The Great War or the "War to end all wars" as promised by President Woodrow Wilson was neither great nor ultimately conclusive. Precipitated by the assassination of the Austro- Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in the streets of Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, World War I demolished the order established by the Concert of Vienna, an order that had maintained the peace in Europe for almost a century. The ensuing carnage laid the foundation for World War II and the Cold War that followed.

World War I also left in its catastrophic wake three transformational legacies that remain largely unnoticed today. These legacies have provoked and will continue to provoke massive change to the international order. But containing, mitigating, and preventing these disruptions from exploding into major crises will prove no less difficult a challenge than did restraining the forces that ignited the chaos and violence of the last century.

These legacies would make Osama bin Laden into a modern day version of Gavrilo Princip, the Archduke's assassin, and turn September 11, 2001 into an event like that one on June 28, 1914, in many different and frightening ways. Instead of using a Beretta 9 mm pistol, bin Laden crashed three airliners into New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., starting a global war on terror.

Unfortunately, America's current strategic mindset to deal with the twenty-first century remains firmly anchored in the previous century. That mindset must change if aspirations for peace and prosperity are to be met with decisive and effective actions. Ullman offers provocative and challenging arguments to conventional wisdom--that we fail to understand the challenges and dangers and lack a mindset to cope with these twenty-first-century realities. He argues that while the dangers are not as destructive as a world war, unless they are addressed, at best the standard of living and expectations of Americans will decline, and at worst, the world will become more violent, unpredictable, and chaotic.

Leading national security strategist Harlan K. Ullman is well known for his aggressive, no nonsense approach to U.S. foreign policy. By his own description, he demands a smarter, realistic policy, one that is 'informed by fact and reason and not ideology and tough when it must be.' The time span of the author's columns, largely for the Washington Times, reprinted in this book is no coincidence. Owls and Eagles begins with the onset of the controversial U.S.-led war in Iraq in March 2003 and ends twenty months later, shortly after President George W. Bush's reelection. What overly ambitious, under informed goals inspired the U.S. to launch the preemptive war? What were the domestic and electoral factors that led to the president's decision? And, perhaps most importantly, what are the consequences of the unilateral war to the standing of the United States in the global community and to the legacy of George W. Bush? These are the provocative questions contemplated in this important book. In the end, the author has achieved his goal of 'informing the public and provoking them to think and to question how well or badly our nation was faring in the fight to keep us safe and secure.'

This book should be read by all practitioners and serious students of national security as the guide for avoiding failures and miscalculations in using American military power." --Gen. Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993) and 65th Secretary of StateAnatomy of Failure is part Von Clausewitz, part Tom Clancy, with personal insights by Harlan K. Ullman that brilliantly translate why the United States, the most powerful nation on earth, has so often fallen short of its objectives. --Michael Lord Dobbs, creator of the series House of Cards Why, since the end of World War II, has the United States either lost every war it started or failed in every military intervention it prosecuted? Harlan Ullman's new book answers this most disturbing question, a question Americans would never think of even asking because this record of failure has been largely hidden in plain sight or forgotten with the passage of time. The most straightforward answer is that presidents and administrations have consistently failed to use sound strategic thinking and lacked sufficient knowledge or understanding of the circumstances prior to deciding whether or not to employ force. Making this case is an in-depth analysis of the records of presidents from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama and Donald Trump in using force or starting wars. His recommended solutions begin with a "brains-based" approach to sound strategic thinking to address onne of the major causes of failure ----the inexperience of too many of the nation's commanders-in-chief. Ullman reinforces his argument through the use of autobiographical vignettes that provide a human dimension and insight into the reasons for failure, in some cases making public previously unknown history. The clarion call of Anatomy of Failure is that both a sound strategic framework and sufficient knowledge and understanding of the circumstance that may lead to using force are vital. Without them, failure is virtually guaranteed.