The best essays in this book make you reflect on Star Wars in new ways, with the writers showing sharp insights into this fictional universe and its implications. To give one example, Jim Golby's essay makes a brief but quite observant point about Luke Skywalker's actions in Return of the Jedi that I had never considered or heard discussed much, in years of Star Wars fandom. There are only some minor hiccups here and there where I thought an author maybe had gotten something slightly wrong about the universe, but I was generally impressed with the level of SW analysis (The Clone Wars animated series is discussed surprisingly often!).

Similar insights are here to be had on military and strategic matters, with the book succeeding in engaging a layman like me in themes such as toxic and over-centralized leadership, the importance of rapid-deploying expeditionary forces, fleet and naval command structure, among others. I would say that, because the book embraces a goal of accessibility for a layperson like myself, the insights on military affairs are shallower than what you will take away in just new ways to think about Star Wars. What I mean is that the Star Wars fan will come away with more learned than the military thinker.

While I had a good time with the collection, some themes are discussed more than once (the civil-military divide mainly). There are also some pieces where I felt the author was sort of spinning their wheels. In particular there are a couple pieces written from an in-universe perspective (with a fictional narrator), and some of them just seemed like cut-and-dry summaries of the Galactic Civil War. A small handful of other inclusions did feel somewhat perfunctory as well, so there is a bit of unevenness to the book. Admittedly, this is a difficult sensation to avoid in an anthology.

Military strategies compared to Star Wars are the theme of the 28 essays within Strategy Strikes Back. Focusing on both past warfare and the wars to come, it is comprehensively researched and annotated.

I have to say that only reviewers will have the patience to read a foreword, a preface and an introduction all in one book. You can probably skip all three though I’m going to quote the Introduction later. The remaining book is split into four sections: Society and War, Preparation for War, Waging a War, and Assessment of War. There is also an epilogue.

I selected this book solely because of one of its authors, Max Brooks. I adored his World War Z book (not so much the movie though the visuals were awesome—who can forget the zombies climbing the city’s walls). Unfortunately, he only pens the introduction and first essay. However, he included some profound thoughts on why an average person should care about military strategy. As he states “to be blunt, war impacts everyone [...] from the language we speak to the land we live in to the god we choose or don’t choose to worship.” Using Star Wars as an easily understood analogy was another co-writer’s idea he actually used when tasked with training South Koreans in military strategy.

The essays vary widely in style. Some read like dissertations, others like pop culture fandom. Most are written in third person. One is written in first person by the “esteemed historian of the Galactic Civil War”, who I assume is fictional.

There are a few errors within. Saying that Leia caused woman to be taken more seriously in leadership roles may be arguably true. Saying that she influenced Wonder Woman is absurd when she predates Leia by more than three decades in comics. In contrast, some things that sound unbelievable are actually true like the chapter note referencing Wookieepedia, which is the actual name of the Star Wars wiki.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Strategy Strikes Again. But it isn’t for everyone, readers should be familiar with Star Wars but not too familiar or the duplicate descriptions of battle scenes will become tiresome. I enjoyed the essays that included less Star Wars and more current or future war strategies and weapons. How is the clone army’s swarm mindset being replicated with US military drones? How did the Soviets and US militaries spend millions exploring Jedi mind tricks like Anakin’s floating fruit over a banquet table? Yes, more please. Some other essays droned on and on like the classic military strategy texts described by Max Brooks in the Introduction as “total snoozefests”. So difficult to rate, this book is. (You knew I had to do it somewhere in this review). For Star War nerds (you know who you are) or war fanciers, 5 stars. For all others, 3 stars. So 4 stars overall.

Thanks to the publisher, University of Nebraska/Potomac Books, and NetGalley for an advance copy.

The Military’s Astounding Appreciation of Star Wars

It’s fairly well known that 392,000 Britons listed Jedi as their religion in the 2001 census. Less well known perhaps, is that the US Army School for Advanced Military Studies refers to its graduates as Jedi Knights. Strategy Strikes Back proves that the military is at least as obsessed with the Star Wars saga as the general public is – only it goes further, in many ways taking it far more seriously. The military analyze the scenes and debate the merits of choices as if they were real. They compare what Yoda did to what Carl Clausewitz would have said. They train on tales of Star Wars. Far from smirking at it, the military has adopted it. Enough to fill a book of strategic analysis.

Strategy Strikes Back is a remarkable collection of 28 short essays by mostly high ranking military men and women from the US and Australia. They all proudly derive military lessons from Star Wars. The Foreword is by one Stanley McChrystal.

