our direct 

experiences. Reading vastly multiplies our experiences in 

life—as parents, as friends, as spouses, and as leaders.

By reading, we can learn from the experiences of an 

immeasurable number of people. And, hopefully, our 

reading allows us to learn from the mistakes of others, 

before we make those mistakes ourselves. Old ideas 

give us new ideas. History really does teach us 

something. It inspires, motivates, and elevates us.

Lieutenant General Robert P. Ashley, Jr.

Director, Defense Intelligence Agency
 “The problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by 

experience (or by your men’s experience), i.e. the hard way. 

By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally 

a better way to do business, especially in our line of work 

where the consequences of incompetence are so final for 

young men. Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught 

flat- footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any 

problem has been addressed (successfully or unsuccessfully) 

before. It doesn’t give me all the answers, but it lights 

what is often a dark path ahead.”

HARRY S. TRUMAN

33RD PRESIDENT 

OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

JAMES N. MATTIS

UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

GENERAL, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS (RET.)

 “Not all readers are leaders, 

but all leaders are readers.”

National Archives (111-P-20038A)
TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant

The three star icon indicates titles the Director has read.

Anticipating Surprise: Analysis for Strategic Warning

The Art of War

The Craft of Intelligence: America’s Legendary Spymaster on the Fundamentals of 

Intelligence Gathering for a Free World

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War 

The Emperor’s Handbook: A New Translation of the Meditations 

Fighting Talk: Forty Maxims on War, Peace, and Strategy

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

Good Strategy / Bad Strategy 

Grey Eminence: Fox Conner and the Art of Mentorship

It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership 

Legacy 

A Message to Garcia

Nineteen Stars: A Study in Military Character and Leadership 

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

On War 

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

Outliers: The Story of Success

Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision

Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy

Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: 

The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions 

Psychology of Intelligence Analysis

Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life 

The Rise and Fall of Intelligence: An International Security History 

Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk 

Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions 

Superforecasting

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln 

Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World 

Thinking Fast and Slow 

War

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of 

Leaderless Organizations 

Make Your Bed – Little Things That Can Change Your Life...

and Maybe the World 

How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: 

Tales from the Pentagon

The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster 

and Smarter

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

HISTORY 02 1776 

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943 (The Liberation Trilogy)

Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-1975 

Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent into the Madness of Iraq’s 

Triangle of Death

The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History

Combat Ready?: The Eighth U.S. Army on the Eve of the Korean War 

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) 

Defeat into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945 

G-2: Intelligence for Patton 

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of Thermopylae

Great Strategic Rivalries: From the Classical World to the Cold War

The Guns of August 

Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu

Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War 

The Landmark Thucydides: A comprehensive Guide to the 

Peloponnesian War 

The Last Valley Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam

The Origins of War: And the Preservation of Peace 

The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor

A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 

Scipio Africanus: Rome’s Greatest General 

Street Without Joy: The French Debacle in Indochina 

Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime 

This Kind of War: A Study of Unpreparedness: The Classic Korean 

War History 

To Lose a Battle: France 1940

The Ugly American 

The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa 

The Zimmermann Telegram 

A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict 

from 1500 to 2000

We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang- The Battle That Changed the War 

in Vietnam

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Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on 

the Special Ops Battlefield 

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy 

to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest 
TABLE OF CONTENTS

GLOBAL ANALYSIS 03 7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores the Changing Face of War in the 

21st Century 

The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and 

the Coming of Global Disorder

All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror 

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

The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why 

It Matters

Connectography – Mapping the Future of Global Civilization 

Destined for War: Can America and China Escape the Thucydides’ Trap?

Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s Decline

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War 

Korean Dream: A Vision for a Unified Korea 

Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

The Next Decade 

On China 

A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today 

Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers 

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (Updated Edition) 

The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran 

The Unquiet Frontier: Rising Rivals, Vulnerable Allies, and the Crisis of 

American Power

Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century 

Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite 

World Order 

Freedom at Midnight

The Future, Declassified: Megatrends That Will Undo the World 

Unless We Take Action 

The Hundred-Year marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America 

as the Global Superpower 

Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, 

and the World 

The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts 

and the Battle Against Fate

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LEADERSHIP AND 

PROFESSIONAL 

DEVELOPMENT
DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 5

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant

Anticipating Surprise: Analysis for Strategic Warning 

Ronald White, Random House: 2016

Cynthia M. Grabo, Lulu.com: 2012

In his time, grouped routinely with George Washington and Abraham 

Lincoln in the “Trinity of Great American Leaders,” Ulysses S. Grant, 

the battlefield commander–turned–commander-in-chief, fell out 

of favor in the twentieth century. In American Ulysses, Ronald C. 

White argues that we need to revise our estimates of him in the 

twenty-first. White shows Grant to be a generous, curious, introspective man and leader—a willing delegator with a natural gift for 

managing the rampaging egos of his fellow officers. His wife, Julia 

Dent Grant, long marginalized in the historic record, emerges in her 

own right as a spirited and influential partner. One of those rare 

books that successfully recast our impression of an iconic historical 

figure, American Ulysses gives us a finely honed, three-dimensional 

portrait of Grant the man—husband, father, leader, writer, and more.

Assigned to the National Indications Center, Cynthia Grabo served 

as a senior researcher and writer for the U.S. Watch Committee 

throughout its existence (1950 to 1975), and in its successor, the 

Strategic Warning Staff. During this time, she saw the need to capture 

the institutional memory associated with strategic warning. In 

the summer of 1972, the DIA published her “Handbook of Warning 

Intelligence” as a classified document, followed by two additional 

classified volumes, one in the fall of 1972 and the last in 1974. Now 

condensed from the original three declassified books into this one, 

Grabo’s authoritative interpretation of an appropriate analytic 

strategy for intelligence-based warning is presented in a commercial 

reprint of this classic study. (Originally published by the Joint 

Military Intelligence College)

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6 LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Art of War 

The Craft of Intelligence: America’s Legendary 

Spymaster on the Fundamentals of Intelligence 

Gathering for a Free World 

Sun Tzu (translated by Thomas Cleary), Shambhala: 2005

Allen Dulles, Lyons Press: Reprint 2016

Conflict is an inevitable part of life, according to this ancient Chinese 

classic of strategy, but everything necessary to deal with conflict 

wisely, honorably, and victoriously is already present within us. 

Compiled more than two thousand years ago by a mysterious warriorphilosopher, The Art of War is still perhaps the most prestigious and 

influential book of strategy in the world, as eagerly studied in Asia 

by modern politicians and executives as it has been by military 

leaders since ancient times. As a study of the anatomy of organizations 

in conflict, The Art of War applies to competition and conflict, on 

every level from the interpersonal to the international. Its aim 

is invincibility, victory without battle, and unassailable strength 

through understanding the physics, politics, and psychology of conflict.

Allen Dulles was a high-ranking officer of the CIA’s predecessor—the 

Office of Strategic Services—and was present at the inception of 

the CIA, where he served eight of his ten years there as director. This 

classic spycraft, based on Dulles’s incomparable experience as 

diplomat, international lawyer, and America’s premier intelligence 

officer, sums up what he learned about intelligence from nearly a 

half-century of experience in foreign affairs.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 7

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War 

The Emperor’s Handbook: 

A New Translation of the Meditations 

Robert Gates, Knopf: 2014

Marcus Aurelius (translated by David Hicks and C. Scot Hicks), 

Scribner: 2002

Forthright and unsparing, Duty is Gates’s behind-the-scenes account 

of his nearly five years as a Secretary of Defense at war: the battles 

with Congress, the two presidents he served, the military itself, and 

the vast Pentagon bureaucracy. Gates describes his efforts to help 

George W. Bush turn the tide in Iraq, his role as a guiding (and often 

dissenting) voice for Barack Obama, and, most importantly, his ardent 

devotion to and love for American soldiers. Offering unvarnished 

appraisals of our political leaders, Duty tells a powerful and deeply 

personal story, giving us an unprecedented look at two administrations 

and the wars that have defined them.

Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations—a practical book of timeless advice 

from one of the most powerful individuals in history— is available 

here for the first time in a highly accessible translation, including 

several unique features for contemporary readers and users of daily 

wisdom guides. The Emperor’s Handbook offers a vivid and fresh 

translation of this important piece of ancient literature. It brings 

Marcus’s words to life and shows his wisdom to be as relevant 

today as it was in the second century.

