As we pause to celebrate, it seems appropriate to consider the vital role played by the American military in the creation and growth of our nation and its impact on our world.
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.
A critical analysis of the contributions of the DOD and USNORTHCOM can make towards defeating transnational terror organizations with a domestic U.S. presence.
Concerning the sorry performance of the Afghan National Army since 2012, the military and Pentagon planners need to ask themselves some hard questions.
The crisis, if addressed wisely, presents a unique opportunity to advance the fight against extremist terrorist groups backed not only by Qatar, but by other countries as well.
Development of COIN methods and application has ebbed and flowed in its effectiveness. Though many studies have been initiated, the role and impact of the peasantry has been largely overlooked.
ISIL’s notion of a Caliphate is aligned with the concept of a community rather than of a state and strategic focus is on psychological rather than territorial control.
A Small Wars Journal and Military Writers Guild Writing Contest Finalist Article
Continue on for a SWJ book review of “Dog Company: A True Story of American Soldiers Abandoned by Their High Command”.
The OEs of today and the future will be marked by instability. This instability will manifest itself in evolving geopolitics, resurgent nationalism, changing demographics, and unease.
This article conducts COG analysis on the Taliban sub-system and Pashtun tribal system using revised joint doctrine and non-linear dynamical systems analysis.
This book is not an academic, historical, or scholarly work, although it does contain his personal accounts of his involvement in the 2012 attacks on the US Special Mission in Benghazi.
Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 22: Spiritual Appropriation of San Judas Tadeo and Santo Niño de Atocha—Criminal Petitions and Santo Niño Huachicolero.
It is necessary to develop and deliver strategic design education, in order to bridge the gap between operational and strategic design and between SOF and civilian partners.
The ability to generate global influence by maneuvering one civilian population against another to produce catastrophic physical effects is a significant transformational change for warfare.
An insurgency concerns itself with legitimacy as the opposing sides are not only competing for domination of terrain, but for the support of the populace as well.
This paper demonstrates some of the proven and potential options to optimize interagency and multi-sector collaboration in support of U.S. policy.
Organizing elements of national power along the Threat Network Function lines of effort will best serve a joint force commander searching for an effective approach to counter threat networks.
One and the other, leftist ploys and rising Islamism, make use of each side for their intended manipulations, exploitations, and decisive similarities.
‘Hybrid defence’ frequently can mean almost anything, and even everything-to-nothing (nothing still being something), to different participants and observers.
The threat coming from Western militants in Kurdish groups fighting the Islamic State has been overlooked.
A continuation of SWJ article “Treating Islamic Violent Extremism as a Pandemic Super-infection”.
One of the most essential, neglected elements of our national power remains untouched.
8 May 1986 address by General Volney F. Warner at Saint Anselm College, New Hampshire. Posted here with the kind permission of General Warner.
SOCAFRICA must understand and operate in the space between war and peace in a complex, volatile, uncertain and ambiguous environment - an environment of adversarial competition.
The US must be capable of operating within an irregular war against hybrid forces, including in support of large-scale humanitarian operations to relieve suffering and prevent more refugee crises.
Perhaps after hard-hitting briefings from Mattis and McMaster, Trump finally realized Obama’s decision to remain in Afghanistan was both realistic and necessary.
Third Generation Gangs Strategic Note No. 4: Brigands, Bank Robbery, and Brazilian Gang Evolution at Ciudad del Este and the Triple Frontier
This paper updates and expands upon an essay published in Small Wars Journal in 2014. Some of the text from the 2014 essay has been left intact as still operative.
Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 21: Quantifying Conflict in Mexico - Armed Conflict, Hyper-Violent Criminality or Both?
The invasion began with subtle sounds and vibrations on cat’s paws growing to crescendo. We remember and depict the crescendos but forget the subtlety of sounds that brought it all together.
Combating Corruption: Improving Department of Defense Support in Attacking the Corruption, Transnational Organized Crime, and Transregional Terror Organization Nexus
China’s inroads to the U.S. entertainment industry merit closer examination given their implications for information warfare.
In understanding dominance, leaders will be better suited to develop feasible, acceptable, and suitable operational approaches and tactical plans for the multi-domain environment.
The principal recommendation for NATO reform here, is to expel Turkey, recognize Kurdistan, and end Ankara’s pipe dream of accession to the European Union.
Wait. Wait. GO. Slam. Knees hitting the deck. Recover. Move back. Don’t get in the way. Pack it in. Jam it up. Repeat.
Half the world’s population is women - in combination with some cultural aspects that are present in the world - SOF will not be relevant without the the integration of women.
Attacks on journalist and media outlets are mechanisms of intimidation used to dampen or influence reportage in favor of the criminal enterprise and/or corrupt state organs.
The aftermath of Colombia’s long FARC insurgency has left a criminal power vacuum.
This paper's intent is to evaluate Israel’s performance in the second Lebanon war by identifying key failures, the causes of those failures, and to draw out lessons learned.
It is incumbent on all leaders of this generation to gain a better understanding of what makes up a subordinate’s background and subsequently, how to best lead them.
Evidence from recent truck attacks suggests an objective that cuts deep into the fabric of society: an erosion of the trust-based system of social rules that allow a city to thrive.
By employing a more information-centric approach as a cornerstone of our operations, we can ultimately win faster and more efficiently.
What makes these elections interesting is that Iran is not a one-man dictatorship. The fundamentalist regime that rules Iran is an oligarchy.
A critical component of turning the tide must be economic development.
As one CT practitioner at a recent George C. Marshall Center event noted, “Counter Terrorism in the absence of women is doomed to fail.”
If a robot “covered your six” in a firefight, would you show it gratitude?
A Small Wars Journal and Military Writers Guild Writing Contest Finalist Article
This appears to be the first known incident in the Mexican criminal insurgency in which the TTP of utilizing women and children as human shields has taken place.
One of the top 8 submissions from the first-ever U.S. Army TRADOC Science Fiction Writing Contest.
One of the top 8 submissions from the first-ever U.S. Army TRADOC Science Fiction Writing Contest.