Higher Command and Staff Course 2011 – Reading List (Books and Doctrine)

To note:
1. The recommended reading for HCSC consists of 3 elements, namely Books, Doctrine and Articles. The latter are issued in the days
preceding each phase and are constituted from the very best of contemporary, timeless or alternative thinking.
2. A leading list of 8 books represents the essential texts that need to be read and understood by all. These will be sent to students
before the course. Most are permanent issue.
3. A further selection will be issued on arrival and are highly likely to be referred to either on course or as a classic text in quotation.
Some are permanent issue.
4. A few others books are also highly recommended and will be made available for easy referral as required. These include the
Advanced Command and Staff Course papers from 2009 that were graded within the top 10% (‘learning from our juniors’). Naturally,
specific enquiries for monographs, case studies and research papers will draw upon the full resources of the JSCSC library.

Title READ READ/ REFER READ

BEFORE to DURING AS ABLE
COURSE COURSE
Classical Thought & Principles of War (HLTO 1)
Michael I Handel, Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought, (London: Frank Cass, 1996)
T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (London: Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1997) Permanent
Issue
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince & The Art of War (London: Collector’s Library, 2004) Permanent
Issue
Michael Howard, Clausewitz - A Very Short Introduction. (Oxford: University Press, 1983) Permanent
Issue
Hew Strachan, Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century (Oxford: University Press, 2007)
Thucydides, The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, Robert B.
Strassler (Editor), Victor Davis Hanson (Introduction), Richard Crawley (Translator), (Free Press; 1998)
Antoine De Jomini, The Art Of War, (London: Greenhill Books, 2006)
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Clausewitz, On War
Strategy, Policy & Conflict, Instruments of Power, Utility of Force (HLTO 2 and 3)
Wilkinson P, International Relations: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: University Press, 2007) Permanent
Issue
Colin Gray, Another Bloody Century, (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005)
Robert Kagan, The Return of History and the End of Dreams (London, Atlantic Books, 2008)
Miller D, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: University Press, 2003) Permanent
Issue
Murray, Williamson & others (ed), The making of strategy: rulers, states and war, (Cambridge: University Permanent
Press, 2007) Issue
B.H. Liddell Hart, Strategy: Second Revised Edition (London: Meridian, 1991) Permanent
Issue
John Baylis, James Wirtz, Eliot Cohen, Colin S. Gray, Strategy in the Contemporary World – An Permanent
Introduction to Strategic Studies, (Oxford: University Press, 2007). Issue
Rupert Smith, The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World, (London: Allen Lane, 2005)
Martin Van Creveld, The Changing Face of War: Lessons of Combat, from the Marne to Iraq (New York:
Presidio Press, 2006)
Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations - order and chaos in the Twenty-first Century, (London: Atlantic
Books, 2003).
Paddy Ashdown, Swords and Ploughshares – Bringing Peace to the 21st Century, (London: Orion Books,
2007)
Paul Collier, Wars, Guns and Votes – Democracy in Dangerous Places (Oxford: University Press, 2008)
Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid (London: Penguin, 2009)
Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power – America and Europe in the New World Order (New York: Alfred A
Knopf, 2003)
Jeremy Black, Rethinking Military History (Oxford: Routledge, 2004)
Lawrence Freedman, Deterrence (Themes for the 21st Century), (London: Polity Press, 2004)
Michael Howard, The Invention of Peace and the Reinvention of War, (London: Profile Books, 2001)
Tim Benbow, The Magic Bullet? Understanding the Revolution in Military Affairs (London: Chrysalis, 2004)
Michael Howard, Liberation or Catastrophe: Soundings in the History of the 20th Century, (Hambledon
Continuum, 2007)
David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern
Middle East, (London: Holt Paperbacks, 2001)
Understanding Others (HLTO 3)
Mark Allen, Arabs (New York: Continuum, 2006)
Patrick Sookhdeo, Global Jihad – The Future in the Face of Militant Islam (London: Isaac Publishing,
2008)
Ed Husain, The Islamist (London: Penguin, 2007)
Gerald Segal Does China Matter? (London: Routledge, 2004)
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
John Buchan Greenmantle
Anonymous, Through our Enemies’ Eyes, (Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2002)
Bernard Lewis, What went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, (London: Phoenix,
2003).
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: the impact of the highly probable, (Penguin Books, 2007)
Operational Art and Campaigning (HTLO 4)
Fuller, J F C, The Conduct of War 1789-1961: a study of the impact of the French, industrial and Russian Permanent
revolutions on war and its conduct, (London: Methuen, 1972). Issue
David Kilkullen, “The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One” (Oxford:
University Press, 2009)
Milan Vego, Joint Operational Warfare 2007 version, (Copyright - Dr Milan Vego, 2007) Permanent
Issue
John Nagl, Eating Soup with a Knife – Counter Insurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (Chicago: Permanent
University Press 2002) Issue
William Slim, Defeat into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945 (London: Cooper Square Permanent
Press, 2000) Issue
Hilary Synott, Bad Days in Basra: My Turbulent Time as Britain’s Man in Southern Iraq (New York:
Macmillan, 2008)
Eliot A Cohen and John Gooch, Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy Of Failure In War, (New York: Free
Press, 1990)
Carlo D’Este, Decision In Normandy: The Unwritten Story Of Montgomery And The Allied Campaign
(London: Collins, 1983)

