A complete global history of guerrilla uprisings through the ages.

The answer is simple: 9/11. The most costly terrorist attack ever was carried out from Afghanistan. The United States showed bipartisan determination to bring the perpetrators to justice and—the part that explains our continuing engagement in Afghanistan—to prevent its soil from ever being used again to stage terrorist attacks.

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Max Boot gives his top five recommendations for books on guerillas.

Unconventional wars are our most pressing national security concern. They're also the most ancient form of war in the world. Max Boot describes the lessons of insurgency we seem unable to learn.

Max Boot argues that substantial withdrawals of American military personnel from Afghanistan ignore the reality of the situation.

In a review of Stanley McChrystal's My Share of the Task, Max Boot says throughout McChrystal's career, the general was unshakably dedicated to his soldiers, to his wife, and, above all, to the Army and nation.

Max Boot says recent films about the CIA focus on the agency's successful operations, but also highlight a real problem—that it's actually a hypercautious bureaucracy.

A complete global history of guerrilla uprisings through the ages.

A precipitious drawdown to 6,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014 would cripple the U.S. counterterrorism mission and Afghan security forces, vastly increasing the risk of a Taliban takeover, says Max Boot.

Four experts discuss what the U.S. options are for addressing the Syria crisis, with suggestions ranging from avoiding direct actions to enforcing a Libya-style no-fly zone.

Max Boot reviews The Generals by Thomas E. Rick, a book that traces the evolution of prevailing attitudes toward the promotion and relief of generals from the 1940s to present day, seeking to discover how the Army changed so dramatically in the past sixty-plus years and the consequences for the future of American military power.

Max Boot says the U.S. intelligence community already suffers from a propensity to put quantity over quality.

Max Boot offers his recommendations for books on military history just in time for the gift-giving season.

Max Boot says David Petraeus's intellectualism was crucial to the U.S. military. Now the nation loses his skills.

Max Boot says Obama repeated Bush's mistake, and the power vacuum in Libya has now been filled by jihadists.

While effective, Special Operations Forces (SOF) have little lasting effects, so the increased reliance on SOF to get the job done in the Middle East and South Asia is worrisome, says Max Boot.

Michael Scott Doran and Max Boot lay out five reasons for why the United States should intervene in Syria, arguing that President Obama is forgoing his "lead from behind" approach where it would benefit the United States the most.

The Afghan troop surge has ended and full U.S. military involvement is to sunset in 2014, leaving a fragile security situation and questions about the U.S. role, says CFR's Max Boot.

Max Boot says public apathy isn't necessarily fatal for the war effort. It could even provide the opportunity to finally get it "right."

Max Boot says the Middle East remains in turmoil. The U.S. should boost its air and naval assets in Asia but leave the other military branches free to focus on other regions.

In a testimony before the House Committee on Armed Services, Max Boot explains that the signing of a U.S.-Afghan Security Partnership Accord in April and the Chicago Summit Declaration in May alleviated some of the uncertainty about the post-2014 period—but only some. The nature and extent of that commitment remain opaque, and that in turn feeds anxiety in Afghanistan, contributes to capital flight, buoys the confidence of our enemies, and leads many Afghans to sit on the fence for fear of joining the losing side.