The 2008 National Defense Strategy identifies promoting security as one of the nation's strategic objectives, using Security Force Assistance (SFA) as a method to build partner capacity. The primary threat addressed is violent extremist...
Deteriorating nation states are a significant threat to U.S. and Western interests. Ineffective nation states frequently generate economic, social and humanitarian crises for their ungoverned populations, imperil the security of neighboring...
Contingency operations are currently taking place in dangerous, unpredictable, and highly volatile environments where local government institutions have weakened or collapsed. In view of these conflict situations, it is recognized that the initial...
Following protracted campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the British Army must restructure for the future amidst significant financial restrictions. Since 9/11, the character of warfare appears to have shifted; theories of hybrid warfare are...
On 7 December 2005, President Bush signed the National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 44, Management of Interagency Efforts Concerning Reconstruction and Stabilization. NSPD 44 established the State Department Office of the Coordinator for...
In the wake of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, T.E. Lawrence's description of counterinsurgency (COIN) analogous to "eating soup with a knife," has new meaning in our contemporary military. It describes our kinetic conventional army (the knife)...
What kind of policy can the United States and the international community pursue that increases the likelihood that stability emerges in failed and failing states? I develop a theory of state-building to guide decision makers. The theory states...
The attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, originating from Afghanistan, and the earthquake in January 2010 that devastated Haiti illustrate the different dangers that weak and failed states represent to the international...
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (the Congo) received its independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960. The Congo’s political development from the 1700s to 1960 resulted in a democratically elected Congolese administration that at the time of...
In an age predominated by states but rife with non-state actors, failing states, increasingly fluid boundaries, disenfranchised yet interconnected populations, and increasingly self-aware cultures, the United States must develop a foreign policy...
The United State Army has been fighting the nation’s wars for over 260 years. Throughout history, the Army has been confronted with the barriers that are put in place when two cultures are thrust together through combat. Repeatedly the Army has...
The trends of the operational environment either provide a cause for an insurgency or a means for an insurgency, thus shifting the focus of the scout platoon away from major combat and towards insurgency. This shift to insurgency causes the scout...
The comparison of both strategic documents shows that the analysis of the new threats of terrorism and proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction is similar, as well as the stated strategic goals/ ends. The great difference can be found in the...
History illustrates that without unity of command and a mechanism to enable unity of effort, achieving strategic and regional objectives is rare. AFRICOM, a newly established Combatant Command, faces innumerable challenges within the continent of...
The United States conducts Host Nation Police Advisory (HNPA) missions, as a subset of Security Sector Reform (SSR), to improve the rule of law and legitimacy of failing and failed states. To develop a more effective HNPA program, the U.S....
Presents the organizational directive of the United States Army Air Corps 9th Air Force as of May 29, 1944. Includes sections covering the commanding general, plans and operations, maintenance, supply, personnel and training, transportation, and...
A mathematical expression for combining the entire failure rate curve is derived based on the assumption that the failure population is composed of three subpopulations, early, chance, and wear out. A graphical method is provided for separating the...
(Self-Study of the U.S. Army Sergeant Major Academy, prepared for Commission on Occupational Education Institutions, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, April 1985. ) This self study is a comprehensive review of the organization and...
Like the post-9/11 Bush administration, the Obama administration must confront numerous security threats to U.S. national interests at home and abroad. The Obama administration, however, has the added challenge of a severe domestic economic...
This monograph examines the effects of changes in the current operating environment and current operations in Iraq on the application of Foreign Internal Defense (FID) operations conducted by Special Operations Forces (SOF). This study identifies...