Fighting Identity: Sacred War And World Change

.” . .original and thought-provoking. . .” –

Survival

“Vlahos (applied physics, Johns Hopkins U.) reflects on the conflict of the US with non-state actors by reframing war as society’s central ritual of identity and the sacred, and looking at the national narrative of the US alongside the sacred histories of her enemies. His perspectives include idea, identity, method, field work, them, us, and fit.” –

Reference & Research Book News

“Vlahos is an innovative voice in strategic studies, with a distinguished career dating back 30 years at the US Navy,

CIA, and State Department, as well as Johns Hopkins University, where he is currently senior fellow of national

security analysis. In his novel, controversial, but often quite compelling attempt to unearth ‘why we are losing our

wars’ . . . . Vlahos argues that the post-9/11 world reveals the extent to which the US nation-state has itself become a sacred identity, competing with other (in this case, Islamic) religious identities. . . . Vlahos’s challenging style may feel overblown and inaccessible to some undergraduates, but the argument is worth the effort. . . . Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and up.” –

Choice

“What makes Vlahos essential reading is his perception, based on a profound personal and scholarly knowledge of the contemporary U.S. military as well as history ancient and modern, that while there may be technocratic strategists, there are no technocrat soldiers.” –

The American Conservative

“In this book Vlahos provides a disturbing analysis of why the U.S. is struggling in its war against terrorism. Identity, he argues, is the key driver both for the U.S. and for its new, non-state adversaries in a conflict widely misunderstood. While it is easy to believe we are doing better, his powerful analysis raises the spectra of what will happen when the next major terrorist attack hits us. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the new, dangerous world we are living in–and what to do about it.”-A. Lawrence Chickering, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Co-author, Voice of the People: The Transpartisan Imperative in American Life

“This is a powerful study of the generative force of narrative in armed conflict. It might well change the way we look at warfare and the communities that engage in it.”-Dr. Antulio Echevarria, Director of Research, U.S. Army War College

“If history repeats itself, someone should tell the politicians. Fortunately, someone has-Michael Vlahos. It’s obviously too late for some pols, of course. But others still have time to learn from the mistakes, and the successes, of the past. And the rest of us, too, can learn much from a book that illuminates the past to enlighten the future. Military history needs its own Gibbon, and it has found one in Vlahos.”-James Pinkerton, Is a Fellow with the New America Foundation, Contributor to the Fox News Network

“Michael Vlahos has written a bold, hard-hitting, thought-provoking book about the vitally important topic of the violent struggles that pit great powers against non-state actorsWritten with verve and passion, this work is bound to provoke and attract attention.”-Dr. John H. Maurer, Chair, Strategy and Policy Department Naval War College

“Throughout the era that Michael Vlahos calls ‘The 9/11 War, ‘ he has been remarkable in always keeping sound judgment and always pointing toward broader connections and deeper historical-cultural roots in the challenges that Western democracies face. He has already earned public gratitude for his books and essays of the last decade. ‘Fighting Identity’ is another important and original contribution in helping Americans understand how their conscious and unconscious national beliefs affect their strengths, vulnerabilities, and possibilities in meeting this era’s threats.”-James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly

Michael Vlahos has spent his life thinking and writing about war and culture — from service in the Navy, CIA, State, and his thirty-year tie to The Johns Hopkins University: first as Director of Security Studies at the Nitze School, and then with the Applied Physics Laboratory, where he is now a Fellow and Principal. His nine earlier books and monographs include The BLUE Sword: The United States Navy and the American Mission 1919-1941 (1980), and Terror’s Mask: Insurgency Within Islam (2003).