During the Vietnam conflict the United States along with the South Vietnam government were able to convince 194,000 enemy personnel to change sides. The majority of these individuals were then exploited for intelligence, propaganda, and other...
Al Qaeda is a significant threat to the national security of the United States and its allies. This makes it important for individuals in these countries, both military and civilian, to understand the evolution of this threat. This thesis analyzes...
After ten years of global conflict with al Qaeda, the time has come to reassess the threat and determine the parameters within which it operates. Questions regarding its continued validity as a threat, its capability to employ synchronized tactical...
On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda and affiliated jihadist organizations declared war on the United States. Since that day, the U.S. government has initiated a series of policies, legislation and actions to confront the new threat. Seven years into...
With the attacks of September 11th, by a transnational, global, terrorist network, the full danger of this new security threat was revealed. The initial response of the United States Government to this threat resulted in the birth of the Global War...
The United States is now in the eighth year of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). For America, the war began with the surprise attacks against targets in Washington D.C. and New York City on September 11, 2001. For al Qaeda, the war began centuries...
While all warfare is an expression of politics, none is more pervasively so than irregular conflict. The irregular side, most probably employing a mixture of guerilla tactics and terrorism, will seek favorable political effect from several courses...
With the rise of Al Qaeda and like-minded militant groups, there have been many discussions and misrepresentations of the term Islamic way of warfare. It is important to understand that anything, to be qualified as Islamic, has to have a reference...
Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri enticed tens of thousands of Muslims from around the world to travel to Afghanistan, swear allegiance to bin Laden and the cause of Al Qaeda, fight and even die for that cause. Bin Laden united faithful...
Suicide terrorism is re-emerging as the dominant tactic in asymmetric warfare. Al Qaeda in association with affiliates in the greater Salafi-jihadi movement conduct suicide terror or martyrdom campaigns against strategic and operational targets....
America's strategy to combat terrorism, resulting from Al-Qaeda's 2001 attacks, falls short of its intent to defeat transnational terrorism. While the tenets of the current counterterrorism strategy were written broadly to enable global employment,...
Usama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, declared war on the United States in a statement issued in August 1996. With the words, "It is a duty now on every tribe in the Arab Peninsula to fight in the cause of Allah and to cleanse the land from...
This study examines modern transnational terrorism from the 1960s to the present day, with special emphasis on the adaptation Al Qaeda and other nonstate actors have taken in response to the actions of the United States and its allies. This work...
The premise of this monograph is that the Elements of Operational Design are incapable of linking the tactical employment of forces to strategic objectives and that Systemic Operational Design is a viable alternative. This monograph introduces the...
To succeed in the Long War, the United States and its allies will need to develop new strategic approaches, adaptive operational concepts, and more cost-effective methods of coalition and Interagency coordination. As was the Cold War, the Long War...
Insurgency is a time-honored form of warfare that allows a weaker opponent to subvert the power of a stronger foe. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Spanish guerrillas waged an effective insurgency against the premier army of the...
The Army's fielding of military intelligence companies to the modular brigade combat teams (BCTs) as part of the Army Transformation has created a loss of intelligence capability for the modular division commander. Furthermore, the global design of...
Islamic Terrorism in Southeast Asia constitutes the second front in the Global War on Terrorism. Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf, transnational terrorist organizations with ties to Al Qaeda, have frustrated U.S. efforts to eradicate terrorism and...
This monograph analyzes recent (post-1980) suicide bombings and determines the probability of the same in the Continental United States (CONUS). Analysis includes a brief history of modern suicide bombing and an examination of the strategic,...
In 742, a predominantly Turko-Mongolian steppe nomadic tribe known today as the Uyghurs migrated eastward from eastern Turkey towards the oases of modern-day Xinjiang province of China; they have remained there for the last 1,268 years. Throughout...