Military Review English Edition September-October 2014 | Page 110

Head Strong

How Psychology is
Revolutionizing War
Michael D. Matthews, Oxford University Press, 2013, 288 pages, $29.95

Maj. Andrew B. Stipp, U.S. Army
Major Stipp is a student at the Command and General
Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He holds a B.A.
in psychology from Purdue University, West Lafayette,
Indiana, and an M.A. in business and organizational
security from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri.

T

he need to understand and anticipate human
behavior has been an integral part of war since
the very inception of armed conflict between
organized groups, dating back to (and most likely
before) Sun Tzu. He contended that knowing yourself
as well as your enemy was vital to consistent success in
battle, while not understanding either force was certain
to result in peril.1
Notwithstanding, the science of psychology as a
formal tool for refining the necessary understanding
of human behavior as it relates to war is relatively new
within the scientific community. As such, when compared to the longer histories of other fields of applied
science, psychology has only been defined and formally
organized for research relatively recently.
Despite its relatively short history as a formal discipline, modern psychological research has evolved as
modern warfare has evolved, expanding its influence
on measures taken to shape a war’s onset, conduct, and
outcome.
Dr. Michael D. Matthews captures this progression in his book Head Strong: How Psychology is
Revolutionizing War, effectively arguing that current
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September-October 2014  MILITARY REVIEW