Recent Publications

Apr 7, 2022

By Bert B. Tussing, John Eric Powell, and Benjamin C. Leitzel

Bert B. Tussing, John Eric Powell, and Benjamin C. LeitzelAs indicated in the 2018 National Defense

Mar 8, 2022

By Dr. Sarah Lohmann, Dr. Carol Evans

Dr. Sarah Lohmann, Dr. Carol Evans, 2022The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) faces a

Sep 22, 2021

By Professor Nathan Freier

In a defense and military security context, the United States has at times been “risk-blind” and, at others, “risk-confused” over the last two decades.1 These conditions likely predate the 9/11 attacks. But 9/11, the post-9/11 period, and the United States’ current struggle to adapt to post-primacy indicate defense and military leadership have yet to employ (or maybe are just now employing) risk effectively in their most important strategic decisions.2 If and when leadership begins to routinize risk-informed strategy development...

Sep 21, 2021

By Dr. John R. Deni

Dr. John R. Deni, 2021 in Defense NewsWith the Defense Department weighing whether and how to change

Sep 9, 2021

By Colonel George Shatzer

No retrospective on the September 11 attacks can escape the bleak pall cast by the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan today. Despite the enormous financial investment in the country and the grim human costs borne by the United States, its allies, and Afghans over the past 20 years, the US and NATO military missions have ended in ragged, ignominious failure. The question of how well these operations protected the United States and the world from Islamist terrorism remain open. But there is no doubt that the other stated purpose of creating a functioning, friendly, Afghan government and effective security forces that can prevent the reemergence of terrorism from within the country is now forfeit.

Sep 9, 2021

By Dr. Sarah Lohmann

Dr. Sarah Lohmann, 2021, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS)What the numbers

Sep 8, 2021

By Dr. Roger Cliff

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was working at the Pentagon in the office of the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy. The DoD was preparing to issue a report documenting the findings of the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review, an eight-month-long, comprehensive review of the department’s plans and programs. The theme of the report was the need to “transform” the armed forces of the United States to ensure they would continue to hold a dominant advantage over any potential, future challenger. Although never named in the report, the challenger DoD leaders had in mind was China.

Sep 7, 2021

By Dr. R. Evan Ellis

On September 11, 2001, then US President George W. Bush had just completed a historic summit with his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, the week prior. The interaction built on the “special friendship” between the two nations and the intertwined commercial, security, and other strategic interests binding the United States and Mexico.1 This relationship had deepened considerably in the seven years since the two nations, along with Canada, had signed the North American Free Trade Agreement. For those of us emphasizing the importance of the US bond with the people of its hemisphere ...

Sep 7, 2021

By Professor Nathan Freier

September 2001 was Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and Defense Planning Guidance (DPG) season in the Pentagon. The QDR was the Bush-Rumsfeld DoD’s first crack at publicly reshaping the post–Cold War military. The DPG was the classified instrument by which the Rumsfeld team was to reprioritize military planning and resources to meet the QDR’s public-facing, transformational vision. Thousands of civilian and military staffers entered the Pentagon through the old Metro entrance on September 11, 2001, ...

Aug 31, 2021

By Dr. Chris Mason

The Taliban have retaken control of Afghanistan. The quixotic, United States-led, 20-year nation-building project in Afghanistan is over. “I . . . don’t think anyone thought Afghanistan would turn so badly so quick,” a US official is quoted as saying recently. If that is true, then no one read my book, The Strategic Lessons Unlearned from Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan: Why the Afghan National Security Forces Will Not Hold, which in fact predicted these events in detail six years ago. As I watched yet another foreign country imagined by the United States collapse and another foreign military built by the US Army disintegrate ...