Dear Small Wars Journal Readers,

The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) G2 will be hosting a ‘Mad Scientist’ Megacities and Dense Urban Areas conference from 21-22 April. The event will be cohosted with Arizona State University.

Mad Scientist is a TRADOC G2 initiative that enables continuous dialogue between Joint military, international partners, academia, policy institutions, and private sector organizations to help the Army explore the evolution of the Operational Environment (OE) through the year 2040.  Mad Scientist also seeks to examine the effects of all aspects of technology on the far future of armed conflict. 

Mad Scientist allows for continuously learning, adaptation, and innovation and allows for broader engagement in problem solving.  Mad Scientist supports understanding the future OE and the underlying technology evolution to support the Campaign of Learning, 2025 Maneuvers, science and technology investments, and capability development for the Army.

This event will specifically examine the challenges that future forces may encounter while operating in megacity or dense urban area conditions. For example, by 2030, 60% of the world’s population is expected to reside in cities. Adversaries are increasingly moving to environments where U.S. advantages in detection, standoff, and precision firepower may be constrained. Further, the potential for Army involvement within cities may be exacerbated by global challenges including: liberal trade and economic coordination; climate change; nuclear proliferation; responsibility to protect, and failing states and ungoverned areas.

This event will be streamed live and publically available at: www.emc.army.mil/broadcast

For the event’s agenda, speaker biographies, and other details please visit the Mad Scientist All Partners Access Network (APAN):  https://community.apan.org/wg/tradoc-g2/mad-scientist/p/mc

Lastly, we also have some 25 articles published to Small Wars Journal (SWJ) on the topic of Megacities and Dense Urban Areas from a call for papers. SWJ has meta-tagged all submissions with the phrase, "Mad Scientist." To read more, please use the search phrase, "Mad Scientist."

The TRADOC G2 Action Officer for Mad Scientist is: Joel Lawton, joel.b.lawton.civ@mail.mil

The Philippines Battles Abu Sayyaf - The Soufan Group Intel Brief

Bottom Line Up Front:

• On April 9, militants from the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) ambushed a Filipino military unit on the remote southern island of Basilan, killing 18 soldiers

• The Filipino soldiers were part of an operation to kill or capture ASG leader Isnilon Hapilon and free several foreign hostages held by the group

• Formerly allied with al-Qaeda, ASG pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in the summer of 2014

• The losses suffered by the Filipino military demonstrate the difficulty of uprooting entrenched localized insurgencies. 

Continue on for the entire brief.