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8 LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Fighting Talk: Forty Maxims on War, Peace, 

and Strategy

The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting 

Up to Speed Faster and Smarter

Colin S. Gray, Potomac: 2009

Michael D. Watkins, Harvard Business Review Press: Updated 

and Expanded 2013

Gray presents an inventive treatise on the nature of strategy, war, 

and peace, organized around forty maxims. This collection of 

mini-essays will forearm politicians, soldiers, and the attentive public 

against many—probably most—fallacies that abound in contemporary 

debates about war, peace, and security. While one can never guarantee 

strategic success, which depends on policy, military prowess, and 

the quality of the dialogue between the two. A strategic education 

led by the judgments in these maxims increases the chances that 

one’s errors will be small rather than catastrophic.

In this updated and expanded version of the international bestseller 

The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for 

conquering the challenges of transitions—no matter where you are 

in your career. Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions and 

adviser to senior leaders in all types of organizations, also addresses 

today’s increasingly demanding professional landscape, where 

managers face not only more frequent transitions but also steeper 

expectations once they step into their new jobs. By walking you 

through every aspect of the transition scenario, Watkins identifies 

the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter and provides the 

tools and strategies you need to avoid them.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 9

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: 

A Leadership Fable

Good Strategy / Bad Strategy

Patrick Lencioni, Jossey-Bass: 2002

Richard Rumelt, Currency: 2011

In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni once again offers 

a leadership fable that is enthralling and instructive. Throughout 

the story, he reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very 

heart of why teams—even the best ones—often struggle. He outlines a 

powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome 

these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team. Lencioni 

has written a compelling fable with a powerful yet deceptively simple 

message for all those who strive to be exceptional team leaders.

Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader, 

whether the CEO at a Fortune 100 company, an entrepreneur, a 

church pastor, the head of a school, or a government official. Richard 

Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate 

tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of 

buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” 

He debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an 

understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” Rumelt argues 

that the heart of a good strategy is insight—into the true nature 

of the situation, into the hidden power in a situation, and into an 

appropriate response. He shows you how insight can be cultivated 

with a wide variety of tools for guiding your own thinking.

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10 LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Grey Eminence: Fox Conner and the Art 

of Mentorship

How Everything Became War and the Military 

Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon

Edward Cox, New Forums Press: 2011

Rosa Brooks, Simon and Schuster: 2016

To those who have heard of him, Fox Conner’s name is synonymous 

with mentorship. He is the “grey eminence” within the Army, whose 

influence helped to shape the careers of George Patton, George 

Marshall, and—most notably—President Eisenhower. After a career 

that spanned four decades, this master strategist ordered all of his 

papers and journals burned. Because of this, Conner is an oblique 

figure in military history. What little is known about Conner comes 

primarily through stories about his relationship with Eisenhower, 

and as a passing reference in the memoirs of other great men. This 

book combines existing scholarship with long-forgotten references 

and unpublished original sources to achieve a more comprehensive 

picture of this dedicated public servant. The portrait that emerges 

provides a four-step model for developing strategic leaders that still 

holds true today. 

The first serious book to examine what happens when you erase the 

ancient boundary between war and peace. Once, war was a temporary 

state of affairs—a violent but brief interlude between times of 

peace. Today, America’s wars are everywhere and forever: our enemies 

change constantly and rarely wear uniforms, and virtually anything 

can become a weapon. As war expands, so does the role of the US 

military. Today, military personnel don’t just “kill people and 

break stuff.” Instead, they analyze computer code, train Afghan 

judges, build Ebola isolation wards, eavesdrop on electronic 

communications, develop soap operas, and patrol for pirates.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 11

It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership 

Legacy

Colin Powell, Harper: 2012

James Kerr, Constable & Robinson: 2013

Colin Powell, one of America’s most admired public figures, reveals 

the principles that have shaped his life and career in this inspiring 

and engrossing memoir. It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership is 

a trove of wisdom for anyone hoping to achieve their goals and 

turn their dreams into reality. A message of strength and endurance 

from a man who has dedicated his life to public service, this is a 

book with the power to show readers everywhere how to achieve a 

more fulfilling life and career.

In Legacy, best-selling author James Kerr goes deep into the heart of 

the world’s most successful sporting team, the legendary All Blacks 

of New Zealand, to reveal 15 powerful and practical lessons for 

leadership and business. Legacy is a unique, inspiring handbook for 

leaders in all fields, and asks the questions: What are the secrets 

of success—sustained success? How do you achieve world-class 

standards, day after day, week after week, year after year? How do 

you handle pressure? How do you train to win at the highest level? 

What do you leave behind you after you’re gone?

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12 LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Make Your Bed – Little Things That Can Change 

Your Life...and Maybe the World 

A Message to Garcia

William McRaven, Grand Central Publishing: 2017

Elbert Hubbard, Classic House: 2009 [First published in 1899]

Based on a speech to the graduating class of the University of Texas at 

Austin, Admiral William H. McRaven shares the ten principles he 

learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges 

not only in his training and long Naval career, but also throughout 

his life. McRaven explains how anyone can use these basic lessons to 

change themselves—and the world—for the better. Told with great 

humility and optimism, this timeless book provides simple wisdom, 

practical advice, and words of encouragement that will inspire 

readers to achieve more—even in life’s darkest moments.

Written in 1899, this inspirational essay, loosely based on an actual 

event in the Spanish-American War, praises Lieutenant Andrew 

Rowan for his perseverance and obedience. Charged with delivering 

an important message to a Cuban general, the lieutenant did not 

abandon his mission in the face of many obstacles. “To take a message 

to Garcia” was for years a popular American slang expression for 

taking initiative and still used today by many military leaders as a 

model of an exemplary work ethic.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 13

Nineteen Stars: A Study in Military Character 

and Leadership 

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to 

Kill in War and Society

Edgar Puryear, Presidio Press: 2003

Dave Grossman, Back Bay Books: 2009 [First Published in 1995]

Nineteen Stars is an in-depth study of American military leadership 

and character. Puryear makes a comparative study of the careers of 

four of the most successful US WWII generals: Marshall, MacArthur, 

Eisenhower and Patton. By examining these men from their cadet 

years at West Point to the conclusion of WWII, he determines why 

these men became our top commanders and attempts to answer 

the question: Can one learn successful military leadership or must 

one be born to command? A model of character and leadership is 

revealed here in the careers of the quietly confident Marshall, the 

military genius of MacArthur, the beloved Eisenhower, and the 

go-for-broke Patton.

The good news is that most soldiers are loath to kill. However, armies 

have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive 

aversion. Contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, 

replicates the Army’s conditioning techniques, and, according to 

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s thesis, is responsible for our rising rate of 

murder among the young. Upon its initial publication, many hailed 

On Killing as a landmark study of the techniques the military uses 

to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects 

soldiers, and of the societal implications of escalating violence. Now, 

Grossman has updated this to include information on 21st-century 

military conflicts, recent trends in crime, suicide bombings, school 

shootings, and more.

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14 LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

On War

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

Carl von Clausewitz, Clausewitz Press: 2017

Nathaniel Fick, Reprint 2006

Fascinated by the leading military figures of his day, Prussian General 

Carl von Clausewitz spent over ten years writing a book—On War—that 

he would never finish. The book examines the tactics of Napoleon, 

Frederick II of Prussia, and others. In this insightful, well-informed 

work of military analysis, Von Clausewitz theorizes that war is an 

instrument of political commerce. On War is the most significant 

attempt in Western history to understand war, both in its internal 

dynamics and as an instrument of policy. Since the work’s first 

appearance in 1832, it has been read throughout the world, and 

has been stimulating generations of soldiers, political leaders, 

and intellectuals.

