Current and past military commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, and Vietnam have been influenced by military advice to civilian leaders over the past 60+ years. This monograph examines whether today's military processes and culture adequately...
The creation of USNORTHCOM in 2002 was a clear indication that the security environment in North America had undergone a radical transformation. Canada and the United States have a history of bi-national mutual defense arrangements spanning more...
"Presidential Study Directive on Mass Atrocities/PSD-10" and the 2010 National Security Strategy elevated mass atrocities to a core national security interest. This study argues that PSD-10 will be implemented in a world where international borders...
Field Marshall Viscount Slim holds a special place in modern military history. He soundly defeated the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma in 1945, retaking the strategically important Burma Road, and safeguarding the Chinese Theater from sure...
Sun Tzu asserts that success is not winning every battle fought, but subduing the enemy's will without fighting. Nevertheless, modern military thought fails to distinguish an enemy's will-to-fight from their means to do so, limiting the ways...
This thesis investigates the post-Cold War evolution of private military companies. Specifically this study will focus on the measure of international legitimacy that is afforded to private military companies that conduct active military assistance...
Operation Anaconda, a subordinate operation to Operation Enduring Freedom in 2002, was notable for difficulties in integrating US air and ground forces in order to bring combat power to bear on a stronger than originally anticipated foe. In the...
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is implementing a strategy to ensure its viability into the future, known as Future 35. The strategy focuses on two overarching themes of organizational reform and capability renewal. The strategy was developed...
History shows that the U.S. Army can fight and defeat its opponents using centralized command concepts, but the challenges of the contemporary operating environment place a premium on the abilities of subordinate commanders to act independently and...
In the wake of the Cold War, the U.S. Army increasingly finds its institutional focus shifting away from preparing for sustained mechanized land combat. This trend serves the Army’s immediate operational needs and addresses its perceived need to...
This study investigates whether the armed forces of the United States need joint doctrine for nonlethal weapons. The U.S. Department of Defense is gradually increasing its commitment of fiscal and manpower resources to the development of nonlethal...
On March 20, 2003, a United States led coalition invaded Iraq. The character of this conflict can be defined by the West’s ability to conduct precision strikes, to manoeuvre and to overwhelm the enemy’s command system. Emerging U.K. and U.S....
This monograph investigates whether the U.S. military should establish joint doctrine for unconventional warfare. Since the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986, joint doctrine has become central to...
If the US Army is to successfully design campaigns that link tactical battles and engagements to achieving strategic aims, staff officers and commanders must be educated in the theory, history, and techniques of operational art. The purpose of this...
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...
During the World War II campaign to seize the island of Okinawa, Operation Iceberg, U.S. Tenth Army employed a significant U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps military police structure. However, the challenges posed to these units by military traffic,...
The US Air Force, and the U.S. armed forces separate service air arms, have historically wrestled with how to apply air and space power to non-traditional forms of warfare, such as insurgency and counterinsurgency. While the airplane was used as...
The Department of the Army decided to re-structure the combat divisions into modular, brigade units in order to better address the difficulty inherent in fighting a long war on terrorism, while simultaneously providing combat units to OIF and OEF...
U.S. Army direct and organizational level leaders faced challenges in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM and Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, which combined to create an environment permeated by ambiguity and replete with uncertainty. Although it may be impossible...
As the 21st Century dawns, warfare is in the midst of revolutionary change. Information Age warfare characterized by knowledge, speed, and precision is slowly supplanting Industrial Age war and its reliance on mass. The advent of precision...