Modern War Institute

Forty years ago this month, President Ronald Reagan signed the Goldwater-Nichols Act into law, dramatically reforming the way the US military operates. Today, the joint force remains shaped by many of the features introduced in October 1986. But how did it happen? What problems d ...  Show more

An Army that reads is an Army better prepared to fight and win its nation’s wars. When the stakes on the battlefield are life and death, victory or defeat, the force that brings more knowledge, more wisdom, and better understanding to the fight has a distinct advantage. And readi ...  Show more

For years now, the war in Ukraine has been fought on a largely static battlefield—characterized by attrition, with little opportunity for maneuver, and with only incremental changes to the front lines. But recently, seemingly out of nowhere, Ukrainian forces began recapturing ter ...  Show more

How did George Washington overcome virtually every material disadvantage to defeat the British during the Revolutionary War? How did Ulysses S. Grant turn the tides of the Civil War in the Union’s favor in the crucial year of 1864? How did Dwight Eisenhower manage the overwhelmin ...  Show more