America struggles to bend warfare to its will and war pushes back.

This book takes readers on a journey alongside fretting politicians and bungling spies, grunting soldiers and stoic generals, journalists, think-tankers and antiwar protesters – a journey stretching from the jungles of Cuba and Vietnam, the crowded cities of Iraq and the caves of Afghanistan to the dark vistas of the war on terrorists and hostile regimes.

The irresolvable tension at the heart of America's relation with war is that while it possesses the power to coerce others, its democracy imposes limits. Once the hope for a swift and affordable intervention is lost, public opinion shifts, politicians scramble for an exit, and soldiers are left feeling bruised. Still, Americans continue to fight, largely because new technologies promise smoother operations. War, however, remains volatile and unpredictable – a social phenomenon too complex for purely technological solutions.

There have been three cycles since 1960. In the first cycle, the horrors of the world wars propelled a quest for deterrence via nuclear technology. Limited warfare would protect allies and subvert foes while fear of a nuclear showdown would prevent escalation. The Cuban Missile Crisis seemed auspicious, but Vietnam sent Americans back to the bloody battlefields they wanted to avoid.

The U.S. responded with a revolution in military affairs: stealth and precision would surgically disable enemies in record time, as in the Gulf War. However, similar efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan triggered long and expensive occupations.

Abolishing combat altogether sounded more encouraging. Special operations high-tech would kill or capture terrorists – even state leaders – with frightening efficiency. Unfortunately, while this helped to undermine al-Qaeda, it failed to check the rise of ISIS, let alone defeat hostile regimes.

The three cycles constituting this narrative display a single pattern: attempts from Kennedy to Trump to master war using technology and how they always falter.

Hazem Kandil is Professor of Historical and Political Sociology at the University of Cambridge.