The Command of the Air

The Italian General Giulio Douhet reigns as one of the twentieth century's foremost strategic air power theorists. As such scholars as Raymond Flugel have pointed out, Douhet's theories were crucial at a pivotal pre-World War II Army Air Force institution, the Air Corps Tactical School.

Giulio Douhet (1869–1930) was an Italian general and pioneering theorist of air power whose ideas profoundly shaped modern military strategy. A contemporary of Billy Mitchell and Hugh Trenchard, Douhet argued that control of the air and strategic bombing were decisive in warfare. His seminal 1921 work The Command of the Air advanced controversial theories about morale, civilian targets, and total war that continue to influence and provoke debate within military history and air power studies today.

Military historian Richard H. Kohn studies presidential war leadership in American history and the American experience of war. He also does research, consults, lectures, and publishes in the area of contemporary civil-military relations, military professionalism, and professional military education.

Joseph Patrick Harahan served as a federal historian for the U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense, authoring and editing major works on air power, military leadership, and arms control.