Includes bibliographical references and index.

American Forecasts of War and Ground Combat -- World War II Ground Combat Case Examples -- World War II Ground Combat Characteristics -- Interval Cases : 1945-2002 -- Interval Period Ground Combat Characteristics -- Modern Ground Combat from 2003 through 2012 -- Modern Ground Combat from 2013 through 2022 -- Observed Characteristics of Modern Ground Combat -- Conclusions on Ground Combat and on War.

Ground Combat reveals the gritty details of land warfare at the tactical level and challenges the overly subjective and often inaccurate American approach to characterizing war. Ben Connable's motivation for writing the book is to replace overly subjective analyses with an evidence-based approach to examining war. From analyzing a set of over 400 global ground combat cases, Connable shows there has been a modest and evolutionary shift in the characteristics of ground combat from World War II through the early 2020s. This evidence of gradual change repudiates the popular but often hyperbolic arguments about military-technical revolutions and that there is a singular character of war in the modern era. Connable identifies past and current weaknesses in military design and strategy, examines common characteristics in modern ground combat from the data, and reframes the debate over the historical and prospective impact of emerging technologies on war. Ground Combat sets an evidentiary baseline and a new, detail-oriented standard for conflict research and policymaking.