Feb 8, 2022 By: COL Maximillian K. Bremer, Dr. Kelly A. Grieco

Assessing threats to the air littoral, the airspace between ground forces and high-end fighters and bombers, requires a paradigm change in American military thinking about verticality. This article explores the consequences of domain convergence, specifically for the Army and Air Force’s different concepts of control. It will assist US military and policy practitioners in conceptualizing the air littoral and in thinking more vertically about the air and land domains and the challenges of domain convergence.

Jan 24, 2022 By: Dr. Todd Greentree

Critics of the Afghan war have claimed it was always unwinnable. This article argues the war was unwinnable the way it was fought and posits an alternative based on the Afghan way of war and the US approach to counterinsurgency in El Salvador during the final decade of the Cold War. Respecting the political and military dictates of strategy could have made America’s longest foreign war unnecessary and is a warning for the wars we will fight in the future.

Jan 10, 2022 By: Dr. Lukas Milevski

A titan of modern strategic studies, Colin S. Gray distinguished himself from other scholars in the field with his belief that grand strategy is indispensable, complex, and inherently agential. This article identifies key themes, continuities, conceptual relationships, and potential discontinuities from his decades of grand strategic thought. Gray’s statement that “all strategy is grand strategy” remains highly relevant today, emphasizing the importance of agential context in military environments—a point often neglected in strategic practice.

Dec 27, 2021 By: Dr. Frank Hoffman

This article explores the current debate about service and Joint operating concepts, starting with the Army’s multi-domain operations concept. It argues for adaptations to an old operational design technique—defeat mechanisms; updates to Joint and service planning doctrine; and discipline regarding emerging concepts. Rather than debate over attrition versus maneuver, combinations of a suite of defeat mechanisms should be applied to gain victory in the future.

Dec 16, 2021 By: Dr. Jared M. McKinney, Dr. Peter Harris

Deterring a Chinese invasion of Taiwan without recklessly threatening a great-power war is both possible and necessary through a tailored deterrence package that goes beyond either fighting over Taiwan or abandoning it. This article joins cutting-edge understandings of deterrence with empirical evidence of Chinese strategic thinking and culture to build such a strategy.

Oct 12, 2021 By: Michael J. Dziedzic for Leonard R. Hawley (posthumously)

In the wake of the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 3-4, 1993, in which 19 American servicemembers were killed and 73 injured, I was tasked to lead an effort to discern the strategic lessons to be learned from the ill-fated US intervention. The study highlighted several shortfalls: the absence of a clear US strategy and whole-of-government plan for the operation, the onset of mission creep as the operation evolved from a humanitarian mission

Oct 7, 2021 By: COL Everett Spain, Dr. Gautam Mukunda, COL Archie Bates

Statistical evidence suggests that Army battalion commanders are significant determinants of the retention of their lieutenants—especially high-potential lieutenants. Further, this so-called Battalion Commander Effect should be included in brigadier general promotion board assessments and used to inform officer professional military education curricula.

Oct 6, 2021 By: COL Wade A. Germann, Dr. Heather S. Gregg

The reemergence of great power competition, conflict with near-peer competitor states below the level of armed conflict, and persisting threats from nonstate actors with transnational ambitions and global reach pose challenges for strategists planning, executing, and assessing military operations and strategy. Building on current visualization tools, two proposed models—the National Strategic Risk Abacus and the National Strategic Risk Radar Chart—address these challenges and better depict how the US military may inadvertently contribute to risk at the national strategic level.

Oct 1, 2021 By: Michael W. Wissemann

Global health engagement, an underutilized strategy rooted in the strengths of soft power persuasion, can lead to more military-to-military cooperation training, help establish relationships that can be relied on when crises develop, stabilize fragile states, and deny violent extremist organizations space for recruiting and operations. Examining Chinese efforts worldwide to curry favor and influence and the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this article shows health as a medium is a very compelling and advantageous whole-of-government approach to national security policy concerns.

Sep 29, 2021 By: Dr. Ilmari Käihkö

The concept of hybrid war has evolved from operational-level use of military means and methods in war toward strategic-level use of nonmilitary means in a gray zone below the threshold of war. This article considers this evolution and its implications for strategy and the military profession by contrasting past and current use of the hybrid war concept and raising critical questions for policy and military practitioners.

Sep 27, 2021 By: Dr. Jason W. Warren, Dr. John A. Bonin

Looming budget cuts will necessitate adept management to retain a military capable of competing and winning by avoiding the mistakes made in prior drawdowns. This article presents a framework for government and defense leaders to prepare for the coming drawdown and plan for the necessary capacity of tomorrow across the diplomatic, information, military, and economic framework.

Sep 21, 2021 By: Dr. Brian McAllister Linn

Drawing on Samuel P. Huntington’s three phases of self-regulation used to determine if an occupation qualifies as a profession, this article focuses on the third phase of policing and removing those who fail to uphold the standards set forth in the first two phases. It reviews how the Army implemented this phase following the Civil War through the post–Vietnam War years and the implications for the officer corps.

