The effectiveness and efficiency of foreign policies depends on a great number of factors, and not in the slightest on the initial design of those policies.
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.
The COIN Manual is being re-written and it is important to define Rule of Law if it is to be included or rejected from counterinsurgency doctrine.
President Enrique Peña Nieto is rapidly approaching a defining moment in his Presidency.
Drawing Lessons from Zimbabwe's War of Liberation: Efficacious Use of Propaganda and Violence.
This essay attempts to provide one perspective on how, in a time of war, many contribute to the mission in ways other directly engaging the enemy.
Strategy and Choices for the Next QDR: SWJ Interview with Shawn Brimley.
Understanding the Dialectic of Nomad and State: The Tectonics of Conflict, Trade and Modes of Living in Afghanistan.
Up until recently, weapons that provide for armor and bunker defeat capability at the levels that the RPG-29 is capable of, have not been seen in the hands of the Mexican cartels.
The rivalry between Kenya and al-Shabaab is not new. Kenya has long been active in Somalia’s internal politics, sponsoring a peace process that yielded the Transitional Federal Government.
Acronyms and Translations of Security and Government Agencies in Mexico’s Drug War.
Within the realm of Latin America, one country that that has been particularly impacted by gangs and transnational organized crime is Brazil.
SWJ Discussion with Dr. David Kilcullen on his recently released book “Out of the Mountains. The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla”.
Special Operations Forces have a problem: in order to be more effective in the “human domain” we have to paradoxically dump the concept.
It’s been about two months since al-Shabaab gunmen employed the new playbook.
The relationship between Russia and Iran since the collapse of the Soviet Union forms a necessary and essential aspect of international relations.
A close analysis reveals the Peace Corps is an important contributor to our national security.
Al-Qaeda’s plan to cripple the U.S. through a series of proxy wars: an integral – and currently the most pertinent – component of its aggregate strategy.
The June 2010 violence that took place in Kyrgyzstan caused a significant number of deaths, injuries, displaced persons, property damage, and general unease among the people.
Hezbollah prides itself as being a Lebanese liberation force committed to defending the Shi’a in Lebanon. But Hezbollah is fighting in Syria against the Sunni opposition.
From ‘Three Blocks’ to ‘Three Islands’: The Thin Line Between Police and Military Operations in Contested Maritime Spaces.
Before Gustavus Adolphus revolutionized warfare, most armies were composed of groups of uncoordinated mercenaries, with little overall organization or chain of command.
The US Army Counterinsurgency manual touts the importance of legitimacy yet it provides a limited explanation of what legitimacy is and where it comes from.
It seems that many of my strident critics tend to focus on the operational and tactical minutiae and quaint service traditions when advocating the need for maintaining two separate ground forces.
Providing Basic Sanitation: A Means to Achieving the Military’s Strategic Objectives During Stability Operations
SWJ would like to thank the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board's Executive Institute for allowing us to republish this article.
Since 2006, Nepal is on transition from armed conflict to peace. However, in the last six years, Nepal’s peace process is in deep crisis.
Optimizing Foreign Internal Defense to Counter Dark Networks: Direct and Indirect Approaches for Security and Development Efforts.
The Army has had a program operating since 2006 (University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies) aimed at better understanding the human domain in support of decision making.
The Role of an Air Sea Battle-Centric Posture in Strategic Reassurance: SWJ Interview with Elbridge Colby by Octavian Manea.
The Cyberspace Operations Planner: Challenges to Education and Understanding of Offensive Cyberspace Operations.
Peter Mansoor’s book, Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War adds to the list of impressive works about the Surge.
SWJ's Spanish version of Criminal Insurgency: Narcocultura, Social Banditry, and Information Operations.
While programs like DCGS-A, CPOF, and MTS may be capable, troops generally deride their atrocious user interface, and poor, almost non-existent interoperability.
Book Reviews: Wrong Turn: America's Deadly Embrace of Counterinsurgency and Cyber War Will Not Take Place.
Thoughts on the Future of Special Operations: A Return to the Roots - Adapted for the Future.
One danger of increased proliferation could well be the commencement of an accelerated race to go nuclear across the Middle East.
The French government’s weak commitment to maintaining the rule of law and her tradition of civil liberties cost her public support.
Only ninety miles from Florida, America’s entry into the age of Irregular Warfare had arrived and would find a permanent place in strategic policy, planning and funding.
In 1970 Secretary of Defense, Melvin R. Laird, proposed a defense strategy to President Nixon. This strategy sought to shift the defense focus from war to peace.
The use of the center of gravity construct allows for stability centric problems to be understood in an environment which military forces may not be used to.
The recent development and adoption of population centric counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine and tools has led to an ongoing and important debate about the utility of this type of COIN.
In the pursuit of high-quality political or intelligence analysis, analysts need to be aware of lazy narratives that might encounter.
There comes a time when action must be taken. The Mexican Drug War has become an untenable threat to the government of Mexico and a humanitarian crisis to the World.
The argument put forward here is based on the transformation thesis which argues that cyber terrorism is “criminal or harmful activities that are informational, global, and networked".
On 16 January 2013 the BP and Statoil ASA In Amenas gas facility in Algeria was attacked by al Qaeda linked terrorists resulting in the deaths of 40 workers.
A quarter of a century ago four Marine Corps officers and a civilian military analyst wrote a piece for the Marine Corps Gazette on something they called Fourth Generation Warfare.
The unmatched military capabilities we enjoy today, not to be confused with strategic shortfalls, were shaped by the failure of the Iran Rescue and the confusion surrounding the invasion of Grenada.
The first in a series produced by AIWC and MCCoE designed to generate discussion amongst the community of interest on the definition for Irregular Warfare.
The modernization of the Chinese military was predicated on a new set of assumptions, namely that the nature of warfare that the Chinese would be most likely to face was now a “local, limited war”.
Military revolutions are a periodic redefining of what is possible in war and what is not, and those organizations that first grasp their potential have an advantage over their less adept rivals.