Acquisitions

11 July 2008 in Blogging by Brett Holman | 2 comments

Stephen Biddle. Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle. Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2004. An analytical and numerical approach to working out which side should be victorious in battle. I see nothing in the index to suggest that there’s an answer to the classic dilemma: U.S.S Enterprise vs. a star destroyer, which would win? A missed opportunity.

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12 July 2008 at 3:11 am

Jakob

Jakob’s avatar

I got a copy of this a while ago and found it interesting if hard going in parts. I wasn’t entirely convinced by his methodology, but then my eyes did start to glaze over a little reading the statistical details.

I think he’s married to Tami Davis Biddle, whose work I presume you’ll have more than a passing familiarity with…

17 July 2008 at 1:57 am

Brett Holman

Brett Holman’s avatar

Yes, I think I’ve heard the name somewhere! :)

You’re right, the tables and graphs are all very impressive but the devil will be in the details.