Current U.S. military doctrine focuses on the use of military forces to defeat enemy armies. Other elements of national power, such as economic or political, are linked with military action at the national strategic level and passed to the...
This monograph examines the linkage between U.S. Army tactical doctrine and changes in the strategic environment. If change in the strategic environment as codified by policy is not understood by soldiers then there is a danger that the Army will...
This monograph explores the US Army's recently announced goal of quick decisive victory. This concept has emerged in the wake of US victories in Operations JUST CAUSE and DESERT STORM and reflects one of the National Military Strategy's principles...
General Schwarzkopf was unhappy with the tempo of the VII Corps attack during Operation Desert Storm. Likewise, a recent Rand study of over 115 NTC battles highlighted the technique of overwatch as a significant detractor to sustaining tempo in the...
This monograph discusses the role of operational art in the Sioux War of 1876, the U.S. Army's largest campaign between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. This campaign, often overlooked in the historical study of operational art,...
U.S. Army Field Manual 100-5, Operations (FM 100-5), the keystone warfighting manual, lists the culminating point as one of the three key concepts of operational design. It also states that the concept is applicable at the strategic, operational...
Few checklists exist for the operational level of war. One of the reasons Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) published TRADOC Pamphlet 11-9, “Blueprint of the Battlefield,” was the intent of assisting in filling this void. The Blueprint...
The goal of this monograph is to investigate how the operational level of war applies to military operations short of war. The paper begins with a review of the theoretical linkages between military operations and political aims. Next, the author...
This monograph analyzes the manual wargaming portion of the U.S. Army's decision-making cycle in order to determine if the process deduces the optimum course of action. The monograph begins by examining game theory, which is the theoretical basis...
This monograph analyzes the 1982 Israeli peacemaking operation against the Palestinian Liberation Organization in regards to current military theory. It uses operation “Peace For Galilee” as a case study to examine the possibility of using...
This monograph examines the theory of operational art in light of economic growth and societal development. The study uses W.W. Rostow's five stages of economic growth as a framework for analysis and examines how operational art is manifested as...
By 1863, the Civil War was basically a stalemate between the two belligerents. Though the Union forces had achieved some success in conducting joint expeditions that resulted in securing the Mississippi River and the majority of the Southern ports,...
This monograph examines whether introducing women into combat units would negatively affect unit cohesion and subsequently combat effectiveness. It describes the physical, cybernetic, and moral domains of war and shows the relevance of the moral...
This monograph explores cohesion as it applies to combat service support (CSS) soldiers. The exploration begins with the construction of a base camp constructed of materials from the study of infantry cohesion. While building the base camp the...
The Moldovan Transdniester War of 1992 is illustrative of modern day ethno-national violence and yields unique lessons on the role and use of military power in dealing with and resolving such crises. Indecisive and necessary are two words that...
This monograph examines the key determinants necessary for the successful forced entry seizure of an airfield. The importance of contingency operations is paramount to the United States military as it transitions from "forward defense" to "CONUS...
Current U.S. Army and joint sustainment doctrine offers several considerations for the design of operational sustainment in a theater of operations. However, doctrine does not elaborate on how these considerations are interrelated, how they are...
As modern battlefields have become increasingly dispersed and nonlinear, intermingling of opposing forces in encounter battles jeopardizes the sustainment of maneuver forces along fixed lines of communication. During the mid-nineteenth century,...
The U.S. Army's AirLand Battle doctrine has contributed greatly toward codifying a comprehensive and widely accepted operational concept. With a new emphasis on fundamentals and principles, the essence of AirLand Battle doctrine is expressed in...
As the lethality of new weapons technology increases the need for dispersion, the future battlefield will tend toward nonlinearity. The considerations for tactical mobility in the maneuver phase of the ALB-F concept are essential to determining the...