The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers

The precision warfare revolution, introduced by the United States military in the First Gulf War, provided it with a major competitive advantage for several decades. Today, however, China is rapidly closing the gap—if it has not yet erased it entirely. Simultaneously, the US confronts the prospect of another disruptive shift in war’s character, or “military revolution,” enabled by advances across a wide range of technologies.Please join Hudson Senior Fellows Timothy A. Walton and Andrew Krepinevich for a discussion of Dr. Krepinevich’s latest book, The Origins of Victory: How Disruptive Military Innovation Determines the Fates of Great Powers. The book argues that the US military needs to pursue “disruptive innovation” in a race with other militaries to exploit war’s changing character. Krepinevich cites four historic militaries—each of which pursued disruptive innovation to adapt to and exploit new ways of war—for clues as to the winner’s identity.