If the Marines are “the few, the proud,” Recon Marines are the fewest 

and the proudest. Nathaniel Fick unveils the process that makes 

Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won 

insights into the differences between military ideals and military 

practice, which can mock those ideals. In this deeply thoughtful 

account of what it’s like to fight on today’s front lines, Fick reveals 

the crushing pressure on young leaders in combat. Split-second 

decisions might have national consequences or horrible immediate 

repercussions, but hesitation isn’t an option. One Bullet Away 

never shrinks from blunt truths, but ultimately it is an inspiring 

account of mastering the art of war.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 15

Outliers: The Story of Success

Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision

Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company: 2008

Roberta Wohlstetter, Stanford University Press: 1962

In this stunning and fascinating book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us 

on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”—the best 

and the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful. He asks 

the question: What makes high-achievers different? His answer is 

that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, 

and too little attention to where they started: that is, their culture, 

their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of 

their upbringing. Along the way, he explains the secrets of software 

billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians 

are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

It would be reassuring to believe that Pearl Harbor was just a colossal 

and extraordinary blunder. What is disquieting is that it was a 

supremely ordinary blunder; it was a dramatic failure of a remarkably 

well-informed government to call the next enemy move. Pearl Harbor: 

Warning and Decision is a unique physiology of a great national 

failure to anticipate. Wohlstetter shows how easy it was to slip into 

the rut in which the Japanese found us, it can only remind us how 

likely it is that we are in the same kind of rut right now. The danger 

is not that we shall read the signals and indicators with too little 

skill; the danger is in a poverty of expectations—a routine obsessing 

with a few dangers that may be familiar rather than likely.

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Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue 

American Foreign Policy

Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded 

Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape 

Our Decisions 

Leslie Gelb, Harper Perennial: 2010

Dan Ariely, Harper Perennial: 2010

Power Rules is the provocative account of how to think about and 

use America’s power in the world, from Pulitzer Prize winner 

Leslie H. Gelb, one of the nation’s leading foreign policy minds and 

practitioners. Gelb offers guidelines to the U.S. president on 

how to use American power effectively in today’s tumultuous world. 

He also argues that American leaders have failed to recognize three 

key power realities. First, the world is not flat; it is highly pyramidal 

in power. Second, power is neither soft (persuasion and values) nor 

hard (military force), but is psychological based on the skilled use of 

carrots and sticks. Third, he asserts, the world has not entered the 

post-American era; rather, the United States remains the sole global 

leader, but without the power to dominate.

Irrational behavior is a part of human nature, but as MIT professor 

Ariely has discovered in 20 years of researching behavioral economics, 

people tend to behave irrationally in a predictable fashion. Drawing 

on psychology and economics, behavioral economics can show us why 

patients get greater relief from a more expensive drug over its cheaper 

counterpart and why honest people may steal office supplies or 

communal food, but not money. According to Ariely, our understanding 

of economics, now based on the assumption of a rational subject—

should in fact—be based on our systematic, unsurprising irrationality. 

Ariely argues that greater understanding of previously ignored 

or misunderstood forces (emotions, relativity and social norms) that 

influence our economic behavior brings a variety of opportunities 

for reexamining individual motivation and consumer choice, as well 

as economic and educational policy.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 17

Psychology of Intelligence Analysis

Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living 

a Better Life

Richard Heuer, Military Bookshop: 2010

Eric Greitens, First Mariner Books Edition: 2015

 This volume pulls together and republishes, with some editing, 

updating, and additions, articles written from 1978 to 1986 for 

internal use within the CIA Directorate of Intelligence. Based on 

reviewing cognitive psychology literature, these articles revealed 

how people process information to make judgments on incomplete 

and ambiguous information. Richard Heuer has selected the 

experiments and findings that seem most relevant to intelligence 

analysis and most in need of communication to intelligence 

analysts. He then translates the technical reports into language 

intelligence analysts can understand, and interpreted the relevance 

of these findings to the problems intelligence analysts face.

In 2012, Eric Greitens unexpectedly heard from a former SEAL team 

comrade, a brother-in-arms he had not seen in a decade. Zach Walker 

had been one of the toughest of the tough, but ever since he returned 

home from war to his young family in a small logging town, he had 

been struggling. Zach and Eric started writing and talking nearly every 

day, as Eric set down his thoughts on what it takes to build resilience 

in our lives. Eric’s letters, drawing on both his own experience 

and wisdom from ancient and modern thinkers, are now gathered 

and edited into this timeless guidebook. Greitens shows how we 

can build purpose, confront pain, practice compassion, develop a 

vocation, find a mentor, create happiness, and much more. Resilience 

is an inspiring meditation for the warrior in each of us.

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The Rise and Fall of Intelligence: An International 

Security History

Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military 

at Risk

Michael Warner, Georgetown University Press: 2014

MG (Ret) Bob Scales, Naval Institute Press: 2016

Historian Michael Warner addresses the birth of professional 

intelligence in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century 

and the subsequent rise of US intelligence during the Cold War. He 

brings this history up to the present day as intelligence agencies 

used the struggle against terrorism and the digital revolution to 

improve capabilities in the 2000s. Throughout, the book examines 

how states and other entities use intelligence to create, exploit, 

and protect secret advantages against others, and emphasizes how 

technological advancement and ideological competition drive 

intelligence, improving its techniques, and creating a need for 

intelligence and counterintelligence activities to serve and protect 

policymakers and commanders.

Scales on War is a collection of ideas, concepts, and observations about 

contemporary war taken from over thirty years of research, writing, 

and personal experience by retired Major General Bob Scales. Scales’ 

unique style of writing utilizes contemporary military history, 

current events, and his philosophy of ground warfare to create a 

very personal and expansive view of the future direction of 

American defense policies. Scales on War shows that, as a result of 

America’s focus on winning wars with technology rather than people, 

America’s enemies have learned how to win battles by defeating 

such technology. As a well-known warfare expert, Scales demonstrates 

how only a resurgent land force of Army and Marine small units 

will restore America’s fighting competence.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 19

Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions 

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable 

Power of Leaderless Organizations 

Gary Klein, The MIT Press: 1999

Ori Braufman and Rod A. Beckstrom, Penguin Group: 2006

Based on observations of humans acting under real-life constraints, 

from time pressure, high stakes, personal responsibility, and 

shifting conditions, Sources of Power is a study by professionals 

of people from different occupations: firefighters, critical care 

nurses, pilots, nuclear power plant operators, battle planners, and 

chess masters. Each chapter builds on key incidents and examples 

to make the description of the methodology and phenomena more 

vivid. In addition to providing information professionals in 

management, psychology, engineering, can use that and other 

fields, the book presents an overview of the research approach 

of naturalistic decision making and expands our knowledge of 

the strengths people bring to difficult tasks.

If you cut off a spider’s head, it dies; if you cut off a starfish’s leg it 

grows a new one, and that leg can grow into an entirely new 

starfish. Traditional top-down organizations are like spiders, but 

now starfish organizations are changing the face of business 

and the world. Ori Braufman and Rod Beckstrom have discovered 

some unexpected answers, gripping stories, and a tapestry of 

unlikely connections. The Starfish and the Spider explores what 

happens when starfish take on spiders and reveals how established 

companies and institutions, from IBM to Intuit to the U.S. 

government, are also learning how to incorporate starfish 

principles to achieve success.

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20 LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Superforecasting

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of 

Abraham Lincoln

Phil Tetlock and Dan Gardner, Broadway Books: Reprint Edition 2016

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Simon & Schuster: 2005

In Superforecasting, Tetlock and coauthor Dan Gardner offer a 

masterwork on prediction, drawing on decades of research, and the 

results of a massive, government-funded forecasting tournament. 

The Good Judgment Project involves tens of thousands of ordinary 

people—including a Brooklyn filmmaker, a retired pipe installer, 

and a former ballroom dancer—who set out to forecast global 

events. Some of the volunteers have turned out to be astonishingly 

good. In this groundbreaking and accessible book, Tetlock and Gardner 

show us how we can learn from this elite group. Superforecasting 

offers a demonstrably effective way to improve our ability to predict 

the future, whether in business, finance, politics, international 

affairs, or daily life.

Acclaimed historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln’s 

political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term 

congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail 

over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president. 

Goodwin demonstrates Lincoln’s character, forged by experiences 

that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. 

He possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of 

other men, to experience what they were feeling, and to understand 

their motives and desires. This capacity enabled Lincoln, as 

president, to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the 

most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the 

task of preserving the Union and winning the war. Team of Rivals is 

a brilliant multiple biography that centers on Lincoln’s mastery of 

men, and how this ability shaped the most significant presidency in 

the nation’s history.

