Airpower Applied

Airpower Applied reviews the evolution of airpower and its impact on the history of warfare. Through a critical examination of twenty-nine case studies in which various U.S. coalitions and Israel played significant roles, this book offers perspectives on the political purpose, strategic meaning, and military importance of airpower. By comparing and contrasting more than seventy-five years of airpower experience in very different circumstances, readers can gain insight into present-day thinking on the use of airpower and on warfare. The authors, all experts in their fields, demystify some of airpower's strategic history by extracting the most useful teachings to help military professionals and political leaders understand what airpower has to offer as a "continuation of politics by other means." The case studies emphasize the importance of connecting policy and airpower: operational effectiveness cannot substitute for poor statecraft. As the United States, its allies, and Israel have seen in their most recent applications of airpower, even the most robust and capable air weapon can never be more effective than the strategy and policy it is intended to support.

John Andreas Olsen is a colonel in the Royal Norwegian Air Force currently assigned to NATO headquarters. He is a professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies, a non-resident senior fellow of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences. Professor Olsen has published a series of books on airpower strategy and defense policy, lectured worldwide, and received several awards for his writings. His latest books include Airpower Reborn, Airpower Applied, and Routledge Handbook of Air Power.