Here’s the bottom line analysis on Yoda: “The downstream result of Yoda’s leadership failure to maintain a nonpartisan, apolitical Jedi ethic was a slow-motion, amputation of the Republic’s security arm from its political body. Yoda bears culpability in this tragedy” (M.L. Cavanaugh, Modern War Institute, West Point). This is Star Wars for grownups.

There is repeated, severe criticism of Darth Vader, who, despite being the senior commander, never issues a single Mission order. Instead, he enmeshes himself in minor distractions, interferes in ops, joins his fighters in space rather than command from HQ, and kills his own officers at will. He accepts no other voices and inspires fear rather than loyalty. Darth Vader strikes out as a military man.

The Empire itself is a racist, stifling hierarchy that is asking for dismemberment in the eyes of military strategists. It refuses to negotiate, prefers killing to compromising and tolerates no ideas from below. Its officers are all humans, despite the trillions of other beings available to it. And if that weren’t racsist enough, all those officers speak with British accents. They show no camaraderie, the sign of doom to come. None of this is news to Star Wars fans. But the fact the military is paying this close attention is.

Various authors draw lessons from the errors of Grand Muff Wulfhill Tarkin and the rise to power of Chancellor/Emperor Sheev Palpatine. It was Palpatine who issued Order 66 that set the whole Republic tumbling. Creating the Death Star and using it to blow apart the planet Alderaan was the strategic error that consolidated and mobilized the rebellion. These are lessons for grunts – and the grunts have internalized them all before they even enlist. Star Wars is not mocked – it is a tool.

The overarching theme is that timeless lessons are doomed to be repeated. Republics become empires, beget democracies, mutate to aristocracies, slide into dictatorships, which are overthrown by republics. The Star Wars saga exhibits it all, in a truly well thought if not remarkable “history” that didn’t start at the beginning. It has survived decades of additions and insertions to all of its eras to remain consistent, cohesive and believable.

-There is a wonderful chapter on weapons, and how the Jedi, wielding simple, “old school “ lightsabres, always beat the Sith, with their modern, high tech, multiblade lightsabres. Movie fans polled in 2008 voted lightsabres the number one weapon in movie history, followed by Dirty Harry’s gun and Indiana Jones’ bullwhip. The Deathstar rated 9th. Author (Lt. Col. Rtd.) Dan Ward’s take – keep it simple. Complexity is a recipe for failure.
-The Jedi and the Profession of Arms (on the decline and fall of the Jedi) has direct lessons for American military today, as do several other chapters. Author Steve Leonard (Modern War Institute, West Point) sets out what we all kind of know – expensive weapons systems restrict soldiers and leave them vulnerable to the more nimble, simply armed rebels. The Deathstar, the ultimate unmanageable weapon, was a disaster waiting to happen, he says.
-Theresa Hitchens’ (Center for International and Security Studies) analysis of where the Empire’s strategy failed is classic. She takes it all literally, examining strategies in terms of Sun Tzu and how militaries are always fighting the last war.
-“That war is inextricably linked to honor and fear makes the shackles of hubris even more powerful,” sums up most of what’s always been wrong. That’s from The Logic of Strategy in Space, by Steve Metz (US Army War College of Strategic Studies Institute). The military understands. Diplomacy always beats war. Negotiation has priority. Figuring out how to live peacefully is paramount.
-In Why Military Forces Adapt, Army Major Chuck Bies shows all but total disrespect for The Phantom Menace, which even suspension of disbelief does not justify. It is a sharp and refreshing departure from the Star Wars fandom of many other chapters. He destroys. In a fun way.
-The recitation of the US Army manual’s definition of toxic leadership rings true not only of Emperor Palpatine but also of Donald Trump. But that (wisely) goes unsaid.
-Even the endnotes tend be unusual, citing such scholarly authorities as Wookieepedia.

The editors organized the book perfectly, going from the easy to digest aspects of the saga to the heavy analysis of larger issues demonstrated in it. It prepares you for the heavier analysis that each chapter achieves over the previous one in a steady progression of deeper concepts. You would expect no less from military strategists.

Strategy Strikes Back is actually an unexpected must-have for the serious Star Wars collector.

David Wineberg

If I were teaching a course on military strategy, this would be one of my textbooks. The authors rightfully decide that abstract and difficult theories of the business and ethics of war are hard to understand, and everyone comes to the subject with their own biases of country, history and experience. Applying theory to a fictional universe with established right and wrong sides that most people around the world have some exposure to helps immensely. If you want to talk about the theory of rebuilding places after a war to prevent further conflict, rebuilding Endor is a politically neutral subject. Even the casual Star Wars fan can read this just as an exploration of the universe that is more interesting than the Phantom Menace and still learn from it. The subjects are well argued and easy to follow.