Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy 1st Edition

by Frederick Kagan (Author)

9 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-1594032042

ISBN-10: 1594032041

Why is ISBN important?

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Condition: Used - Good

In Stock. Sold by Jenson Books Inc, Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

20 Used from $4.63

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

List Price: $19.95 Save: $3.23 (16%)

16 New from $4.00

FREE Shipping on orders over $25—or get FREE Two-Day Shipping with Amazon Prime

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Ship to:

Select a shipping address:

More Buying Choices

16 New from $4.00 20 Used from $4.63 1 Collectible from $9.95

37 used & new from $4.00

See All Buying Options

Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

In Finding the Target, Frederick Kagan describes the three basic transformations within the U.S. military since Vietnam. First was the move to an all-volunteer force and a new generation of weapons systems in the 1970s. Second was the emergence of stealth technology and precision-guided munitions in the 1980s. Third was the information technology that followed the fall of the Soviet Union and the first Golf War. This last could have insured the U.S. continuing military preeminence, but this goal was compromised by Clinton's drawing down of our armed forces in the 1990s and Bush's response to 9/11 and the global war on terror.

Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy

$16.72
FREE Shipping on orders over $25—or get FREE Two-Day Shipping with Amazon Prime Only 1 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently bought together

Total price: $118.29

Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details

Buy the selected items together

This item:Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy by Frederick Kagan Paperback $16.72
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
American Defense Policy (American Defense Policy (Paperback)) by Paul J. Bolt Paperback $41.15
Only 2 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping. Details
The Five Disciplines of Intelligence Collection by Mark M. Lowenthal Paperback $60.42
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping. Details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Paul J. Bolt
Paperback
$41.15
Mark M. Lowenthal

2

Paperback
$60.42
David Wise

144

Paperback
$9.35
Morgan D. Jones

64

Paperback
$10.14
Mark M Lowenthal

10

Paperback
$75.00
William Strunk Jr.

2,815

in Technical Writing Reference
Paperback
$5.31

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Kagan, currently resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is emerging as a leading voice among national security analysts. In this important work, his focus is the post-Vietnam development of America's armed forces—not merely in policy contexts, as his book title modestly states, but also in structure and mentality. With unusual clarity and understanding, Kagan describes the individual and collective dynamics of the four armed services in the two decades after Vietnam, when the military saw a series of definable threats demanding specific responses. This period also ushered in a wider concept of military "transformation," as the nation sought a post-Soviet grand strategy and a number of senior leaders argued that the world was moving to an information age. To meet the challenge, they believed, militaries must implement a "revolution in military affairs." The balance of Kagan's work analyzes the result of this transformation: the development of technologically focused "network-centric warfare" (NCW). But with Afghanistan and Iraq standing grimly in the background, Kagan warns that, in practice, NCW reinforces the concept of war as "killing people and blowing things up" at the expense of the political objectives that separate war from murder. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Encounter Books; 1 edition (September 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594032041
ISBN-13: 978-1594032042
Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 9 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,671,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4591 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Military
- #17181 in Books > History > Military > United States
- #74814 in Books > History > Americas > United States

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars

5 star		78%
4 star		11%
3 star		0%
2 star		0%
1 star		11%

Write a customer review

See all verified purchase reviews

Top customer reviews

Candor and Insight

ByWilliam R. Hayeson December 29, 2007

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

For readers who are tired of over-intellectualizers, Fred Kagan's "Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy", will be an absolute breath of fresh air. Instructive without being academic, detailed without being tedious, Kagan sweeps the reader into the concepts, personalities, equipment, processes, and applications of "military transformation" and keeps the reader's brain focused on the topic until the very last page. His detailed review of the so-called "Revolution in Military Affairs" provides a much needed body of information to help those interested in the subject master it.

Sincerely,

Bill Hayes
Major, USMC (Ret.)
Retired Samurai

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Logical and informative

ByKenneth C. Hohhofon February 10, 2008

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book does two things, and does them well. It gives an overview of military thinking in the US over the last 50 years, and tells when and why that thinking has been effective (and when and why it has not been effective).

If you want to know what we did to make our military so effective after Viet Nam, and why it worked, read this book. If you want to know why we are having so much trouble in Iraq and Afganistan, read this book.

This was the best book I have read on this subject.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Military planning must include the desired political results

ByDonald N. Andersonon November 24, 2006

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Frederick Kagan has written a very important book that may help guide our thinking about military transformation back onto the very successful path we pursued in the 70's and 80's. Our focus at that time on defeating the Soviet military threat with limited manpower and taking advantage of our all volunteer force gave us a military that is second to none in its ability to win against a stand-up enemy.

He points out (correctly I believe) that we have changed our focus from a specific future threat to the task of destroying abstract future improvements in such a stand-up enemy's army. The goal has become how we can improve our forces destructive capabilities rather than emphasizing the political goal to be achieved by a war. He believes we have gone adrift in our attempts to leapfrog generations of military hardware not because the equipment is not impressive or useful but because it does not efficiently address the process of imposing our will on an enemies political options.

