Journal

The purpose of this paper is to discern why the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan, and why the United States and its allies delegated to the Mujahedin.

This article is the third in the TRADOC/SWJ’s latest “Mad Scientist” call for papers.

This article is the second in the TRADOC/SWJ’s latest “Mad Scientist” call for papers.

This is the first article in the second round of the TRADOC “Mad Scientist” call for papers.

This article presents a red team exercise that posits requirements for an Afghan Taliban victory in Afghanistan over a 5-year timeline.

Humans encroach on the wilderness, but nature extracts its own not so subtle revenge with the tools of drought and fire. Such as it is today.

Based on a request from SOCOM to the Director of the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies, the author and his instructor briefed this paper and its ideas to the J39 of SOCOM.

Alex first reported on this issue for The Washington Times.  Here's the rest of her story.

It is important to assess the progress of the PLAAF’s degree of progress toward achieving the capabilities it requires by the early 2030s and this paper intends to do so.

This article examines Islamic State’s decision-making, focusing specifically on its pivots between temporal and ideological priorities.

The role of CA in denied areas is a hotly contested topic among members of the special operations community. Feedback is mixed - in favor and against.

Only the withdrawal of American and NATO boots on the ground will begin to allow the process of near-frantic emotions to subside within Pakistan, and for the region to start to cool down.

This paper looks at the genesis, evolution and growth of the Syrian Army’s “Tiger Forces” and their leader Suheil al-Hassan.

American special operations support efforts aimed at building West African military capability over the last five years have been largely successful. 

Does the NATO treaty “automatically” require the U.S. use force to defend a NATO ally?  The short answer is “no”.

What happens when social protection runs awry – rather than enabling market-led development, al-Shabaab creates a structure that rejects it.

With catastrophe and resiliency, there is a clear movement away from bio-politics and the antics of social engineering.  Populations are becoming more viewed as interconnected networks.

As the US peers into the future of irregular conflict, there are historical trends of the likely prevalence of Unconventional Warfare in the coming decades as a policy tool of choice.

Scholars and students of warfare have yet to look at military occupations collectively to see if any common themes, trends or correlations emerge.

During the campaign against Islamic extremism, policymakers were more concerned about the conduct of organizations which wanted to assume power in various states.

As ISIS continues to employ capable means to radicalize individuals and encourage directed and inspired attacks, the threat of homegrown attacks is unlikely to cease anytime soon.

Given the military’s privileged position in Burma, US organizations experienced in capacity development could build partnerships that foster healthcare and professional military reforms.

If global government were possible today, the end of national and local democracy would begin.

ISIS supporters have taken to twitter to unofficially claim responsibility for the attacks as retaliation for the death of Abu Omar Shishani.

While the details of the current SOF mission in Yemen are few, there are several one can glean from recent press that assist in evaluation of the mission.

Asymmetric tactics are not Russia-Ukraine unique; they are employed against the United States and have been for quite some time.

As the Army transitions to a more flexible, adaptive force able to operate with little or no forewarning across a broad range of environments and conflicts, its PT program remains rigid and fixed.

A literature review and a description of three cases of ADM planners substituting alternative theoretical models to that of PMESII-PT in the process of the Army Design Methodology.

The Iran-Iraq War played a major role in the violence we see today and it is time to recognize just how much of an impact this conflict actually had.

The extremely confused land war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq continues to grind on, with the current situation trending somewhat against ISIS in Iraq, less so in Syria.

Rather than fall into the trap of starting with revolutions and working backwards, this paper starts from general theories of the state, society, and war and work forward.

Three types of trade relationships promote conflict - incompatible types of government, asymmetry of trade volume and possibilities for third-party influence.

Getting COIN training for host nation forces right is especially important given that instances of intrastate dynamics such as insurgency and civil war are on the rise.

Colonel Evgeny Messner, Russian Imperial Army, made a significant contribution to understanding irregular warfare. His flagship concept of myatezh voina remains relevant.

The Darbha attack was a reminder of why the Maoist insurgency has repeatedly been called India’s biggest internal security challenge. This paper is an attempt to understand this very challenge.

This paper explores Unified Quest 06 in order to show how and under what circumstances civilian-military and interagency constructs struggle to serve as true interfaces.

My hypothesis, the Intelligence Community has been unable to predict cyber-attacks against the United States, is false.

“The central fallacy at the heart of the current narrative is that it employs a single prism to view a complex world.”

Without international support from Western nations and friendly neighboring states, the future of Libya is sure to be at the will of al-Baghdadi and ISL.

Transitional justice, within a short period, has become one of the most dominating debates in rule of law, human rights protection, democracy and nation building.

“More evidence for extreme marginalization, implosion, and the Islamic State Organization’s certain future as a hunted underground ultra-takfiri terrorist criminal entity.”

Are you or your organization interested in submitting a paper that would influence how the Army generates and employs a Cyber-proficient Force for 2025 & Beyond?

Small Wars Journal book review of Tribe, On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger.

Today, in the wake of the Orlando massacre, it’s time to come to grips with the reality of active killer events. Let us not repeat the unfortunate mistake of passivity in Orlando.

The Islamic State and al-Qaeda are fiercely competing for leadership of the global extremist jihadi movement.

An important bi-lateral U.S.-Mexico conference on “Promoting The Rule Of Law In Mexico” was held at the University of San Diego on Friday 10 June 2016.

In confronting the brutality of ISIS, its social media savvy, its maneuver warfare ability, and its foreign fighter cadre, the US government has adopted a limited approach.

This report explores the influence of regional state actors in Afghanistan’s political stability and focuses on armed extremism and the opium economy as the two primary factors of instability.

Colombia appears poised to secure by the close of this year a historic peace deal with the country’s largest and most formidable illegal armed group.

There have been only 51 interstate wars and 418 internal, ethnic conflicts since 1945. State wars tend to be impersonal but ethnic conflicts are personal with fighters knowing each other.