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)...
A confluence of factors led to American engagement in one of Central America's most violent uprisings: the Salvadoran civil war. By the time of President Ronald Reagan's first term as president, the civil war had created social, political and...
Operation Anaconda, a subordinate operation to Operation Enduring Freedom in 2002, was notable for difficulties in integrating US air and ground forces in order to bring combat power to bear on a stronger than originally anticipated foe. In the...
Multi-national force-iraq commander's counterinsurgency guidance. General David H. Petraeus, U.S. Army; General Petraeus outlines the essential tasks necessary for successful counterinsurgency operations in Iraq.
Analysts and analysts alone create intelligence. Although technological marvels assist analysts by cataloging and presenting data, information and evidence in new ways, they do not do analysis. To be most effective, analysts need an overarching,...
This thesis explores the Russian Federation‘s resurgence as a center of influence and the implications of this resurgence for United States European Command. This is accomplished by examining three countries within European Command‘s area of...
Proving the effectiveness of the application of air power has been an important goal for the United States Air Force. However, since World War II up through at least the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the American Air Force has not been consistent in...
The Marine Corps should expect to fight within a strategic context of complex irregular warfare (CIW) for the near- to mid-term while retaining the ability to fight a major combat operation (MCO). As a result, the Distributed Operations...
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...
Terms such as "operational art" and "operational level" are prevalent in US military space doctrine. However, no research exists that analyzes the applicability of operational art in the space domain. The use of operational terms in US military...
The al Ikhwan al Muslimim, the Society of Muslim Brothers or Muslim Brotherhood, (MB) is an international Islamist organization with over fifty national branches. Its motto reflects its Salafi jihadist motives and methods: "Allah is our objective....
When major combat operations come to a close, decisive action is paramount. Without deliberate action in subsequent stability operations, there is risk of marginalizing previous victories. Expeditionary economic theory offers a solution for...
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...
US participation in expeditionary operations after the end of the cold war, 1991, is indicative of a shift in national security strategy from containment to engagement. Participation is at best multinational, at its most challenging, coalition....
War is the outward expression of competition between complex adaptive political and military systems. In war, competing systems introduce new technological means to gain comparative advantage over other systems and the environment. Greater...
This document defines a way US military leaders can prepare for and conduct military operations through the lens of cultural awareness. It provides a method for helping military commanders, staffs, and trainers engage successfully in any type of...
Lieutenant Colonel John Kolasheski served as the deputy G3 for the 1st Infantry Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) I and, in this capacity, deployed as part of Army Forces Turkey (ARFOR-T) in preparation for what was believed to be the...
This thesis reviews all commentary on the US response (or lack thereof) to the 1994 Rwanda genocide to identify suggested US responses to a similar situation that may occur in the future. Purpose is to develop a course of action for the US...