Small Wars Journal

Journal

Journal Articles are typically longer works with more more analysis than the news and short commentary in the SWJ Blog.

We accept contributed content from serious voices across the small wars community, then publish it here as quickly as we can, per our Editorial Policy, to help fuel timely, thoughtful, and unvarnished discussion of the diverse and complex issues inherent in small wars.

by Alexandra Phelan | Sun, 02/19/2017 - 6:36pm | 0 comments

By mapping the historical development of FARC’s political agenda, this paper addresses how the 2016 Peace Agreement supports facets of the FARC’s political strategy.

by Ben Zweibelson | Sun, 02/19/2017 - 2:39am | 7 comments

This is a draft chapter from a military design book project that the author is working on pursuant to his doctoral degree completion.

by John Richard Berg | Fri, 02/17/2017 - 9:34pm | 3 comments

This paper provides a survey of lessons learned on military roles in stabilization and reconstruction based on experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and seeks to highlight actions still required.

by Abigail Watson | Fri, 02/17/2017 - 4:05pm | 1 comment

There were a number of serious problems with the Navy SEAL raid on the 29th of January in Yemen, but at least we know it happened.

by Ehsan M. Ahrari | Fri, 02/17/2017 - 12:00pm | 0 comments

How are our allies going to determine what policies to accept or reject, and for how long, as members of the American alliance system?

by Noah B. Cooper | Wed, 02/15/2017 - 7:40pm | 0 comments

A partial solution is not expensive, created from exotic materials, or overly glamorous, but rather, an approach that requires only the slightest redirection of priorities.

by Pamela Ligouri Bunker, by Robert Bunker | Tue, 02/14/2017 - 9:27pm | 1 comment

Plutocratic insurgency represents an emerging form of insurgency not seen since the late 19th century Gilded Age. It is being conducted by high net worth globalized elites.

by Moira Fagan | Mon, 02/13/2017 - 8:12pm | 9 comments

The Coast Guard offers an established example of what mixed-gender combat units are just beginning to look like.

by D. Stiegman | Sun, 02/12/2017 - 7:37pm | 5 comments

Line-on-line warfare of the past hasn’t evolved into something completely new; it’s the greater quantity of small action conflict we should burden our minds with.

by Pierre Robes | Sat, 02/11/2017 - 3:23am | 0 comments

The Executive Order does nothing to address threats that emanate from countries which view their entire diaspora as composed of free-range intelligence collectors.

by Michael Tierney | Sat, 02/11/2017 - 3:02am | 0 comments

Islamic State recruiters and leaders residing in Syria and Iraq are now directing attacks in the West, India, and East Asia via “homegrown” extremists.

by Mark Lavin II | Fri, 02/10/2017 - 6:01am | 0 comments

The Government of Colombia was successful because it adapted to the unique circumstances and challenges posed by each strategic and operational variable.

by Pamela Ligouri Bunker, by Robert Bunker | Thu, 02/09/2017 - 12:57pm | 2 comments

Plutocratic insurgency represents an emerging form of insurgency not seen since the late 19th century Gilded Age. It is being conducted by high net worth globalized elites.

by Daniel Sigler | Wed, 02/08/2017 - 7:21pm | 1 comment

Islamic terrorism in Europe has again gained media and public attention, amplified by western coalition efforts to defeat the so-called Islamic State.

by Thomas E. Ayres | Wed, 02/08/2017 - 1:25am | 2 comments

This paper offers a perspective on the use of Law of Armed Conflict standards vice Criminal Law standards in the context of Columbia's conflict with the FARC and current reconciliation efforts.

by Kiernan Kane | Mon, 02/06/2017 - 2:24pm | 0 comments

Unconventional methodologies coupled with an understanding of near peer competitors might be our only saving grace to meet the inevitable threats of tomorrow.

by James Torrence | Sun, 02/05/2017 - 2:01pm | 4 comments

The dangers of spear phishing and why it is the most important topic on which an organizational cybersecurity education program should focus.

by Ben Summers | Sun, 02/05/2017 - 1:21am | 2 comments

As a military, we surely need to be honest with ourselves and to policymakers about the best shape and size of the force for the 21st century.

by Vincent A. Dueñas | Fri, 02/03/2017 - 1:32am | 77 comments

The most effective strategy that Ukraine can select against Russian-backed separatists is a population-centric approach; with targeted utilization of their growing special operations capability.

by Christopher Cedros | Fri, 02/03/2017 - 1:23am | 1 comment

Though both regions have a history that influenced organized crime creation, both has very different histories on organized crime’s enduring legacy.

by Larry Kay | Thu, 02/02/2017 - 12:27pm | 1 comment

The Russians have developed a new theory of warfare, and in the future, we can only expect them to perform it more effectively and on an even larger scale.

by Edward Owens | Thu, 02/02/2017 - 7:25am | 0 comments

Russia is neither friend nor foe, but a perennial rival that respects power, not friendship.

by Philip Zager | Wed, 02/01/2017 - 8:30am | 19 comments

This essay examines the Executive Order on protection from foreign terrorist entry into the U.S. from a broader counterinsurgency perspective.

by James Torrence | Wed, 02/01/2017 - 5:13am | 0 comments

Equipment that relies on GPS coordinates is highly susceptible to being spoofed, jammed, or the subject of malicious interference.

by Gary Anderson | Tue, 01/31/2017 - 3:49pm | 4 comments

Being celebrated for your race, sex or color has become something expected in the US government - as long as you are not a straight white male.

