Looking beyond more traditionally studied factors such as battlefield tactics, leadership, and military strategy, new studies under the general War and Society umbrella take into account social dynamics such as race, class, and gender in the context of national defense and warfare. In the case of The Military and the Market, the wide scholarly aperture offered by the War and Society approach extends to marketplace and economic factors, adding additional layers of complexity to American military history.
Simplicity Before Complexity: Conceptualizing Long-Term Military Competitions
Are U.S. goals vis-à-vis opposing powers tied to an identifiable definition of defeating an opponent? Do U.S. goals account for a clear relationship between ends and means, and the finite nature of both? If the answer to any of these questions is no, and if therefore the nature of the competition cannot be coherently explained, then competition has likely passed form reasonable idea to a meaningless buzzword.