{"title":"John A. Nagl","description":"Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl is a Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. Nagl led a tank platoon in the First Cavalry Division in Operation Desert Storm, taught national security studies at West Point's Department of Social Sciences, and served as the Operations Officer of Task Force 1-34 Armor in the First Infantry Division in Khalidiyah, Iraq.","products":[{"product_id":"learning-to-eat-soup-with-a-knife-counterinsurgency-lessons-from-malaya-and-vietnam-paperback","title":"Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eInvariably, armies are accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In \u003ci\u003eLearning to Eat Soup with a Knife\u003c\/i\u003e, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl-a veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq-considers the now-crucial question of how armies adapt to changing circumstances during the course of conflicts for which they are initially unprepared. Through the use of archival sources and interviews with participants in both engagements, Nagl compares the development of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice in the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960 with what developed in the Vietnam War from 1950 to 1975. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In examining these two events, Nagl argues that organizational culture is key to the ability to learn from unanticipated conditions, a variable which explains why the British army successfully conducted counterinsurgency in Malaya but why the American army failed to do so in Vietnam, treating the war instead as a conventional conflict. Nagl concludes that the British army, because of its role as a colonial police force and the organizational characteristics created by its history and national culture, was better able to quickly learn and apply the lessons of counterinsurgency during the course of the Malayan Emergency. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e With a new preface reflecting on the author's combat experience in Iraq, \u003ci\u003eLearning to Eat Soup with a Knife\u003c\/i\u003e is a timely examination of the lessons of previous counterinsurgency campaigns that will be hailed by both military leaders and interested civilians. \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51365713477855,"sku":"9780226567709","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/7DF7KVq_YT9780226567709.webp?v=1789070202"},{"product_id":"knife-fights-a-memoir-of-modern-war-in-theory-and-practice-paperback","title":"Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom one of the most important Army officers of his generation, a memoir of the military's revolution in counterinsurgency warfare\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Delivering a profound education in modern warfare, John Nagl's \u003ci\u003eKnife Fights\u003c\/i\u003e is essential reading for anyone who cares about the fate of America's soldiers and the purposes for which their lives are put at risk. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs an army tank commander in the first Gulf War, Nagl was an early convert to the view that America's greatest future threats would come from asymmetric warfare--guerrillas, terrorists, and insurgents. His Oxford thesis on the lessons of Vietnam--eventually published as a book called \u003ci\u003eLearning to Eat Soup with a Knife\u003c\/i\u003e--became the bible of the counterinsurgency movement. But it would take 9\/11 and the botched aftermath of the Iraq invasion to give his ideas contemporary relevance. After a year's hard fighting in Iraq's Anbar Province, where Nagl served as operations officer of a tank battalion in the 1st Infantry Division, he was asked by General David Petraeus to coauthor the new Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency field manual--rewriting core doctrine that would change the course of two wars and the thinking of an army. \u003ci\u003eKnife Fights \u003c\/i\u003eis the definitive account of counterinsurgency and its consequences by the man who was the doctrine's leading architect.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368957346015,"sku":"9780143127765","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/dpOd8nMbNJ9780143127765.webp?v=1789135946"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/john-a-nagl.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}