Small Wars Journal

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.

by James M. Shelley | Wed, 11/07/2012 - 5:30am | 2 comments

Train and posture properly for the threat.

by Chris Miller | Wed, 11/07/2012 - 5:25am | 39 comments

To think that America can’t or shouldn’t project its power globally when necessary is a mistake. America’s military struggles in the post-9/11 era have stemmed from improper application of military force.

by Patrick Truffer | Tue, 11/06/2012 - 4:30am | 2 comments

Iran’s endeavours are concentrated on projects which make little sense for purely civilian usage.

by Nadia Schadlow | Mon, 11/05/2012 - 3:28pm | 5 comments

At a time when the United States has much to lose from retrenchment, an Obama or Romney administration will find the United States with few effective non-military instruments of power.

by Jack Mulcaire | Mon, 11/05/2012 - 4:30am | 4 comments

The Free Syrian Army has moved their war into the second phase of Mao's "people's struggle." 

by Matthew N. Janeczko | Fri, 11/02/2012 - 5:30am | 3 comments

The Russian claim is that their counterinsurgency operations in Chechnya were successes: but at what cost?

by Robert Tollast, by Kirk H. Sowell | Thu, 11/01/2012 - 5:30am | 2 comments

In the final part of this series, Iraq expert Kirk Sowell shines a light on the country's murky foreign policy.

by Sylvia Longmire | Wed, 10/31/2012 - 5:30am | 3 comments

It sounds crazy, but catching the most notorious and wanted drug trafficker in the world might be a bad thing.

by Matthew N. Janeczko | Tue, 10/30/2012 - 5:30am | 18 comments

The Russian Federal forces enjoyed overwhelming superiority, yet were forced into a premature cease-fire in 1996 and suffered immense casualties.

by Octavian Manea, by Janine Davidson | Mon, 10/29/2012 - 5:30am | 0 comments

An interview with Janine Davidson.

by Douglas Batson, by John Waugh, by Kirk Talbott | Fri, 10/26/2012 - 5:30am | 3 comments

The linkages between democracy, natural resources, and peacemaking as Burma seeks a way to wind down a half-century long complex of ethnic, political, and religious strife.  

by Mark Phillips | Thu, 10/25/2012 - 5:30am | 7 comments

Risk management and wicked messes like Afghanistan.

by Adam Elkus, by John P. Sullivan | Wed, 10/24/2012 - 5:30am | 0 comments

Two great minds on drugs... and strategy.

by Chris Miller | Tue, 10/23/2012 - 5:30am | 15 comments

Change doesn’t come easy to military culture; it is often resisted.

by Sterling Jensen, by Robert Sharp | Mon, 10/22/2012 - 6:30am | 1 comment

Regional proxy wars between Iran and the Arab Gulf are using Lebanon as their figurative prostitute.

by Margaret M. Read | Mon, 10/22/2012 - 5:30am | 6 comments

Throughout its existence beginning in the early 1990s, ASG has waffled back and forth between criminality and terrorism. 

by James Thomas Snyder | Fri, 10/19/2012 - 5:30am | 0 comments

Protests in the Middle East are about a power struggle in the Muslim world triggered by the democratic uprisings of the Arab Spring.

by Scott Kinner | Thu, 10/18/2012 - 5:30am | 6 comments

People and culture are important – but they are not the only important things. Their importance is relative to the mission and the operational environment.

 

by Thomas Elkjer Nissen | Wed, 10/17/2012 - 5:30am | 4 comments

Fit the operation to the narrative, not the narrative to the operation.

by Robert B. Scaife | Tue, 10/16/2012 - 4:29pm | 7 comments

The US Army is finding itself in the difficult position of attempting to redefine itself in a climate of reduced resources. It shouldn't pin its future to peer-to-peer battle.

by Dan McCauley | Mon, 10/15/2012 - 5:30am | 2 comments

Simply put, interagency reformists have failed to understand the environment within which they are proposing change.

by Miguel Nunes Silva | Fri, 10/12/2012 - 5:30am | 0 comments

Time now for a return to the basics if the organization is to endure well into the current century.

by Alain Bauer | Thu, 10/11/2012 - 5:30am | 3 comments

A warning and call to action from the French criminologist.

by Andrew Lembke | Wed, 10/10/2012 - 7:55am | 10 comments

Understanding the great paradox of the U.S. military: the better our conventional capabilities, the more likely we are to face increasingly irregular and asymmetric threats.

by James Khalil | Tue, 10/09/2012 - 5:30am | 5 comments

Policy implications from Stathis Kalyvas’ concepts of attitudinal and behavioural support.

by David J. Katz | Mon, 10/08/2012 - 5:30am | 16 comments

Beware the experts, expats, urbanites, and a host of other easy routes.

