With the advent of Field Manual (FM) 3-24, Counterinsurgency, a debate has arisen concerning the manual's origins and its applicability to today's insurgencies. Critics, such as Colonel Gian Gentile, claim that the manual is overly influenced by...
This monograph sets out to prove that Geoffrey Blainey's theory about a disagreement over relative power between nations explains the causes of the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991. Blainey describes the diplomatic crisis leading to war 'like a crisis...
Monday, August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made land in the New Orleans Parishes of Louisiana in the United States. Ten to twenty feet of seawater and chemicals from area industrial plants covered the area. Some residents took supplies for a few...
The United States is now in the eighth year of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). For America, the war began with the surprise attacks against targets in Washington D.C. and New York City on September 11, 2001. For al Qaeda, the war began centuries...
This study focuses on the operational level of war -- that level which links tactics to strategy. The study seeks to identify and define principles applicable to the operational level of war. If valid, those principles ought to guide and/or govern...
This monograph examines the legacy that has been passed down from the personal recollections made by the Commanders-in-Chief, U.S. Southern Command regarding planning and/or execution of full spectrum operations in Panama. The focus of this paper...
This monograph examines the tension between the science of increased technological control and the art of the demands of command and leadership on the modern battlefield. Specifically, it analyzes the potential for battalion commanders to exercise...
This study investigates the contributions of the U.S. Army’s coastal fortification system to execute the coastal defense policy of the United States, in view of the tremendous technological advances and developmental shortfalls it had to contend...
This paper challenges the idea that the thinkers who developed the American Theory of Limited War prior to Vietnam were grossly in error. A framework for the elements of the theory is constructed through a discussion of the historical American way...
The purpose of this paper is to examine the operational impact of the INF treaty and what it means for the future of NATO. At this writing, there is considerable debate going on as to whether or not the US Congress should ratify the INF treaty. The...
This study examines the doctrinal definition of deterrence, reviews Bernard Brodie's deterrence theory and discusses the impacts of his theory upon state and nonstate actors. The study further defines the terms asymmetry and asymmetrical threats...
Innovations in military technology and organization have changed strategic and tactical methods of fighting wars. The U.S. Army AirLand Battle doctrine has revived the operational level to link strategic and tactical levels of war. The concept of...
In both historical and contemporary practice of operational art the concept of balance appears to be of significant consideration. We are instructed in FM 100-5, for instance, to "" ... throw the enemy off balance .... "" (p , 27) The histories of...
The American and Filipino guerrillas that fought against the Japanese occupation of the Philippines were key in providing direction to resistance efforts and in the eventual liberation of the islands. The guerrillas escaped the aggressive...
The purpose of this monograph is to provide operational commanders and staff with a glimpse of the potential of non-lethal power of culture. This monograph suggests that it maybe possible to weaponize culture, specifically through the use of...
This monograph answers the question “What must an encircled unit be provided and do in order to successfully hold?” Following the end of the Cold War and the subsequent drawdown, the United States adopted a military strategy of force...
Since September 11, democracy has come to dominate the discourse as authoritarian Middle East regimes, even if they are friendly to Western interests, are perceived to be at the root of the existing international state of insecurity. Promoting...
Can the United States successfully impose democracy by force without resorting to the same level of total warfare it waged on Germany and Japan in the Second World War? The hypothesis for this research is that the U.S. can successfully force...