Creativity, the generation of new ideas that are both novel and appropriate is essential to understanding complex problems, and can be enhanced by both life experience diversity and cognitive diversity, as well as by delayed evaluation during...
The Arab Spring has demonstrated the power and potential of social mobilization and collective action as a form of political warfare in support of unconventional warfare strategies. This power and potential is not isolated to the Arab Spring or to...
The essence of Cuba's strategic assessment comprises two phenomena. One is the diffusion of political power. The ruling elite is finding it increasingly difficult to control events to the extent that they once did. Power is shifting downward, being...
This monograph sets out to prove that Geoffrey Blainey's theory about a disagreement over relative power between nations explains the causes of the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991. Blainey describes the diplomatic crisis leading to war 'like a crisis...
A common perspective among U.S. interagency partners today is that any step towards more effective and coordinated responses to contemporary security challenges requires an improved and shared understanding of the nature of the conflict and the...
Military Intelligence should transform its core function to knowledge management to best support the Army's Objective Force. The near monopoly for providing valuable collection to Army commanders that MI historically possessed will dissolve as...
On October 3rd 1993, US efforts in Somalia culminated as the result of an overnight battle that cost eighteen American lives and effectively silenced all optimism that Somalia could be externally resurrected as a functioning state. What began as a...
Operational design is an intellectual exercise that draws on the creative vision, experience, intuition, and judgment of commanders to provide a framework for development of detailed operation plans. Recently, a number of authors have questioned...
While the nature of war does not change, the conduct and methods available to wage and win wars does. This appears to be the case with respect to hybrid war, an evolving type of war that the United States may soon face. The definition of hybrid war...
This monograph addresses the fact that most writing on strategy is descriptive rather than explanatory. Describing strategy in terms of categories such as "grand strategy," or "theater strategy," or by various analogies, does not illuminate what...
The response of U.S. foreign policy to the volatile rise of global jihadism in the wake of the 9/11 attacks has been sweeping and multifaceted. One key pillar of U.S. strategic response has been the active promotion of Western representative...
As the face of modern warfare changes, the threat of the appearance of guerrilla forces on the battlefield increases. Whether in the form of insurgent forces or partisan forces employing guerrilla tactics in support of conventional forces, their...
The tale of Odysseus and his encounter with Scylla and Charybdis is an instructive metaphor for considering theories of organizational design and leadership. The tale speaks of navigating between two extremes where dodging one increases the risk...
This monograph proposes that current Army doctrine provides an adequate tool to achieve the desired results proposed in the concepts of operational Design. Because Army doctrine prescribes approaches that solve problems, it is important to...
The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of how modern terrorist groups manage to survive in the face of aggressive counterterrorist operations by security forces. Al Qa'ida survives to this day, despite the destruction of their...
The Army's Operational Concept emphasizes that Army forces must be prepared to conduct a combination of offensive, defensive, and stability or civil support operations to create opportunities and achieve desired results. The 2010 Quadrennial...
The ongoing military operations in Afghanistan underscore the importance of regional stability in Central and South Asia. While much of our attention remains focused on Afghanistan, the unstable nature of Pakistan creates a problematic scenario for...
This monograph examines the Arab Spring in light of the past half century of efforts in transnational Arab identity formation and thus considers its links to Arab Nationalism and Pan-Islamism. Then, with a focus on Syria and the sectarian nature of...
What is the probability for renewed conflict in the Sinai region in light of Egypt's recent revolution? This monograph examines that question by analyzing Nasser's Free Officer revolution of the 1950s that led to 1956 Suez Crisis (Nasser era) and...
The 1993 version of FM 100-5 advertises itself as concentrating on the operational level of war. It defines several terms that are used in operational art, but inadequately explains how they relate to one another. The terms and definitions...