This paper presents the author's views regarding the center of gravity, a concept which has created a surprising amount of disagreement among people studying operational art. The problem seems to stem from differences in interpretation of Carl von...
Between the European revolutions of the mid-nineteenth century and the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Friedrich Engels functioned as a writer, analyst, and critic concerning military affairs. His most essential commentaries were published,...
The 1956 Suez Crisis is the first example of a preemptive strike after World War II. The episode provides lessons about the lengths to which nations will go to secure their interests and the limits of the United Nation 's influence. How the UN...
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,...
Abstract: Despite the on-going Global War on Terrorism and numerous state disasters, the National Guard continues to perform both its combat and state disaster relief missions with success. Congress and the Department of Defense have realized the...
As of Spring 1999, the United States Army continues discussing the design of the Army After Next and the need to create an operationally significant force capable of deploying rapidly, conducting distributed operations using maneuver and firepower,...
Threats to peace, violations of security and challenges to world order, which led to the creation of the United Nations (UN) in 1945 will continue. States and state-like entities will continue to approach the UN with their grievances. The...
This monograph develops an alternative approach to counterinsurgency, and explains how the current narratives in the field of counterinsurgency are not completely accurate. Counterinsurgents only need to properly understand the environment and then...
Considered the first documented commitment of a Western-style army facing a nation-wide insurgency, the Peninsular War deserves a critical examination of French pacification methods. In spite of a severe defeat, the Grande Armee achieved success...
Turkish Culture had a profound influence on the conduct of its counter-insurgency campaign against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). The independent variables shaping Turkey’s response to the insurgency were a unique brand of nationalism,...
This thesis endeavored to determine if the current organization of the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) best achieves homeland security in a time of diminishing resources. The growing threat to national security...
This monograph discusses the linkage of military operations with defined regional strategy objectives designed to achieve conditions favorable to long-term U.S. interests. Most recent U.S. military endeavors may serve to show the existence of...
America's wars cannot be won simply by applying lethal effects. The U.S. military can defeat any adversary using lethal effects to gain, clear and hold key terrain or cities faster than at any other time in history. However, winning the war...
Actionable U.S. military intelligence on many occasions shaped the battles throughout history. From the Presidents of this country to the combatant commanders in combat, intelligence plays a major significant role in strategic maneuver of military...
The efficiency of the military's ability to gather and understand actionable intelligence has drastically improved. There was a time in history when intelligence played a very small role in the outcome of battles. The determining factor was size,...
Change and innovation are issues that constantly confront an organization like the Army. During certain periods, the currents of change seem stronger than others. Today the Army confronts the Information Age revolution and a transition into a new...
Since the seventeenth century, Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion have had tremendous impact on the Western world’s mind-sets for understanding nature as predictable and orderly. Consequently, Western strategic culture has been based on a linear...
In 2007, four US Army Soldiers gang raped a fourteen year old Iraqi girl then murdered her and her family. In another incident Soldiers were convicted of torturing prisoners and photographing them at Abu Garuib. These unethical dilemmas paint a...
Nearly twenty years ago, as a new student in the Army's Command and General Staff Officer's College, Infantry Branch officers introduced to me the relatively newly codified doctrinal term "center of gravity." Throughout the "best year of our lives"...
This study examines current U.S. Army attack helicopter doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures (DTTP) to determine their adequacy in supporting the full range of attack helicopter employment in the multi-polar environment of the New World...