| Summary/Abstract |
The US military has developed a persistent ‘German problem' due to the outsize influence of legendary strategist John Boyd. In a cautionary tale of how poor military history can lead to real-world mistakes, Stephen Robinson, in his book The Blind Strategist, demonstrates that, by basing his ideas on the tendentious work of historian B.H. Liddell Hart in collaboration with a coterie of former Wehrmacht officers, Boyd ingrained in the US military a culture of strategic thinking focused on achieving tactical and operational success through ‘manoeuvre warfare' at the expense of a coherent war-winning strategy. Although Robinson overstates his case in certain areas, he convincingly demonstrates that Boyd’s thinking continues to affect the US military in ways that could prove damaging in future wars, particularly against peer adversaries.
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