Now that terrorist type enemies have emerged as the principal foe, we have been caught with a military still in some ways focused on how warfare might have evolved over the Fulda Gap.

He suggests we return to positing each potential enemy and planning what political outcome is needed if a war is necessary with that foe. We need to plan wars and their aftermath starting with the desired new political arrangement and work back toward the forces needed. The current hardware orientation is understandable given the budget competition among the services (and the various congressional delegations), but it is now obvious after the Afghanistan and Iraq experiences that refocusing on the political goals to be achieved is very necessary.

He includes some suggestions for augmentation of the regional combat commands with planning staffs focused on the desired post-war political arrangements.

Since Kagan's book is about the thinking necessary to generate military transformation, he makes very few suggestions about specific current problems. Among those items he offers is that because of the up close and personal nature of regime-change wars, our army and marines are undersized by about 200,000 men. Also the M-1 tank has received much criticism because its extreme weight seriously slows its deployability. Kagan defends it and shows that it's ability to work close to a potential foe without personnel loss is essential in the type of war we are now actually engaged in. While weight is a serious problem it's capabilities cannot be addressed by vehicles that must operate in a stand-off mode.

Frederick Kagan has written a valuable and clearly argued attempt to bring our military planning focus back to the actual potential enemies. I only hope everyone serious about the future of our country reads this book.

0Comment 10 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

An important, balanced review of current American Military thinking

ByThomas J. Tuckeron October 9, 2006

Format: Hardcover

This volume by a former instructor at West Point is well-written, lucid and stimulating. Many individual chapters could stand alone as essays on different aspects of strategic thought as well as their history post Vietnam. Of particular interest is his assertion that much American military professional thought is grounded in German concepts. He points out Russian military thought in the twenties about "deep" strategy paralleled the German beliefs developing at about the same time. He goes on to write about various strategic approaches that evolved in the years from 1975 to date. He gives John Boyd credit for the impetus for some of the new ways of looking at attack from a strategic standpoint. These theories, further developed by John Warden, may be harmful in the future to political goals achievement.

He describes American strategic thought as focused on "blowing up things" rather than using military might to impose political decisions. He explains the long history of our military refraining from domestic political involvement may have established a mindset posing difficulties for its leadership incorporating political goals in its planning. Indeed, he states proper planning should start with the ultimate political goals first and work back to attack as the last step in the process. He recognizes the tremendorous difficulty in tactical planning of major military operations, but points out some tactical decisions may be counterproductive to long term strategic goals. He used both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to illustrate his point.

Urging that any transformation of the military take second place to the vital task of bringing the war in Iraq to a successful conclusion, he states "There is no task in U.S. national security more important...and no challenge beyond preparing for the numerous grave scenarios which confront us today."

Among his conclusions and recommendations, he suggests political planning be made a permanent, important responsibility for each theater command. With significant changes in the face, if not the nature, of war

occuring every thirty to forty years for the past two hundred years, he believes we're in the first ten years or so of implementation of new technologies whose direction we cannot fortell. No matter what we do, we must give the army the manpower to fulfill the obligations our political leadership imposed on it, meaning growing it to at least one hundred brigades. These comments just touch the surface of what the author has to say.

Contrary to some other writers studying the current army, Kagan ignores the issue of the Army's flag officer training and competence. He remains focused on the major picture. I highly recommend this book as an important addition to anyone's military history library. It should appeal to the general reader interested in current events or understanding our current conflicts, academics, college military history majors, students of military affairs, and the professional military establishment. It is a major contribution to insight into our present situation, and, fortunately, transcends politics.

0Comment 24 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most recent customer reviews

A focused lesson on the spotty history of transforming the military and how it needs to be tied tightly to reality, not theory

Frederick Kagan is an influential thinker on the American Military. This book is his history of how our military has come to realize its need to change.Read more

Published on August 12, 2007 by Craig Matteson

Key to understanding the military's strengths, weaknesses and choices and makes FINDING THE TARGET an important pick.

Collections strong in both military history and politics and international relations - particularly at the college level - will find FINDING THE TARGET: THE TRANSFORMATION OF...Read more

Published on February 8, 2007 by Midwest Book Review

Stick to your level of competence.

Kagan needs to stick with his level of competence which is Napoleonic war. His NeoCon political beliefs have distorted this book beyond belief and he ends up just being another...Read more

Published on January 15, 2007 by Book buyer

Transformation !!!!! What is it.

As a retired Colonel of Marines I have been bothered by the loose use of the generally undefined term "TRANSFIRMATION" as applied the military.Read more

Published on January 3, 2007 by E. Bale

Makes sense of the current state of the US military

Militaries are shaped by intellectual and technological developments over periods of decades or more, and Frederick Kagan's new book chronologs those developments that have given...Read more

Published on November 24, 2006 by Dianne Roberts

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy

Set up a giveaway

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: for boat trailer

Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy 1st Edition

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $9.64 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $16.72 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

or

or

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Product details

Customer reviews

Top customer reviews

Most recent customer reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$9.64 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$16.72 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open