by Scott Swanson | Fri, 10/05/2012 - 5:30am | 1 comment

The “Red” element can enhance analytical products, challenge critical planning outcomes, scrutinize the viability of source reporting, and assess potential attacks or responses. 

by Joost Hiltermann, by Robert Tollast | Thu, 10/04/2012 - 5:30am | 3 comments

The subject of Israel’s relations with Iraq does not make for headline news. If Israel attacks Iran, that could quickly change...

by Sterling Jensen, by Robert Sharp | Wed, 10/03/2012 - 6:30am | 1 comment

As some try to connect the dots of recent events, is there an Iranian role in what appears to be Stage 2 of the Arab Spring?

by Grant M. Martin | Wed, 10/03/2012 - 5:30am | 24 comments

One of the reasons, if not THE reason, that we struggled to accomplish our objectives in Afghanistan is that we applied an industrial-era approach to the way we conceptualize planning and operations.

by Peter Garretson | Tue, 10/02/2012 - 5:30am | 5 comments

In assessing our “lessons learned” it is vital that the service look forward and not just retrospectively so it does not learn the wrong lessons. 

by Jason Thomas | Mon, 10/01/2012 - 5:35am | 14 comments

Multi-national corporations--particularly from the extractive sector with long project life cycles, access to capital, and attractive return on investment--could act as a new phase in civil-military operations.

by Daniel R. DePetris | Mon, 10/01/2012 - 5:30am | 0 comments

The Syrian regime’s use of shelling and aircraft are now being complimented with wholesale executions in rebel-controlled neighborhoods.

by Nelson E. Hernández | Fri, 09/28/2012 - 5:30am | 2 comments

Water scarcity is an increasingly dangerous problem in the USCENTCOM AOR.

by Erik Goepner | Thu, 09/27/2012 - 5:30am | 23 comments

The prevalence of PTSD and mental disorders in weak and failed states is exacerbated by insurgencies, defying efforts break the cycle.

by William L. Greenberg | Wed, 09/26/2012 - 5:30am | 7 comments

Pershing's leadership attributes and willingness to understand and work through the Moro culture achieved success in a complex operational environment.

by Landon Shroder | Tue, 09/25/2012 - 5:30am | 5 comments

Without international intervention, Syria will continue to slip into deeper sectarianism, which is the worst case scenario for Iraq.

by Leo Wyszynski, by Mike Simmering | Mon, 09/24/2012 - 5:30am | 6 comments

“Afghan Led” is a critical aspect of our counterinsurgency operations that we must grasp to enable ultimate mission success.

by Jesse Sloman | Fri, 09/21/2012 - 6:30am | 8 comments

The uniformed analytic community largely lacks institutional expertise and struggles to provide commanders with meaningful intelligence products.

by Youssef Aboul-Enein | Thu, 09/20/2012 - 5:30am | 1 comment

A scathing and scholarly critique of the impact of De-Ba’athification on the America’s efforts to stabilize Iraq. 

by Steve Griffin | Wed, 09/19/2012 - 5:30am | 23 comments

Further thought is required if this concept is going to succeed in the future.

by Tom Pike | Tue, 09/18/2012 - 5:30am | 14 comments

Historians often turn wars and battles into linear sequences outlining casual chains for which the mind has a natural bias.

by Pete Turner, by Jeff Stewart, by Richard Ledet | Mon, 09/17/2012 - 5:30am | 3 comments

Transition can’t simply be, “We are leaving...good luck.”

by Mehar Omar Khan | Fri, 09/14/2012 - 5:30am | 3 comments

The barbarians have come and the rules of war and peace stand transformed.

by Gregory Conti, by John Nelson, by Jacob Cox, by Jon Brickey | Thu, 09/13/2012 - 5:30am | 7 comments

Cyber warfare isn’t hype; it’s real.  

by Andrew Chadwick | Wed, 09/12/2012 - 5:30am | 3 comments

 “We’ve won the war,” General Dan Halutz boasted.

by Andrew Chadwick | Tue, 09/11/2012 - 5:30am | 4 comments

What began as an Israeli air campaign rapidly evolved into an extensive ground war of bloody house-to-house battles that the Israelis were ill prepared to wage. 

by Jason B. Nicholson | Mon, 09/10/2012 - 5:30am | 1 comment

Iranian inroads in Africa present a potential new front in the Iranian-US cold war.

by Richard Weitz, by Robert Tollast | Fri, 09/07/2012 - 5:30am | 2 comments

An autocratic Iraq will probably be happier doing more business with China and Russia. But the idea of a Sino-Russian strategy in the Middle East is far from simple.

by John R. Deni | Fri, 09/07/2012 - 5:00am | 1 comment

Using security cooperation to prevent, shape ... and win.