Modern War in an Ancient Land: The United States Army in Operation Enduring Freedom, 2001–2014 examines the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan in October 2001 and the thirteen-plus years of conflict that followed. Whether sent to Afghanistan to counter terrorists, defeat an insurgency, develop institutions, or support a democracy, Army commanders operated under the assumption that by securing Afghans and their fledgling national government, the U.S. military was protecting America and the Western way of life.
For more than a decade, Army formations deployed to Afghanistan to forge a country that would remain unified, at peace with its neighbors, and inhospitable to terrorists who expressed their hatred of the American homeland though violence. Modern War in an Ancient Land is the result of historical thinking by the Army’s senior leadership.
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Col. (USA Ret.) Edmund J. “EJ” Degen
Study Director and Editor
Col. (Ret.) Edmund J. “EJ” Degen, a career field artillery officer, currently serves as the director of the Chief of Staff, Army’s Operation Enduring Freedom Study Group. He has commanded artillery units at all levels through brigade, and served as the V Corps (U.S.) chief of plans for the Iraq invasion at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, chief of future operations for U.S. Forces Korea, and chief of staff for Combined Joint Interagency Task Force 435 in Afghanistan. Colonel Degen was a fellow on the CSA’s inaugural Strategic Studies Group and served as the Senior Fellow the following year. He has multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Colonel Degen has an MMAS (Master of Military Art and Science) from the Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies and an MS in Strategic and Operational Planning from the Joint Advanced Warfighting School. He is the coauthor of On Point: The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005), along with numerous journal articles.
Lt. Col. (USA Ret.) Mark J. Reardon
Senior Historian and Editor
Mr. Mark J. Reardon is a senior civilian historian with the U.S. Army Center of Military History. Before joining the Center in 2006, he served as a regular officer in parachute, reconnaissance, and armor units during a twenty-seven-year career in the Army, and retired as a lieutenant colonel. Mr. Reardon, who recently completed a manuscript for the Center on training the post – Saddam Iraqi Army, has also published four books on World War II and Korea, a history of the initial Stryker Brigade deployment to Iraq, several detailed studies of small-unit actions in Iraq, and three studies on U.S. military innovation in World War II.
