Blog Posts

"Russian reporting is as sophisticated and compelling as US reporting in Iraq... But it's also repeating US mistakes."

"The Obama policy calling for a smaller standing ground army reflects a deliberate strategy shift and not just a response to cost-cutting."

"The Invisible Armies Insurgency Tracker presents a database of insurgencies from 1775 to 2012."

"Poor strategic decision making since 2001 has involved the United States in messy civil wars that will take years, if not decades, to resolve."

ISCL is now welcoming article submissions for the Winter issue 2016 of its online Journal of Culture, Language and International Security.  

"After months of skirting the issue of whether American forces are in combat in Iraq, Pentagon spokesman Warren was clear on Wednesday: 'Of course it’s combat.'"

"The increasingly confused battlefield of northern Syria gives new meaning to the old saying that war makes for strange bedfellows."

"The U.S. military remains determined to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant extremist forces and effectively adapts its campaign as conditions evolve in Iraq and Syria."

"Russia is having its Desert Storm moment in Syria."

"The United States is considering sending a small number of special operations forces to Syria and attack helicopters to Iraq."

"The United States says it is stepping up its attacks against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq, with more airstrikes and possibly ground assaults."

"Following operations around Beiji and Ramadi, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said there is an opportunity to reinforce Iraqi success in the days ahead."

"The International Organization for Migration’s World Migration Report 2015 focuses on both the risks and opportunities created by the rate of fast urbanization."

"President Obama’s most senior national security advisers have recommended measures that would move U.S. troops closer to the front lines in Iraq and Syria."

"So why is it that counterinsurgency does not come easily to regimes in the Middle East and North Africa?"

"Twitter forces users to 'think before they click,' a tactic encouraged by U.S. Army Social Media guidance."

"Until Russia launched its military operation in Syria last month, the war in Georgia was the last time its air force had conducted air strikes in combat."

"The service has resorted regularly to underhanded, dishonest, and sometimes unlawful tactics. Doing so has backfired."

"It's been a humbling few weeks for the Pentagon's central strategy of training and equipping foreign forces to fight on the ground so U.S. troops don't have to."

Continue on for a link to this LSE book review.

"The raid to free captives held by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is bringing up uncomfortable questions for the Obama administration."

This NDU Book began as two questions: What were the costs and benefits of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, and what were the strategic lessons of these campaigns?

Continue on for information on this CCO event and how to attend or view it online.

"The United States is facing an unprecedented challenge in countering the propaganda of adversaries who recruit and easily spread misinformation through the Internet."

"Combating Islamic State and other successful propagandists cannot be done by matching them tweet for tweet because that only validates their messages."