Greetings, and thanks for checking out this website. I hope you will be interested in my new book! I am a scholar at the Brookings Institution, where I am privileged to hold the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy, and where I study U.S. defense strategy, military force, and American national security policy. That new book, To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution, will be out in January of 2026.
Michael O'Hanlon
Latest Book
To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution
A big-picture, conceptual history of U.S. defense strategy ever since 1775.
Much of the history of U.S. defense over the course of 250 years has been a story of success. Insulated by two oceans and mostly friendly neighbors, but constantly ambitious at home and abroad, America has dared mighty things and often achieved them, argues defense analyst and strategist Michael O’Hanlon. After growing into a continental power, largely through force of arms, during the first half of its history, it then led the way to coalition victories in two world wars, pursued peace in the Cold War, and has contributed foundationally to the most democratic period in human history. But as historian Robert Kagan has argued, it is a more “dangerous nation” than most citizens appreciate, given that its leaders, as well as its people, are highly self-confident and activist. O’Hanlon claims that only by understanding this “national DNA” or American strategic culture and character can we hope to steer safely through the twenty-first century. He further argues that, in contrast to its consistently assertive grand strategy, there has been no single defining American “way of war” since 1775—a good thing, since security challenges of the future may not always resemble those of the past.