Crane Brinton's analysis of popular revolutions offers the strategic and operational planner a valid model for checking the consistency of ends, ways and means, for campaign plans. As a planning tool, Brinton's model fills a gap in FM 100-20, which...
Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, the United States has embarked upon many military operations that were not bound by the traditional framework of revolution or insurgency. States formerly held together by the political logic and financial...
This monograph examines the insurgency conducted by the Southern States during the last part of the American Civil War and the early period of Reconstruction, specifically from the time period of Sherman's march to March 1867. The paper proposes...
With the exception of Cuba, US-Latin American relations do not have the specter of Communist influence in the hemisphere distorting the thrust of foreign policy. What does remain is the threat of crises that endangers the viability of the fledgling...
This monograph discusses the use of the U.S. Southern Command Small Wars Operational Research Directorate (SWORD) model along with traditional intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) to forecast the direction of intra-state conflicts at...
Central to the waging of war at the tactical level is the interplay between leadership and doctrine. Within a doctrinal context, the Army must develop leaders capable of winning the next war. This study examines the balance between leadership and...
The emergence of social media platforms as a means of communication and information sharing marks a fundamental change to how societies interact. This new form of media played a formative role in the organization of mass uprisings and...
This monograph assesses the potential for conflict in the Middle East as a result of water scarcity. It is guided by the Homer-Dixon model linking the contributions of environmental scarcity to violent conflict. The monograph begins with a general...
This study refutes the claims by many air power advocates that Operation Desert Storm stands as a revolution in warfare. According to their logic, the success of the Gulf War air campaign proves air power has become the dominant force in modern...
How well does U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine tactically neutralize insurgent infrastructures? This question is important given the high interest of the United States in maintaining stable democracies around the world. Insurgency continues to...
This study assesses the validity and general utility of selected instances of physical metaphor in tactical military theory and doctrine. An analytical framework is built upon the curriculum of the Advanced Military Studies Program, US Army Command...
This monograph examines the question of what will happen on the Korean peninsula if North Korea collapses without a fight. In 1996 the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) appears to be on the verge of disintegration due in large part to...
This monograph discusses the Army's Low Intensity Conflict (LIC) doctrine and how it applies to Liberation Theology. Both Operation Urgent Fury and Just Cause demonstrated the potential for conventional combat forces to be thrust into a LIC...
This monograph examines the development of a set of criteria that can be utilized to validate observations and lessons learned derived from tactical training exercises. The paper is based on the premise that there exist within these observations...
Importance of the History of Military Conflict
As a military professional do you believe it is important to take the time to study the history of past conflicts? Yes, it is significant so that we don’t repeat past mistakes. Examples are cited...
The purpose of this thesis is the examination of Honduras today from a socio-economic and politico-military perspective to determine what internal conditions exist which make Honduras prone or vulnerable to insurgency. The research concentrates on...
The Department of Defense (DoD) has come under increased scrutiny in recent years due to poorly performing acquisition programs and massive budgetary requirements. In addition to a challenging economy, prolonged conflict since 2001, and a US...
The Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire was a classic example of a successful insurgency. Though it occurred 2,000 years ago, it contains many elements of modern leftist insurgencies. The conflict demonstrates that the nature of...
Numerous contemporary political and military observers have suggested that there are profound problems in contemporary American civil-military relations. Some have even suggested that there is in fact a 'crisis' in civil-military relations. Base...
This paper discusses the nature of war and warfare. It contends that unclear policy objectives and a lack of strategy contributed to strategic defeats in Vietnam and Somalia despite tactical successes. This was in part the result of a tendency to...