Author

Lawrence D. Freedman

LAWRENCE D. FREEDMAN is Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, where he taught from 1982 to 2014 and served as Vice Principal from 2003 to 2013. He is a Foreign Affairs book reviewer and the author of Command: The Politics of Military Operations From Korea to Ukraine and The Future of War: A History, among other works. He is also the regular reviewer of works on military, scientific, and technological matters for the Recent Books section of Foreign Affairs.

By this author

Iran and the Forever War Trap

In Trying to Avoid a Quagmire, America Found a Dead End

Lawrence D. Freedman

May 27, 2026

Three Books on Nuclear Weapons

Alex Wellerstein; David Holloway; Edited by Stephen Herzog, Giles David Arceneaux, and Ariel F. W. Petrovics

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review May/June 2026

The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States

Kori Schake

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review May/June 2026

The Rise and Fall of the British Army, 1975–2025

Ben Barry

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review May/June 2026

The Warhead: The Quest to Build the Perfect Weapon in the Age of Modern Warfare

Jeffrey E. Stern

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review March/April 2026

The Geriatric Peace: Population Aging and the Decline of War

Mark L. Haas

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review March/April 2026

Strange Stability: How Cold War Scientists Set Out to Control the Arms Race and Ended Up Serving the Military-Industrial Complex

Benjamin Wilson

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review March/April 2026

Race Against Terror: Chasing an al-Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War

Jake Tapper

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review March/April 2026

AI, Automation, and War: The Rise of a Military-Tech Complex

Anthony King

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review March/April 2026

Military Theory and the Conduct of War

Azar Gat

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Jan/Feb 2026

Four Books on World War II

Max Hastings; Roger Moorhouse; Tom Clavin; Kevin Passmore

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Jan/Feb 2026

The Dogs of Mariupol: Russia’s Invasion and the Forging of Ukraine’s Iron Generation

Tom Mutch

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Nov/Dec 2025

Ground Combat: Puncturing the Myths of Modern War

Ben Connable

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Nov/Dec 2025

Flawed Strategy: Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions

Beatrice Heuser

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Nov/Dec 2025

Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age

Frank Close

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Nov/Dec 2025

Blood and Treasure: The Economics of Conflict From the Vikings to Ukraine

Duncan Weldon

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Nov/Dec 2025

Three Books on Twentieth Century Soldiers and Spies

James Crossland; Stephen R. Platt; Douglas Waller

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Sept/Oct 2025

The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America

William Geroux

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Sept/Oct 2025

Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World

Tim Bouverie

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Sept/Oct 2025

Why Putin Still Fights

The Kremlin Will End Its War in Ukraine Only When It Knows That Victory Is Impossible

Lawrence D. Freedman

June 18, 2025

Vatican Spies: From the Second World War to Pope Francis

Yvonnick Denoël

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review May/June 2025

The Invisible Spy: Churchill’s Rockefeller Center Spy Ring and America’s First Secret Agent of World War II

Thomas Maier

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review May/June 2025

Ransom War: How Cyber Crime Became a Threat to National Security

Max Smeets

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review May/June 2025

Presidents at War: How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents, From Eisenhower and JFK Through Reagan and Bush

Steven M. Gillon

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review May/June 2025

By the Second Spring: Seven Lives and One Year of the War in Ukraine

Danielle Leavitt

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review May/June 2025

The Age of Forever Wars

Why Military Strategy No Longer Delivers Victory

Lawrence D. Freedman

May/June 2025

Two Books on Russian Military Forces

Tor Bukkvoll; Jack Margolin

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Mar/Apr 2025

Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security

Sherri Goodman

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Mar/Apr 2025

The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective

Steven Johnson

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Mar/Apr 2025

New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West

David E. Sanger with Mary K. Brooks

Reviewed by Lawrence D. Freedman

Review Mar/Apr 2025