Overview

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ‘A rigorous and thoughtful study of what has happened on battlefields over the past eight decades’ THE TIMES ‘A hugely important book … elegantly written and persuasively argued’ DAILY TELEGRAPH ** FULLY UPDATED TO INCLUDE NEW MATERIAL ON THE ISRAEL/GAZA CONFLICT ** Conflict is both a sweeping history of the evolution of warfare up to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and a penetrating analysis of what we must learn from the past, and anticipate in the future, in order to navigate an increasingly perilous world. In this deep and incisive study, General David Petraeus, the former CIA director who commanded the US-led coalitions in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and the prize-winning historian Andrew Roberts, explore over seventy years of conflict, drawing significant lessons and insights from their fresh analysis of the past. Petraeus and Roberts show how often critical mistakes have been repeated time and again, and explore the challenge, for statesmen and generals alike, of learning to adapt to various new weapon systems, theories and strategies. Among the conflicts examined are the Arab – Israeli wars, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the two Gulf wars, the Balkan wars in the former Yugoslavia, and both the Soviet and Coalition wars in Afghanistan, as well as guerrilla conflicts in Africa and South America. Conflict culminates with a bracing look at Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine, yet another case study in the tragic results that occur when leaders refuse to learn from history, and an assessment of the nature of future warfare. Filled with sharp insight and the wisdom of experience, Conflict is not only a critical assessment of our recent past, but also an essential primer of modern warfare that provides crucial knowledge for waging battle today as well as for understanding what the decades ahead will bring.

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9780008567989

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Reviews

‘How has warfare evolved in the eight decades since 1945? And what might it look like in the future? These are the questions posed by the authorial dream team of David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts: respectively a distinguished former US general and spy chief, and one of Britain’s finest military historians. This brilliant history shows how the wars of the future may go. Elegantly written and persuasively argued, Conflict is a hugely important book that explains why wars are still being fought and lost, what we can learn from them, and how we can protect ourselves from malign actors in the future’ DAILY TELEGRAPH, FIVE-STAR REVIEW ‘Timely, engaging and instructive, Conflict is the best one-volume study of conventional warfare in the nuclear age. It sets a new benchmark in understanding modern war’ WALL STREET JOURNAL ‘The pairing of Roberts with Petraeus is an engaging choice… conclusions are not offered as a means of political score-settling. What gives these observations new resonance is that they’re placed into the broader context of warfare’s evolution and future. They spend little time imagining a world without war, or even a world with less war. Their book – like Clausewitz’s canonical text – is a primer for today’s strategists, brimming with lessons about leadership, counter-insurgency, and intelligence. It’s a guide to effectively prepare for and win wars of the future, to achieve perpetual peace through perpetual strength’ NEW STATESMAN ‘Stimulating … In David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts we have two expert guides to the subject … This is an absorbing book, replete with anecdotes, vivid images and often unexpected facts and quotations’ Brendan Simms, Literary Review

BOOK OF THE YEAR IN: ASPECTS OF HISTORY, THE CRITIC, OCTAVIAN, AND MODERN WAR INSTITUTE SHORTLISTED FOR THE MILITARY HISTORY MATTERS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD ‘How has warfare evolved in the eight decades since 1945? And what might it look like in the future? These are the questions posed by the authorial dream team of David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts: respectively a distinguished former US general and spy chief, and one of Britain’s finest military historians. This brilliant history shows how the wars of the future may go. Elegantly written and persuasively argued, Conflict is a hugely important book that explains why wars are still being fought and lost, what we can learn from them, and how we can protect ourselves from malign actors in the future’ DAILY TELEGRAPH, FIVE-STAR REVIEW ‘Charts just about every war fought in Europe, the Middle East and Asia since the defeat of the Nazis… [a] compendious narrative… has all the more force in light of Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘Timely, engaging and instructive, Conflict is the best one-volume study of conventional warfare in the nuclear age. It sets a new benchmark in understanding modern war’ WALL STREET JOURNAL ‘The pairing of Roberts with Petraeus is an engaging choice… They spend little time imagining a world without war, or even a world with less war. Their book – like Clausewitz’s canonical text – is a primer for today’s strategists, brimming with lessons about leadership, counter-insurgency, and intelligence. It’s a guide to effectively prepare for and win wars of the future, to achieve perpetual peace through perpetual strength’ NEW STATESMAN

Praise for Andrew Roberts: 'Andrew Roberts is a great historian who is always relevant to contemporary thinking and contemporary problems' Dr Henry Kissinger '[Roberts] is one of the greatest biographers in the English language today' Sir Noel Malcolm, Daily Telegraph

Praise for Andrew Roberts: ‘Andrew Roberts is a great historian who is always relevant to contemporary thinking and contemporary problems’ Dr Henry Kissinger ‘[Roberts] is one of the greatest biographers in the English language today’ Sir Noel Malcolm, Daily Telegraph

‘How has warfare evolved in the eight decades since 1945? And what might it look like in the future? These are the questions posed by the authorial dream team of David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts: respectively a distinguished former US general and spy chief, and one of Britain’s finest military historians. This brilliant history shows how the wars of the future may go. Elegantly written and persuasively argued, Conflict is a hugely important book that explains why wars are still being fought and lost, what we can learn from them, and how we can protect ourselves from malign actors in the future’ DAILY TELEGRAPH, FIVE-STAR REVIEW ‘Charts just about every war fought in Europe, the Middle East and Asia since the defeat of the Nazis… [a] compendious narrative… has all the more force in light of Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘Timely, engaging and instructive, Conflict is the best one-volume study of conventional warfare in the nuclear age. It sets a new benchmark in understanding modern war’ WALL STREET JOURNAL ‘The pairing of Roberts with Petraeus is an engaging choice… They spend little time imagining a world without war, or even a world with less war. Their book – like Clausewitz’s canonical text – is a primer for today’s strategists, brimming with lessons about leadership, counter-insurgency, and intelligence. It’s a guide to effectively prepare for and win wars of the future, to achieve perpetual peace through perpetual strength’ NEW STATESMAN 'It is no exaggeration to call this book exceptional in the sense that it applies the lessons learned by the two authors over two lifetimes of expertise as practitioners and academics of war' NEWSMAX

Author Information

General David Petraeus is a retired United States Army general and widely respected as a leading warrior intellectual. He is currently a Partner in a major investment firm and chairs that firm's Global Institute. He previously served for 37 years in the US Army, culminating his time in uniform with 6 consecutive commands as a general officer. Following a Senate confirmation by a vote of 94-0, he served as Director of the CIA. Andrew Roberts took a first in modern history from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He is a fellow of the Institute of Napoleonic Studies and has lectured on Napoleon in America, Canada and Britain. Along with Colonel John Hughes-Wilson of the Corps of Battlefield Guides, he conducts annual tours to Waterloo under the auspices of Tours with Experts.

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