by Sajid Farid Shapoo | Mon, 01/30/2017 - 7:40pm | 11 comments

This essay is an attempt to assess threats to Pakistan’s Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNWs) and its nuclear security vulnerability.

by Dan Maurer | Sat, 01/28/2017 - 1:09am | 0 comments

Strategy is one function we perform continuously and tacitly, in part because military justice demonstrates Clausewitz’s timeless caveat about simple things being hard.

by James Burton | Fri, 01/27/2017 - 1:28pm | 3 comments

The best example of a group worthy of our attention, care and support is the northern Syria all-female self-defense unit, the Women's Protection Units (or Women's Defense Units - YPJ).

by Molly Molloy | Thu, 01/26/2017 - 5:38am | 3 comments

If we add the estimate of approximately 25,000 people missing and/or disappeared as reported by the Mexican government the number of people killed or disappeared since 2007 is at least 233,143.

by Russell W. Glenn | Wed, 01/25/2017 - 6:37pm | 0 comments

In 2008 over half of the world's population lived in urban areas - at that point more of earth’s residents lived in built-up areas than there were people in the world forty years before.

by Matt Bauer | Tue, 01/24/2017 - 1:19am | 0 comments

Editors and foreign policy pundits Joseph Humire and Ilan Berman contend that Iran is leveraging the anti-U.S. sentiment of several leftist countries in the region.

by Gary Anderson | Mon, 01/23/2017 - 7:18pm | 1 comment

As President Trump inherits the war in Afghanistan, the best piece of advice anyone can give him is that this is about as good as it is going to get.

by John Bolton | Mon, 01/23/2017 - 4:54am | 0 comments

The grinding work of national security policy in a complex world is made more difficult by fractured politics at home.

by Conrad Orr | Sun, 01/22/2017 - 2:32pm | 0 comments

A valuable and deeply researched source that provides a rarely-so-comprehensive comparative analysis of civil-military relations across four distinct nations; Canada, Russia, Germany, and the U.S.

by William Reno | Sat, 01/21/2017 - 8:07pm | 23 comments

President Trump's words and those of most of his team indicate a hodgepodge understanding of America’s role in maintaining an international order the world requires for stability.

by David Smethurst | Fri, 01/20/2017 - 7:12pm | 1 comment

In 1800, the US was threatened by the Barbary States of Morocco, Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis. Here are some interesting and little known facts about the First Barbary War.

by Daniel Urchick | Fri, 01/20/2017 - 11:21am | 0 comments

The SCS is developing at an extraordinarily rate and the events that transpire in the region in the next two to three years will be some of the most significant geopolitical events in the world.

by Richard Best | Thu, 01/19/2017 - 1:07am | 0 comments

The DNI and the ODNI have legitimate work to be done and a major effort to rewire the Intelligence Community is not now called for.

by Masoud Kazemzadeh | Wed, 01/18/2017 - 6:32am | 1 comment

The death of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Rafsanjani on January 8 will dramatically change Iranian politics.  He was one of the handful of the architects of the fundamentalist system in Iran.

by Ehsan M. Ahrari | Tue, 01/17/2017 - 4:05am | 3 comments

The sixth anniversary of The Arab Spring has come and gone, but not many people noticed. One of the main reasons was its utter failure to create either a stable, democratic, or secular Arab world.

by Chris Budihas, by Kyle Trottier, by Steve Deuble | Tue, 01/17/2017 - 3:26am | 23 comments

The Army will remain the only organization in our nation’s national security arsenal that enables the competent projection of national power to directly influence human activity.

by Dennis P. Chapman | Sun, 01/15/2017 - 4:06pm | 0 comments

The cause of Iraq’s troubles - the single event without which the hideous mutilation of today would never have occurred - was a 1958 coup d’état.

by Joss Meakins | Fri, 01/13/2017 - 7:40am | 4 comments

Western scholars have seemed reluctant to engage with Chechnya as a COIN success. Such hesitancy may be partly due to the extreme unpalatability of Russian tactics.

by Octavian Manea | Thu, 01/12/2017 - 1:36pm | 1 comment

SWJ discussion with Daniel R. Green and William F. Mullen III, the authors of "Fallujah Redux: The Anbar Awakening and the Struggle with al-Qaeda".

by Sam Wilkins | Wed, 01/11/2017 - 3:18pm | 0 comments

Doran offers a persuasive and riveting revisionist history of President Eisenhower’s foreign policy approach to the Middle East.

by Andrew Kenealy | Wed, 01/11/2017 - 12:51pm | 2 comments

Soft power is an expansive concept, and every one of Mr. Trump’s immature tweets stands to lessen U.S. credibility as the example of a moral force.

by Sadcom via Happycom | Wed, 01/04/2017 - 11:58am | 8 comments

Part Four of Four of “What’s Wrong with SOCOM?”

by Gary Anderson | Mon, 01/02/2017 - 11:10am | 4 comments

The Mabus priorities have been making the naval services more caring, inclusive, and environmentally protective.

by SWJ Editors | Sun, 01/01/2017 - 8:10pm | 1 comment

Have received some great entries so far - soliciting more for the SWJ-MWG writing contest. Continue on for all the details.

by Sadcom via Happycom | Sat, 12/31/2016 - 7:50am | 3 comments

Part III of IV of “What’s Wrong with SOCOM?”