In order to defeat an insurgency the Army must wage a campaign with the population rather than against it. Examining history allows Soldiers to identify the best practices to combat and defeat insurgencies in the modern world.
In 1993, the Bottom-Up Review (BUR) concluded that the United States could fight and win in two nearly simultaneous major regional conflicts (MRCs). Nearly simultaneous required that the two MRCs be spaced at least 42 days apart to allow adequate...
Limited war and its emphasis on the deliberate limitation of the objectives sought in a conflict differs sharply with its counterpart total war, which demands unlimited objectives. The distinction between these two forms of war can be traced...
In the wake of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, T.E. Lawrence's description of counterinsurgency (COIN) analogous to "eating soup with a knife," has new meaning in our contemporary military. It describes our kinetic conventional army (the knife)...
This monograph focuses on the gap in operational command and control for unconventional warfare operations (UW), and the organizational elements required to mitigate this gap. In the 20th Century and beyond, the United States conducted UW in the...
The Central Intelligence Agency is involved in a targeted killing program which the United States Government employs in its war on global terrorism. This program identifies terrorists and those facilitating terrorist activities and initiates lethal...
This paper seeks to examine the changing nature of war and the environment in which it is fought. The fact that America is not applauding its successes at the physical level of war in waging the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and does not perceive the...
America's recent experience in Afghanistan and Iraq proved that it is easier to get into war than it is to get out of it. These two conflicts bleed America, in terms of not only blood, but also its financial treasures. In an attempt to avoid these...
This monograph is an effort to stimulate thinking and discussion on a theory of peace for the United States of America. American national security and military planners currently develop strategic, operational and tactical concepts primarily based...
Usama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, declared war on the United States in a statement issued in August 1996. With the words, "It is a duty now on every tribe in the Arab Peninsula to fight in the cause of Allah and to cleanse the land from...
The attached monograph seeks to analyze in general terms the economic dimension in war planning. It focuses on the causes and implications of the often inescapable incompatibility between political/economic objectives and military aims. Much of...
The fundamental nature of warfare, adequately addressed by the current nine principles of war, has changed little over the centuries. However, a series of monumental changes in the international security environment over the past ten years have...
This monograph examines the viability of recent NATO out-of-area operations, specifically in Kosovo and Afghanistan. It illustrates that the complex decision-making bureaucracy of NATO can be a detriment to the capabilities of the alliance and...
The examination of land warfare within the conceptual framework of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory and fourth generation war (4GW) theory offers a unique perspective and provides valuable insight into optimal capabilities and characteristics...
The military application of the network centric concept is framed by Network Centric Warfare (NCW) which is an emerging operational concept based on the stated vision of future warfare in Joint Vision 2020. In the Information Age, does Network...
This study examines the evolution and continued applicability of the corpus, both conventional and customary, that constitutes the law of war. The author provides a theoretical framework and the development of the law within Western and,...
With the rise of Al Qaeda and like-minded militant groups, there have been many discussions and misrepresentations of the term Islamic way of warfare. It is important to understand that anything, to be qualified as Islamic, has to have a reference...
The US Global War on Terror is actually a Global Counterinsurgency as defined by FM 3-24 and Al Qaida is the global insurgent currently opposing the US. Al Qaida is held up as the global insurgent through the use of their own declarations in...
This monograph analyzes the shift in U.S. Army doctrine for campaign design and execution between 1968 and 1986. These dates bracket a period of major change when the Army struggled to match its doctrine with the realities of twentieth century...
In the last decade, a new term, hybrid war, has been surfacing amongst scholars of warfare. The latest Swedish Military Strategic Doctrine also uses the term. Proponents of hybrid warfare use the term to describe the area where regular warfare and...