Includes bibliographical references and index.

V. 1. The First World War. Introduction: Military effectiveness twenty years after / Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett -- The effectiveness of military organizations / Allan R. Millett, Williamson Murray, and Kenneth H. Watman -- Britain in the First World War / Paul Kennedy -- The dynamics of necessity : German military policy during the First World War / Holger H. Herwig -- American military effectiveness in the First World War / Timothy K. Nenninger -- Italy during the First World War / John Gooch -- The French Army in the First World War / Douglas Porch -- Japan, 1914-18 / Ian Nish -- Imperial Russia's forces at war / David R. Jones -- Military effectiveness in the First World War / Paul Kennedy.

V. 2. The interwar period. Introduction: Military effectiveness twenty years after / Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett -- The Soviet Armed Forces in the interwar period / Earl F. Ziemke -- The French Armed Forces, 1918-40 / Robert A. Doughty -- The military effectiveness of the US Armed Forces, 1919-39 / Ronald Spector -- The British Armed Forces, 1918-39 / Brian Bond and Williamson Murray -- Japanese military effectiveness : the interwar period / Carl Boyd -- The Italian Armed Forces, 1918-40 / Brian R. Sullivan -- German military effectiveness between 1919 and 1939 / Manfred Messerschmidt -- Military effectiveness of armed forces in the interwar period, 1919-41 : a review / Alvin D. Coox.

V. 3. The Second World War. Introduction: Military effectiveness twenty years after / Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett -- The effectiveness of the Japanese military establishment in the Second World War / Alvin D. Coox -- The United States Armed Forces in the Second World War / Allan R. Millett -- British military effectiveness in the Second World War / Williamson Murray -- The Italian Armed Forces, 1940-3 / MacGregor Knox -- The dynamics of Volksgemeinschaft : the effectiveness of the German military establishment in the Second World War / J�urgen E. �F�orster -- Bitter victory : French military effectiveness during the Second World War / Ronald Chalmers Hood III -- The Soviet Armed Forces in the Great Patriotic War, 1941-5 / John E. Jessup -- Military effectiveness in the Second World War / Earl F. Ziemke -- Challenge and response at the operation and tactical levels, 1914-45 / John H. Cushman -- The political and strategic dimensions of military effectiveness / Russell F. Weigley.