rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: Zero-sum victory
    sub title: what we're getting wrong about war
  name:
    name part: Kolenda, Christopher D.
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  type of resource: text
  genre: bibliography
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: kyu
    date issued: 2021
    copyright date: 2021
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: print
    extent: xv, 375 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
  abstract: Why have the major post-9/11 US military interventions turned into quagmires? Despite huge power imbalances in the United States's favor, significant capacity-building efforts, and repeated tactical victories by what many observers call the world's best military, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq turned intractable. The US government's fixation on zero-sum, decisive victory in these conflicts is a key reason why military operations to overthrow two developing-world regimes failed to successfully achieve favorable and durable outcomes. In Zero-Sum Victory, retired US Army colonel Christopher D. Kolenda identifies three interrelated problems that have emerged from the government's insistence on zero-sum victory. First, the US government has no organized way to measure successful outcomes other than a decisive military victory, and thus, selects strategies that overestimate the possibility of such an outcome. Second, the United States is slow to recognize and modify or abandon losing strategies. In both cases, US officials believe their strategies are working, even as the situation deteriorates. Third, once the United States decides to withdraw, bargaining asymmetries and disconnects in strategy undermine the prospects for a successful transition or negotiated outcome. Relying on historic examples and personal experience, Kolenda draws thought-provoking and actionable conclusions about the utility of American military power in the contemporary world-insights that serve as a starting point for future scholarship as well as for important national security reforms.
  note: Christopher D. Kolenda.
  note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
  subject:
    geographic code: n-us---
  subject:
    geographic: United States
    topic: Military policy
    topic: History
    temporal: 21st century
    genre: Case studies
  subject:
    topic: Afghan War, 2001-2021
    genre: Case studies
  subject:
    topic: Iraq War, 2003-2011
    genre: Case studies
  subject:
    topic: Prolonged war
    geographic: United States
    genre: Case studies
  subject:
    topic: Irregular warfare
    genre: Case studies
  classification: UA23 .K65 2021
  classification: 355/.35573
  identifier: 9780813152769
  identifier: 0813152763
  identifier: 9780813152837
  identifier: 9780813152899
  identifier: 2021023493
  record info:
    record content source: DLC
    record creation date: 210519
    record change date: 20220105171030.0
    record identifier: in00004360905