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Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a 

Complex World 

Thinking Fast and Slow 

GEN (Ret) Stanley McChrystal, Collins, Silverman, and Fussell, 

Penguin: 2015

Daniel Khaneman, Farrar Straus Giroux: 2011

In this powerful book, General McChrystal and his colleagues show 

how the challenges they faced in Iraq can be relevant to countless 

businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations. The world is changing 

faster than ever, and the smartest response for those in charge is to 

give small groups the freedom to experiment while driving everyone 

to share what they learn across the entire organization. As the authors 

argue through compelling examples, the team of teams strategy has 

worked everywhere from hospital emergency rooms to NASA. It 

has the potential to transform organizations large and small.

In the international bestseller, Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel 

Khaneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel 

Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the 

mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. 

System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more 

deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on 

corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make 

us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on 

everything from playing the stock market to planning our next 

vacation—each of these maybe better understood only by knowing 

how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

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22 LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

War

Sebastian Junger, Twelve: 2010

Over fifteen months, Sebastian Junger followed a single platoon based 

at a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan. His objective was both 

simple and ambitious; to convey what soldiers experience and what 

war actually feels like. In these pages, he gives insight into the truths 

of combat: the fear, the honor, and the trust among men. He describes 

things that few civilians will ever witness or go through—the 

endless, body-numbing anticipation of battle, the adrenaline-fueled 

confusion of an ambush, and the unquestioned and automatic risks 

soldiers take in combat situations to protect their brothers. Junger 

draws on biology, psychology, and military history to explain the 

decisions soldiers make and to put their ordeals into context. In the 

vivid prose, War, relates the physical toil, the suffocating heat, the 

sounds of gunfire, and the agony of loss.

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HISTORY
24 HISTORY

1776

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 

1942-1943 (The Liberation Trilogy)

David McCullough, Simon & Schuster: 2005

Rick Atkinson, Holt Paperbacks: 2007

David McCullough presents the stirring story of the year of our nation’s 

birth, interweaving the actions and decisions that led Great Britain 

to undertake a war against her rebellious colonial subjects. Based 

on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 

is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. 

It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, 

and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and 

mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King’s men, the 

British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined 

redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought 

with a valor too little known.

Opening with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, 

An Army at Dawn follows the American and British armies as 

they fight the French in Morocco and Algiers, and then take on the 

Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced 

and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb 

fighting force. At the center of the tale are the extraordinary but 

flawed commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: 

Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel. In this 

first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no 

modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied 

powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North 

Africa in 1942 and 1943.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 25

Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of 

Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield 

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 

101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s 

Eagle’s Nest

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Harper: 2015

Steven E. Ambrose, Simon & Schuster: 2007

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon uses on-the-ground reporting and an 

understanding of the complexities of war to tell the story of Cultural 

Support Team-2 (CST-2), a unit of women handpicked from the 

Army to serve in this highly specialized and challenging role. The 

pioneers of CST-2 proved for the first time, that women might 

be physically and mentally tough enough to become part of the 

elite. At the center of this story is a friendship cemented by “Glee,” 

video games, and the shared perils and seductive powers of 

up-close combat. At the heart of the team is the tale of a beloved 

and effective soldier, Ashley White.

Stephen E. Ambrose’s iconic story of the ordinary men who became 

World War II’s most extraordinary soldiers: Easy Company, 506th 

Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, US Army. 

From the rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to the disbanding in 

1945, Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company. They 

were rough-and-ready guys, battered by the Depression, mistrustful 

and suspicious. However, in training and combat, they learned 

selflessness and found the closest brotherhood they ever knew. 

They discovered that in war, men who loved life would give their 

lives for them. E Company was a company of men who went hungry, 

froze, and died for each other. A company that took 150 percent 

casualties. A company where the Purple Heart was not a medal—it was 

a badge of office.

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26 HISTORY

Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-1975 

Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent into the 

Madness of Iraq’s Triangle of Death 

George Veith, Encounter Books: 2012

Jim Frederick, Broadway: 2010

The defeat of South Vietnam was arguably America’s worst foreign 

policy disaster of the 20th Century. Yet a complete understanding 

of the endgame—from the 27 January 1973 signing of the Paris Peace 

Accords to South Vietnam’s surrender on 30 April 1975—has 

eluded us. Black April addresses that deficit through a culmination 

of exhaustive research in three distinct areas: primary source 

documents from American archives, North Vietnamese publications 

containing primary and secondary source material, and dozens 

of articles and numerous interviews with key South Vietnamese 

participants. This book represents one of the largest Vietnamese 

translation projects ever accomplished, including almost one hundred 

rarely or never before seen North Vietnamese unit histories, battle 

studies, and memoirs.

This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne 

Division’s fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment—a unit known as “the 

Black Heart Brigade.” Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq’s so-called 

Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, 

the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country’s most 

dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Black Hearts is a 

timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character 

in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning 

of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on 

the battlefields of the twenty-first century.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 27

The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History

Combat Ready?: The Eighth U.S. Army on the 

Eve of the Korean War 

Boris Johnson, Riverhead Books: 2015

Thomas E. Hanson, Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military 

History Series: 2010

Fearless on the battlefield, the king had to order Churchill to stay out 

of action on D-day; he pioneered aerial bombing and few could 

match his experience in organizing violence on a colossal scale, yet 

he hated war and scorned politicians who had not experienced its 

horrors. He was the most famous journalist of his time and perhaps 

the greatest orator of all time, despite a lisp and the chronic 

depression he kept at bay by painting. His maneuvering positioned 

America for entry into World War II, even as it ushered in England’s 

postwar decline. His open-mindedness made him a trailblazer in 

health care, education, and social welfare, though he remained 

incorrigibly politically incorrect. Most of all, he was a rebuttal to 

the idea that history is the story of vast and impersonal forces; he is 

proof that one person—intrepid, ingenious, determined—can make 

all the difference.

In Hanson’s careful study of combat preparedness in the Eighth 

Army from 1949 to the outbreak of hostilities in 1950, he 

concedes that the U.S. soldiers sent to Korea suffered gaps in their 

professional preparation, from missing and broken equipment 

to unevenly trained leaders at every level of command. But after 

a year of progressive, focused, and developmental collective 

training—based largely on the lessons of combat in World War 

II—these soldiers expected to defeat the Communist enemy. By 

recognizing the constraints under which the Eighth Army operated, 

Hanson asserts that scholars and soldiers will be able to discard 

what Douglas Macarthur called the “pernicious myth” of the Eighth 

Army’s professional, physical, and moral ineffectiveness.

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28 HISTORY

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 

1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy) 

Defeat into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and 

India, 1942-1945 

Rick Atkinson, Henry Holt: 2008

Field-Marshal Viscount William Slim, Cooper Square Press: 2000

Rick Atkinson follows the strengthening American and British 

armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943 and then, mile by bloody 

mile, fight their way north toward Rome. The decision to invade 

the so-called soft underbelly of Europe was controversial, but 

once under way, the commitment to liberate Italy from the Nazis 

never wavered. The battles at Salerno, Anzio, the Rapido River, and 

Monte Cassino were particularly lethal, yet as the months passed, 

the Allied forces continued to drive the Germans up the Italian 

peninsula. Moreover, with the liberation of Rome in June 1944, 

ultimate victory at last began to seem inevitable. Drawing on a wide 

array of primary source material, written with great drama and 

flair, The Day of Battle is a masterly account of one of history’s 

most compelling military campaigns.

Field-Marshal Slim’s classic account of the Burma Campaign in World 

War II is divided into six books: Defeat; Forging the Weapon; The 

Weapon is Tested; The Tide Turns; The Decisive Battle; and Victory. 

This memoir is widely regarded as a classic of high command. 

Though told from the perspective of a Field-Marshall, Slim still 

imparts lessons that are relevant for tactical leaders to this day, 

such as the difficulties of jungle fighting and the importance of 

mission command in distributed operations. Impressively, 

Field-Marshal Slim is not afraid to admit some of this own 

shortcomings as a commander. This is a narrative, which 

captures both the high drama and the harsh reality of war.

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G-2: Intelligence for Patton 

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of Thermopylae

Oscar Koch and Robert G. Hays, Schiffer: 1999 [First published 1971]

Steven Pressfield, Bantam Books: 1998

This personal record, written by Brigadier General Oscar W. Koch—

who served during World War II as chief of intelligence for General 

George S. Patton, Jr., one of the most colorful military leaders in 

American history—examines the enigmatic science of military 

intelligence. General Koch traces the growth and development 

of the infant science through detailed accounts of the intelligence 

role in some of the most celebrated battles of the war, and through 

his personal remembrances of Patton and his relationships with 

members of his intelligence staff. His story moves from the African 

campaign through Sicily, into France on D-Day, and on to the Battle 

of the Bulge—pointing out how the work of the intelligence staff 

made the differences in the final reckoning. General Koch’s book is 

more than a historical study, however. It is the exciting story of the 

operations behind the cloak and dagger illusions.

