Warfare can be viewed as a science, with careful strategies and plans playing out on a world stage. There have been many generals and military leaders who have spent lifetimes amassing knowledge and experience, as well as academics who have spent years researching military strategy, defence, and warfare. Some of those experts have put pen to paper and written informative books about the theory of warfare and everything it includes.
Booktopia stocks a wide range of these books, from military strategy and operations art, to tactics, military history, war theory, defence policy, and more. Explore our best sellers and stock up your shelves to learn more about these fascinating topics.
Military strategy books
Military & defence strategy books offer a wealth of information from around the world, from different times in global history, and from all kinds of military leaders and strategists.
Team of Teams is one such book. It is written by General Stanley McChrystal, who took command of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq in 2003, and realised that the usual tactics weren’t working. He and his colleagues made the move away from traditional warfare, instead setting up more flexible and faster teams, which resulted in gaining ground and beating back al-Qaeda. He offers clear examples of how this strategy can be applied everywhere from on the battlefield to in emergency rooms.
For a clear and distilled book of military strategy, consider The Concise 33 Strategies of War. This compilation goes into depth about 33 popular war strategies that can be used in war, or in everyday battles in life and work. Pulled together from international examples, religious texts, politics, and more, author Robert Greene includes examples from famous characters throughout history such as Margaret Thatcher, Ulysses S. Grant, and Napoleon.
Defence policy books
The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Defence offers a modern take on a modern problem; how much AI can reasonably be used in warfare. It explores the specific issues that arise as AI is used in defence, and offers practical tips and suggestions for policymakers.
In We Need to Talk About Defence, author Andrew R. Curtis underscores what is wrong with modern defence strategies. With his 35-year career as an Air Commodore in the RAF, his long years of experience come to the fore as he discusses not just why there are issues with defence, but also makes evidence-based proposals on how to fix them.