War in the Modern World

How were wars fought after 1945, and who fought them? Why did the United States invade Afghanistan, lose the war in Vietnam, and support authoritarian governments in South America? How do insurgent groups win wars against powerful, well-financed nation-states? What does the "McDonald's theory" have to do with peacekeeping? Why did the British, French, and Soviet Union empires collapse after World War II? How have new weapons and technologies reconfigured the rules of the battlefield? What would a war look like between the United States and Russia or China? And can "mutually assured destruction" save us from a third world war?

Explore these questions and more in War in the Modern World, a 24-episode course on war and warfare since 1945. Guided by military history and strategy expert David R. Stone, of the US Naval War College, learn about the causes and consequences of violent conflicts starting with the Greek Civil War. Dive into the postwar geopolitical realities that have transformed military strategy. Understand what insurgency and counterinsurgency mean. Survey the history of major conflicts across the world as well as their major players. Examine weapons from guided missiles to drones that have transformed warfare in the last 70 plus years. Investigate why highly localized civil and insurgent conflicts became the terrains on which great powers wage war and emerge with a keener ability to analyze and contextualize conflicts across the world.