America's Dirty Wars: Irregular Warfare From 1776 to the War on Terror

Russell Crandall (Davidson College). America's Dirty Wars (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

"This book examines the long, complex experience of American involvement in irregular warfare. It begins with the American Revolution in 1776 and chronicles big and small irregular wars for the next two and a half centuries. What is readily apparent in dirty wars is that failure is painfully tangible while success is often amorphous. Successfully fighting these wars often entails striking a critical balance between military victory and politics."

—Publisher's website

Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America's Post-9/11 Wars

Neta C. Crawford (Boston University). Accountability for Killing (Oxford University Press, 2013).

"Given the nature of contemporary war, where military organizations—training, and the choice of weapons, doctrine, and tactics—create the conditions for systemic collateral damage, Crawford contends that assigning sole moral responsibility for systemic collateral damage to individuals is insufficient.  She develops a new theory of organizational moral agency and responsibility, and shows how the US military exercised moral agency and moral responsibility to reduce the incidence of collateral damage in America's most recent wars."
—Accountability for Killing book jacket

Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History

John Fabian Witt (Yale Law School). Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History (Free Press, 2012).

“In this pathbreaking and deeply original book, John Fabian Witt tells the hidden story of the laws of war in the first century in the United States –and of the extraordinary code that emerged from it to change the course of world history. Lincoln’s Code is the haunting and inspiring story of an idea in American history: the idea that conduct in war can be regulated by law.”
—Lincoln’s Code Book Jacket