Journal

The USAF’s fighter procurement plan puts Combat Air Forces on a pathway to become smaller, less capable, and less relevant to the challenges faced by the nation and our allies.

By examining Japan’s history and culture, this paper seeks to understand why the Yasukuni Shrine burdens Japan’s relationship particularly with the Republic of Korea and China.

The Army must institute an evaluation system that offers promotion boards more information on each candidate’s performance and potential that is independent from the chain of command.

The War on Terror has been coined our era’s Vietnam and there has been no shortage of opinions on how similar or different Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom are.

Our team has spent the last four months studying ungoverned spaces and the unique characteristics that will impact potential future operations and has initiated a network modeling technique.

With the sequester in effect, there must be a shift in the Army to transition to a Total Army training plan in order to synchronize its efforts and formulate synergy.

Erdoğan and the PKK see opportunities in renewed struggle, sidelining the threat of ISIS.

Interview with Commander (rtd) Steve Tatham, PhD, RN, Director of Operations at IOTA-Global Ltd, a specialist civilian Information Operations company.

Soldier efficiency should be a cornerstone of capabilities development in the Army.  The importance of Soldier efficiency will only grow as a smaller segment of society serves in uniform.

This paper examines the conduct of the Afghanistan War under the Barack Obama administration and offers policy recommendations for the president.

The cyber domain is a 'forest' dense with complications and operational implications. Cyber black swan events will happen; we must prepare to deal with them.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army lost the support of Catholics in Northern Ireland because the scope of its operations escalated the level of violence to a state that was beyond its control.

Human domain maps are just as critical to 21st century warfare as terrestrial maps. This article demonstrates the importance of these human domain maps.

War is nonlinear. The implications of this statement should shape our understanding of war’s nature, and the role of its unpredictability in our planning process.

The national military strategy showcases innovation as one of three mechanisms to retain our comparative advantage in a complex future environment.

To address the national security challenges involving land power it is imperative for increased discipline and innovation to solve complex problems while simultaneously adjusting to fiscal constraints imposed by the realities of global economic pressures.

Interview with Dr. Mark Galeotti, Professor of Global Affairs and academic director of the  Transnational Security concentration of the MS in Global Affairs program at New York University.

This article examines the current and emerging security situation faced by Mexico’s petro-energy sector.

The conflict between Georgia and Russia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia provide a number of valuable and relevant lessons for international organizations and the international community.

The new military COIN doctrine articulated in December 2006 had been applied to the surge in Iraq with some success, and it was being applied in Afghanistan under General Stanley McChrystal.

As China’s economic might has grown, so has its ability and inclination to use national power and influence to advance its geopolitical ends.

A recent National Defense University article titled “Rapid Regeneration of Irregular Warfare Capacity” identifies some pitfalls with the elimination of irregular warfare capability.

The overall purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the contemporary hybrid warfare employed by Russia in Ukraine and determine which elements have been most critical for Russia’s success.

The US’ relationship with Europe is complex but paramount for security - as Europe serves as a geographical and cultural buffer for the US to our adversaries to the east and to the south.

National security professionals would do well to consider the history of the American Civil War when pondering the strategic dilemmas of modern small wars.

Lone wolf terrorists can be difficult to identify before an attack is attempted because the individual is not tied to any specific organization or network.

The exact number of Americans who have joined ISIS is unknown, but the DNI testified that roughly 180 have traveled or have attempted to travel to Syria in order to fight with extremist organizations.

One small war changed Israel, contributed to the stabilization of relations between Israel and the Arab states and the rise of non-state actors that continue to cause trouble in the region.

The operationalization of the Cyberspace Domain at the tactical-level continues to exacerbate both tactical theorists and practitioners alike.

Senior leaders within the US military often view detention operations as a supply problem rather than a challenging and continually changing dynamic with strategic level implications.

In the 21st century, there has been an apparent shift in the operations of Mexican criminal organizations since the onset of democratization.

Cameron H. Holmes, Organized Crime in Mexico: Assessing the Threat to North American Economies. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2014, 200 Pages.

The focus of this interview was ISIS and the current crisis is Syria and Iraq.  While the actual interview will be made available by SMA, I am providing the answers I prepared in advance.

If this “luck” can be programmed as an Artificial Intelligence algorithm, then unmanned aviation will truly enter the robotic age.

The international aid community continues to underestimate the power of religion as a potential partner in the context of post-conflict statebuilding.

The purposeful destruction and ransacking of cultural properties has been with us probably for as long as there has been war.

Strategy cannot stand on its own.  Strategy exists to support a purpose, its success or failure measured against that purpose.

The 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia and its ongoing intervention in Ukraine demonstrates an increasing reliance on the military and security services as instruments of its grand strategy.

Responding to a perceived increase in radicalization among American Muslims, the White House recently convened a summit on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE).

It is time to recognize the central problem and to understand that nuclear weapons and human suffering are the result of one thing:  the existence of the Kim Family Regime.

On-going research on “mega-cities” highlights aspects of large, unplanned cities that make them an operational challenge.

An Army culture that valued robust formations with overwhelming resources must now transform into a culture that embraces the reorganization of the current operational force. 

Tony M. Kail, Narco-Cults: Understanding the Use of Afro-Caribbean and Mexican Religious Cultures in the Drug Wars. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2015. 345 Pages. $59.95.

We should recognize that the enemies we fought in Afghanistan and Iraq possessed many advantages, including a level of freedom and knowledge that we sometimes ignore.

Today’s terrorist organizations more resemble organized criminal organizations rather than the strictly political or military organizations they once were.

How can we be at war with an ideology, what is it that attracts its members, and can an ideology really be combated?

The acquisition of Unmanned Aerial Systems by non-state actors will require U.S. forces to modify operational procedures in an approaching era of ubiquitous surveillance.

The most dangerous problem in Libya is the spread of an ISIS-led insurgency that threatens to undermine the stability of the entire region.

The demands on the Active Component necessitates Security Cooperation solutions with the breadth of scope and malleability that can only be optimized by incorporating the US Army Reserve.

Unless the Federal Government of Somalia is able to arrive at a political solution and consolidate control of the country future military victories on the battlefield will accomplish little.