The removal of presidents, prime ministers, and top executives is the result of rapidly evolving demographics, shifting cultural attitudes, and social media
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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.
This article describes the results of a statistical analysis of the entire corpus of Mad Scientist SciFi stories to identify common themes that emerge when all stories are considered together.
The LTTE’s focus on conventional military operations proved to be their ultimate downfall.
A complex proxy war between Iran and the US/Saudi coalition. Iran directly supports the Houthis and via its proxy Hezbollah. The US provides support to Saudi Arabia in its operations in Yemen.
Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" mimics Eric Maria Remarque’s "All Quiet on the Western Front" matter-of-fact depiction of war, down to a boot.
Overt Russian aggression and uncertainty in the Middle East has left many questioning the role NATO plays in securing peace and deterring aggression.
The internet is the best “espionage tool ever invented by man”.
In what is being referred to by some experts as the ‘terrorist diaspora’, fighters are already fleeing to other conflict zones to continue jihad.
An unsolicited letter to the Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider Al-Abadi.
In his book, "Chinese Intelligence Operations", Nicholas Eftimiades states that the “lucrative field of espionage…is highly suited to the People’s Republic of China".
War, what is it good for? Well, as it turns out, weapons development.
La investigación sostiene que las principales pandillas en El Salvador (MS-13 y Barrio 18) han evolucionado hasta constituirse en un nuevo tipo de insurgencia.
U.S. policymakers must finally and honestly acknowledge that the only clear answer is to directly engage in addressing the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
A merger between ISIS and AQC looks unlikely at this point. Al Qaeda may well just be positioning itself to pick up as many ISIS assets as possible when convenient.
ISIS will fade significantly in the next year. But once ISIS is gone, there are countless groups waiting in the wings to take over.
The military needs to know when it is time to hand over specific functions to the proper civilian agencies.
In the darker recesses of the night, I see things that have been seen I wish not to see again. But they come, and they go.
The space and cyber domains have changed the traditional notions of what constitutes war by expanding war into a global and continuous enterprise.
Fully implementing Mission Command requires more than a veneer of leader training and superficial emphasis on decentralization.
This essay offers a close reading of Sparta’s diplomatic engagement with Athens following its stunning defeat at Pylos.
Identifying and influencing the local population favorably enables time and space to conduct military operations.
Beyond tactical capabilities, there exists a critical requirement to advise foreign nations’ forces at the strategic and institutional levels.
Tools such as FireChat, though impressive in their own right, are representative of emerging disruptive technologies that can be used to either enable or inhibit military operations.
Modern British doctrine, while espousing many successful principles, neglects some critical lessons from actual British practice.
This paper argues that while conventional military tensions are building with North Korea, Western allies should prepare for a dramatic increase in conflict against non-state actors.
The U.S. government, corporate America, academia and the U.S. Joint Armed Forces must design a policy, strategy and doctrine for a “Whole of Nation” approach for the conduct of warfare.
Submitted in collaboration with TRADOC's Mad Scientist Continuum: Visualizing Multi-Domain Battle - 2030-2050.
The techniques of sniping have developed alongside technological advances in sniper rifles, so the sniper rifle is actually best regarded as an extension of the sniper’s body.
As long as states like the Central African Republic are unable to protect their citizens and development workers, the situation will not improve.
The paper evaluates the magnitude of threat posed by Violent Non-State Actors as opposed to hostile states actors with a national intelligence apparatus.
Adversaries of the United States have recognized the susceptibility of its military to irregular warfare threats and will certainly exploit it in future conflicts.
Should the Army prepare to fight other modern militaries like those of Russia and China, or orient on stabilizing war-torn states like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan?
In the year 2044, an artificial intelligence programmed character conducts platoon-level noncombatant evacuation operations simulation in a crumbling chaotic megacity.
The conflict between a need to maintain domestic political support for the government while also modernizing military leadership is not unique to Afghanistan.
This essay explores the themes of UN peacekeeping offensive operations and Unexploded Ordinance, Explosive Remnants of War and Improvised Explosive Devices.
This strategy should be considered alongside others to wage a non-traditional war against a non-traditional enemy.
Cartels are born from greed but they are also byproducts of Mexico’s flawed policies.
There are two competing arguments regarding the gravity of the threat that cyber-attacks pose to the nation’s security.
Army doctrine requires problem identification in all problem solving processes but that doctrine is silent on the format and design of a problem statement.
The biggest changes to the character of war seem to be ahead of us as the 21st century opens what looks like Pandora’s Box.
On doctrine - a fictional conversation that occurs routinely in Professional Military Education classrooms and hallways.
This situation removes public spaces from the commons and places this territory in the hands of corporate or plutocratic elite rather than under state control.
The author makes several distinctions on how reading for the purposes of military self-development differs from reading practices in academia.
Failure in training is vital in unconventional and conventional warfare environments. Battalion and higher staff must fail in training and then correct their mistakes.
Continue on for the SWJ / MWG Writing Contest top three entries.
With increasing scrutiny on Qatar to ease their foreign policy initiatives, more allegations are digging into Qatar’s already controversial track record.
Continue on for the U.S. Army TRADOC Mad Scientist Sci-Fi Stories - Executive Summary and a link to the full document.
"The Operational Environment and the Changing Character of Future Warfare" - Continue on for the full TRADOC G-2 assessment / estimate.
As intelligence professionals, we must provide timely intelligence support to maneuver commanders if we are to remain relevant.
Only by including perspectives from both genders is a comprehensive picture of the security environment possible.