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 Mike Campbell | Thu, 05/10/2012 - 5:55am | 16 comments

Military officers should be intrapreneurs, not entrepreneurs.

by Mehar Omar Khan | Wed, 05/09/2012 - 5:41am | 3 comments

An erudite lesson on words and COIN from a Pakistani officer.

by Morgan Smiley | Tue, 05/08/2012 - 5:45am | 1 comment

Some disruptive thoughts on future defense initiatives from Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

by Matthew Stein | Mon, 05/07/2012 - 6:04am | 1 comment

The power of online videos to analyze events and the information struggle they present.

by Nicholas J. Armstrong | Fri, 05/04/2012 - 5:48am | 3 comments

As we look toward a combat exit, how to sustain the advisory effort?

by Thomas J. Buonomo | Thu, 05/03/2012 - 5:54am | 4 comments

Thomas Buonomo offers a roll-up of recent commentary on the way ahead in Afghanistan.

by Karen Kaya | Wed, 05/02/2012 - 5:43am | 4 comments

Turkey and the PKK - whither U.S. policy?

by James Y. Wong, by Ernest Y. Wong | Tue, 05/01/2012 - 5:39am | 1 comment

A balanced COIN approach?

by Adam Elkus | Mon, 04/30/2012 - 5:50am | 12 comments

Where do we go with Design in a post-COIN (for now) world?

by Peter J. Munson | Fri, 04/27/2012 - 8:03am | 1 comment

SWJ Editor Peter J. Munson discusses advising, COIN, Iraq, and disruptive thinking with Owen West, author of "The Snake Eaters."

by Varun Vira | Thu, 04/26/2012 - 5:58am | 6 comments

How instability on the subcontinent could rapidly spiral out of control.

by Peter J. Munson | Wed, 04/25/2012 - 5:57am | 7 comments

West's narrative about combat advisors in Iraq is a timely read that should leave you with many questions about current and future advisory efforts.

by Thomas J. Buonomo | Wed, 04/25/2012 - 5:49am | 0 comments

There are many paper options for how to proceed with respect to Iran's nuclear program, but which have any real hope of success?

by Dorothy Corley, by Andrew Bertrand, by Youssef Aboul-Enein | Tue, 04/24/2012 - 5:40am | 3 comments

In the much awaited final segment of this series, we read of the Iran-Iraq War from 1983 to 1987. I implore you to read the conclusions!

by Faieq Zarif, by Karl Slaikeu | Mon, 04/23/2012 - 5:42am | 5 comments

Five very intricate questions as to how we should look at the challenges at hand.

by Sterling Jensen, by Robert Sharp | Fri, 04/20/2012 - 2:47pm | 2 comments

Considering future scenarios in Yemen.

by Justin Peele | Fri, 04/20/2012 - 5:54am | 8 comments

Must we define drug traffickers in Mexico as terrorists and do more to prevent their disastrous effects?

by Dennis Sugrue, by Andrew Pfluger | Thu, 04/19/2012 - 12:07pm | 5 comments

Water, water everywhere...  COIN and the pennance of life.

by Robert Caruso, by Daniel Trombly | Thu, 04/19/2012 - 5:48am | 11 comments

Will Flynn exercise some disruptive thinking at DIA?

by Grant M. Martin | Wed, 04/18/2012 - 5:59am | 16 comments

 

How The Dead Poets Society Advocated Disruptive Thinkers, Why DoD Shouldn't Encourage More Disruptive Thinkers, and 10 Principles for Those That do Think Disruptively

by Adam Elkus | Tue, 04/17/2012 - 5:41am | 0 comments

We must limit the ends we seek in these times.  Does that mean we can't remake the world?

by Sergio Miller | Mon, 04/16/2012 - 5:44am | 24 comments

Sergio Miller takes an in-depth look at COIN in Malaya

by Brett A. Friedman | Fri, 04/13/2012 - 4:30pm | 4 comments

Could Smedley dig his trenches today?

by Mike Mazarr | Fri, 04/13/2012 - 6:36am | 7 comments

Dr. Mazarr provides a corrective to Kohlmann's view of professional military education.

by Luis Jorge Garay-Salamanca, by Eduardo Salcedo-Albarán | Thu, 04/12/2012 - 1:25pm | 0 comments

Mexican criminal networks are far more decentralized and thus more resiliant than the Colombian cartels of the 1980s.

by Youssef Aboul-Enein, by Andrew Bertrand, by Dorothy Corley | Thu, 04/12/2012 - 6:20am | 1 comment

