This monograph studies the use of the term battle damage assessment (BDA) within the Army, Air Force, and Joint communities. The monograph uses history, official publications, and materials published by military personnel or contractors to assess...
The United States (U.S.) faces threats from non-states, including terrorist organizations and piracy in the Horn of Africa, all of which are quite different from the super-power threat posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The U.S....
This monograph discusses the relevant components of the Islamic financial sector, otherwise known as Shari’ah Compliant Finance, in order to gain a better understanding of an industry quickly spreading around the globe and the greater...
While it might currently be challenging to imagine Russia as a NATO member, a change to the future strategic context could make it equally difficult to imagine Russia outside of NATO. The historical analysis of NATO enlargement during the past...
With the exception of Cuba, US-Latin American relations do not have the specter of Communist influence in the hemisphere distorting the thrust of foreign policy. What does remain is the threat of crises that endangers the viability of the fledgling...
Certain characteristics of the Information Age both pressure and tempt commanders, in powerful ways, to exert greater control over military forces during the execution of operations. As examples, real-time communications with political leaders and...
Many of the books listed in this work are military classics, that is, books of recognized value that set a standard of historical or literary excellence. Others evaluate or expand on the military classics. Focused mainly on the history of land...
The core of the 50-year South Korea-U.S. alliance, the Combined Forces Command (CFC), was established on November 7, 1978 to employ operational control of the South Korean military and U.S. forces in South Korea with U.S. augmentation from the...
This monograph examines why Great Britain and her allies proved unable to subjugate German forces in East Africa during World War I despite their significant advantages in personnel and material. Great Britain proved unable to subjugate German...
In the summer of 2003, the United States Army was ill prepared to wage an effective counter-insurgency campaign in Iraq. The lack of institutional readiness can be seen in many areas, but one of the most glaring was its utter lack of doctrine...
Nepal, geo-strategically located between India and China, must have appropriate relations with both countries. Prior to 2006, Nepal's monarch maintained a generally balanced approach in dealing with India and China even though in practice Nepal had...
Successful leadership requires clear communication between team members, yet globalization of our society has introduced the reality of directing teams who are often not co-located. In the military environment, distributed teams are increasingly...
The citizens of the United States face disaster every year. Whether man made, natural, large or small the individual states provide a first line of defense and response with their resources and by agreement, through the Emergency Management...
Violence perpetrated by Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) increased dramatically in 2006 and continued to rise dramatically through early 2009. During this same period, Mexican DTO infiltration of U.S. cities skyrocketed. The increase...
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,...
Irregular wars generate significant internal political debate over appropriate strategy and resource allocation, a function of the relative complexity and ambiguity of irregular wars. This study examines whether operational commanders in the...
The Global War on Terror brought about several military assistance efforts that include the training and development of foreign security forces. The United States has been providing advisors to foreign security forces around the world for over 120...
Throughout its military history, the United States has demonstrated poor institutional memory resulting in a tendency to reinvent the wheel. The development of counterinsurgency doctrine in Vietnam, for instance, yielded valuable knowledge about...
The execution of the Baghdad Security Plan in 2007 to 2008 marked a turning point in United States (U.S.) Army counterinsurgency (COIN) methodology. It highlighted decentralized execution utilizing the maneuver battalion as the prime unit of...
U.S. military, Department of State, and Iraqi officials face many challenges moving a unified Iraq forward. This paper attempts to answer a critical question: Can local Iraqi grassroots councils facilitate a strategic endstate like achieving...