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 Michael Bailey, by John Via | Fri, 02/13/2015 - 12:58pm | 0 comments

Given global urbanization trends, the Army must be prepared to confront challenges arising in megacities to remain a relevant instrument of national power.

by John P. Sullivan, by Adam Elkus | Mon, 02/02/2015 - 6:05pm | 2 comments

While it would be tempting to posit Paris as another bloody data point explained by our conceptual schema, Paris is in fact cause for broadening and expanding it.

by John Bolton | Mon, 02/02/2015 - 11:53am | 4 comments

Within Army culture there is a basic misunderstanding regarding Standards and Rules. They are not the same, despite a long-standing military belief in equivalence.

by John E. Michel | Sat, 01/31/2015 - 2:03pm | 0 comments

Leaders today face increasing pressures as they navigate their organizations through a constant barrage of dynamic business conditions and more demanding stakeholder expectations.

by Octavian Manea | Thu, 01/29/2015 - 8:12pm | 7 comments

Small Wars Journal interview with Robert Martinage.

by Jeff Moore | Fri, 01/23/2015 - 5:11am | 0 comments

The Baga attack signifies the genocidal nature of Boko Haram’s violence, the group will undermine West Africa’s security unless Nigeria can quickly improve its COIN operations.

by Jay Morse | Fri, 01/23/2015 - 5:00am | 33 comments

The Regionally Aligned Forces concept is certainly not business as usual, but is also the result of a sobering truth: leveraging national military power to secure our vital interests.

by Holly Hughson | Fri, 01/23/2015 - 4:48am | 0 comments

The West must orient itself to the composite that ISIS presents and avoid the catastrophic pitfall of trying to create the enemy it wants to fight at the expense of the one presented.

by Clark Johnson | Thu, 01/22/2015 - 12:14am | 0 comments

Going back to 1989, and certainly since 2001, the US has failed to construct a coalition of moderates that might be able to enhance legitimacy and increase stability.

by David L. Edwards | Thu, 01/22/2015 - 12:11am | 7 comments

Asian support for ISIL will largely be based in Southeast Asia, which possesses the largest Muslim population in the region and will manifest through Asian nationals traveling to the Middle East.

by Daniel R. Grazier | Thu, 01/22/2015 - 12:07am | 2 comments

Before we embark on our next foreign adventure, Americans need to remember as long as we accept the moral responsibility for ungoverned spaces, insurgent forces will attack us.

by Brian Drohan | Wed, 01/21/2015 - 12:26am | 0 comments

The study of European—and particularly British—imperial experiences with insurgency produced two contending schools of thought on the legacy of counterinsurgency.

by Alexs Thompson | Wed, 01/21/2015 - 12:18am | 10 comments

This article suggests that a new definition of religion is necessary to properly conceptualize and develop policy in response to violent religious behaviors.

by John Maier | Wed, 01/21/2015 - 12:05am | 5 comments

Our National Guard forces should be retooled for asymmetrical warfare and domestic utilization, while our active duty forces should maintain their kinetic combat supremacy.

by Melinda Hutchings | Tue, 01/20/2015 - 4:34am | 0 comments

Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand vs. The Taliban: Bottom-Up Expeditionary Diplomacy in Fragile States – Best Practices from the Civilian Surge in Afghanistan

by Paul T. Bartone, by Albert Sciarretta | Tue, 01/20/2015 - 12:25am | 0 comments

In the future global environment, the U.S. military will rely more heavily on distributed command groups for managing and responding to crises and threats.

by Jeremy Sauer, by Francisco Vega, by Allisa Walker, by Carlos Haddock | Tue, 01/20/2015 - 12:12am | 0 comments

Adding another joint function to the current set of six, which is attuned to the human domain, will fill a significant gap.

by Theo Lipsky | Mon, 01/19/2015 - 4:55pm | 2 comments

Since the end of the Liberian Civil War in 2003, the United States has been engaged in a partnership with the UN and the Government of Liberia to rebuild the Liberian security sector.

by Eric C. Anderson | Mon, 01/19/2015 - 6:27am | 6 comments

Welcome to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, otherwise known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or the Islamic State.

by Phil Walter | Mon, 01/19/2015 - 12:05am | 2 comments

The demobilization, rehabilitation, and reintegration plan focuses on those who may be swayed.

by Chad M. Pillai, by Peter Scharling Pedersen, by Lee Jae Hun | Tue, 01/06/2015 - 7:57pm | 2 comments

To successfully combat 21st Century problems, in an era of resource and geo-political power constraints, the U.S. and its Allies need to develop a JIIM approach to Irregular Warfare.

by Joseph J. Collins | Mon, 01/05/2015 - 7:29pm | 22 comments

This review essay looks at: the memoir of a Secretary of Defense, a recent RAND study, the cri de coeur of a retired general, and the memoir of a combat veteran and leading coindinista.

by Dmitry Shlapentokh | Mon, 01/05/2015 - 6:31pm | 2 comments

Radicalization is not necessarily related with Islam as Russian examples clearly demonstrate.

by Daniel Tyler Brooks | Sun, 01/04/2015 - 6:41am | 10 comments

Understanding how the democratization of Iraq failed could be instructive to future endeavors towards democratization throughout the world.

