Journal

President Obama is repeating three key strategic mistakes that President Johnson made in Vietnam.

Together with Tony Koltz General Zinni co-authored the just released book “Before the First Shots are Fired. How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield”.

The U.S. Army is the most appropriate (and truly only) instrument of U.S. national power capable of conducting global stability operations.

Fifth Dimensional Operations: Space-Time-Cyber Dimensionality in Conflict and War - A Book Review

The sword of democracy was a rather blunt instrument and no match—when wielded by the indigenous peoples—to that of the sharper blade held by the various Islamist forces.

With the recent eruption of violence in Iraq and the ongoing civil war in Syria the topic of foreign fighters has once again been brought to the forefront.

The governance vacuum created by sectarian violence has provided the Kurds with a seemingly golden opportunity to declare independence.

There is a growing consensus that the United States should not engage in another major land war in Asia or Africa, a view encapsulated in the catchphrase “no more boots on the ground.”

Today, a group that even al Qaeda thinks is extreme, has established its own sanctuary in eastern Syria as well as north and western Iraq.

To properly face the numerous threats in cyberspace, the Army needs to invest in the development of ‘cyber leaders’ who will possess technical acumen and strategic vision.

Our Own Worst Enemy: Lessons Learned from Recent Negotiating Successes with the Afghan Ministry of Defense

The seizure of territory by a non-state entity is the most significant turn of events in Iraq and Syria for many years.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or the Levant, is re-enacting the early history of Islam in order to establish its legitimacy with the peoples of the Middle East.

"ISIL Will Attack Baghdad and Sectarian War Will Continue to Expand"

The role of women as actors in all phases of conflict is a vital aspect of stability operations, yet is generally ignored.

The Ties That Bind: Mass Conscription Reinforced an Attrition Borne Allegiance Shift by Tying Rural Families to Government as Military Dependents: A Vietnam Case

Now that Americans are dropping bombs on the forces of al Baghdadi’s Caliphate, it may be appropriate to examine his warfighting style.

Sunday marked the 50th Anniversary of President Johnson’s signature of the Joint Resolution to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia.

When done effectively, narratives can award meaning to physical fights.  When done poorly, they can eradicate even the hardest won territorial gains.

Four years into the United States military’s effort to counter the Lord’s Resistance Army in central Africa its leader, Joseph Kony, remains elusive.

Northern Mali Conflict 2012: How Algerian Militants Transformed into an Al-Qaeda Affiliate and Penetrated an Ethnic Cleavage to Remain Relevant.

This is an opinion and a reflection on the current state of affairs and possible future trends regarding the West’s involvement in numerous irregular wars and revolutions.

To achieve relative stability in Afghanistan we need to adopt a long-term, small-footprint, Remote Area Foreign Internal Defense (FID) strategy.

The armed forces of the Caliphate have finally resolved most of the issues left unresolved when the Iraqis wrote their constitution in 2005.

The influence of family, ethnic and religious-based networks is an important component of the Nigerian political and social landscape.

The assassinations of high profile Muslim clerics in Mombasa over a period of two years has elevated that coastal city’s status as a critical battleground in Kenya’s war on terror.

Military operations in an urban area are not normally thought of as a “Small Wars” concern, yet they are an important capability that will remain relevant.

Over the past year, the vitality of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s insurgency has waxed and waned but the group has still managed to define Pakistan’s security landscape.

This paper details the March 2013 takeover of Raqqa by Syrian rebels and the subsequent rebel infighting.

Just like on land we must be prepared to face both conventional and asymmetric foes ) as a similar challenge is arising at sea.

This is the Spanish language version of John Sullivan’s earlier SWJ article “Explosive Escalation? Reflections on the Car Bombing in Ciudad Juarez”.

 "What is the proper relationship between militaries and non-governmental organizations."

American generals who thought that they could talk the President into extending the Surge were sadly mistaken.

The recent return to US custody of Bowe Bergdahl, following his June 30, 2009 disappearance, has generated a substantial amount of debate and controversy.

This is the third and last essay in the series that examines the rising threat of organized criminality and its spillover effects across levels of analysis.

The literature on NGOs includes very little about NGO-military relationships in troubled areas.

Domestic law enforcement methods and strategies are pressed continuously to evolve and adapt so as to address the ever increasing interconnectedness – globalization – of criminal enterprises.

This article asserts that if organizational leaders focus on human-to-human interface points for easier integration, it will lay the foundational logic needed to allow for collaboration to occur.

Among the varied personalities exposed by the tensions of war, the Spartan commander Brasidas emerges as a definitive figure who illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of not only his city-state’s “national character,” but also that of their great enemy, Athens.

The purpose of this second essay is to develop our analytical framework in more depth and provide a detailed analysis.

As the United States and its coalition partners prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan, America should come to embrace a more proactive foreign policy vis-à-vis the “Stans”.

Organized criminal groups have expanded their networks and employed technology in novel and startling ways to counteract efforts to detect, disrupt, and capture them.

Iran today poses a potential threat not only to the region, but also to the international community.

After a decade spent in the shadow of the Afghan Taliban, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan claimed ownership over increasingly frequent waves of violence.

What is setting the current influx of migrants apart is the sheer number of unaccompanied children who make up the majority of the tidal wave.

The feedback and analysis system along with metrics used by the US and ISAF to quantify measures of success in Afghanistan has been disproportionately focused on enemy related activity.

The purpose of this paper is to describe social science research methods employed in Afghanistan during 2011-2012 and to report their use to clarify social issues related to conflict.

Community policing is a paradigm within law enforcement suggesting that most issues are best dealt with proactively at the community level through collaborative engagement.

What is important for the Joint force to understand is that social structures are not the stable, highly integrated, and harmonious systems as presented on a map.

Despite the scope of the threat to Mexico’s security, violent drug-trafficking organizations are not well understood, and optimal strategies to combat them have not been identified.