Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of US Central Command, has released his 2018 reading list. With twelve books across five categories, Gen. Votel’s list makes for a great edition of our weekly War Books series. Whether you’re looking for a book or two to read over the holidays or beginning to compile your own 2018 professional development reading list, the books below are a great place to start.
Leadership
Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
W. Brad Johnson and David Smith, Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women
Managing Complexity
Joshua Cooper Ramo, The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It
Thomas E. Ricks, Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom
Joseph McCormack, Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less
Strategy
Richard Rumelt, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy
Graham Allison, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
Understanding the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility
Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East
Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
David Crist, The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran
Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps that Explain Everything About the World
Innovation
Marc Goodman, Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable, What We Can Do About It
Image credit: Spc. Christopher Brecht, US Army
I would throw in a T. E. Lawrence for some fun geographical context and why some people there are still pissed. Plus to get the movie legend.
Tim (not Time) Marshall
Not a single woman author. At least there is one book that considers women but even it was written by a man…
Then write something worth reading. War (in various forms) has been practiced for as long as man has existed – longer, depending on how you interpret certain animal violence (chimp micro-wars, for example). Women have only recently entered this modern arena – there hasn’t been much time for women to develop the experience and understanding necessary to influence the field (though I would make an argument for Fontini Christia’s work on allegiance formation in civil wars).
Substance should outweigh politics in education – and for every woman writing on the topic so far, there are a thousand men doing so as well or better (all of whom are falling short of being the next Clausewitz or Sun Tzu). Give it time.
General Votel's 2016 Reading List
Leadership:
— Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
How about a book on mentoring women BY women.
General Votel's 2016 Reading List
Leadership:
— Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon