Synopses & Reviews
Within defense circles Andrew Marshall, famously aloof and spotlight-shunning, is a legend. He has served in the Pentagon for nearly forty years, appointed and reappointed by eight U.S. presidents, and is the director of the Office of Net Assessmentthe Pentagons internal think-tank. From this post, Marshall has led and continues to lead cutting edge thinking on the global military balance of power and how the United States must position itself to stay ahead of the curve. From his days working with the legendary Enrico Fermi on the cyclotron at the University of Chicago, to his path-breaking work at the RAND Corporation during its golden age in the 1950s and early 1960s, Marshall emerged as one of Americas leading strategists during a long, bitter and dangerous stand-off with the Soviet Union. Following the Cold War, Marshall has remained a central force in the U.S. defense establishments efforts to tackle the new threats to the nations security, to include the rise of militant Islamism, the proliferation of nuclear weapons to countries in the developing world, and the rapid rise of China and its equally imposing military buildup.
In following the course of Marshalls professional life, Andrew Krepinevich and Barry Wattstwo former members of his staffexplore the dawn of the Cold War in the 1940s and 1950s, recount the creation of the influential and secretive RAND Corporation, detail the ascent of the Soviet Union as a nuclear power, and introduce the brilliant mindsfrom the worlds of statistics, economics, physics, sociology, and morewho designed the United States Cold War strategy. They plunge the reader into the world of U.S. defense and intelligence in the 1960s and 1970s, go inside war-gaming and scenario planning in the Pentagons Office of Net Assessment, and vividly depict the unraveling of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism in the 1980s. They delve into the revolution in military affairs spawned by precision munitions and cyber warfare in the 1990s and 2000s, and finally, wrestle with the challenges to American national security that confront us today and loom on the horizonthreats from decentralized networks of combatants like Al Qaeda and from rising powers like China.
The Last Warrior will, for the first time, tell Marshalls story, and in doing so provide an inside account and history of the last sixty years of the American defense establishment, spanning the entirety of the Cold War, Americas unipolar movement, and the new period of destabilized competition between the United States, rising powers, and non-state actors. It is told through one mans life and remarkable career, but The Last Warrior is a much grander story that involves some of the most pivotal America figures of the last half century.
Review
and#147;[A] thoughtful and fascinating book.and#8221;
and#151;Wall Street Journal
and#147;I recently had the opportunity to review an advance copy of a biography on Andrew Marshall. Iand#8217;ll save you the suspense: Itand#8217;s worth your time and money.and#8221;
and#151;LCDR Christopher Nelson, USN, Foreign Policy
and#147;A respectful biography.... If you think Americaand#8217;s herky-jerky national security policies and the hyper-expensive establishment serving it are flawed, The Last Warrior helps explain why.and#8221;
and#151;Laurence Barrett, European Affairs
and#147;In telling Marshall's story, [Krepinevich and Watts] also cover much of the history of U.S. national security and foreign policy over the past 60 years.and#8221;
and#151;Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
and#147;An objective and perceptive intellectual history of Marshall and his work.and#8221;
and#151;Publishers Weekly
and#147;In clear prose, the authors trace the career of this brilliant strategic thinker.... An elucidating intellectual history of an influential strategic sage that few outsiders have ever heard of.and#8221;
and#151;Kirkus Reviews
and#147;[A] detailed, rigorous account of Marshalland#8217;s career.... The intricacies of net assessment, which offer options but not recommendations for strategic defense policymakers, are skillfully unraveledand#133; readers of foreign policy and specialists will find the authorsand#8217; research impressive and Marshalland#8217;s story enlightening.and#8221;
and#151;Library Journal
and#147;A fascinating account of the life and career of one of Americaand#8217;s leading strategic thinkers, The Last Warrior outlines much of the intellectual history of American security since World War II, while also shining a light on the challenges we continue to face.and#8221;
and#151;Mac Thornberry, Member of Congress
and#147;Andrew Marshall mentored a series of Secretaries of Defense, beginning with James Schlesinger, in devising strategies for competing successfully with global adversaries. The Last Warrior tells that story, and shows how Marshall used the revolutionary concept of and#145;Net Assessmentand#8217; to do it.and#8221;
and#151;Harold Brown, 14th U.S. Secretary of Defense
and#147;The Last Warrior is eye-opening and riveting. This story of Andrew Marshall's brilliant career vividly illuminates sixty years of the highest-level intellectual and political conflicts that shaped America's defense posture and strategy. Read it to learn about Marshall and history but also read it to discover the shape of real strategy in the larger ocean of bluster and wishful thinking.and#8221;
and#151;Richard Rumelt, author of Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
Synopsis
Andrew Marshall is a defense industry legend. Director of the Office of Net Assessment, the Pentagonand#8217;s internal think tank, Marshall has served in the Department of Defense for nearly forty years. From his pathbreaking work at the RAND Corporation in the 1950s to his innovative strategies for dealing with nonstate actors and rising foreign powers at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Marshall has helped the United States meet the threats to its national security during the Cold War and beyond.
In The Last Warrior, Andrew Krepinevich and Barry Watts tell his story for the first time, using his exceptional career to trace the rise of the modern American defense establishment.
Synopsis
Andrew Marshall is a Pentagon legend. For more than four decades he has served as Director of the Office of Net Assessment, the Pentagonand#8217;s internal think tank, under twelve defense secretaries and eight administrations. Yet Marshall has been on the cutting edge of strategic thinking even longer than that. At the RAND Corporation during its golden age in the 1950s and early 1960s, Marshall helped formulate bedrock concepts of US nuclear strategy that endure to this day; later, at the Pentagon, he pioneered the development of and#147;net assessmentand#8221;and#151;a new analytic framework for understanding the long-term military competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Following the Cold War, Marshall successfully used net assessment to anticipate emerging disruptive shifts in military affairs, including the revolution in precision warfare and the rise of China as a major strategic rival of the United States.
In The Last Warrior, Andrew Krepinevich and Barry Wattsand#151;both former members of Marshalland#8217;s staffand#151;trace Marshalland#8217;s intellectual development from his upbringing in Detroit during the Great Depression to his decades in Washington as an influential behind-the-scenes advisor on American defense strategy. The result is a unique insiderand#8217;s perspective on the changes in US strategy from the dawn of the Cold War to the present day.
Covering some of the most pivotal episodes of the last half-century and peopled with some of the eraand#8217;s most influential figures, The Last Warrior tells Marshalland#8217;s story for the first time, in the process providing an unparalleled history of the evolution of the American defense establishment.
About the Author
Andrew Krepinevich is president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) and the author of several books on military history and strategy, including
7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the Twenty-First Century and The Army and Vietnam. He lives in Leesburg, Virginia.
Barry Watts has been a senior fellow at CSBA since 2002, when he left the Pentagon as the Director of Program Analysis and Evaluation. He too has written extensively on military history and strategy, including Clausewitzian Friction and Future War. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
Table of Contents
1. A Self-Educated Man, 1921andndash;1949
2. Early Rand Years, 1949andndash;1960
3. The Quest for Better Analytic Methods, 1961andndash;1969
4. The Birth of Net Assessment, 1969andndash;1973
5. Moving to the Pentagon, 1973andndash;1975
6. The Maturation of Net Assessment, 1976andndash;1980
7. Cold War End Game, 1981andndash;1991
8. The Military Revolution, 1991andndash;2000
9. The Pivot to the Asia-Pacific Region, 2001andndash;2014
Conclusion