This monograph analyzes classical warfare and modern warfare to determine whether there is a theoretical shift occurring that is blending the tenets of both of these theories of war. Exploitation of the inherent strengths of each of these theories...
Self-synchronization is an idea that comes directly from Network-Centric Warfare but its foundations lie in complexity theory and the ideas of self-organization and emergent behavior. In order to understand self-synchronization the basics of...
Complexity theory has attracted considerable interest from operational artists in recent times. However, because it is still an emerging field, there are few -- if any -- historical case studies that show how complexity applies to military...
From the Classical Period until the Seventeenth century, the study of warfare was practiced predominantly using the vehicle of history. The scientific revolution, ushered in by Newtonian laws, had a major impact on Western military thinking. By...
This monograph asks the question what constitutes operational art? It examines the possible origins of operational art in the Napoleonic era to determine how the nature of warfare changed to reflect the world changes brought on by the Industrial...
China is in the middle of a comprehensive economic, political and military transformation process, and the economic interdependencies between China and the United States are significant. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the US contemporary...
This monograph examines the U.S. Army's initial loss of operational art after its emergence during the American Civil War and the subsequent erosion of operational art in the post-World War II era. As a warfighting paradigm, the Army's peacetime...
The issues confronted by Britain and the U.S. early in the last century regarding their emerging air power capabilities were hotly debated, and the final decisions for the creation of independent Air Forces was made based on several factors, not...
An organization learns only if it measures. This is the simple underlying idea of this monograph. It is important because the current international system, with all of its conflict and tension, requires the U.S. Army to learn a great many things in...
Joint Doctrine, explicitly, and Army Doctrine, implicitly, recommend that military commanders and staffs exercise systems thinking in operational planning and execution. However, current Military Doctrine fails to fully explicate and apply a...
This study investigates the role of sub-state actors and leadership in the stabilization, the collapse or the renewal of the African state. Understanding the root causes of the mutations occurring in today's African states will help to build...
This monograph investigates the Mexican War for evidence of modern operational art and answers the question: Does the Mexican War of 1846-1848 hold a unique place in the evolution of modern operational art and, if so, where? The Mexican War...
During the Interwar period, the Soviet theory of “deep operations,” like Soviet military science as a whole developed in parallel with Soviet armed forces organizational reform, including rearmament and preparation for current threats. The...
In the past two decades, Radical Islam rooted in Europe became an obvious security threat. This monograph argues that Western Europeans are partially responsible for permitting or not preventing the presence of radical Islamists in the Balkans and...
This monograph analyzed whether or not the current joint command and control system in place is sufficient for the rapidly changing contemporary operating environment. The end of the Cold War has not brought the worldwide stability that many...
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...
The art of war, as a distinct creative activity, emerged during the establishment of organized warfare sometime around the fifteenth century B.C. Since that time the art of war has changed remarkably little from a creative standpoint. As a form...
In 1979 the age old struggle for the control of Islam between the Shiite and Sunni sects re-emerged in the Middle East. Four events occurred in 1979 that defined the context of contemporary Middle Eastern politics: the Islamic revolution in Iran,...
This thesis explores the applicability of current US counterinsurgency doctrine in Joint Publication 3-24, Field Manual 3-24 and Field Manual 3-24.2 to the Lebanese Hizballah and Taliban insurgencies. In particular, this thesis examines the Cold...
Military officials often utilize the PMESII-PT acronym (Political, Military, Economic, Social, Information, Infrastructure, Physical Environment, and Time) as an analytical start point to assess an operational environment. However, the linear...