by Herman Butime | Tue, 12/30/2014 - 4:09pm | 0 comments

This article examines the activities of Australian Jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

by Kevin E. Gentzler | Tue, 12/30/2014 - 10:03am | 0 comments

This essay provides an examination of current thought on how to build a team capable of performing at a high level.

by Nathan White | Sun, 12/28/2014 - 11:21am | 1 comment

As the U.S. charts a way forward in its campaign to combat ISIL, it must not repeat the same mistakes from U.S. whole-of-government operations over the past decade-plus of war.

by Gary Anderson | Mon, 12/22/2014 - 2:11pm | 60 comments

The war against the self-styled Islamic State is beginning to look more and more like the late, unlamented war in Vietnam.

by Robert H. Gregory, Jr. | Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:16am | 3 comments

Modern military uniforms simultaneously serve two contradictory purposes—identification and concealment.

by Joseph Becker | Fri, 12/12/2014 - 8:51pm | 54 comments

The threat posed by ISIL cannot be eradicated in the short term, and the involvement of U.S. ground forces would do little to address the underlying problems.

by Dave Shunk | Fri, 12/12/2014 - 5:27am | 2 comments

In the world of anti-access and area denial (A2/AD) discussions the anti-access portion is the stand out issue.

by Erik J.M. Gemza | Fri, 12/12/2014 - 5:02am | 0 comments

The Military Police Corps continues to be the DOD proponent for the protective service mission in support of our senior military and civilian government leaders abroad.

by Knox Thames | Thu, 12/11/2014 - 10:22am | 1 comment

The violence is spreading, resulting in acute violations of human rights that jeopardize the stability of fragile states.

by Brenda Fiegel | Fri, 12/05/2014 - 12:04am | 6 comments

Starting around 2008 Russia began providing military support to Nicaragua through the provision of funds, equipment and training.

by Kyler Ong | Thu, 12/04/2014 - 6:30pm | 4 comments

This article argues that the recent resurgence of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham gained momentum during the Syrian civil war in 2011.

by Scott Moreland, by Scott Jasper | Tue, 12/02/2014 - 12:50am | 30 comments

Understanding how the Islamic State fits the profile of a hybrid threat is integral to the development of unified strategies to counter them.

by Thomas Doherty | Mon, 12/01/2014 - 5:15am | 5 comments

If you just give the Host Nation (HN) stuff or do stuff for them you become their system.

by Dr Aaron P. Jackson | Mon, 12/01/2014 - 4:04am | 7 comments

Have you ever read a military concept or doctrine publication, or an academic or professional paper about warfare or military operations, and wondered how it came to include such an ill-conceived idea?

by Glenn W. Johnson, by Doowan Lee | Mon, 12/01/2014 - 2:40am | 2 comments

The movement to understand the nature of Unconventional Warfare through the lens of Special Movement Theory is a continuing effort.

by Dr Edwina Thompson | Sun, 11/30/2014 - 12:04pm | 0 comments

What is the purpose of civil-military guidelines?  Who are the authors and their intended audience?  What is the extent of their readership?  How can they help practitioners improve humanitarian outcomes?

by Alexander O. Gallo, by Wade P. Hinkle, by Aaron Taliaferro | Wed, 11/26/2014 - 1:48am | 5 comments

Lessons learned from development efforts as well as practitioners’ perspective and observations on the effectiveness of DOD’s efforts to train and advise foreign security forces.

by Robert T. Ault | Tue, 11/25/2014 - 8:10am | 0 comments

If historical examples are any indicator irregular warfare will remain a part of current and future conflicts.

by David Wise | Tue, 11/25/2014 - 6:31am | 2 comments

As we look back on the third anniversary of the death of Qaddafi it is impossible to argue with the President’s self-assessment that his greatest foreign policy error was made in Libya. 

by Christopher J. Mewett | Mon, 11/24/2014 - 5:11pm | 0 comments

What if the U.S. military hasn’t been focusing on the wrong thing the whole time?

by Keith Nightingale | Sat, 11/22/2014 - 6:56pm | 0 comments

The anniversary of the Grenada invasion is a watershed for the United States by putting the Vietnam experience behind it as well as restoring the International respect it had lost over time.

by Jeff Baldwin, by Chris Baldwin | Fri, 11/21/2014 - 6:51pm | 2 comments

Over the past several years the US Army has renewed its focus on mission command and a key component of mission command is the use of mission orders.

by Yinon Weiss | Thu, 11/20/2014 - 10:54am | 28 comments

No amount of training, no matter how well we train our foreign allies, will be enough to defeat an enemy if there is no fundamental and cultural trust and commitment to that cause.

by Ted G. Ihrke, by Ted A. Thomas | Tue, 11/18/2014 - 9:21pm | 0 comments

Leaders don’t operate in a vacuum; therefore, leadership can more accurately be viewed as an enterprise between the leader and the led.

by Chelsea Daymon | Tue, 11/18/2014 - 12:19pm | 0 comments

Varying cases of foreign fighter have shed light on some of the incentives that have driven these individuals to take action and travel to the region.

by Usha Sutliff, by John Zambri | Tue, 11/18/2014 - 4:00am | 4 comments

The officer-involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri and the civil unrest that followed has brought the issue of the increased “militarization” of American law enforcement to the fore.