Thermopylae: the 480 BC battle that went down in history as an 

example of heroism. For three days, a small force of Greeks defended 

a narrow pass from a huge Persian army. Narrated by the sole 

survivor of the epic battle - a squire in the Spartan heavy infantryGates of Fire is a mesmerizing depiction of one man’s indoctrination 

into the Spartan way of life and death, and the legendary men and 

women who gave the culture an immortal gravity. Culminating 

in an electrifying and horrifying epic battle, Gates of Fire weaves 

history, mystery, and heartbreaking romance into a literary pageturner that brings the Homeric tradition into the twenty-first century.

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30 HISTORY

Great Strategic Rivalries: From the Classical 

World to the Cold War

The Guns of August

James Lacey (editor), Oxford University Press: 2016

Barbara Tuchman, Random House: 2004 [First Published in 1962]

From the legendary antagonism between Athens and Sparta during 

the Peloponnesian War to the Napoleonic Wars and the two World 

Wars of the twentieth century, long-term strategic rivalries 

littered the past. History tells us that such enduring rivalries can 

end in one of three ways. First in a series of exhausting conflicts, 

in which one side eventually prevails—as in the case of the Punic 

Wars between ancient Rome and Carthage. Second in a peaceful 

and hopefully orderly transition, like the rivalry between Great 

Britain and the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. 

Lastly a one-sided collapse, such as the conclusion of the Cold War 

with the fall of the Soviet Union. However, in spite of a wealth of 

historical examples, the future of state rivalries remains a 

matter of conjecture.

In this landmark, Pulitzer Prize winning account, renowned historian 

Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: 

thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the 

conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning 

with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led 

to the inevitable clash, and inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their 

war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly 

portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the 

war’s key players, Tuchman’s magnum opus is a classic for the ages.

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Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of 

Dien Bien Phu

Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War

Bernard B. Fall, Da Capo Press: Reprint 2002

Michael Shaara, Random House: 1987 [First published in 1974]

The siege of Dien Bien Phu, in which a guerrilla force of Viet Minh 

destroyed a technologically superior French colonial army, must 

rank with Waterloo, Gettysburg, Midway, Stalingrad, and Tet as one 

of the decisive battles in military history. Not only did Dien Bien 

Phu put an end to French imperial efforts in Indo-china, but it also 

convinced the Viet Minh, when they came to power in Communist 

North Vietnam, that similar tactics would prevail in their war with 

the United States. Fall accurately predicted that if the United States 

did not learn from France’s mistakes, it too would fail in Vietnam.

In the four bloodiest and courageous days of our nation’s history, 

two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed 

of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and 

bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There 

were promises. There was love. And, far more than men fell on 

those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, 

and pristine beauty were also the casualties of war. Michael 

Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece is unique, sweeping, 

unforgettable—the dramatic story of the battleground for 

America’s destiny.

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32 HISTORY

The Landmark Thucydides: A comprehensive 

Guide to the Peloponnesian War 

The Last Valley Dien Bien Phu and the French 

Defeat in Vietnam

Robert B. Strassler, Simon & Shuster: 1996

Martin Windrow, Da Capo Press: 2014

Thucydides called his account of two decades of war between 

Athens and Sparta “a possession for all time,” and it is the first 

and still most famous work in the Western historical tradition. 

Considered essential reading for generals, statesmen, and liberally 

educated citizens for more than 2,000 years, The Peloponnesian 

War is a mine of military, moral, political, and philosophical 

wisdom. Strassler’s edition provides a new coherence to the 

narrative overall by effectively reconstructing the lost cultural 

context that Thucydides shared with his original audience.

In December 1953, the French army occupying Vietnam challenged 

the elusive Vietnamese army to engage in a decisive battle. When 

French paratroopers landed in the jungle on the border between 

Vietnam and Laos, the Vietnamese quickly isolated the French force 

and confronted them at their jungle base in a small place called 

Dien Bien Phu. The hunters—the French army—had become the 

hunted, desperately defending their out-gunned base. The siege 

in the jungle wore on as defeat loomed for the French. Depleted, 

demoralized, and destroyed, eventually the French withdrew from 

the country. Created from the withdraw, the ominous division of 

the country at U.S. insistence, was the short-lived Republic of South 

Vietnam-for which 55,000 Americans would die for in the next 

twenty years.

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The Origins of War: And the Preservation of Peace 

The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor

Donald Kagan, Anchor: 1996

Jake Tapper, Hachette Book Group: 2012

War has been an unpleasant fact for centuries. By lucidly revealing 

the common threads that connect the ancient confrontations 

between Athens and Sparta and between Rome and Carthage with 

the two calamitous World Wars of the twentieth century, renowned 

historian Donald Kagan reveals new and surprising insights into 

the nature of war and peace. Vivid, incisive, and accessible, Kagan’s 

powerful narrative warns against complacency and urgently 

reminds us of the importance of preparedness in times of peace.

At 5:58 AM on October 3, 2009, viciously attacked is Combat Outpost 

Keating, located in frighteningly vulnerable terrain in Afghanistan 

just 14 miles from the Pakistani border. Though the 53 Americans 

there prevailed against nearly 400 Taliban fighters, their casualties 

made it the deadliest fight of the war for the U.S. that year. Four 

months after the battle, a Pentagon review revealed that there was 

no reason for the troops at Keating to have been there in the first 

place. In The Outpost, Jake Tapper gives us the powerful saga of COP 

Keating, from its establishment to eventual destruction, introducing 

us to an unforgettable cast of soldiers and their families, and to a 

place and war that has remained profoundly distant to most Americans.

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34 HISTORY

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic 

Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000

A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962

Paul Kennedy, First Vintage: 1989

Alistair Horne, NYRB Classics: 2006\0

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers: Economic Change and Military 

Conflict from 1500 to 2000, by Paul Kennedy, explores the politics 

and economics of the Great Powers from 1500 to 1980 and the 

reason for their decline. It then continues by forecasting the 

positions of China, Japan, the European Economic Community, 

the Soviet Union, and the United States through the end of the 

20th century.

The Algerian War, from 1954 to 1962, brought down six French 

governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de 

Gaulle to power, and came close to provoking a civil war on French 

soil. The conflict caused more than a million Muslim Algerians to die 

and drove as many European settler into exile. Above all, an unholy 

marriage of revolutionary terror and repressive torture marked 

the war. Nearly a half century has passed since this savagely fought 

war ended in Algeria’s independence, and yet—as Alistair Horne 

argues in his new preface to his now-classic work of history—its 

repercussions continue to be felt not only in Algeria and France, but 

throughout the world.

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Scipio Africanus: Rome’s Greatest General 

Street Without Joy: The French Debacle 

in Indochina

Richard A. Gabriel, Potomac Books: 2008

Bernard B. Fall, Stackpole Books: 2005

Scholars celebrate the importance of Hannibal, even though Scipio 

defeated the legendary general in the Second Punic War and 

was the central military figure of his time. In this scholarly and 

heretofore unmatched military biography of the distinguished 

Roman soldier, Richard A. Gabriel establishes Scipio’s rightful 

place in military history as the greater of the two generals. His 

book offers a complete bibliography of all extant sources regarding 

Scipio’s life. The result is a rich, detailed, and contextual treatment 

of the life and career of Scipio Africanus, one of Rome’s greatest 

generals, if not the greatest of them all.

Originally published in 1961, before the United States escalated its 

involvement in South Vietnam, Street without Joy offered a clear 

warning about what American forces would face in the jungles of 

Southeast Asia: a costly and protracted revolutionary war fought 

without fronts against a mobile enemy. In harrowing detail, Fall 

describes the brutality and frustrations of the Indochina War, the 

savage eight-year conflict—ending in 1954 after the fall of Dien Bien 

Phu—in which French forces suffered a staggering defeat at the 

hands of Communist-led Vietnamese nationalists. With its frontline 

perspective, vivid reporting, and careful analysis, Street without 

Joy was required reading for policymakers in Washington and GIs 

in the field and is now considered a classic.

