Using military force against an enemy to punish, avenge a wrong, as retribution is a timeless cause of armed conflict. There are many examples throughout history of successful punitive operations. Analyzing historical punitive expeditions for the...
Currently, the United States finds itself in a very similar predicament to what Great Britain experienced after emerging from the First World War as she set about the governance of a growing empire during the interwar period. With the stated intent...
The Maoist Revolutionary model provides a template of a successful revolution. Both the Taliban and the Chinese underwent similar circumstances. Both movements formed as a result of failed states seeking ways to restore unity and order within their...
Following the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001, members of the former regime and Al-Qaeda found refuge in Waziristan. Waziristan is a tribal area in Pakistan located along the border with Afghanistan whose majority ethnic...
The purpose of this monograph is to explore the operational impacts of differentiating between an insurgency and a civil war. At first glance, the distinction between the two is just a matter of scale, but there are other differences as well....
Chapters include the following headings: political; operations against the Waziristan tribes previous to 1914; operations against Waziristan tribes between August 1914 and 11th June 1917; operations in the Shahur and Khaisara valleys between 12th...
Within hours of the September 11th attacks, many leaders of the 82nd Airborne Division determined that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were behind these terrorist attacks. The war in Afghanistan was inevitable. As a First Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne...
This monograph examines the possible roles of air power in peacemaking operations. While the end of the Cold War has brought increased hope for peace and stability in the world, a rise in ethnic tensions and nationalist uprisings prevents...
This monograph investigates culture and society in Afghanistan and recommends an operational approach leveraging a blend of formal and traditional institutions, working with the propensity of the Afghan system, and building capacity and legitimacy...
Due to its haphazard partition from British Colonial India and a series of internal and external destabilizing events throughout the last six decades, Pakistan has been plagued with varying degrees of instability that leave it today on the edge of...
Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Military History
In wars involving vast land masses in which the available manpower of a nation is severely taxed it may be expedient and necessary to use "volunteer" forces. It is gathered from this treatise that the basic mistake of the planners was that no...
The present challenge to the nation-state system broadly, and USG specifically, consists of non-state actors operating within the context of weak governance and unofficial economy. This thesis explores USG effectiveness in disrupting terrorist or...
This thesis explores a possible model to help predict the participation of countries in coalitions aimed at military interventions. The model is composed of six factors drawn from modern political science and international relations theories, as...
The international community intervened repeatedly in Somalia since the central government fell in 1991. These interventions failed to produce a stable, elected government. Instead, over the last 20 years Somalis faced famine, terrorism, sexual...
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...
The preponderance of literature and scholarly debate on counterinsurgency (COIN) focuses on the strategic or operational approach: leader-focused; large group-focused; special operations; conventional operations; enemy centric; and the latest,...
This monograph examines the role of policy in guidance of the British, the Soviet and the U.S.-NATO wars in Afghanistan. Set in the context of Afghanistan’s history and its socio-cultural environment, the study critically analyzes the negative...
Tactical level nuances between COIN by an external and an internal actor are barely distinguishable. The successful COIN practices for an external actor listed in FM 3-24 COIN manual of US Army include maintaining a constant, forward presence with...
In today’s ever-changing Army, Soldiers and leaders have become more and more reliant at times on technology. Technology can lead to decisions that involve new ethical problems and dilemmas. One such example was in October 2001 in the early days...
This newsletter contains a collection of previously published articles that focus on Afghan culture and provides insight into effectively communicating with Afghans in order to achieve positive results. More specifically, the articles contained in...