Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict Hardcover – 1 May 2018

"Strategy Strikes Back" is a collection of twenty-eight essays discussing a broad range of military topics, drawing on lessons illustrated by the Star Wars body of fiction, both movies and literature. In addition to the main focus, strategy, the essays address:
- Nation building/rebuilding
- The civil military divide - the disconnect between the civilian population and the military
- The implications of emerging military technology
- Just War theory and practice
- How dictators rise
- Ethics, beyond Just War
- The arguments of Mahan and Corbett replayed with starships
- Hybrid warfare
- The practical and moral implications of pre-emptive attacks
- Organizational culture
- And, of course, the application of military force.

Wide-ranging, with more than thirty contributors, the essays vary in style and content, but are consistently well thought out.
My favorite chapter was "Lightsabers and Deathstars" discussing complexity versus simplicity of arms, although it misses the implications of training time requirements weapons discussed. The runner up for me was "Darth Vader's Failed Counterinsurgency Strategy", a staff meeting of Imperial leadership attempting to work through what went wrong with their counterinsurgency operations.

The book is supremely and shamelessly nerdy. Military theory, real military theory, more theory than one can acquire from board, computer, or video games, is in many ways narrow, unquestionably intellectual, and invites obsession; the stuff of nerd focus. Star Wars, of course, is iconically nerdy. So take some of the most significant military and strategy thinkers of the moment, sift through them for the ones who are also Star Wars affecianados, and solicit their thoughts. That was the process for editing this book. The book is splendid grist for discussion for members of either circle of nerds, but a joy for people who belong to both clubs.

E.M. Van Court

With my own experience teaching Star Wars and conflict and an obsession reading everything people write on the subject of Star Wars and conflict, I was very excited to read Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict. Edited by Max Brooks, John Amble, ML Cavanaugh, and Jaym Gates – three of whom are involved with the Modern War Institute at West Point, Strategy Strikes Back is a collection of 28 essays from various writers, each providing a different perspective into conflict through the prism of Star Wars.

These authors explore Star Wars in four phases: Society and War, Preparing for War, Waging a War, and Assessment of War. As to be expected, I liked some of the essays better than others. While most of the essays stayed in the realm of the cinematic releases, I gave mental bonus points to the essays that referenced The Clone Wars cartoons.

(Although none mentioned the Battle of Odneron from The Clone Wars Season 5, my favorite insurgency in Star Wars history. Perhaps there is room for me to discuss it in a Volume 2?)

Among my favorites were:
Vader and Mission Command by Jonathan Bratton – An analysis of Darth Vader as commander. Emphasis on his lack of trust and lack of big picture vision.
How General Grievous and Vulture Droids Foreshadow Conflict's Fast Future by Raq Winchester and Fran Wilde - The authors explored the growth of technology. They took a very limited scene in Star Wars and extrapolated it into a lesson on future conflict.
Vader’s Failed Counterinsurgency by Liam Collins – Excellent philosophical debate by Imperial officers. Good to read they have the same debates we do.
Tarkin Doctrine: The Empire’s Theory of Victory by Kelsey D. Atherton – A profile of Grand Moff Tarkin, and a somewhat distant admiration of the man who thought fear could control a galaxy.
A Strategist, Yoda Was Not by ML Cavanaugh – Yoda might have been a great warrior and great teacher of Jedi, but ML Cavanaugh describes his failures to save the Republic.

I could not get into Hybrid Star Wars (The Battle for Endor) by James Starvridis and Colin Steele. The Battle for Endor was a strictly military battle – often irregular, but never hybrid. Suffer, the Weak Must: A History of the Galactic Civil War by Craig Whiteside also missed the mark by rewriting classic testimony from ancient texts instead of from the Star Wars galaxy. Some of the reworked classic testimony didn’t fit the narrative and seemed forced. Why the Empire Failed by Theresa Hitchens seemed like a rehash of previous essays and Erica Iverson’s omission of Ahsoka Tano and claim that Rey’s mastery is instinctive, but yet she is “a female Luke Skywalker” in From Princess to General: The On- and Offscreen Rise of the Woman Warrior hurt what was otherwise a strong piece from a strong point of view.

Overall, Strategy Strikes Back was the opposite of Stormtrooper blaster fire – many more hits than misses. I learned a lot about military strategy and took several pages of notes. If I ever get the opportunity to return to the classroom and teach, Strategy Strikes Back will be required reading for my students. Full of lessons, this book is.

BLUF: The book successfully uses the Star Wars universe to explain concepts in military affairs, military strategy, operations, civ-mil relations, and a variety of other topics in the security field. It's well researched, easy to read, and best of all, fun!

A bit of a background on myself. I recently graduated from Georgetown University's Security Studies Program with an MA in Security Studies. The program's focus was on strategy and international relations theory, while my concentration focused mostly on military operations. I'm also a huge Star Wars fan who has read a lot of the expanded universe.

First, this is not a Star Wars book. This is a book on strategy and other topics in military affairs, BUT it uses examples in Star Wars to explain such topics. The book is broken down into 28 short chapters which makes them very consumable and keeps them from getting too bloated. Have you ever wondered why the Galactic Empire sucked at COIN? What about the strained relationship between the Jedi Council and the Republic Senate? Does the Clone Army tell us something about our own cil-mil relations? Was Yoda a good strategist? Star Wars may be fiction, but as General McChrystal notes in the forward, "Wisdom is where you find it. Don't be afraid to look in unexpected places."

I recommend this book to faculty of grad level programs that focus on strategy and military affairs, ESPECIALLY if they are fans of Star Wars (WHO ISN'T??). The book would compliment any military strategy class' reading list. It's a well researched book, no only for the serious topics covered, but seldom did I find a canonical mistake regarding Star Wars plot and characters. Some of these authors really went down the Wookieepedia rabbit hole! Nerds!