LtCol Tim Grattan, Deputy Director of the newly formed Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group (MCTAG), was by my 'day job' office today and I was able to go through his briefing on the Group's 'way...

Ohio State Selects Petraeus Aide as Military History Chair Colonel Peter R. Mansoor is influential advisor in shaping "surge" strategy in Iraq. COLUMBUS -- The Mershon Center for International...

Cultural knowledge, security cooperation, USMC Irregular Warfare Center, understanding the urban environment, more on Bernard and Dorothy Fall, COIN reading, and AQ's Pakistani insurgency...

Watch Your Six!

Frank Hoffman on civil-military relations, Dorothy Fall on husband Bernard, and John Nagl and Sarah Sewall on Counterinsurgency Field Manual 3-24 / Marine Corps Warfighting Publication 33.3.5...

Ann Scott Tyson of the Washington Post reports today (Petraeus Helping Pick New Generals) that, in a move described as "unprecedented", the US Army has recalled a general from a war zone to preside...

One of our favorites, ThreatsWatch or shoud we say The Center for Threat Awareness, has a new look, new content and new contributors. Check out the new ThreatsWatch today. Last week, the Center for...

The 600-lb gorilla in the living room of the improved security situation in Iraq is national reconciliation. Washington Post's Tom Ricks (Iraqis Wasting An Opportunity, U.S. Officers Say) addresses...

Featured Articles Fighting Identity: Why We Are Losing Our Wars -- Dr. Michael Vlahos The "American Way of War" enshrines triumph through military "transformations." They are divine tokens of our...

While not all inclusive, here are some of the items that caught my eye and interest so far this week...

The SWJ has been invited by the Washington Post to participate in one of their regular online discussion sessions tomorrow. Here are the details via The Post: Join editor Dave Dilegge and publisher...

General James Mattis assumes command of US Joint Forces Command from General Lance Smith in a change of command ceremony onboard the USS George Washington. More...

Brigadier General Robert Livingston, Commander of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix VI, providing an update on the training and equipping of Afghan national security forces on 9 November 2007.

Veterans Day, 11 November 2007 More...

While not all inclusive, here are some of the items that caught my eye and interest this week...

232 Years and Counting... Guest Blogger Andrew Lubin Tomorrow, 10 November. is the 232nd birthday of the Marine Corps. It's the day when Marines throughout the world -- both active service and...

Sunday matters. Or, more particularly, this coming Sunday matters. It does not matter to me because of the football games that will be played or the tailgating that will occur. Nor do I care overmuch...

7 November: RADM Gregory Smith, Director of MNF-I Communications Division, discussing operations against al-Qaeda in Iraq in October and highlights other operational activities. 5 November: Col...

The American Anthropological Association's full-court press against the Pentagon's Human Terrain System in general - and anthropologists' Human Terrain Team participation in particular continues. On...

Charlie Rose Show - A Conversation with Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye, Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Soft Power America's image and influence are in decline around...

New Thinking on a 'New Deal' for Post-Conflict Countries? By Greg Mills and Terence McNamee Two weeks after Sierra Leone's people went to the polls this September to choose a new president, the...

Ex-Navy Instructor Promises to Hit Back If Attacked on Torture Spencer Ackerman of TPM Muckraker on an interview with SWJ Blogger Malcolm Nance...

The Abuse of Military History: An Introduction to the Problems of Victor Davis Hanson I am a soldier, first and foremost, and this is as it should be. But I am also an academic historian. As a member...

Regular readers here are aware that href="http://homepages.stmartin.edu/fac_staff/dprice/">Dr. David Price is an ardent critic of the "pilfered scholarship" behind href="http://usacac.army.mil/...

In response to a Daily Kos screed... Unfortunately, no one seems to be calling our elected officials or the traditional media on this nonsensical idea that the "Petraeus strategy" should be credited...

Iraq: A False Choice Dr Adam Cobb The real choice before the American people is much starker than whether to act on General Petraeus' advice to Congress. Bottom-line: we have to accept the current...

Westhawk cuts to the quick in his analysis on the roles and missions implications behind the Air Force's recent attempt to be designated the "executive agent" for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)....

Abu Muqawama; a blog dedicated to issues related to contemporary insurgencies, and counterinsurgency tactics and strategy; spins off from their recent COIN Reading List post with a new feature titled...

31 October 1917 - Australian mounted troops (4th and 12th Light Horse) take Beersheba, Palestine, by launching what is often billed as the last successful cavalry charge in military history.

By Dan Green To enable one country to appreciate what another people really thinks and desires is both the most difficult and the most vital task which confronts us. -- John Bagot Glubb, Britain and...