CEO's Recommended Reading List
BENS is advancing the conversation around critical topics in national security and the U.S. role in the world through the launch of our CEO’s Recommended Reading List.
Appearing on this list are essential works on statecraft, geopolitics, and civil-military relations, as well as emerging challenges in political risk and foreign policy. Each month we will feature one of the selected books in our Executive Brief newsletter. We hope the writers and topics represented on the reading list will generate ideas for future events, providing you with opportunities to discuss issues of interest with authors and experts directly.
In assembling the list, it was striking to see the wide range of interests our colleagues are closely tracking. Our goal is to add value and thought leadership to these conversations both through curating the best-of-class works and exploring new perspectives on the pressing issues of the day. We look forward to engaging with you in these reading list conversations.
Vr,
Joe Votel
General Joseph L. Votel, USA (Ret.)
President and CEO
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FOUNDATIONS OF STRATEGY
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Strategic Thinking in 3D: A Guide for National Security, Foreign Policy, and Business Professionals
By Ross Harrison, 2013
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Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
By Richard Rumelt, 2011
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American National Security Strategy, 7th edition
By Michael Meese, Suzanne Nielsen, and Rachel Sondheimer, 2018
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Political Risk: How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity
By Condoleezza Rice and Amy Zegart, 2018
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7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century
By Andrew Krepinevich, 2009
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Orchestrating the Instruments of Power: A Critical Examination of the U.S. National Security System
By D. Robert Worley, 2015
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Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World
By Robert Gates, 2020
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STATECRAFT AND GEOPOLITICS
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On Grand Strategy
By John Lewis Gaddis, 2018
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Return of Marco Polo's World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-first Century
By Robert D. Kaplan, 2018
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Statecraft and How to Restore America’s Standing in the World
By Dennis Ross, 2008
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The Post-American World
By Fareed Zakaria, 2008
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The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made
By Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, 2013 edition
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War by Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft
By Robert Blackwill and Jennifer Harris, 2016
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The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West
By David Kilcullen, 2020
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War and the Art of Governance: Converting Combat Success into Political Victory
By Nadia Schadlow, 2017
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First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country
By Thomas Ricks, 2020
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The Ambassadors: Thinking About Diplomacy from Machiavelli to Modern Times.
By Robert Cooper, 2020
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REGIONAL SECURITY
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The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power
By Thomas Christensen, 2015
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Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific
By Robert D. Kaplan, 2015
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CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS
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How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon
By Rosa Brooks, 2017
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The Culture of Military Organizations
Edited by Peter R. Mansoor and Murray Williamson, 2019
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America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy
By Robert B. Zoellick, 2020
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ADVERSARIES
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The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory
By Andrew J. Bacevich, 2020
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The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran
By David Crist, 2013
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Active Defense: China's Military Strategy Since 1949
By M. Taylor Fravel, 2019
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Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War
By Fred M. Kaplan, 2016
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Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet
By Yasha Levine, 2018
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The Politics of Space Security: Strategic Constraint and the Pursuit of National Interests. 3rd edition.
By James Clay Moltz, 2019
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My Journey at the Nuclear Brink
By William J. Perry, 2015
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The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare
By Christian Brose, 2020
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Wireless Wars: China's Dangerous Domination of 5G and How We're Fighting Back
By Jonathan Pelson, 2021
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The American War in Afghanistan: A History
By Carter Malkasian, 2021
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China's Leaders: From Mao to Now
By David Shambaugh, 2021
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Wilful Blindness: How a Network of Narcos, Tycoons and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West
By Sam Cooper, 2021
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China's Leaders: From Mao to Now
By David Shambaugh, 2021
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| BUDGETARY CONCERNS, RESEARCH, AND DEFENSE CONTRACTORS |
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The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top-Secret Military Research Agency
By Annie Jacobsen, 2015
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Defense Management Reform: How to Make the Pentagon Work Better and Cost Less
By Peter Levine, 2020
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BUSINESS INNOVATION
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Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
By Safi Bahcall, 2019
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U.S. POLITICS
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The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy
By Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter, 2020
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