Research Guides: 2025 CMC Reading List: Strategy

Active Defense: China's Military Strategy Since 1949 by M. Taylor Fravel
Discusses what changes in China’s modern military policy reveal about military organizations and strategy.
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Chairman Xi Remakes the PLA: Assessing Chinese Military Reforms by National Defense University Press, et al.
Analyzes the various dimensions of China's military reforms in detail and assesses their implications for the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) ability to conduct joint operations, for the Chinese Communist Party’s control of the army, and for civil-military integration.
DoD-MWR Base Libraries | Marines DoD-MWR Online Library | MCB Quantico Libraries | National Defense University Press (Free PDF)
Chinese Amphibious Warfare: Prospects for a Cross-Straits Invasion by Andrew S. Erickson, et al.
This study explores key questions concerning Beijing’s determined pursuit of the Chinese Communist Party’s ultimate political and strategic prize: How might the PLA attempt to execute a Joint Island Landing Campaign to achieve a cross-Strait invasion of Taiwan, what might be its prospects for success, and what must Taiwan—with American support—do urgently to shore up deterrence?
U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons (Free PDF)
Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine by Lawrence Freedman
Using examples from a wide variety of conflicts, Lawrence Freedman shows that successful military command depends on the ability not only to use armed forces effectively but also to understand the political context in which they are operating.
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Corps Competency? III Marine Amphibious Force Headquarters in Vietnam by Michael F. Morris
This comprehensive and insightful study is the first analysis of a Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters at war. Third Marine Amphibious Force’s service in Vietnam, replete with lessons, represents the Marine Corps’ largest, longest, and most costly experience of corps-level combat command.
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Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know by P. W. Singer and Allan Friedman
Written for the educated layman who wants to know more about the nature of war, conflict, and security in the twenty first century.
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Fleet Tactics and Naval Operations by Wayne P. Hughes, et al.
The revised edition covers battle tactics at sea from the age of fighting sail to the present, with emphasis on trends constants, and variables. It highlights the current swift advances in unmanned vehicles, artificial intelligence, cyber warfare in peace and war, and other effects of information warfare, and how they are changing the ways battles at sea will be fought and won.
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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... And Others Don't by Jim Collins
This book addresses a single question: can a good company become a great company, and if so, how?
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Humility is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age by Edward D. Hess; Katherine Ludwig
Discusses the concept of personal humility and cultivation of important abilities that smart machines don't have (yet): thinking critically, creatively, and innovatively and building close relationships with others so people can collaborate effectively.
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Issues on My Mind: Strategies for the Future by George P. Shultz; Henry A. Kissinger (Foreword by)
In this book, former Nixon and Reagan cabinet member George Shultz offers his views on how to govern more effectively, get our economy back on track, take advantage of new opportunities in the field of energy, combat the use of addictive drugs, apply a strategic overview to diplomacy, and identify necessary steps to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.
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Likewar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P. W. Singer; Emerson T. Brooking
Two defense experts explore the collision of war, politics, and social media, where the most important battles are now only a click away.
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The New Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age by Hal Brands (Editor), et al.
This edition provides global, comparative perspectives on strategic thought from antiquity to today, surveying both classical and current themes of strategy while devoting greater attention to the Cold War and post-9/11 eras.
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Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Where can we, and cannot, trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking?
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This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History, 50th Anniversary Edition by T. R. Fehrenbach
The 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.
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Three Dangerous Men: Russia, China, Iran and the Rise of Irregular Warfare by Seth G. Jones
The author compares irregular warfare tactics adopted by Russia, China, and Iran to that of the United States, and details the key steps the United States must take to alter how it thinks about and engages in irregular warfare on the global stage.
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2025 CMC Reading List: Strategy

STRATEGY