War from the Ground Up

War from the Ground Up covers a wide range of topics, including grand strategy, civil-military relations, and counter-insurgency. Simpson's primary thesis is that the traditional model of war as a bi-polar conflict between two discrete political units is not helpful on the modern battlefield. Whereas in the past wars were fought to achieve a specifically military end state, soldiers today "directly seek political, as opposed to military, outcomes."^[4] At the same time, military leaders must consider the impact of their actions not only on the enemy but on a diverse set of "audiences".^[5] Much of the material consists of historical analysis, including a chapter devoted to the Borneo Confrontation of 1962-1966.^[6] Elsewhere, Simpson critiques Samuel P. Huntington's 1957 book The Soldier and the State. Whereas Huntington had advocated strict civilian control of the military, Simpson argues for reciprocal dialogue between civilian leaders and the military.^[6] Simpson also draws on Aristotle's Rhetoric to emphasize the importance of "strategic narrative," which he defines as "a story" used "to explain one's actions."^[6][7]

War from the Ground Up received generally positive reviews. Military historian Michael Howard compared the work to The Face of Battle by John Keegan and even On War by Carl von Clausewitz, saying that it "should be compulsory reading at every level in the military."^[4] Journalist Thomas Ricks reviewed the book as well, praising its writing style and its exploration of strategic narrative.^[7][8] Paul Raymond Newton, writing for the RUSI Journal, described the book as "impressive" but noted that it incorporated some strawman arguments,^[9] while in Parameters Richard Swain found the work to contain a "great wealth of thought" but also some structural deficiencies.^[6] Writing on the book in Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Freedman called it "an erudite and intelligent contribution to the literature on counterinsurgency."^[10]