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A Book Geared only to Novices

The below is a review of the audiobook edition of this work

Any review of this book would have to start out by stating who this book seems to be geared to. That is the novice. Any reader who has any experience or knowledge on the subject over and above that would gain very little from this book. This is a shame considering that it is written by General David Petraeus, an ex-General, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, top graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College (for his class), assistant professor of International Relations at Georgetown University and Senior Kissinger Fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. This reader, as one of those with above novice knowledge of the subject (and definitely not a specialist) was very disappointed.

There are a number of reasons for this. One is that the book is the book covers the subject from only the highest and most broadest terms, with little in-depth examination, at least in detail, of the technologies, strategies, etc. and how they have evolved. There is nothing really new in this book that has not already been said, many times, in other books. This is a particular shame considering the author’s military experience. This, in this reviewer’s opinion, is the most serious problem of the book.

However, it has a number of other problems. One is that it attempts to cover far too much in terms of “conflict�. Just covering conventional air, naval and land warfare would have more than filled any book’s plate. Unfortunately the book also attempts to cover counter-insurgency, cyber, and just about any other form of “conflict� under the sun. As a result it’s coverage of each is weak.

Another problem is that the book is reads like an official US government document in that it provides little criticism of US military strategy or policy, despite the fact that this has been a major problem during the post war period. Related to this, the book sounds like an official US document release in that it paints many things in the most simple of terms. For example, US support of the anti-Serbian coalition in the early 1990s, during the Balkan War of that time, was primarily to prevent ethnic cleansing and that US policy motivating the second Iraq war was primarily to establish a democratic regime, pro-Western regime in the region. The book is filled with these “official� US goals of these wars when discussing nearly all the covered conventional and counter-insurgency conflicts. The book, as a result, sound to a very large degree as an official US government public relations piece.

On the positive side, the book does provide an additional “from within� insight into some of the reasons that the second Iraq war’s post occupation failed (i.e., Bremmer’s dissolution of the Iraqi Army, not enough resources provided by the Washington, etc.). None of this is anything new but it adds more evidence to the record.

Secondly, the book’s conclusion on the future of warfare does a very good job at presenting how the General views military technology as advancing into the future. This, however, very closely follows official Defense Department proclamations on the subject. In addition, there is not very much original that General Petraeus offers that is not presented in other books on that subject (i.e.. Payne’s “I, warbot: The Dawn of Artificially Intelligent Conflict�, Waiting’s “The Arms of the Future�, Freedman’s “Lessons from Ukraine� [this last book does a far better at analyzing the current Russo-Ukrainian war for “lessons learned� than General Patreaus’s book].

Lastly, the audiobook is fairly well read. Never monotonous, monotone and also having the appropriate tone albeit still not a spectacular performance.

In short, a book that would be only of some value to those knowing practically anything on the war (three to four stars for that audience) but practically of no value to anyone in possession of any knowledge over and above that (one to, at the very most, two stars for that readership).