This monograph examines the transformation of military forces, the development of military doctrine and the influence of previous wars. It is an attempt to identify the driving factors of military transformation in general, to look into the role...
For military operations, the counterinsurgency environment is perhaps the most complicated and arduous environment in history. Often, government and military leaders are unsure how conventional forces should deal with an inferior enemy who stays...
In the past three decades, one country has stood out more than any other in opposing the United States' efforts in the Middle East: Iran. To counter Iranian influences in the Middle East, the United States has adopted a stance of containment...
This study investigates the causes of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka from a civilizational point of view using as a base line the studies by Dr. Samuel P. Huntington. Sri Lanka, a large island in the Indian Ocean, has been engulfed by a...
The purpose of this monograph is to determine the ideal practices for militias and irregular forces in counterinsurgency operations. This study specifically addresses those groups organized by a legitimate sponsor such as the Host Nation or one of...
The militant Lebanese Shia Group Hezbollah (Party of God) has evolved into the largest and most professional terrorist groups in the Middle East. The political wing has been successful at placing several representatives in the Lebanese Parliament...
In 1979 the age old struggle for the control of Islam between the Shiite and Sunni sects re-emerged in the Middle East. Four events occurred in 1979 that defined the context of contemporary Middle Eastern politics: the Islamic revolution in Iran,...
This monograph investigates the reasons for the lack of coordination and combined effort between political leadership, military engagement and humanitarian activity during a humanitarian intervention. It analyses basic principles to successfully...
Bias caused by organizational culture is a constant companion of military planning. Cognitive models dominated by Newtonian, mechanistic, and reductionist thinking, have all but entrenched bias at the operational level of war where contextual, or...
The purpose of this study is to understand the extent to which current and potential conflicts over the Nile River water will affect or impact on South Sudan’s national security strategy after becoming an independent state in July 2011. It also...
The international community intervened repeatedly in Somalia since the central government fell in 1991. These interventions failed to produce a stable, elected government. Instead, over the last 20 years Somalis faced famine, terrorism, sexual...
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 monograph examines the cumulative effect which improvements in information technology have had at the operational level of war. Specifically, it uses the Clausewitzian theory of war to analyze how modern methods of information processing and...
This paper explains that in order for a fractured society to forge a lasting, stable peace, it requires not only a holistic approach to amnesty, reintegration, and reconciliation (AR2) but also a balance of three critical dimensions within its...
With combat formations schedule to begin drawing down in July 2011 and the role of US forces in Iraq already shifting away from the lead, the future of these two nations will grow increasingly dependent upon the indigenous security forces and the...
From antiquity to the present there has been cultural tension over different views of what is right and what is wrong, and every culture desires to apply their values universally to the rest of the world. When a nation chooses to go to war and...
The following report is divided into three principal chapters dealing with (A) background information, (B) the money and credit system in 1939-40, and (C) the period following the German invasion of 1941. Chapter A gives a short review of the...
Following the period from 1957-1960, when most countries in West Africa broke loose from colonialism and became independent, the need for an integrated and classless society was one of paramount concern to most, if not all, West Africans. Up to...
While in the past two decades, the region of West Africa has experienced various armed conflicts, a new security threat that has emerged is the growing threat of violence by radical Islamist groups. This phenomenon has assumed prominence in the...
The study of insurgency and counterinsurgency over the years provides a valuable tool for analysis in the current Global War on Terrorism. Failure to take into account and accurately assess political and military actions in such environments can...