Sep 16, 2021 By: Dr. Matthew Valasik, Dr. Shannon E. Reid

Identifying the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol as an inflection point, this article analyzes the historical relationship between White supremacy and the US military from Reconstruction after the Civil War to the present. The article posits causes for the disproportionate number of current and former members of the military associated with White power groups and proposes steps the Department of Defense can take to combat the problems posed by the association of the US military with these groups.

Aug 16, 2021 By: Gregory Aftandilian

Using US military aid as a lever to achieve human rights reforms has proven only marginally effective. This article examines the approaches employed by the Obama and Trump administrations to US military aid to Egypt and proposes practical steps that can be taken by policymakers and military personnel on the ground to advance US human rights values.

Jul 27, 2021 By: Dr. Austin C. Doctor, Dr. James I. Walsh

While unmanned aerial systems can serve as a force multiplier for militants, these systems do not

Jul 26, 2021 By: Dr. Nadia Schadlow

The failure of liberal internationalism in the post–Cold War period requires the United States to adopt a clear-eyed approach to competition that promotes regional balances of power, emphasizes reciprocity, and creates mission-driven coalitions.

Jul 13, 2021 By: Dr. Tongfi Kim, Dr. Luis Simon

Growing Sino-Russian coordination necessitates greater security cooperation between US Allies in Europe and East Asia. US Allies in both regions face remarkably similar threats requiring similar operational concepts, capabilities, and technologies. Further, these Allies must hedge against the specter of US abandonment. An exploration of the links between the two geographically distant US Alliance networks illustrates the Allies’ perspectives on US extended deterrence and highlights opportunities to devise better policies for cooperation.

Jul 12, 2021 By: Dr. Robert Ehlers, Dr. Patrick Blannin

Shortfalls and inefficiencies in traditional planning and campaigning have become increasingly clear in the current hyperconnected security environment. US military planners can mitigate these deficiencies by embracing integrated planning and campaigning approaches including the development of new organizational structures and processes. These improvements will give senior leaders increased options as the US military and US Allies and partners address complex problems with better effect and to greater advantage.

Jun 29, 2021 By: Darren Colby

The rapid decline of the Peruvian left-wing insurgent organization Sendero Luminoso was not only the

Jun 28, 2021 By: Dr. M. Chris Mason

Counterinsurgency does not increase the legitimacy of, or support for, central governments engaged in internal conflicts. Recent research shows quantifiable degrees of government legitimacy, national identity, and population security are necessary precursors and accurate predictors of a government’s ability to outlast a civil uprising. Because the first two predictors—government legitimacy and national identity—can be measured and do not increase during a conflict

Jun 22, 2021 By: Dr. Ann Mezzell, Dr. J. Wesley Hutto

Predoctrinal deliberations about the employment of the US armed forces, captured in Joint Doctrine

Jun 22, 2021 By: Dr. Conrad C. Crane

Army General Matthew Ridgway’s actions throughout his career provide a valuable example of the appropriate time and place for serious dissent by military leaders. Ridgway demonstrated the importance of selectively and pragmatically expressing open disagreement in response to operational decisions a military leader deems unnecessarily risk American lives and economic resources.

Jun 5, 2021 By: Dr. Nora Bensahel

In an era of great power competition centered on warfighting domains other than land, the US Army

Jun 4, 2021 By: Dr. Jean-Yves Haine, Dr. Cynthia Salloum

As the European Union deals with yet another crisis— the COVID-19 pandemic—it must adopt a grand

Apr 10, 2021 By: COL Jonathan P. Klug

In 1971 Colonel Duane H. Smith analyzed the unified command structure, examined an existing proposal

Apr 10, 2021 By: Dr. W. Andrew Terrill

In 1971 Dr. John R. Thomas documented the involvement of the Soviet Union in the Middle East from

Mar 27, 2021 By: Dr. Robert Hamilton

Writing in 1971, economist Dr. John P. Hardt assessed the trajectory of the Soviet economy arguing

Mar 26, 2021 By: COL Jason P. Clark

A look back at F. Gunther Eyck’s assessment of reforms enacted under US Secretary of War Henry L.

Mar 20, 2021 By: Dr. C. Anthony Pfaff, Julia L. E. Pfaff

Differences between the academic and military communities and the dysfunction that occurs when these

Mar 19, 2021 By: Dr. Michael Neiberg

The dilemmas posed by coalition warfare were a subject of academic interest in the inaugural issue

Mar 15, 2021 By: Dr. Carol V. Evans

Regaining the military advantage in the Indo-Pacific region requires renewed thinking about the US

Feb 5, 2021 By: Dr. Leonard Wong, Dr. Stephen Gerras –

Regaining the military advantage in the Indo-Pacific region requires renewed thinking about the US

Feb 3, 2021 By: Dr. Christopher J. Bolan, COL Jerad I. Harper, Dr. Joel R. Hillison

Today, two-thirds of soldiers depart the US Army with a disability rating. Unfortunately, some

Feb 2, 2021 By: Dr. Andrew Bell

The novel coronavirus is only the latest in a series of global crises with implications for the

Jan 4, 2021 By: Dr. Raymond A. Millen

The stability achieved by the US military in the European Theater of Operations after D-Day was the