January 6, 2017

Colloquium Topic: Margin of Victory: Five Battles that Changed the Face of Modern War

In Margin of Victory Douglas Macgregor tells the riveting stories of five military battles of the twentieth century, each one a turning point in history. Beginning with the British Expeditionary force holding the line at the Battle of Mons in 1914 and concluding with the Battle of Easting in 1991 during Desert Storm, Margin of Victory establishes a connection among these battles and teaches its readers an important lesson about how future battles can be won.

Emphasizing military strategy, force design, and modernization, Macgregor links each of these seemingly isolated battles thematically. At the core of his analysis, the author reminds the reader that to be successful, military action must always be congruent with national culture, geography, and scientific-industrial capacity. He argues that strategy and geopolitics are ultimately more influential than ideology. Macgregor stresses that if nation-states want to be successful, they must accept the need for, and the inevitability of, change. The five warfighting dramas in this book, rendered in vivid detail by lively prose, offer many lessons on the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of war.

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Colloquium Speaker: Col. Douglas Macgregor

COL. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR, USA (Ret.), is a decorated combat veteran with a PhD in international relations from the University of Virginia. He is the author of five books and is the executive vice president of Burke-Macgregor Group LLC, a defense and foreign policy consulting firm in Northern Virginia.