One of the most influential experts on military history and strategy has now written an original and provocative account of the past hundred years of global conflict. This book reveals the path that led to the impasse in Iraq, why powerful standing armies are now helpless against ill-equipped insurgents, and how the security of sovereign nations may be maintained in the future. Van Creveld takes us on a journey from the last century's clashes of massive armies to today's short, high-tech, lopsided skirmishes and frustrating quagmires. War today is a mix of the ancient and the advanced, as state-of-the-art armies fail to defeat small groups of crudely outfitted guerrilla and terrorists. How to learn from the recent past to reshape the military for this new challenge--how we can still save, in a sense, the free world--is the ultimate lesson of this big, bold, and cautionary work.--From publisher description.

Prelude, 1900-14 -- World War I, 1914-18 -- The twenty years' truce -- World War II, 1939-45 -- In the shadow of the Bomb -- The new world disorder, 1991 to the present -- The first and the last.