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 Andrew Kenealy | Thu, 02/11/2016 - 2:37pm | 0 comments

How do we measure the on-the-ground costs of taking civilian lives?

by Patrick Duggan | Wed, 02/10/2016 - 1:39pm | 1 comment

Every SOF practitioner will be required to understand the basics of cyberspace, computers, and coding because they’ll need those skills to conduct cyber special operations.

by Mbaye Bashir Lo | Wed, 02/10/2016 - 10:02am | 0 comments

This is a world of closely-knit communities. It signals the end of closed border politics, the irrelevance of the politics of containment and the risks of double-standard politics.

by SWJ Editors | Tue, 02/09/2016 - 6:50pm | 0 comments

Continue on for a TRADOC G-2 / Small Wars Journal "Mad Scientist" call for papers update.

by Darryl Ward | Tue, 02/09/2016 - 5:47am | 0 comments

In order to predict future impacts of megacities to the US Army, the global drivers and trends leading to megacity development must be identified.

by Gregory D. Miller | Mon, 02/08/2016 - 11:39am | 47 comments

We can become so preoccupied with how to win over the population we fail to ask when attempting to do so is even appropriate.

by Ralph Hernandez, by Chevy Cook, by Jim Perkins | Sun, 02/07/2016 - 7:36pm | 0 comments

On the surface, facilitating mentoring seems very simple, but even establishing a common definition is a significant challenge.

by John Commerford | Sun, 02/07/2016 - 7:11am | 1 comment

In dispute is how to make attack pilots trained in and flying in an aircraft designed for an attack mission into aerial scouts.

by Darren E. Tromblay | Sat, 02/06/2016 - 4:13pm | 8 comments

While it contends with the Islamic State and al-Qaida an insurgency intent on challenging the sovereignty of the U.S. government is already here.

by Dan Bennett, by Frederick Waage, by Matthew Hutchison | Fri, 02/05/2016 - 8:32pm | 0 comments

The Army must develop a holistic solution to Army-wide cyber resiliency and hardening of electronic systems to address our current cyber capability gap.

by Gary R. Gilbert, by Nathan Fisher | Thu, 02/04/2016 - 1:48pm | 0 comments

The growing planned use of UMS and robotics on the future battlefield affords both great opportunities and challenges to far future medical operations.

by Jérôme Diaz | Thu, 02/04/2016 - 12:26pm | 0 comments

Interview with Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.

by Gary Anderson | Wed, 02/03/2016 - 6:44pm | 0 comments

If we aren’t willing to use American infantry against ISIS, perhaps we might consider using robots.

by Octavian Manea | Tue, 02/02/2016 - 8:33pm | 35 comments

SWJ discussion with Alexander Lanoszka, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dickey Center for International Understanding, Dartmouth College.

by Michael Chandler | Sun, 01/31/2016 - 3:14am | 8 comments

Kilcullen has six maxims to manage company-level COIN operations, and for me the most interesting one of the six is “travel light, and harden your combat service support.”

by Joshua Tromp | Thu, 01/28/2016 - 4:30am | 1 comment

This research examines the cyber battle space, why it poses a significant threat, and how attribution difficulties can create significant issues for deterrence of cyber-attacks.

by Charles J. Dunlap, Jr. | Wed, 01/27/2016 - 1:21pm | 8 comments

Lawyers like to say that “bad facts make bad law” – and that could be at play here.

by Virginia Byers | Wed, 01/27/2016 - 1:30am | 1 comment

America has been ignoring the overall threat that has been attacking her people since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

by W. R. Baker | Tue, 01/26/2016 - 7:27pm | 0 comments

Like the Battle of the Bulge, the 1972 Easter Offensive has often been referred to as an intelligence failure because it caught the U.S. and S. Vietnam completely by surprise.

by Gregory D. Foster | Tue, 01/26/2016 - 8:56am | 0 comments

Statecraft stands apart as a more elevated undertaking than politics... statecraft is fundamentally a strategic enterprise, while strategy in turn is... an ethical enterprise.

by Jan Schwarzenberg | Mon, 01/25/2016 - 10:15pm | 12 comments

Are American terrorists considered combatants if not in an active combat zone engaging U.S. forces on the ground and should they be accorded additional consideration before being targeted?

by Alex Reese | Sun, 01/24/2016 - 6:33pm | 3 comments

This research paper examines four cells of individuals, both rooted in society and of a high socio-economic status, whose members have radicalized within North America.

by Rory O’Connor | Wed, 01/20/2016 - 10:23am | 35 comments

The true goal of Special Forces physical training should reflect that which was sought by the OSS—complete confidence to handle uncertainty.

by James Emery | Tue, 01/19/2016 - 4:58pm | 2 comments

Egos and agendas are destroying the prospect for a powerful alliance against ISIS.

by Rodney D. Harris, by Jeffrey D. Morris | Tue, 01/19/2016 - 12:53am | 1 comment

People have always given our Nation and our Army the competitive advantage. In the Cyber Domain, the people continue to be the central factor to our success.

