This revised anthology is about the future of military operations in the opening decades of the 21st century. Its purpose is not to predict the future, but to speculate on the conduct of military operations as an instrument of national policy in a world absent massive thermonuclear and conventional superpower confrontation characteristic of the Cold War. Also absent are indirect constraints imposed by that confrontation on virtually all political-military relationships, not solely those between superpower principals. Most of these essays are attempts to define military operational concepts that might be employed to execute such an engagement strategy.

Foreword /Donn A. Starry -- Prologue / Robert H. Scales Jr. -- Introduction to the first edition / Williamson Murray -- Preface to the first edition / Robert H. Scales, Jr. -- Speed and power: primal forces in the new American style of war -- Cycles of war -- Preparing for war in the 21st Century / with Paul K. Van Riper -- Adaptive enemies: dealing with the strategic threat after 2010 -- A sword with two edges: maneuver in 21st Century warfare -- From Korea to Kosovo: how America's Army has learned to fight limited wars in the precision age -- Clashes of visions: sizing and shaping our forces in a fiscally constrained environment -- America's Army: preparing for tomorrow's security challenges -- The dawn of a new age of warfare: and the clarion call for enhanced maneuver capabilities -- The annual report for the Army After Next Project to the Chief of Staff of the Army -- The Army After Next : intertwining military art, science, and technology out to the year 2025 / with John A. Parmentola -- The indirect approach: how U.S. military forces can avoid the pitfalls of future urban warfare -- Russia's clash in Chechnya : implications for future war -- Trust, not technology, sustains coalitions -- Trust, more than technology, ensures interoperability -- In war, the U.S. can't go it alone -- Europe as a strategic staging base for 21st century stabilization operations -- Adaptive enemies: achieving victory by avoiding defeat.