In the years following the invasion of Iraq, the United States military did not fully realize or understand the complexity of the situation faced by soldiers operating at the tactical and operational level. Coupled with the presence of multiple...
This paper demonstrates how a better understanding of culture can lend itself to a better understanding of meaning in discourse between two cultures who operate across a linguistic barrier. The paper falls under the tradition of cultural...
Within the literature on Systemic Operational Design, discourse is generally treated as a mechanical communicative process. The monograph presents alternative ways to consider discourse, the implications of this for theory of Systemic Operational...
French Algeria and British Northern Ireland: Legitimacy and the Rule of Law in Low-Intensity Conflict. Lieutenant Colonel James D. Campbell, Maine Army National Guard; During the late 1950s, after a ruthless counterterrorism campaign in Algeria,...
The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 was a cataclysmic international event. Because of the devastation suffered during the genocide, a focused effort at repairing the social fabric of the nation had to take place. The case shows how Rwanda overcame the...
From the initial invasion in 2001 through the ongoing counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has been challenged with truly understanding the socio-cultural dynamics of the local populace which has become known as the...
This work applies the diffusion of innovations theory in the analysis of the USG's governance and development efforts in Afghanistan to determine if the key elements of diffusion of innovations are present. This study further examines if, when...
Increasingly, Canada's military is being called upon to deploy into complex operational environments where it must deal with highly adaptive adversaries seeking to destabilize society through a variety of asymmetric means. Articulating this new...
At the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College (CGSC), students are charged with balancing their lives in mind, body, and spirit; however, self-development tools are readily available to U. S. military leaders in the first two of these...
Accounting for religion and other cultural aspects of the operational environment continues to be a challenge for the United States military. The basis for this is scientific rationalism embedded in military problem solving processes. It is also a...
This monograph presents a method for military planners to operationalize an adversary's culture during conceptual planning. To present this methodology, the monograph asks the question, is a Western way of war distinctly different from a...
The Department of Defense must establish specially trained and selected advisory teams that immerse themselves in the country for 2-3 years, and who work at the regional, country and unit level, provide the cultural understanding and regional...
The present situation in Afghanistan is not being resolved by the current U.S. strategic approach. Given the recent uptick in insurgent violence, the shift in emphasis with regards to Afghanistan, and the change in presidential administrations, the...
Sun Tzu asserts that success is not winning every battle fought, but subduing the enemy's will without fighting. Nevertheless, modern military thought fails to distinguish an enemy's will-to-fight from their means to do so, limiting the ways...
The Command and General Staff College endeavors to instill critical thinking as a skill practiced by its graduates. To this end the college has introduced the concept of critical thinking as a class within the core curriculum. Students must take a...
The Global War on Terror (GWOT) requires that the military modify its methodology for conducting global operations. The military is transitioning from primarily lethal-focused offensive and defensive operations to full-spectrum operations that also...
The art and science of geopolitics was developed to explain history and international relations by identifying and incorporating the role of geography and climate in the complex adaptive organic system that is human civilization. The application of...
This research discusses the high murder rate in Jamaica as a consequence of gang activity. It higlights the negative impact of gangs in regard to national security. The complexity of the gang problem is identified by describing the gangs'...
The Department of Defense acknowledged the importance of language and cultural expertise with the approval and dissemination of the Defense Language Transformation Roadmap in February 2005 and Department of Defense Directive 3000.05 in November...
The problem facing practitioners of emerging Army doctrine is how to expand the use of assessments beyond detailed planning to support conceptual planning during design. This raises the question, will the use of assessments enable the commander to...