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 Title READ READ/ REFER READ
BEFORE to DURING AS ABLE
COURSE COURSE
Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won, Explaining Victory in World War 2 (Vintage/Ebury, 1996)
John Gooch (Ed), Decisive Campaigns of the Second World War, (London: Frank Cass, 1989)
Colin Gray, Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History, (London: Frank
Cass, 2004)
Thomas Hammes, The Sling and the Stone, (Zenith Press, 2004)
Paul Rexton Kan, Drugs and Contemporary Warfare (Washington: Potomac Books, 2009)
Media (HLTO 4)
Nik Gowing, Skyful of Lies and Black Swans (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford
University, 2009)
Components of Fighting Power (HTLO 5)
Dr Stuart Griffin, Joint Operations - A Short History (JDCC 2005).
Colin S Gray, The Leverage of Sea Power: The Strategic Advantage of Navies in War, (US: Free Press,
1992)
Geoffrey Till (Ed), Seapower: A Guide for the 21st Century, (London: Frank Cass, 2003)
Keegan, John The Face of Battle (London: Pimlico Military Classics, 2004)
Brian Holden Reid (ed), Military Power: Land Warfare In Theory And Practice, (London: Frank Cass, 1997)
Martin van Creveld, Supplying War: Logistics From Wallenstein To Patton (Cambridge: University Press,
1977)
John Terraine, The Right of the Line: The Royal Air Force in the European War 1939-1945, (London:
Hodder and Stoughton, 1985)
John A Warden, The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat, (Pergamon-Brassey’s, 1989)
Higher Command (HLTO 6)
Eliot Cohen, Supreme Command: soldiers, statesmen and leadership in wartime, (London: Free Press, Permanent
2003) Issue
Keegan, John, The Mask of Command, (London: Jonathan Cape, 1987) Permanent
Issue
Gary Sheffield and Geoffrey Till, The Challenges of High Command, The British Experience, (Palgrave
MacMillan, 2003)
War Diaries 1939-1945: Field Marshall Lord Alanbrooke, edited by Alex Danchev and Dan Todman
(London: Phoenix, 2002)
Jonathan Riley, Napoleon as a General: Command from the Battlefield to Grand Strategy, (Hambledon
Continuum, 2007)
Martin van Creveld, Command in War, (USA: Harvard University Press, 1985)
G D Sheffield (Ed), Leadership and Command - The Anglo-American Military Experience Since 1861,
(London: Brassey’s (UK), 1997)
H R McMasters, Dereliction of Duty, (London: Harper Collins, 1998)
Andrew Gordon, The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command, (London: John Murray,
1996)
Lest We Forget (HLTO 6)
Charles Lamb, War in a Stringbag (London: Cassell, 2002) Understand the
Nicholas Monsarrat, The Cruel Sea (London: The Book Club, 2002) Ethos of
George Macdonald Fraser, Quartered safe out here: a recollection of the war in Burma (London: the Services
HarperCollins, 1992)
Wellum, Geoffrey, First light (London: Penguin, 2003) beyond your
own
Norman Dixon, On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, (London: Pimlico, 1976)
Laws and Ethics (HTLO 6)
Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars (New York: Perseus, 1977) Permanent
Issue
Sorabji/Rodin, The Ethics of War (Oxford: Ashgate, 2006)
Nigel Biggar, Burying the Past: making peace and doing justice after civil conflict (Georgetown University
Press, 2003)

Concepts and Doctrine

Strategic Trends Programme – Future Character of Conflict
UK Joint High Level Operational Conceptual Framework/Commentary
JDP 0-01 British Defence Doctrine
JDP 01 Campaigning
JDP 04 Understanding
JDP 5-00 Campaign Planning
A Guide to Joint Doctrine Publication 3-40 Security and Stabilisation: The Military Contribution
JDP 02 Operations in the UK: the Defence Contribution to Resilience
JDP 2-00 Understanding and Intelligence
JDP 3-00 Campaign Execution
JDP 3-40 Security and Stabilisation: The Military Contribution
JDP 3-50 The Military Contribution to Peace Support Operations
JDP 4-00 Logistics for Joint Operations
DCDC Guidance Note: A Guide to Red Teaming
JDN Integrated Air Land Ops
JDN 1/09 Significance of Culture to the Military
BR1806 Maritime Doctrine
AP 3000 British Air and Space Power Doctrine
ADP Operations
DCDC Global Strategic Trends Programme – Global Strategic Trends – Out to 2040, 4th Ed.

Students are expected to be familiar with their own component and Service doctrine as relevant to the Operational Level.

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