REVIEW BY ANDREW MULHOLLAND
History is usually about people, while military strategy tends not to be, and can sometimes seem rather dry. This book by Phillips O’Brien reminds us that it is leaders who actually determine strategy, with all of their strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it is useful to consider the strategic history of a given conflict through the lens of the leaders involved.
This is what O’Brien has attempted for World War II, in a book that is part biography, part psychological profile, and part strategic history. For most of the conflict that is, as this is not a strategic history of the entire war: it does not, for example, address Japan’s leadership during that time. Rather, its subject matter is confined to the contribution of five leaders: Churchill, Hitler, Mussolini, Roosevelt, and Stalin. In terms of military ideas and strategy, O’Brien is interested in what forged these individuals and how their personalities affected their strategic choices. And it is intriguing stuff.
O’Brien is Professor of Strategy at the University of St Andrews, and his most notable work is 2015’s How the War was Won. He is also well known as a podcaster, blogger, and acerbic commentator on events in Ukraine. His writing has focused on the 20th century, particularly naval and air strategy. Controversially, he has argued that, during this period, upstream strategies that focused on degrading an enemy’s ability to fight were much more decisive than events on the battlefield. He now turns to the human factor.
Excavating the Lowlands and Borders