A detailed look at Egyptian Field Marshal Abu Ghazalah's study of the Iran-Iraq War.

by Jonathan Jeckell | Wed, 04/11/2012 - 6:30am | 20 comments

How do entrepreneurship and innovation operate and how can they fit into a military institution?

by Luis Jorge Garay-Salamanca, by Eduardo Salcedo-Albarán | Mon, 04/09/2012 - 9:02pm | 0 comments

A look at the gray agents - the public servants, political actors, or security agents - that promote criminal interests. 

by Peter J. Munson | Mon, 04/09/2012 - 6:00am | 61 comments

An attempt to answer the question:  What problem are we trying to solve?

by Adam Harmon | Sat, 04/07/2012 - 8:36am | 25 comments

One Israeli's view on what's to come.

by Matthew P. Dearing | Fri, 04/06/2012 - 2:15pm | 0 comments

The death of Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika throws the country's stability into question.

by Youssef Aboul-Enein | Fri, 04/06/2012 - 7:47am | 3 comments

The Arab Spring has caused a renewed interest in the political history of the Middle East, and a hunger to learn the nuances of political discourse from Islamists of various stripes to pan-Arab and secular.  It has been a challenge finding volumes tha

by Benjamin Kohlmann | Thu, 04/05/2012 - 5:36am | 99 comments

Disruptive thinkers: the way to reinvigorate a senseless bureaucracy or a threat to the establishment? 

by Frank Hoffman | Wed, 04/04/2012 - 6:12am | 7 comments

Frank Hoffman reviews David E. Johnson's Hard Fighting: Israel in Lebanon and Gaza.

by David Oclander | Tue, 04/03/2012 - 5:49am | 9 comments

Former battalion commander LTC David Oclander provides a valuable experience in taking responsibility in another culture.

by Matt Ince | Mon, 04/02/2012 - 5:57am | 0 comments

Thirty years ago, on 2 April 1982, Argentine forces occupied the Falkland Islands.  Matt Ince looks at the issues that still brew there.

by Daniel R. DePetris | Sat, 03/31/2012 - 8:29am | 3 comments

By taking the fight to his opponents in the western frontier, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hopes to preempt significant resistance from encroaching in the capital.

by Stephen McGlinchey, by Jamsheed K. Choksy | Fri, 03/30/2012 - 7:56am | 2 comments

The present mimics the past, more dangerously, as we take a look back at the Shah's nuclear ambitions in Iran.

by Dan McCauley | Thu, 03/29/2012 - 5:59am | 5 comments

Dan McCauley argues that the unimaginative 2012 Strategic Defense Guidance calls for some creative thinking.

by Dale C. Eikmeier | Wed, 03/28/2012 - 5:54am | 1 comment

It isn't either - or.  How the center of gravity fits into the design process.

by Seth A. Shreckengast | Tue, 03/27/2012 - 5:39am | 6 comments

Seth A. Shreckengast examines the successes of village stability operations and the Afghan Local Police program.

by Srdja Popovic, by Octavian Manea | Mon, 03/26/2012 - 5:50am | 0 comments

Regular contributor Octavian Manea interviews Srdja Popovic, Serbian non-violent activist, on strategies of non-violent resistance.

by Youssef Aboul-Enein | Sun, 03/25/2012 - 9:03am | 4 comments

A Sunday look at the boat types of the Persian Gulf.

by J.R. Bullington | Fri, 03/23/2012 - 10:00am | 21 comments

Ambassador J.R. Bullington, once a foreign service officer serving in the CORDS program in Vietnam, argues that we won the counterinsurgency war in Vietnam.  Harry Summers, where are you?

by Mark Munson | Thu, 03/22/2012 - 6:57am | 1 comment

Mark Munson considers the NYPD's intelligence program and finds it lacking.

by Octavian Manea, by Erica Chenoweth | Wed, 03/21/2012 - 6:36am | 3 comments

Regular contributor Octavian Manea offers an interview with Dr. Erica Chenoweth on civil resistance, or civilian operations short of insurgency.

by Richard Outzen | Tue, 03/20/2012 - 6:26am | 31 comments

COL Rich Outzen makes a plea for a transformational approach to promoting language skills in the force.  Is it possible to turn the failure around?

by Lawrence Cline | Sun, 03/18/2012 - 10:17pm | 1 comment

Lawrence Cline looks at the complexity of armed actors in internal conflicts and advises against getting too caught up in typologies.

by Andrew G. Attar, Jr. | Fri, 03/16/2012 - 12:00pm | 1 comment

Andrew Attar considers how operational design can improve success in Phase IV stability operations.