Adaptation under Fire

How Militaries Change in Wartime

Lt. General David Barno and Nora Bensahel

Bridging the Gap

Provides a new framework for assessing military adaptability
Offers specific recommendations on how to improve U.S. military adaptability
Weaves together history and theory to illustrate successful and failed military adaptation
Shares insights from a senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan (from 2003 to 2005)

Adaptation under Fire

How Militaries Change in Wartime

Lt. General David Barno and Nora Bensahel

Description

A critical look into how and why the U.S. military needs to become more adaptable.

Every military must prepare for future wars despite not really knowing the shape such wars will ultimately take. As former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates once noted: "We have a perfect record in predicting the next war. We have never once gotten it right." In the face of such great uncertainty, militaries must be able to adapt rapidly in order to win. Adaptation under Fire identifies the characteristics that make militaries more adaptable, illustrated through historical examples and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Authors David Barno and Nora Bensahel argue that militaries facing unknown future conflicts must nevertheless make choices about the type of doctrine that their units will use, the weapons and equipment they will purchase, and the kind of leaders they will select and develop to guide the force to victory. Yet after a war begins, many of these choices will prove flawed in the unpredictable crucible of the battlefield. For a U.S. military facing diverse global threats, its ability to adapt quickly and effectively to those unforeseen circumstances may spell the difference between victory and defeat.

Barno and Bensahel start by providing a framework for understanding adaptation and include historical cases of success and failure. Next, they examine U.S. military adaptation during the nation's recent wars, and explain why certain forms of adaptation have proven problematic. In the final section, Barno and Bensahel conclude that the U.S. military must become much more adaptable in order to address the fast-changing security challenges of the future, and they offer recommendations on how to do so before it is too late.

Adaptation under Fire

How Militaries Change in Wartime

Lt. General David Barno and Nora Bensahel

Bridging the Gap

Introduction: Why Military Adaptation?

Part I: A Framework for Analysis
Chapter 1: Understanding Adaptation
Chapter 2: The Role of Doctrine
Chapter 3: The Role of Technology
Chapter 4: The Role of Leadership

Part II: The Recent Wars
Chapter 5: Doctrinal Adaptation in Iraq and Afghanistan
Chapter 6: Technological Adaptation in Iraq and Afghanistan
Chapter 7: Tactical Leadership Adaptation in Iraq and Afghanistan
Chapter 8: Theater Leadership Adaptation in Iraq and Afghanistan

Part III: Looking to the Future
Chapter 9: The Challenges of Future War
Chapter 10: U.S. Military Adaptability Today
Chapter 11: Recommendations for Improving Adaptability

Acknowledgments
Bibliography

Adaptation under Fire

How Militaries Change in Wartime

Lt. General David Barno and Nora Bensahel

Bridging the Gap

Author Information

Lt. General David Barno, USA (Ret.) is a Visiting Professor of Strategic Studies and Senior Fellow at the Philip Merrill Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is also a Contributing Editor and Columnist for War on the Rocks. General Barno completed a thirty-year active duty Army career where he commanded at every level. He served with Army Ranger battalions in combat during both the Panama and Grenada invasions. General Barno was the overall commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.

Dr. Nora Bensahel is a Visiting Professor of Strategic Studies and Senior Fellow of the Merrill Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She is also a Contributing Editor and Columnist for War on the Rocks. She has held senior positions at the Center for a New American Security and the RAND Corporation, and previously taught at American University and Georgetown University. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University.

Adaptation under Fire

How Militaries Change in Wartime

Lt. General David Barno and Nora Bensahel

Bridging the Gap

Reviews and Awards

"An insightful analysis of military adaptation in war, why it matters, and how to improve it.... Anyone interested in war planning and military organization will find much of value in this book, which should be required reading for civilian policy makers and military officers alike.... a sweeping, lively, and enjoyable foray into how to deal with the unknown once war erupts.... Highly recommended." -- CHOICE

"...this book offers significant context and substance to our collective understanding of military change and how we conceptualise adaptability. Its clarity and purpose is refreshing in a field dominated by buzzwords and other language that routinely confuses activity and effects." -- Wavell Room: Contemprary British Military Thought

"This is an important and timely book on the importance of adapting our military when confronted with a new enemy strategy. The authors draw on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for examples of when the commanders did not adapt their strategy to the challenge posed by unconventional warfare. And it describes how success was achieved when a new commander introduced a new strategy adapted to those challenges. A well-written and interesting analysis of a subject that has become critically important to the U.S. military." -- William J. Perry, 19th U.S. Secretary of Defense

"Barno and Bensahel have put their finger on the most important national security issue of our time: not terrorism, not great power competition, not AI or drones, but how the US military thinks about, and prepares for, the unknowable future. If a junior officer can read only one book on military organization, it must be this one. If our senior officers don't read this one book, our very security will be imperiled." -- Brad Carson, Congressman and former Undersecretary of the Army

"Military leaders may fail to anticipate challenges or learn in advance from the experiences of other armed forces, but nothing is so fatally dangerous as failure to adapt in wartime. Barno and Bensahel are a unique soldier-scholar team who have written an important book on just that question. This is an outstanding and compelling work, grounded in recent history, that is of urgent practical as well as theoretical importance." -- Eliot A. Cohen, Dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS and co-author of Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War

"Historically, the American military learns expensively by failure. Our current and future enemies may deny us even the time to adapt. The sharp policy recommendations Dr. Bensahel and retired General Barno offer in this excellent book would improve our military's resilience in advance--something the American military urgently needs, and that will lower the cost in blood and treasure our country pays in future wars." -- Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute and editor of Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military

"Every military professional should read Adaptation under Fire: How Militaries Change in Wartime. Retired Lt. Gen. David Barno and Nora Bensahel have delivered a magisterial survey of a critical factor in military effectiveness, the capacity to adapt in the midst of conflict."--ARMY Magazine

"Lt. Gen David Barno and Dr. Nora Bensahel are two of the sharpest minds on defense policy... Adaptation Under Fire is an intelligent, well-written, and well-argued book." --Diplomatic Courier

"A thoughtful and informed analysis."--Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs

"David Barno, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, and Dr. Nora Bensahel brilliantly explain one of the most difficult aspects of the military for people to understand-the complexity and importance of change in the military, especially while in conflict... Barno and Bensahel do an amazing job of simplifying these complex topics."--Military Review

"Adaptation Under Fire is a solid and useful addition to the literature on innovation, adaptation, and change in the military. Its analysis of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are its most compelling and illuminating chapters, but its recommendations should and will generate much worthy conversation and debate."--Joint Force Quarterly