Who Wins Wars: Lessons in Leadership, Power, and Supreme Command from Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower

"Kings, presidents and military academies have wrestled with versions of that question for millennia. In Who Wins Wars, retired Army Lt. Col. ML Cavanaugh tackles the subject by studying three legendary American generals: George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower...Mr. Cavanaugh reviews their thinking from the strategic heights and asks, 'who wins wars, and what can we learn from those who do?" —The Wall Street Journal

An award-winning military strategist and top West Point professor unlocks the secrets to success in the wars that mattered most, offering fresh insights from history about leadership, power, and the art of better decision making in our modern world.

What makes a general great? What should strategic leadership look like? What are successful supreme commanders made of?

In answering these questions, retired Lieutenant Colonel ML Cavanaugh traces the campaigns of America’s greatest commanders at war. By following Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower, we can see the key winning ingredient in their leadership wasn’t technology, resources, or luck—but superior judgment, empathy, and grit.

Supreme commanders make decisions; decisions make history.

With the social scientist’s eye and storyteller’s sensibility, Cavanaugh pries open the minds of America’s greatest military leaders and brings readers inside the art of the better decision to pinpoint the difference between success and failure. Its implications impact competitive fields like business, sport, and politics.

Who Wins Wars matters to cadets and colonels but equally to CEOs, coaches, and all citizens. Its key contribution is for those who recognize how crucial strategic leadership is in the fight for the fates of people, organizations, countries, and history itself. This book breaks open a key ingredient in what—and who—wins wars.

ML (Matt) Cavanaugh, PhD, is a retired US Army lieutenant colonel who earned two Bronze Star Medals for his time overseas. He’s also an award-winning US Army strategist, having earned acclaim as the top professor at West Point and was previously named the US Army’s Athlete of the Year. As a proud living kidney donor, he most recently served as the president and CEO of the National Kidney Donation Organization. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Colorado Springs Gazette, and Sydney Morning Herald. Cavanaugh makes his home in the mountains of Manitou Springs, Colorado.