Admiral McRaven’s Reading List
America’s top operator, Admiral William H. McRaven – the Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) – has released his reading list for next year. Its intent, he says, “is to motivate members of the SOF [Special Operations Forces] community to grow professionally and personally. The USSOCOM Reading List represents important works for all SOFofficers, enlisted and civilians as well as those supporting the USSOCOM mission.”
The list is divided into books on strategy, leadership, military science, and intelligence and security affairs. Here it is:
Strategic Context:
- Asymmetrical Warfare: Today’s Challenge to U.S. Military Power Issues in Twenty-First Century Warfare, by Roger W. Barnett (2003)
- Afghanistan the Bear Trap: The Defeat of a Superpower, by Mohammad Vousaf and Mark Adkin (2001)
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell (2005)
- Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power, by Victor Hanson (2002)
- Children of Jihad: A Young American’s Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East, by Jared Cohen (2008)
- Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers, by Earnest May and Richard Neustadt (1988)
- The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Friedman (2007)
Leadership:
- Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success, by Phil Jackson (2013)
- Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character, by Jonathan Shay (1994)
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath {2007)
- My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by General Stanley McChrystal (2013)
Military Science:
- One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare, by Linda Robinson (2013)
- Getting More: How You Can Negotiate to Succeed in Work and Life, by Stuart Diamond (2010)
Intel and Security Affairs:
- Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIA’s Secret Campaign to Destroy the Viet Cong, by Mark Moyar (2007)
- Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al-Qaida Strategist Abu Mus’ab al-Suri, by Brynjar Lia (2008)
The original document can be viewed here.
Ryan Evans is the assistant director of the Center for the National Interest and the editor-in-chief of War on the Rocks.
Image: U.S. Special Operation Command photo by Mike Bottoms
