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,...
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"...
The monograph proposes that Colonel Douglas A. Macgregor represents an Agent of Change for the United States Army. In 1997 Colonel Macgregor published the book, Breaking the Phalanx, A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century (BTP). This book...
This monograph discusses the role of the air assault raid as a tactical mission in the twenty-first century. It centers on the air assault brigade task force directed air assault raid employed across the full spectrum of conflict. This monograph...
After ten years of global conflict with al Qaeda, the time has come to reassess the threat and determine the parameters within which it operates. Questions regarding its continued validity as a threat, its capability to employ synchronized tactical...
This monograph discusses command and control of tactical airpower specifically and command and control of any assets capable of interdiction in general. It seeks to answer the question of how to best control these assets in the future. The...
This monograph seeks to determine if Americans have consistently favored one form of operational art over another. If we (the U.S. military) do not recognize that a tendency towards one or the other forms of operational art exists, we may...
Transition points occur in many activities; they are pivotal junctions in the determination of the future course of events. Identification of such points is crucial if a commander is to make effective and efficient use of the military resources...
This monograph examines the problem of battle tracking within the battalion command post. Effective battle tracking enables the battle staff to appraise the current battlefield and forecast the future battlefield for the command. Battle tracking is...
Given ongoing conflicts and the likelihood of executing counterinsurgency in the future, it is vital to conduct effective campaign planning for counterinsurgency. Additionally, effective campaign planning is essential for rapid and effective...
Two centuries of philosophy and war have informed the latest evolution of the definitions of strategy and operational art defined in the Department of Defense's Joint Publication 1-02. By harmonizing the relationship between strategy and...
Blitzkrieg has been variously described as strategy, tactics, and even operational art. This ambiguity, coupled with a misinterpretation of this form of offensive combat, can cause false conclusions when studying the history of World War II and...
There is a healthy debate about hybrid warfare in American military journals and publications. Much of this discussion describes hybrid threats as a nascent phenomenon, citing the Israeli Defense Force's 2006 struggle against Hezbollah militants in...
The purpose of this paper was to study the practice of military art at the operational level of war. The story of Wellington's ultimate success against Napoleon's Marshals was selected as a case study as it seemed rich in the application of mental...
This monograph asserts that operational art, defined in theory as a conventional warfare concept, applies in military operations other than war (MOOTW). This paper examines the differences between conventional warfare and MOOTW, and shows that many...
This monograph examines the dynamic relationships between the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. Current Army doctrine in FM 100-5, Operations depicts the relationships of the levels with a vertical hierarchy, defining the operational...
The marked changed in the types of wars fought over the last ten years in Afghanistan and Iraq have demonstrated the need for commanders at echelons below the campaign level to develop and continuously refine operational approaches to guide their...
This monograph addresses the viability of the current organization for logistics support to meet future battlefield demands. The pace of modern battle requires that American forces arrive on the future battlefield organized, trained and equipped to...
The purpose of this monograph is to recommend the retention, modification, or abandonment of certain concepts of the current elements of operational design based on their continued validity within the contemporary operational environment. Military...
This monograph discusses logistics in contingency operations. Specifically it explores an expanded role for USTRANSCOM in CONUS-based force deployment operations. The paper looks at logistics as an important and often overlooked tool for conducting...