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36 HISTORY

Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and 

Leadership in Wartime 

This Kind of War: A Study of Unpreparedness: 

The Classic Korean War History 

Eliot A. Cohen, Anchor: 2003

T.R. Fehrenbach, Potomac Books; 50th Anniversary Edition: 2001

The orthodoxy regarding the relationship between politicians and 

military leaders in wartime democracies contends that politicians 

should declare a military operation’s objectives and then step aside 

and leave the business of war to the military. In this controversial 

examination of civilian-military relations in wartime democracies, 

Eliot A. Cohen chips away at this time-honored belief with case 

studies of statesmen who dared to prod, provoke, and even defy their 

military officers to great effect. By examining the shared leadership 

traits of four politicians who triumphed in extraordinarily varied 

military campaigns, Cohen argues that active statesmen make the 

best wartime leaders, pushing their military subordinates to succeed 

where they might have failed if left to their own devices. Thought 

provoking and soundly argued, Cohen’s Supreme Command is 

essential reading not only for military and political players but also 

for informed citizens and anyone interested in leadership.

Updated with maps, photographs, and battlefield diagrams, this 

special fiftieth anniversary edition of the classic history of the 

Korean War is a dramatic and hard-hitting account of the conflict 

written from the perspective of those who fought it. Partly drawn 

from official records, operations journals, and histories, it is based 

largely on the compelling personal narratives of the small-unit 

commanders and their troops. Unlike any other work on the Korean 

War, it provides both a clear panoramic overview and a sharply 

drawn “you were there” account of American troops in fierce combat 

against the North Korean and Chinese communist invaders. As 

Americans and North Koreans continue to face each other across 

the 38th Parallel, This Kind of War commemorates the past and 

offers vital lessons for the future.

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To Lose a Battle: France 1940

The Ugly American

Alistair Horne, Penguin: 2007

Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer, W.W. Norton 

and Company: 1999

In 1940, the German army fought and won an extraordinary battle 

with France in six weeks of lightning warfare. With the subtlety and 

compulsion of a novel, Horne’s narrative shifts from minor battlefield 

incidents to high military and political decisions, stepping far 

beyond the confines of military history to form a major contribution 

to our understanding of the crises of the Franco-German rivalry. 

Told in two parts, the first section deals with the events that led up 

to the invasion in May 1940, while the second describes Germany’s 

advance through France. Although the book rightfully praises 

the German offensive, Horne also notes Germany’s mistakes that 

eventually led to its downfall.

First published in 1958, The Ugly American became a runaway 

national bestseller for its slashing exposé of American arrogance, 

incompetence, and corruption in Southeast Asia. Based on fact, the 

book’s eye-opening stories and sketches drew a devastating picture 

of how the United States was losing the struggle with Communism 

in Asia. Combining gripping storytelling with an urgent call to 

action, the book prompted President Eisenhower to launch a study 

of our military aid program that led the much-needed reform. 

Modern reviews of the book have drawn parallels between South 

East Asia of the Cold War and the Middle East of today.

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38 HISTORY

The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia DrangThe Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam

Margaret MacMillan, Random House: 2013

Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, Presidio Press: 2004 

[First published in 1992]

The century since the end of the Napoleonic wars had been the most 

peaceful era Europe had known since the fall of the Roman Empire. 

In the first years of the twentieth century, Europe believed it was 

marching to a golden, happy, and prosperous future. But instead, 

complex personalities and rivalries, colonialism and ethnic nationalisms, 

and shifting alliances helped to bring about the failure of the long 

peace and the outbreak of a war that transformed Europe and the 

world. The War That Ended Peace brings vividly to life the military 

leaders, politicians, diplomats, bankers, and the extended, interrelated 

family of crowned heads across Europe who failed to stop the descent 

into war. There are the would-be peacemakers as well, among them 

prophets of the horrors of future wars whose warnings went unheeded. 

With indelible portraits, MacMillan shows how the fateful decisions 

of a few powerful people changed the course of history. The War 

That Ended Peace is also a wise cautionary reminder of how wars 

happen in spite of the near-universal desire to keep the peace.

In November 1965, dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in 

Ia Drang Valley were 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 

under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore. Immediately 2,000 North 

Vietnamese soldiers surrounded them. Three days later, only 

two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. 

Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany 

constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the 

Vietnam War. How these men persevered, sacrificed themselves for 

their comrades and never gave up, makes a vivid portrait of war at 

its most inspiring and devastating. This devastating account rises 

above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men 

facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would 

have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier.

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With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa 

E.B. Sledge, Oxford University Press: 2007 [First published in 1981 

by Presidio Press]

An Alabama boy steeped in American history and enamored of such 

heroes as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene B. Sledge 

became part of the war’s famous 1st Marine Division—3rd Battalion, 

5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was shocked to be 

thrown into the battle of Peleliu, where “the world was a nightmare 

of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.” By the time Sledge 

hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with fear but 

no longer with panic. Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a 

copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with utter 

simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the 

fierce Pacific Theater. Here is what saved, threatened, and changed 

his life. Here, too, is the story of how he learned to hate and kill—and 

came to love—his fellow man.

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A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 

1914-1918

G.J. Meyer, Delacorte Press Books: 2006

The Great War defined the 20th century with countless tragedies 

and changes that have carried into today’s society. A World 

Undone focuses on various significant unconnected events and the 

political and military leaders who lead the war—from the British 

Cabinet to Prussia—that ended with the death of 20 million people 

and the near end of civilization that had dominated the world 

up-to 1914.

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40 HISTORY

The Zimmermann Telegram

Barbara Tuchman, Random House: 1985

In January 1917, the war in Europe was, at best, a tragic standoff. 

Britain knew that all was lost unless the United States joined 

the war, but President Wilson was unshakable in his neutrality. At 

just that moment, a crack team of British decoders in a quiet office 

known as Room 40 intercepted a document that would change 

history. The Zimmermann telegram was a top-secret message to 

the president of Mexico, inviting him to join Germany and Japan in 

an invasion of the United States. How Britain managed to inform 

the American government without revealing that the German codes 

had been broken makes for an incredible story of espionage and 

intrigue, as only Barbara W. Tuchman could tell it.

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GLOBAL

ANALYSIS
42 GLOBAL ANALYSIS

7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores 

the Changing Face of War in the 21st Century 

The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation 

of American Preeminence and the Coming of 

Global Disorder

Andrew Krepinevich, Bantam; Reprint 2010

Peter Zeihan, Hachette Book Group: 2014

A global pandemic finds millions swarming across the U.S. border. 

Black-market nukes levels major American cities. China’s growing 

civil unrest ignites a global showdown. Pakistan’s collapse leads to 

a hunt for its nuclear weapons. What if the worst that could happen, 

actually happens? How will we respond? Are we prepared? These 

are the questions that Andrew F. Krepinevich asks—and answers—

in this timely and often chilling book. As a military expert and 

consultant, Krepinevich must think the unthinkable based on the 

latest intelligence and geopolitical trends—and devise a response 

in the event our worst nightmares become reality.

Near the end of the Second World War, the United States made a bold 

strategic gambit that rewired the international system. A global 

arrangement, enforced by the U.S. Navy, abolished and replaced 

empires. With all the world’s oceans safe for the first time in 

history, made available for everyone were markets and resources. 

Enemies became partners. The Accidental Superpower examines 

how the hard rules of geography are eroding the American 

commitment to free trade; how much of the planet is aging into a 

mass retirement that will enervate markets and capital supplies; 

and how, against all odds, the ever-ravenous American economy 

that is rapidly approaching energy independence.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 43

All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the 

Roots of Middle East Terror 

Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the 

End of a Stable Pacific

Stephen Kinzer, Wiley: Reprint 2008

Robert D. Kaplan, Random House: 2014

With a thrilling narrative that sheds much light on recent events, this 

national bestseller brings to life the 1953 CIA coup in Iran that 

ousted the country’s elected prime minister, ushered in a quartercentury of brutal rule under the Shah, and stimulated the rise of 

Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism in the Middle East. 

Over the last decade, the center of world power has been quietly 

shifting from Europe to Asia. With oil reserves of several billion 

barrels, an estimated nine hundred trillion cubic feet of natural 

gas, and several centuries’ worth of competing territorial claims, 

the South China Sea in particular is a simmering pot of potential 

conflict. The underreported military buildup in the area where 

the Western Pacific meets the Indian Ocean means that it will likely 

be a hinge point for global war and peace for the foreseeable future. 

