Journal

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.

Militias can be essential assets to the establishment of security in coordination with effective counter-insurgency strategy, but they come with risks.

The threat of online Islamic radicalism is a growing issue for the U.S. and the West today; however, little is being done by lawmakers.

The Defense & Strategic Studies Program at West Point organized a multi-disciplinary, academic and professional forum to discuss the many perspectives on potential US military intervention in Iran.

The drone war alone, without a corresponding indirect approach, will, over the long term, force AQAM to get better, harder, more creative, and more resistant to direct attacks.

If the DoD continues to ignore the management and leadership issues facing the APH program it can expect more of the same.

Continuing from Part I and Part II, this next section delivers the initial view of the restructured Pentagon.

Call them sticks and carrots, or direct and indirect, or hard and soft power approaches. Either way, we are at a strategic inflection point.

Much has been written about terrorist groups who make use of the world’s undergoverned spaces, but very little has examined the dynamics of these areas themselves.

Never has it been more important to go beyond simple sound-bites and truly delve into the history and evolution of the Middle East.

Air Operations in Israel’s War Against Hezbollah: Learning from Lebanon and Getting It Right in Gaza & Eagle in the Sky.

SWJ Book Review: David Kilcullen, Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla, New York: Oxford University Press.

SWJ Discussion with Dr. David H. Ucko and Dr. Robert Egnell about their book Counterinsurgency in Crisis: Britain and the Challenges of Modern Warfare.

SWJ Book Review: Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country by Andrew J. Bacevich.

Interview with Brookings Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown.

The Government of the Republic of the Philippines is confronted by a persistent communist insurgency, the origins of which date back to 1968.

Has the United States Air Force selected the most operationally capable strike aircraft for the future FID mission in Afghanistan?

Ethnic Conflicts and the Muslim Question in Philippine Politics: Why Current Efforts at Conflict-Resolution Fail.

Some have questioned such a panel for cadets.  One officer/faculty member who exemplifies this attitude said this past April, “we don’t want second lieutenant strategic thinkers.”

The practitioners of VSO operate nearly entirely in the spaces of communities damaged by combinations of traumatizing violence, loss, displacement, starvation, death and dismemberment.

How to Improve U.S. National Security Strategies - Presented to The Center for Army Analysis on 17 September 2013.

How quickly a force can achieve national endstates is the speed that is vital to our nation’s elements of national power.  This speed may mean slower operational and tactical speed.

This past Wednesday, the anniversary of 9/11, I was standing in a parking lot and heard the unmistakable sound that is forever imbedded in my mind.

"Still reeling from the Defeat of Global Communism in the War of Ideas."

This Spanish language SWJ-El Centro article is intended to stimulate debate among Latin American security professionals.

As we near the 20- year anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu, it is worthwhile to look back at US and UN involvement in that effort to see what we have learned and can learn.

Tactics, Techniques and Procedures basic to Infantrymen and modified to fit the Security Force Assistance Team environment.

The future of Egypt’s government, and thus the future of its citizens, foreign relations, economy, security, and many other key areas, is currently a black hole.

Big Expeditionary COIN, a Small Wars Journal Interview with T.X. Hammes.

With the economy groaning, one major conflict finished, and another winding down, the struggle for dwindling resources is well underway. The losers in this struggle are already clear.

This is the third in a series of three articles that discuss analytics of the human dimension of conflict.

This is the second in a series of three articles that discuss analytics of the human dimension of conflict.

This is the first in a series of three articles that discuss analytics of the human dimension of conflict.

Reflections on the "Counterinsurgency Decade": Small Wars Journal Interview with General David H. Petraeus.

Without the funds we have enjoyed for the last decade, we have to increase our emphasis on maximizing the efficiency of military spending.

Small Wars Journal book review: The Young Ataturk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey by George Gawrych.

The Arab Spring was neither very Arab nor the blossoming of something new as much as a resurfacing of deep-seated conflicts.

Syrian refugee camps in Turkey are major breeding grounds for anti-U.S. sentiment.

The Army must change the definitions of landpower and land control to establish a firm conceptual baseline from which national and military strategies are developed.