Today's New York Times features a military analysis piece by Michael Gordon on the stiff challenge our strategy for Afghanistan poses for President-elect Obama. One of the most difficult challenges...

Just back from a quick tour of blogs I frequent - and some I will soon frequent - to see what they are saying - or have said recently - concerning the President-elect's national security and foreign...

CNN via YouTube: President-elect Obama introduces his national security Team. Embedded video from CNN Video CNN: CNN's Ed Henry reports on President-elect Barack Obama's national security team...

A Reminder on the COIN Leadership Seminar next Monday at Quantico: 8 December - Counterinsurgency Leadership Seminar (Seminar). Quantico, VA. On 8 December 2008 the US Marine Corps Center for...

General Barry McCaffrey, USA (Ret.), responds in a letter - point by point - concerning Saturday's New York Times article One Man's Military-Industrial-Media Complex by David Barstow.

Good, solid analysis and summary - as good as it can get from early accounts - by Bill Roggio at The Long War Journal - Analysis: Mumbai Attack Differs from Past Terror Strikes. ... The Mumbai...

From Mike Allen at Politico: Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to stay on... according to officials in both parties. Obama plans to announce a national-security team early next week that...

Hat tip to Nancy Youssef - McClatchy's Pentagon Correspondent - McClatchy's Baghdad Bureau last week produced an unofficial English translation of the Iraq Staus of Forces Agreement based on the...

From Company Commanders to Company Commanders at Company Command -- When is Small Too Small? - at Army Magazine: Companies, platoons and even squads are often deployed alone to remote combat...

Happy Thanksgiving "Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and...

This past Saturday the New York Times ran a series of opinion pieces concerning the road ahead in Iraq and Afghanistan. One piece in particular - One Surge Does Not Fit All -- by former Secretary of...

Commanding General, Combined Arms Center, Response to Small Wars Journal Blog Post, "Afghanistan, What Lessons to Apply from Iraq" The discussion unfolding here and on the COIN Center's blog is an...

Just in from the US Army / US Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center concerning a "virtual COIN brown bag" tomorrow: Friends of the COIN Center, The US Army/USMC Counterinsurgency Center is pleased to...

10 Questions for Colonel Peter Mansoor, USA (Ret.) Reposted here in full with permission of the Consortium for Complex Operations with a hat tip to Dan Troy. COL (Ret.) Pete Mansoor is currently the...

Unity of Command in Afghanistan: A Forsaken Principle of War - Colonel Ian Hope, Strategic Studies Institute This Carlisle Paper discusses the traditional importance of unity of command in American...

Known Unknowns: Unconventional "Strategic Shocks" in Defense Strategy Development - Nathan P. Freier, Strategic Studies Institute The author provides the defense policy team a clear warning against...

Counterinsurgency (COIN) Leadership Seminar. On 8 December 2008 the US Marine Corps Center for Irregular Warfare (CIW) will host a Counterinsurgency Leadership Seminar at Little Hall (Base Theater),...

New York Times: It is not a stretch to say that Barack Obama faces stiffer, more vexing challenges on more fronts than any president in recent memory. In the coming weeks, the Opinion section will...

Last month the US Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center (COIN Center) solicited feedback concerning a statement made by General David Petraeus (Commander, US Central Command) as quoted by...

Colonel David Gurney (USMC Ret.), Editor of Joint Force Quarterly and Director of National Defense University Press, has again kindly permitted SWJ to post a Point - Counterpoint that will appear in...

Via e-mail and Andrew Exum at Abu Muqawama - some important weekend reading - Strategy for the Long Haul: An Army at the Crossroads by Andrew Krepinevich at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary...

Lieutenant General William Caldwell (aka Frontier 6), Commanding General of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, is not the only senior military officer who has embraced blogging -- just found out...

Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World (PDF - 33.5 MB) is the fourth unclassified report prepared by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in recent years that takes a long-term view of the...

Obama's War - Clifford May, National Review opinion American troops in Afghanistan are fighting what will soon become Barack Obama's war - not just because he will inherit it, but also because he...

Keep Gates - Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal opinion Reappointing Robert Gates as secretary of defense would be magnanimity with a purpose, a show of something better than cleverness, and that is...

A Framework for Success in Iraq - Michael Gerson, Washington Post opinion A war that once seemed likely to end in a panic of helicopters fleeing the American Embassy now seems destined to conclude...

Brian Bennett begins The General, Time Magazine, by reviewing the former concerns about LTG Odierno's kinetic old school style as the antithesis of COIN (an opinion commonly held here): When Ray...

A review of: The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower by Robert Baer.  Published by Crown, 2008. Reviewed by: Thomas (Tom) P. Odom LTC US Army (ret) Author,...

America's Best Leaders: US Junior Officers, Military - Anna Mulrine, US News and World Report They have been called upon to serve in bloody and complicated wars on two fronts, many for more than...

20 November World Grapples with Pirate Problem - Peter Spiegel and Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times The Saudis chose to negotiate. The Indian navy opened fire. The US Navy said shipping companies should...