Is the targeted killing of United States citizens legal? There are two competing models which address the legality of targeted killings: the law-enforcement model and the armed-conflict model. This paper examines arguments for and against each...
The United States Navy has always considered combating piracy a mission and responsibility under international law and tradition. Recently, the importance of this mission has increased markedly. There are two reasons for this. First, the increase...
In this author's opinion, the United States Army is not doing enough to prepare combat organizations for the inevitability of casualties. This thesis proposes the following primary research question: How can United States Army combat organizations...
Operational art and the operational level of war became a doctrinal focus for the U.S. Army in the 1980s. This focus led to the development of the elements of operational design. These concepts are not new, and were developed in the interwar period...
The national will of the United States, and other democratic nations, is far more vulnerable today than in the past. Changes in society and technology have allowed enemies to adapt. The character of war has evolved into a more unorthodox type of...
State formation aims to achieve a legitimate monopoly on the use of violence and a legitimate government as perceived by its population. Governments have two principle mechanisms, force and consent, to create the conditions within which it can...
First introduced into U.S. Army doctrine in 1982, the operational level of war developed to remove politics from an inherently political process. American writers absorbed Soviet writing on the subject and translated it into existing doctrine...
This monograph explores the current debates surrounding "hollow forces" and the decrease in the defense budget following prolonged conflict. Leaders' strategic choices, which lead to decreasing resources, sometimes create the perception of hollow...
Since 2006, more than 30,000 Mexican citizens have died in drug-related violence. With the threat of this violence escalating and spilling across the border into the United States, it is necessary to employ the full range of assets and options...
The last 10 years of conflict have seen a dramatic increase of airspace users above the battlefield providing both opportunities and challenges to maneuver commanders. Assets operating overhead assist the commander in mission command; however, the...
Between April and August 1943, the U.S. Army’s II Corps saw two of its division commanders relieved of their commands. Each relief appeared tied to battlefield setbacks. MG Orlando Ward of the 1st Armored Division was relieved after his division...
The purpose of this monograph is to show that US counterinsurgency doctrine would benefit from greater emphasis on social, cultural, and political aspects of the operating environment, using the case of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal as an example....
The extensive use of propaganda by all belligerents during World War I created sensitivity to the relationship between modern communications technologies and the manipulation of public opinion. Government elites and academicians were so concerned...
In the late 1970s, a group of reform minded Chinese, led by Deng Xiaoping, enacted a series of economic reforms that catapulted China into the global spotlight. The key to sustaining the dynamic growth is access to petroleum resources. The central...
This monograph shows how understanding three conceptual tradeoffs of complex versus complicated, complexity at large-scale versus fine-scale, and exploration of potential problems versus exploitation of known solutions can help the military...
Non-citizens have served in the United States military during every war since at least the Civil War. In 1862 Congress, in an effort to increase the size of the Army, passed the first legislation which authorized expedited citizenship for...
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is becoming an important topic for military leaders as the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue. The diagnosis of PTSD in Soldiers returning from the battlefields is increasing at an alarming rate. Despite...
The military is increasingly using and relying on the term "narrative" in its lexicon. United States strategic guidance documents generally implore commanders to "shape the narrative," doctrinal publications recommend commanders to "exploit a...
India is grappling with its current and future geostrategic role, which ranges from acting as a regional security provider in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), to assuming the role of a world economic and military power. What role India pursues will...
Leonard Wood served as a Military Governor in Cuba from 1898 (Santiago) and 1899 to 1902, later as the Military Governor of the Moro Province in the Philippines from 1903 to 1906, and eventually as Governor General for the Philippines until his...