In Asia’s Cauldron, Robert D. Kaplan offers up a vivid snapshot of the 

nations surrounding the South China Sea, the conflicts brewing 

in the region at the dawn of the twenty-first century, and their 

implications for global peace and stability.

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44 GLOBAL ANALYSIS

The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See 

Themselves and Why It Matters

Connectography – Mapping the Future of 

Global Civilization

B.R. Myers, Melville House: 2011

Parag Khanna, Random House: 2016

Drawing on extensive research into the regime’s domestic propaganda, 

including films, romance novels, and other artifacts of the personality 

cult, Myers analyzes each of the country’s official myths in turn—

from the notion of Koreans’ unique moral purity to the myth of 

an America quaking in terror of “the Iron General.” In a concise, but 

groundbreaking historical section, Myers also traces the origins 

of this official culture back to the Japanese fascist thought in 

which North Korea’s first ideologues were schooled. What emerges 

is a regime completely unlike the West’s perception of it. The 

implications for US foreign policy are as obvious as they 

are troubling.

Connectivity is the most revolutionary force of the twenty-first 

century. Mankind is reengineering the planet, investing up to ten 

trillion dollars per year in transportation, energy, and communications 

infrastructure linking the world’s burgeoning megacities together. 

Connectivity, not geography, is our destiny. In Connectography, 

Khanna shows how militaries are deployed to protect supply chains 

as much as borders, and how nations are less at war over territory 

than engaged in tugs-of-war over pipelines, railways, shipping 

lanes, and Internet cables. The new arms race is to connect to the 

most markets.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 45

Destined for War: Can America and China 

Escape the Thucydides’ Trap?

Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s Decline

Graham Allison, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 2017

Gideon Rachman, Other Press: 2017

China and the United States are heading toward a war neither wants. 

The reason is Thucydides’ Trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress 

that results when a rising power challenges a ruling one. Over the 

past 500 years, these conditions have occurred sixteen times and war 

broke out in twelve of them. Today, as an unstoppable China approaches 

an immovable America the seventeenth case looks grim. Unless China 

is willing to scale back its ambitions or Washington can accept 

becoming number two in the Pacific, a trade conflict, cyberattack, 

or accident at sea could soon escalate into all-out war. In Destined 

for War, Harvard scholar Graham Allison reveals how clashing 

powers have kept the peace in the past—and what painful steps the 

United States and China must take to avoid disaster today.

Easternization is the defining trend of our age—the growing wealth 

of Asian nations is transforming the international balance of power. 

This shift to the East is shaping the lives of people all over the world, 

the fate of nations, and the great questions of war and peace. A 

troubled but rising China is now challenging America’s supremacy, 

and the ambitions of other Asian powers—including Japan, North 

Korea, India, and Pakistan—have the potential to shake the whole 

world. Meanwhile the West is struggling with economic malaise 

and political populism, the Arab world is in turmoil, and Russia longs 

to reclaim its status as a great power. As it becomes clear that 

the West’s historic power and influence is receding, Gideon Rachman 

offers a road map to the turbulent process that will define the 

international politics of the twenty-first century.

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46 GLOBAL ANALYSIS

The Future, Declassified: Megatrends That Will 

Undo the World Unless We Take Action 

Mathew Burrows, St. Martin’s Press: 2014

Twenty-five years ago when Mathew Burrows went to work for the 

CIA as an intelligence analyst, the world seemed frozen. Then 

came the fall of the Berlin Wall and the implosion of the Soviet Union; 

suddenly, unpredictability became a universal theme and foresight 

was critical. For the past decade, Burrows has overseen the 

creation of the Global Trends report, and now he has expanded it 

into a full-length narrative—forecasting the tectonic shifts that will 

drive us to 2030. As Burrows argues, we are living through some 

of the greatest and most momentous developments in history. Either 

we take charge and direct those or we are at their mercy. The 

stakes are particularly high for America’s standing in the world and 

for ordinary Americans who want to maintain their quality of life. 

Running the gamut from scary to reassuring, this riveting book is 

essential reading.

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Freedom at Midnight

Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, Schand: 1975

Lapierre and Collins provide an account of the year leading to India’s 

independence and the clashes that happened afterwards between 

Muslims and Hindus. With testimonies of those who witnessed and 

were involved with the country’s historic changes, including the last 

viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten, the reader gains insight into the 

decisions made by the political leaders who drove these changes. The 

authors walk through the challenges Gandhi, the first India Prime 

Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and the founder of Pakistan Muhammad 

Ali Jinnah met as politics, religious differences, and ideologies clashed.

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Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War 

P.W. Singer and August Cole, First Mariner Books: 2015

The United States, China, and Russia eye each other across a 

twenty-first century version of the Cold War, which suddenly heats 

up at sea, on land, in the air, in outer space, and in cyberspace. The 

fighting involves everything; from stealthy robotic-style attack of 

drone strikes to old warships, from the Navy’s “ghost fleet”; fighter 

pilots unleash a Pearl Harbor; American veterans become low-tech 

insurgents; teenage hackers battle in digital playgrounds; Silicon 

Valley billionaires mobilize for cyber-war; and a serial killer carries 

out her own vendetta. Ultimately, victory will depend on blending 

the lessons of the past with the weapons of the future.

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The Hundred-Year marathon: China’s Secret 

Strategy to Replace America as the 

Global Superpower 

Michael Pillsbury, Henry Holt and Company: 2016

For more than forty years, the United States has played an 

indispensable role helping the Chinese government build a booming 

economy, develop its scientific and military capabilities, and take 

its place on the world stage, in the belief that China’s rise will bring 

us cooperation, diplomacy, and free trade. But what if the “China 

Dream” is to replace us, just as America replaced the British Empire, 

without firing a shot? Based on interviews with Chinese defectors 

and newly declassified, previously undisclosed national security 

documents, The Hundred-Year Marathon reveals China’s secret 

strategy to supplant the United States as the world’s dominant 

power, and to do so by 2049, the one-hundredth anniversary of 

the founding of the People’s Republic.

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48 GLOBAL ANALYSIS

Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on 

China, the United States, and the World 

Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwell, and Ali Wyne, 

The MIT Press: 2013

Almost single-handedly responsible for transforming Singapore into 

a Western-style economic success, Lee Kuan Yew offers a unique 

perspective on the geopolitics of East and West. This book gathers 

key insights from interviews, speeches, and Lee’s voluminous 

published writings and presents them in an engaging question and 

answer format. Lee offers his assessment of China’s future, asserting, 

among other things, “China will want to share this century as 

co-equals with the U.S.” He affirms the United States’ position as the 

world’s sole superpower but expresses dismay at the vagaries of 

its political system. He offers strategic advice for dealing with China 

and discusses India’s future, Islamic terrorism, and economic 

growth, among other topics. Lee does not pull punches, offering his 

unvarnished opinions on multiculturalism, the welfare state, 

education, and the free market.

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Korean Dream: A Vision for a Unified Korea 

Hyun Jin Preston Moon, Archway: 2016

North Korea today is a rogue state threatening global peace and 

challenging the conscience of humanity. In the South, Koreans now 

face long-term social consequences from the pursuit of economic 

development at all costs. In Korean Dream, Dr. Hyun Jin Preston 

Moon presents an innovative way forward on the Korean peninsula. 

He explains lucidly why Korean unification is the ultimate answer 

to security, economic, and social problems created through 70 

years of division. He goes a step further, offering a groundbreaking 

approach to peace rooted in the founding principles and cultural 

practices that have made Koreans one people for millennia.

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DIRECTOR'S READING LIST 2018 49

Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our 

Digital Future

Andrew McAfee, W. W. Norton & Company: 2017

We live in strange times. A machine plays the strategy game Go 

better than any human; upstarts like Apple and Google destroy 

industry stalwarts such as Nokia; ideas from the crowd are 

repeatedly more innovative than corporate research labs. We must 

rethink the integration of minds and machines, of products and 

platforms, and of the core and the crowd. In all three cases, the 

balance now favors the second element of the pairings, with massive 

implications for how we run our companies and live our lives. 

Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson deliver both a penetrating 

analysis of a new world and a toolkit for thriving in it. For startups 

and established businesses, or for anyone interested in what the 

future holds, Machine, Platform, Crowd is essential reading.

