Blog Posts

Current doctrine does not address the unique fabric of crowded urban areas of operation, though ongoing research aims to address these shortfalls.

“Afghan intelligence services admit they knew an attack was coming, but blame the government next door for organizing it.”

Afghan officials are blaming Wednesday's massive truck bombing on the Taliban-affiliated and al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network. Here's what is known about the group.

“The Department of Defense has issued an unusually detailed DoD budget request for Iraq and Syria.”

“Soldiers are fighting street by street in the southern city of Marawi with the Muslim-extremist Maute group, which raised the black Islamic State flag there more than a week ago.”

The results of a government-sponsored inquiry into the sources of funding for Islamist militant groups operating in the U.K. may be kept hidden forever due to the nature of its findings.

SWJ El Centro Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown has a new essay out - “Hooked: Mexico’s Violence and U.S. Demand for Drugs".

H.R. McMaster & Gary Cohn in the WSJ - “We are asking a lot of our allies and partners. But in return the U.S. will once again be a true friend.”

"The handwriting is on the wall: Whether it’s a strategically sound policy or not."

“The United States military doesn’t have any irreplaceable bases.”

"To understand the risks and downsides of such a move, we can look to the experience of the merger of the USIA into the State Department in 1999."

“The U.S. military faces a two-decade struggle to help bring stability to Africa, where the lack of an overall government strategy is complicating operations.”

“A Washington think tank calls for more of the same failed intervention.”

“The Army is standing up a new brigade that will deploy around the world to train foreign troops, and they're looking for about 500 seasoned officers and NCOs to man it.”

Continue on for more concerning Hacking for Defense.

“The film is the most ambitious for Burns, who is renowned for his documentaries on the Civil War, jazz, baseball and World War II, among others.”

“As tensions rise in several regions, possibly leading to new US involvement in Afghanistan and other combat operations, it’s worth pausing to truly consider who fights our wars.”

“The disconnect over a policy shift, with big implications for the Pentagon, State and the federal budget, illustrates the sway military officers exercise in the Trump administration.”

The secretary sat down today for his first television interview with Face the Nation. He spoke about the threats facing the United States and the department’s response to those threats.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis spoke yesterday morning at the U.S. Military Academy graduation and commissioning.

“A recording provides fresh evidence of ominous changes underway within the embattled organization that declared war against the West nearly two decades ago.”

A comprehensive piece by David Kilcullen in The Australian on what our efforts in Afghanistan require - “what’s needed now are not troops per se but en­ablers”

“The lack of political unity in America. The lack of a fundamental friendliness."

“Do we really want to slash the State Department and the USAID at such a perilous moment?”

The push by the U.S. and its allies to capture the terrorist group’s strongholds in Mosul and Raqqa should also focus urgent discussions about a post-IS strategy for stabilization.