In January 2007, President of the United States George W. Bush announced a strategy called the New Way Forward in Iraq, a departure from the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq announced only thirteen months previous. Additionally, President Bush...
Beyond guns and steel: reviving the nonmilitary: instruments of American power.Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates; The secretary of defense says the U.S. must develop a cadre of deployable civilians to strengthen the Nation's "soft" power in...
What is the military’s most effective model for restoring essential services during counterinsurgency operations? That question drove this monograph to compare the most popular restoration model, the SWEAT Model, against a new model, the...
Military leaders fighting in the Global War on Terrorism can look at a similar history of counterinsurgency operations and learn many valuable lessons that are extremely relevant to ongoing operations today. It is imperative that leaders in the...
In this author's opinion, the United States Army is not doing enough to prepare combat organizations for the inevitability of casualties. This thesis proposes the following primary research question: How can United States Army combat organizations...
The purpose of this monograph is to show that US counterinsurgency doctrine would benefit from greater emphasis on social, cultural, and political aspects of the operating environment, using the case of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal as an example....
The Army conducts operations in complex environments with Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental and Multinational (JIIM) partners. Doctrine provides several concepts designed to create and sustain effective partnerships. One of these concepts, the...
This study addresses how operational and strategic commanders best implement strategies to accomplish their specific goals by analyzing the three distinct tasks that strategic commanders must accomplish in order to successfully build the support...
Major General Melvin Zais, a second generation Russian American, orchestrated the battle between the 29th Regiment of the People's Army of Vietnam and the 101st Airborne Division around Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill), Vietnam. General Zais, focused...
Refighting the Last War: Afghanistan and the Vietnam Template. Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason, America lost in Vietnam because of a failure to establish legitimacy and the inability to protect the people from insurgents. The same failures...
Results are mixed for the U.S. military in the initial battle of wars it has fought. This is due, in large part, to U.S. armed forces imperfectly preparing for their next conflict during times of peace. This essay examines U.S. experiences during...
Even though the 1st Amendment gives the media the right to broadcast news without regard to military opinions, the Media must consider the impact it has on the public’s perception of the military when they portray an incomplete or sided story....
The political opposition against to the war in Iraq may lead to a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the expense of Iraqi National Security. The political parties in the U.S. remain polarized regarding future operations in Iraq. The...
Most Americans do not support further offensive operations in Iraq largely because of the cost. However, offensive operations should continue because freedom and security are not free and the price is necessary for global security. The effects of...
In this paper I will cover my opinions and views of the Department of the Army Centralized Promotion System. These are strictly my views, which are not based on any substantial facts. I will share all of my personal opinions. I will reference some...
Counterinsurgents have raised and employed irregular security forces in many campaigns over the last century. Irregular security forces are indigenous forces, not part of the regular police or military organizations of the host nation, that are...
The most respected theorists of counterinsurgency agree about prescriptive principles for the organization of counterinsurgency campaigns. Insurgencies and counterinsurgency campaigns are each unique (sui generis), yet the theorists help provide...
This thesis examines the effect of civil defense forces on a counterinsurgency campaign through a study of the Civilian Irregular Defense Group in the Republic of Vietnam. This thesis challenges a common U.S. Army viewpoint on counterinsurgency...
What caused the agricultural manpower shortage in World War II? Historians have proffered a variety of explanations that attribute linear causality to a handful of independent variables. No scholar, however, has attempted to study the manpower...
The end of the Cold War did not bring about the grand peace that was hoped for during four decades. Instead, the world has become more dangerous, with multiple complex problems. Military institutions worldwide must learn to adapt to the...