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The Next Decade

George Friedman, Anchor: 2012

In the long view, history is seen as a series of events—but individuals 

and their actions determine the course of those events. During the 

next ten years, individual leaders will face significant transitions 

for their nations: the United States’ relationships with Iran and Israel 

will be undergoing changes, China will likely confront a major 

crisis, and the wars in the Islamic world will subside. Unexpected 

energy and technology developments will emerge, and labor shortages 

will begin to matter more than financial crises. Distinguished 

geopolitical forecaster George Friedman analyzes these events from 

the perspectives of the men and women leading these global 

changes, focusing in particular on the American president, who 

will require extraordinary skills to shepherd the United States 

through this transitional period.

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50 GLOBAL ANALYSIS

The Revenge of Geography: What the Map 

Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the 

Battle Against Fate

Robert D. Kaplan, Random House: 2012

In The Revenge of Geography, Kaplan builds on the insights, discoveries, 

and theories of great geographers and geopolitical thinkers of the 

near and distant past to look back at critical pivots in history and 

then to look forward at the evolving global scene. Kaplan traces 

the history of the world’s hot spots by examining their climates, 

topographies, and proximities to other embattled lands. Kaplan 

then applies the lessons learned to the present crises in Europe, Russia, 

China, the Indian subcontinent, Turkey, Iran, and the Arab Middle East. 

The result is a holistic interpretation of the next cycle of conflict 

throughout Eurasia. A brilliant rebuttal to thinkers who suggest that 

globalism will trump geography, this indispensable work shows 

how timeless truths and natural facts can help prevent this century’s 

looming cataclysms.

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On China

Henry Kissinger, Penguin Books: 2012

In this sweeping and insightful history, Henry Kissinger turns for 

the first time at book length to a country he has known intimately 

for decades and whose modern relations with the West he helped 

shape. On China illuminates the inner workings of Chinese 

diplomacy during such pivotal events as the initial encounters 

between China and tight line modern European powers, the 

formation and breakdown of the Sino-Soviet alliance, the Korean 

War, and Richard Nixon’s historic trip to Beijing. With a new final 

chapter on the emerging superpower’s twenty-first-century role 

in global politics and economics, On China provides historical 

perspective on Chinese foreign affairs from one of the premier 

statesmen of our time.

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A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price 

We Pay Today 

David A. Andelman, Wiley General Trade: 2014

For more than half a century, it has been widely recognized that the 

Treaty of Versailles, founded on retribution against Germany and 

the Austro-Hungarian Empire, created the circumstances that led 

inevitably to World War II. Less acknowledged and understood is the 

treaty’s profound impact on many other parts of the world—an impact 

that echoes to this day across Asia, the Balkans, and throughout 

the Middle East. Andelman takes a fresh new look at the Treaty of 

Versailles as the point of origin for many of today’s most critical 

international issues. This revealing history exposes the powerful 

lessons that a six-month period in a long ago era has for us today.

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Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for 

Decision-Makers 

Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May, The Free Press: 1986

For generations Americans have described and deplored the ignorance 

of history displayed by policymakers or, what is worse, the misuse 

of historical analogies. Since the 1950s Professors Neustadt and May 

have been working individually through their writing and consulting 

on this subject; in the past decade they have been collaborators in a 

course at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government focusing 

explicitly on “using history.” This excellent book is a product of that 

course: case histories from both domestic and foreign policy areas 

and a set of precepts-what to ask about history and how to ask it. 

Professional historians, enjoying the luxury of unhurried reflection, 

might say that the book’s “method” is no more than a systematic and 

common-sense statement of the obvious-but the authors demonstrate 

that the “obvious” has too often been ignored, with unfortunate results.

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52 GLOBAL ANALYSIS

The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s 

Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran 

David Crist, Penguin Press 2012

For three decades, the United States and Iran have engaged in a secret 

war—it is a conflict not acknowledged and a story not told. A senior 

historian for the federal government with unparalleled access to 

senior officials and key documents of several U.S. administrations, 

Crist has spent more than ten years researching and writing The 

Twilight War. He breaks new ground on virtually every page, and 

he reveals in vivid detail for the first time a number of important 

stories of military and intelligence operations by both sides, both 

successes and failures, and their typically unexpected consequences. 

The Twilight War adds vital new depth to our understanding of 

this acute dilemma. It is also a thrillingly engrossing read, animated 

by a healthy irony about human failings in the fog of not-quite war.

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The Tragedy of Great Power Politics 

(Updated Edition)

John J. Mearsheimer, W.W. Norton & Company: 2001

The updated edition of this classic treatise on the behavior of great 

powers takes a penetrating look at the question likely to dominate 

international relations in the twenty-first century: can China rise 

peacefully? In clear, eloquent prose, Mearsheimer explains why the 

answer is no: a rising China will seek to dominate Asia, while the 

United States, determined to remain the world’s sole regional hegemon, 

will go to great lengths to prevent that from happening. The tragedy 

of great power politics is inescapable.

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The Unquiet Frontier: Rising Rivals, Vulnerable 

Allies, and the Crisis of American Power

Jakub J. Grygiel, A. Wess Mitchell, Princeton University Press: 2016

From the Baltic to the South China Sea, newly assertive authoritarian 

states sense an opportunity to resurrect old empires or build new 

ones at America’s expense. Hoping that U.S. decline is real, nations 

such as Russia, Iran, and China are testing Washington’s resolve by 

targeting vulnerable allies at the frontiers of American power. 

The Unquiet Frontier explains why the United States needs a new 

grand strategy that uses strong frontier alliance networks to raise 

the costs of military aggression in the new century.

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Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution 

and Conflict in the 21st Century 

P.W. Singer, The Penguin Press: 2009

In Wired for War, P. W. Singer explores the greatest revolution in 

military affairs since the atom bomb: the dawn of robotic warfare. 

We are on the cusp of a massive shift in military technology that 

threatens to make real the stuff of I, Robot and The Terminator. 

Blending historical evidence with interviews of an amazing cast of 

characters, Singer shows how technology is changing not just how 

wars are fought, but also the politics, economics, laws, and the 

ethics that surround war itself. Travelling from the battlefields of 

Iraq and Afghanistan to modern-day “skunk works” in the midst 

of suburbia, Wired for War will tantalize a wide readership, from 

military buffs to policy wonks to gearheads.

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54 GLOBAL ANALYSIS

World Order 

Henry Kissinger, Penguin Books: 2015

Henry Kissinger offers, in World Order, a deep meditation on the roots 

of international harmony and global disorder. Kissinger reveals 

his analysis on the ultimate challenge for the twenty-first century: 

how to build a shared international order in a world of divergent 

historical perspectives, violent conflict, proliferating technology, and 

ideological extremism. Drawing on his experience as one of the 

foremost political leaders of the modern era, and his experience as 

national security advisor and secretary of state, World Order guides 

readers through crucial episodes in recent world history. Provocative 

and articulate, blending historical insight with geopolitical 

prognostication, World Order is a unique work that could come 

only from a lifelong policy maker and diplomat.

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Without You, There Is No Us: 

My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s 

Suki Kim, Crown: 2014

It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down 

for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields—except 

for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and 

Technology (PUST), where Suki has gone undercover as a missionary 

and a teacher. As the weeks pass, she is mystified by how easily her 

students lie, unnerved by their obedience to the regime. At the same 

time, they offer Suki tantalizing glimpses of their private selves—their 

boyish enthusiasm, their eagerness to please, the flashes of curiosity 

that have not yet been extinguished. She in turn begins to hint at the 

existence of a world beyond their own—at such exotic activities as 

surfing the Internet or traveling freely and, more dangerously, at 

electoral democracy and other ideas forbidden in a country where 

defectors risk torture and execution. However, when Kim Jong-il dies and 

the boys she has come to love appear devastated, she wonders whether 

a bridge may form between the gulf of her world and theirs. Without 

You, There Is No Us offers a moving and incalculably rare glimpse of life 

in the world’s most unknowable country, and at the privileged young 

men, she calls “soldiers and slaves.”

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This reading list and enclosed summaries are provided 

as a convenience and for informational purposes only; 

they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval 

by the Defense Intelligence Agency of any of the products, 

services or opinions of the authors. The Defense Intelligence 

Agency bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality 

or content of the books referenced in this reading list.

 DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE IN DEFENSE OF THE NATION