This monograph provides a definition of military geography as it relates to the application of operational art, and a recommended framework for the assessment of the influence of military geography in operational level planning. Its focus is the...
This monograph addresses the suitability of Bedouin tribes for recruitment and employment as irregular forces. The study is motivated by force shortfalls and resource constraints in U.S. contingency planning for Southwest Asia and the Arabian...
This monograph analyzes the use of deception by the Germans and Soviets in the battle of Kursk. It uses a paradigm consisting of: commander's aim, intelligence, centralized control, synchronization and operations security to determine why Soviet...
This monograph examines the Soviet experience in Afghanistan (1979-1988) in terms of Soviet Army tactics and organization for combat. Throughout the decade of the 1970's, U.S. perceptions of Soviet ground force tactics stressed a general lack of...
Since the passage of the National Security Act of 1947, Congress has tried to correct the recurring problem of fractured command authority and poor cooperation between the services. Changes in 1958 and the recent Defense Reorganization Act of 1986...
This monograph deals with decision making in contingency operations. It begins with the observation that contingency operations are the most frequent method by which the United States projects power worldwide. Studying three areas which appear to...
This monograph looks at the impact of personality on Air-Land synchronization at the operational level of war. The thesis is personality provides the only inherent link to synchronization of Air-Land operations. Major operations and ground...
This monograph reviews the doctrinal duties of the maneuver battalion Executive Officer (XO) from World War I to the present. The role of the XO changed over time with different emphasis and priorities in respective eras. The purpose of this...
The purpose of this monograph is to examine if Army operational terms apply to an air battle? The Air Force mission is to gain air supremacy and, by doing this, it indirectly supports the Army. Once air superiority is established, the Air Force...
The purpose of this monograph is to evaluate the Civil Operations, Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) program determining whether it represents a viable operational approach to counterinsurgency warfare. The study specifically seeks to...
The purpose of this monograph is to evaluate the doctrinal concepts underlying the U.S. Marine Corps' Small Wars Manual and the U.S. Army's Security Assistance Force (SAF), determining whether they are applicable today against a Maoist-led...
Several military publications, including FM 100-5 Operations and FM 34-3 Intelligence Analysis, have identified the importance of knowing the opposing commander's style and idiosyncrasies. Despite this emphasis, experience shows that we know rather...
Recent conflicts have provided valuable glimpses at the lethality of the modern battlefield and the vulnerability of ground troops to air attack. The 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1982 Lebanese War in the Bekaa Valley and the War in the Falklands...
During World War II, American army officers who had spent their entire careers commanding at regimental level and below were suddenly called upon to lead armies and army groups against the foe in both Europe and the Pacific. Especially in the...
There is an ongoing discussion within the Army's leadership doctrine community which focuses on the question; are there two levels of leadership or are there three? Current leadership doctrine (FM 22-103 Leadership and Command at Senior Levels)...
This monograph explores the issue of whether or not the United States Army should have an institutional mechanism to collect, interpret and apply the lessons of operational combat in order to correct the inevitable errors of peacetime planning and...
This study analyzes the impact of risk taking and risk avoidance by the opposing operational commanders in the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. General McClellan’s superior force lost this campaign primarily as a result of his...
Today's battlefield, much expanded and highly lethal, requires better staffs at lower levels than ever before. The ability of battalion commanders and staffs to combine arms effectively in order to gain an edge over the enemy in future engagements...
No commander can win a campaign by himself; however, campaigns are won or lost in part because of the personal strengths and weaknesses of a commander. Military theorists have long recognized an intangible quality in all victorious commanders: the...
This monograph will argue that understanding and addressing the nature of the threat's identity is paramount to the United States' ability to win the GWOT. In an attempt to remain ahead of its enemies in the prosecution of the GWOT, the United...