by Christopher A. Lawrence | Mon, 01/18/2016 - 1:03pm | 4 comments

I am struggling to think of a single insurgency that was defeated by airpower, primarily defeated by airpower, or even seriously undermined by airpower.

by Paul Kamolnick | Sun, 01/17/2016 - 5:11pm | 0 comments

Allah versus the ISO’s fraudulent martyrdom - a fraud that is sinful at many levels.

by G. Murphy Donovan | Sun, 01/17/2016 - 3:59pm | 0 comments

The politics and theology of Muslims is now the dominant source of global instability; although any separation of the two is moot in most nations with an Islamic majority.

by E. John Teichert | Sat, 01/16/2016 - 5:22pm | 2 comments

American strategy must consider the potential to prompt a deterioration of the relationship between the United States and India and foster a partnership between China and India.

by Brad Striegel | Sat, 01/16/2016 - 12:50pm | 2 comments

The persistent use of RC forces is referred to as the Operational Reserve.  For the last several years there has been much debate on what the OR is, or is not. 

by Robert Bunker | Fri, 01/15/2016 - 9:36am | 0 comments

In summation, this is an excellent work derived from a number of years of intimate interviews and field reports conducted by Grillo.

by Roger J. Chin | Fri, 01/15/2016 - 3:20am | 0 comments

Transnational criminal enterprises are now forging alliances in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operation with the intention of increasing income, influence, and power.

by James King | Tue, 01/12/2016 - 3:34am | 2 comments

Contrary to what the subtitle says you will not learn to “think like the enemy” by reading the book Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy by Micah Zenko.

by Carol E. B. Choksy, by Jamsheed K. Choksy | Mon, 01/11/2016 - 3:08am | 1 comment

The so-called IS is experiencing some loss of key personnel and territory under US and EU bombardment and Iraqi army advances. But those extremists are adapting to the changing conditions.

 

by Peter J. Kalogiros | Sat, 01/09/2016 - 7:20am | 0 comments

Existing US security assurances and other means coupled with modest policy adjustments are sufficient to compel the Kingdom to forego nuclear proliferation ambitions.

by Tom Keeley | Fri, 01/08/2016 - 3:29pm | 2 comments

A future capability that is explained in this paper is that machines will have the ability to remove humans from the real-time decision-making loop.

by George M. Gross | Fri, 01/08/2016 - 2:18am | 0 comments

Does the shift in the language of concept development from the operational concept to the joint operating concept make the former term obsolete or does it leave out something important?

by Joshua A. Perkins | Thu, 01/07/2016 - 4:23am | 3 comments

Should covert intelligence agencies and organizations within an open government and society, like the United States, be treated as anathema to the Body Politic?

by Daniel E. Ward | Wed, 01/06/2016 - 1:58am | 5 comments

Only through coordination and collaboration with trusted, close-knit allies, can the United States expect to maintain and develop its own national security.

by Elizabeth Royall | Tue, 01/05/2016 - 10:24am | 0 comments

The DoD should shift from predominant reliance on high-technology empowered U.S. military dominance towards prioritization of U.S.-Allied dominance.

by Patrick Duggan | Mon, 01/04/2016 - 12:21pm | 3 comments

Man-machine teaming is inexorable and Special Warfare needs a blueprint to transform along with it.

by Sergio Miller | Mon, 01/04/2016 - 9:09am | 3 comments

There has been a significant devaluation of the relationship between those responsible for setting and executing strategy and those providing intelligence and assessment supporting strategy.

by Nathan A. Jennings | Sun, 01/03/2016 - 12:11pm | 26 comments

The U.S., and its peerless military in particular, should begin deploying diverse and scalable elements of national power to promote coalitions to deter Chinese aggression.

by Josh Wiitala | Sun, 01/03/2016 - 1:51am | 0 comments

While power is the substance of international relations, culture is a significant part of the overall picture that must not be either overlooked or over-emphasized.

by Paul Kamolnick | Sat, 01/02/2016 - 3:39am | 0 comments

Like his May 2015 address, al-Baghdadi again illogically and illicitly reduces the entirety of Islam as a religious faith to a single act--fighting.

by Mick Ryan | Fri, 01/01/2016 - 4:48am | 0 comments

As with all commanders, I had given much thought to the key areas of focus that would support us in building combined arms close combat competencies at various levels within the Brigade.

by Matthew Swearingen | Thu, 12/31/2015 - 4:00am | 1 comment

The basis for COIN rules of engagement and background for the conflict between the right to self-defense and the protection of civilians found in international law and the Law of War.

by Anonymous | Wed, 12/30/2015 - 3:25pm | 8 comments

Now that the Pentagon has decided to integrate females into combat arms units the question turns to how to do so in the best manner possible.

by Jesse A. Heitz | Wed, 12/30/2015 - 3:06pm | 5 comments

The classical principles of counterinsurgency, while still exceptionally appropriate for countering regionally dominant insurgencies, are inadequate for countering modern global insurgency.

by Ajit Maan | Tue, 12/29/2015 - 3:14pm | 6 comments

The term “terrorist organization” offers little insight and limits our understanding and approach. ISIS is an insurgent organization using terrorism as a tactic.