On 9 February SWJ conducted a phone interview with Brigadier General Jim Huggins, Deputy Commanding General (Manuever), of Multi-National Division - Center (3rd Infantry Division / MND-C). MND-C...

Outstanding, H/T Abu Muqawama and Theo

Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell, IV, Commanding General of the Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, on The Daily Show, 10 March 2008.

BOOK REVIEW By Lieutenant Colonel (ret) Thomas P. Odom, of Special Operations and Strategy: From World War II to the War on Terrorism By James D. Kiras Published by Routledge

In his latest missive on the U.S. endeavor in Iraq ("Misreading the Surge Threatens U.S. Army's Conventional Capabilities"), Army Lieutenant Colonel Gian Gentile claims that the Surge forces and the...

Civil-Military Guidelines & Reference for Complex Emergencies March 2008 document (guidebook) from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). About the...

Moving Forward in Iraq: Lessons in Insurgency and Counterinsurgency A Seminar with the Formulators of Counterinsurgency Doctrine Sponsored by the Institute for the Study of War March 13, 2008, 1:...

Spencer Ackerman's second installment in his Washington Independent "Rise of the Counterinsurgents" series - A Famous Enigma - is now posted. This segment focuses on Lieutenant General Ray Odierno...

Yep, those of us who have been around a while know some military acronyms, maybe too many. Still, for old hands and young bucks alike - how many times have you sat in on a "way ahead", "new concept...

Here is soon to be retired US Army lieutenant colonel and Center for a New American Security senior fellow John Nagl's latest for the Washington Post - We Can't Win These Wars on Our Own. ...last...

... or breakfast, dinner or mid-rats depending on your location. Brown-bag it in the comfort of your office next Wednesday (12 March - 11:00 a.m. -- 12:00 p.m. Eastern) while joining the American...

While not all inclusive, here are some blog items that caught my eye and interest this week. Lots going on (expect no less) over at Abu Muqawama; the COIN doctrine debate, a French COIN reading list...

In what is billed as the First in a Series: The Rise of the Counterinsurgents, Spencer Ackerman of Washington Independent profiles the current debate concerning COIN in The Colonels and 'The Matrix...

Over the next 48 hours you may curse the hiccups as our site transitions to its new speedier host. Funny little numbers in the URL if you look there, SWC logins not holding, hiccups on comments, etc...

Not So Big of a Tent By Lieutenant Colonel Gian P Gentile The notion as presented in the article by Cullen Nutt "Petraeus's Big Tent" that the construction and writing of the American Army's new...

For years I struggled with many of my peers, trying to convince them that journalists are not the enemy. It was an uphill row to hoe, but a worthy one. Over time most seem to have accepted the...

Recent additions to the Strategic Studies Institute web page. The Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College publishes security and strategic reports and publications which serve to...

Charlie at Abu Muqawama has the scoop (and an op-ed link) to the story behind authoring FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency. Petraeus' Big Tent - Cullen Nutt, New Jersey Star-Ledger The Front Page, a popular...

Background The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and Foreign Policy magazine set out to address some of the most challenging questions facing the U.S. military in the 21st century: What is...

Most folks at the Small Wars Council know me, I've been around the Council for about a year and a half, and started inter-acting while deployed on a BN level Transition Team to Mosul. I am currently...

Teaching Marines to be Like Hunters - Rick Rogers, San Diego Union-Tribune Trying to become predators instead of prey, Marines headed to Iraq will go through training built on advice from big-game...

The Pew Research Center is reporting increasing public optimism about Iraq in poll results released yesterday. From the report: Public perceptions of the situation in Iraq have become significantly...

Colonel Richard Stevens, Commander, Combined Task Force Rugged and the 36th Engineer Brigade, 82d Airborne Division, on 27 February 2008.

The Long War: Send in the Marines, subtitled A Marine Corps Operational Employment Concept to Meet an Uncertain Security Environment, articulates the Marine Corps' concept of force employment to meet...

Trying to figure this one out, hopefully the Air Force is not actually blocking all urls with the word blog as a part... Any hoot, if you are reading this blog from an US Air Force controlled...

The Army has announced that the updated Field Manual 3-0 (Operations) is now available online. The updated version of Joint Publication (JP) 3-0 Joint Operations (with Change 1) has also been...

How the West Was Won By Cavguy This is news the world doesn't hear: Ramadi, long a hotbed of unrest, a city that once formed the southwestern tip of the notorious "Sunni Triangle," is now telling a...

Abu Muqawama has a post up concerning the new FM 3-0 (Operations), FM 3-4 (Counterinsurgency) and Council member LTC Gian Gentile's view on both - Standing Athwart History, 'Yelling Stop'. A...

Much Small Wars food for thought over at Kings of War in post Greece and Rome in Iraq. Who's good at small wars? The answer is still debated, but the question endures because it goes to the heart...