Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Dr. John A. Nagl for a discussion of his life as a scholar/soldier in the U.S. military. After recalling the highlights of his career, Dr. Nagl, focusing on the problem of counterinsurgency, analyzes the army’s failings as a learning organization. He discusses the trajectory of military thinking after the Vietnam War and the long struggle to recognize the unconventional ways of warfare conducted by insurgents and terrorists. He describes how a group of innovators in the military came to draft the US Army/Marine Corp Counterinsurgency Field Manual. With the completion of that document and the subsequent change in leadership in the Pentagon and in Iraq, the U.S. reversed the course of the war and set the stage for withdrawal from the conflict.
Key Words: Strategy; Nimitz Lecturers