Journal

The Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement has expanded from Darfur to other warzones in Sudan, promoting a countrywide revolution against an aging government.

The Human Terrain System has found itself in the news again. A feat of considerable effort as the program ceased operations in September 2014.

While cartel drones are typically considered a tool for smuggling, they are increasingly seen as having application for other purposes including espionage, surveillance, and as weapons.

The long term viability of Russian autocracy is more threatened by the standard of living in Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland, than by any foreign military.

Human Insecurity in Mali: Overcoming Obstacles to Economic Solvency and Democratic Governance through External Intervention

Mad Scientist series - The U.S. Government must improve its capability to rapidly analyze foreign populations and the need for this capability will only increase.

Healthcare delivery in ISIS is characterized by a very low doctor/patient ratio of 1/50,000. Most doctors and healthcare professionals have left or have gone underground.

It is necessary to embrace the notion that current impressions and metrics likely represent a high degree of inaccuracy when used in a predictive model.

Mad Scientist series - Weather conditions within dense urban and complex terrain environments will influence a greater populace and can negatively influence military operations.

Mad Scientist series - In light of the contemporary operating environment, terrorist activity and political violence will continue to have direct and indirect effects on European security.

The importance of network analysis and socio-cultural understanding within the military intelligence community and how it was used to capture Saddam Hussein.

As the United States is eagerly, if not desperately, trying to build its anti-Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/IS) coalition, Iran is increasingly appearing to be an important potential player in that arrangement.

Mad Scientist series - Biomarker-based far-forward diagnostic strategies and technologies have the potential to transform military healthcare in megacities and dense urban areas.

The challenge is to not only identify and define the threat of ISIL, but to influence a wide network of interagency stakeholders to take decisive measures.

Prestige weapons, often symbols of power and policy, rarely affected the outcomes of tactical engagements.

A cadre concept would ensure that a Combatant Commander had a well-trained core of professionals and platforms to perform small-scale riverine operations if required.

The primal motivational pattern of diplomatic coercion as understood within the context of intertribal warfare is important to study.

Although the U.S. is heavily invested in the region, stability in the Pacific will continue to be a secondary priority to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

Mad Scientist series - An analytic framework in support of framing, mapping, and developing courses of action for operations in dense urban areas.

Many of the declassified letters from bin Laden’s “bookshelf” are about mundane concerns with reference to family and al-Qaeda members abroad, the remainder refer to jihadi matters.

Americans as a whole, do not fully understand the current IED attack capabilities and the threat posed to the U.S.

“Mad Scientist” series - There is a need for improved pain control on the battlefield, as well as in higher echelons of casualty care.

“Mad Scientist” series - The need for an Integrated Global Health Surveillance and Response Program through a complex web of surveillance, education, and interactive coordination.

Unconventional warfare and political warfare offer valuable strategic options beyond traditional military means to achieve national policy objectives.

“Paper Tiger (noun): one that is outwardly powerful or dangerous but inwardly weak or ineffectual” -Merriam-Webster.com

Skilled armies sometimes choose to emphasize attrition over maneuver warfare because circumstances warrant such decisions.

This paper identifies challenges faced by Geographic Combatant Commanders when operating as part of a multinational force or an interagency team.

What might really be interesting but hidden within the various conceptions of gray zone conflict, ambiguous warfare, political warfare, and their ilk.

The US-led Coalition adjusted its logistics strategy, setting out to create an Afghan system based on the model of “pull” sustainment. The Afghans  were, and are, not ready.

Bloodbath on the beaches: The Mexican drug gangs riding on JET SKIS to blast victims ‘James Bond-style’.

“Mad Scientist” series - As the US Army considers the challenges of operating in dense urban areas, leadership requires a basic understanding of the operating environment.

“Mad Scientist” series - It may prove beneficial to leverage the IOT in order to provide our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines the decisive advantage needed to fight and win.

“Mad Scientist” series - It is critical that we understand complex systems.  This requires embracing a complex adaptive systems framework focused on urban networks.

Today’s non-warfighters have largely forgotten that Western civilization’s art and style of thinking was invented by a grunt, a decorated hero, a veteran of three wars—Socrates.

Urban areas present diverse challenges and one issue is communications. Communications that could be easy in other environments become remarkably more challenging in urban terrain.

"Mad Scientist" series - Megacities and dense urban environments are firmly on the horizon as likely and potential environments for future warfare and humanitarian engagements.

The latest in the “Mad Scientist” series - By 2050, urbanization will arguably be the most consequential event in the history of mankind.

This "Mad Scientist" essay posits that Tactical Combat Casualty Care capabilities must undergo disruptive changes that enable the development of an “intelligent” TCCC platform.

This "Mad Scientist" essay proposes adoption of a specific planning framework for urban operations.

Megacities are sure to challenge every member of a coalition. How these urban areas might do so in the intelligence realm in the near future is the primary focus of this offering.

To better understand the challenges of securing the border, this article analyzes the Border States environment, the human element, and then look towards the future.

Risky gambles or sure bets? Understanding how and why Putin makes decisions regarding the use of Russian power abroad continues to challenge outside observers.

Intolerant individuals advancing an extremist Islamist agenda entered the British landscape long before the global rise of al-Qaeda and, later, the Islamic State.

The defense establishment must embrace the energy and ideas already being produced and provide a way for them to have real impact - an innovation program that seeks true offsets.

I first posted this short piece at the Urban Operations Journal on 28 February 2003 and reposted it here at SWJ on 17 December 2007. Here are the considerations, again.

The latest in the TRADOC G-2 / SWJ Mad Scientist call for papers series.

This paper seeks to identify lessons from the Afghanistan “COIN Development” experience at the strategic level.

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

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.

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.