In this deep and incisive study, former CIA director General David Petraeus, who commanded the US-led coalitions in both Iraq during the Surge and Afghanistan, and the prize-winning historian Andrew Roberts explore more than seventy years of conflict, drawing significant lessons and insights from their fresh analyses of the past. Combining their different perspectives and areas of expertise, Petraeus and Roberts show how critical mistakes have often been repeated time and again, and the gravity of the challenge, for statesmen and generals alike, of learning to adapt to various new weapon systems, theories, and strategies.

Among the conflicts examined are the Arab-Israeli Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the two Gulf Wars, the Balkan Wars in the former Yugoslavia, and both the Soviet and coalition wars in Afghanistan, as well as guerrilla conflicts in Africa and South America, and culminates with a bracing look at Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine and an assessment of the nature of future warfare. Filled with sharp insight and the wisdom of experience, Conflict is not only a critical assessment but an essential primer of modern warfare, providing crucial knowledge for waging battle today as well as for under­standing what the decades ahead may bring.