Small Wars Journal

Blog Posts

SWJ Blog is a multi-author blog publishing news and commentary on the various goings on across the broad community of practice.  We gladly accept guest posts from serious voices in the community.

by Voice of America | Sun, 05/22/2016 - 12:30pm | 0 comments

The Afghan intelligence agency NDS confirmed that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan near the Afghan border.

by Bing West | Sun, 05/22/2016 - 1:16am | 2 comments

The op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, ‘Take the Gloves Off Against the Taliban’, by Dave Petraeus and Michael O’Hanlon is at once reasonable, baffling, insufficient and infuriating.

by Keith Nightingale | Sat, 05/21/2016 - 7:49pm | 1 comment

The Brussels bombing is a precursor for a Boston or Baltimore or fill in the blank city within our own borders.

by The New York Times | Sat, 05/21/2016 - 7:29pm | 0 comments

"Kosovo now finds itself, like the rest of Europe, fending off the threat of radical Islam."

by The Wall Street Journal | Sat, 05/21/2016 - 6:24am | 1 comment

“The rules of engagement mean that the indigenous Afghan and Pakistani Taliban generally get a pass.”

by The Washington Post | Sat, 05/21/2016 - 5:59am | 1 comment

“The problem, as nearly every commander here will acknowledge, is that U.S. military might cannot make a broken Iraq work as a nation.”

by SWJ Editors | Fri, 05/20/2016 - 2:54pm | 0 comments

Continue on for a link to the interview.

by The National Interest | Fri, 05/20/2016 - 2:26pm | 0 comments

“Russia has experienced some successes on the Syrian battlefield, but these victories are far from establishing Moscow as the new power broker in the region.”

by The Washington Post | Fri, 05/20/2016 - 2:18pm | 4 comments

“It’s time for an American Foreign Legion. It would be a part of the Defense Department, but its enlisted members would be recruited globally.”

by Oxford University Press | Thu, 05/19/2016 - 4:15pm | 0 comments

Continue on for a OUPblog infographic based on Orde F. Kittrie’s “Lawfare: Law as a Weapon of War”.

by RAND Corporation | Thu, 05/19/2016 - 2:21pm | 0 comments

This report presents a comprehensive examination of the organization, territorial designs, management, personnel policies, and finances of ISI and AQI, both predecessors of the IS.

by The Ada News | Wed, 05/18/2016 - 3:01pm | 4 comments

“I am troubled by what appears to be a growing primary reliance on special operations in lieu of a more comprehensive strategy from the Administration to defeat ISIS.”

by SWJ Editors | Wed, 05/18/2016 - 2:38pm | 0 comments

Dave Kilcullen discusses the challenges in Africa, to include urbanization, at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

by Voice of America | Wed, 05/18/2016 - 2:21pm | 0 comments

The US military is prepared to support a train-and-equip mission to fight the thousands of IS militants in Libya when the Libyan government is ready for it.

by The Daily Beast | Tue, 05/17/2016 - 3:37pm | 0 comments

"The sudden rise in ISIS attacks, U.S. officials believe, signals that the terror group no longer is committed to territorial expansion."

by The National Interest | Tue, 05/17/2016 - 7:44am | 0 comments

"It is Phases IV and V that the United States has recently had more difficulty with, both as a military and as a nation."

by Voice of America | Mon, 05/16/2016 - 3:22pm | 0 comments

World powers say they will back Libya’s new government in its bid to lift a U.N. arms embargo.

by G. Murphy Donovan | Mon, 05/16/2016 - 2:27pm | 1 comment

In small wars of a thousand cuts, time is not an American or European ally.

by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | Mon, 05/16/2016 - 8:36am | 0 comments

The pact, signed amid World War I, divided the Ottoman Empire into spheres of imperial control, and is often held responsible for establishing the current borders of the Middle East.

by The New York Times | Mon, 05/16/2016 - 6:31am | 0 comments

“Today, a major in the Army knows nothing but fighting terrorists and guerrillas, because he came into the Army after 9/11.”

by Military Times | Sun, 05/15/2016 - 2:41pm | 0 comments

“The reforms (officer promotion) were opposed by many leaders in the Army and the Marine Corps, where the service cultures focus more on traditional leadership.”

by The Washington Post | Sat, 05/14/2016 - 11:17pm | 0 comments

“The need for help is particularly great this year as the U.S. military has reduced its presence in Afghanistan.”

by Keith Nightingale | Sat, 05/14/2016 - 11:04pm | 0 comments

Here are two images that depict far better than any writing what our Nation and our people are all about.

by Military Times | Sat, 05/14/2016 - 2:22pm | 3 comments

“If the U.S. truly wishes to assist Afghanistan it must end the debate over semantics and remove lawyers from the war room. It's time to take the handcuffs off American airpower.”

by Voice of America | Sat, 05/14/2016 - 1:01pm | 0 comments

Drones being used in Iraq and Syria range from state-of-the-art military hardware used by the US-led coalition to rudimentary consumer products used by IS and various militias.