Recent Articles

Always Strategic: Jointly Essential Landpower Dr Colin S Gray Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "American Landpower is a strategic instrument of state policy and needs to be considered as such. The purpose of this monograph is to explore and explain the nature of Landpower, both in general terms and also with particular regard to the American case. Five themes drive through this work. Specifically, it is argued that: (1) Landpower is unique in the character of the quality it brings to the American joint team for national security; (2) the United States has a permanent need for the human quality in Landpower that this element provides inherently; (3) Landpower is always and indeed necessarily strategic in its meaning and implications—it is a quintessentially strategic instrument of state policy and politics; (4) strategic Landpower is unavoidably and beneficially joint in its functioning, and this simply is so much the contemporary character of American strategic Landpower that we should consider jointness integral to its permanent nature; and, (5) notwithstanding the nuclear context since 1945, Landpower retained, indeed retains, most of the strategic utility it has possessed through all of history: this is a prudent judgment resting empirically on the evidence of 70 years’ experience. "

Breaking the Nordic Defense Deadlock Dr Stefan Forss, COL Pekka Holopainen Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Events in Ukraine in early-2014 have prompted a re-evaluation of national defense capabilities across Europe. In the case of the Nordic states (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland), this renewed attention has highlighted the lack of military resources to fulfill nationally stated defense tasks. Two decades of underinvestment in defense, force reductions, and focus on expeditionary crisis management in support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), have combined to hollow out the once fundamental principles of territorial defense. Northern Europe has been left dangerously exposed to military coercion in a time of greatly increased uncertainty."

Strategic Insights: The China-CELAC Summit: Opening a New Phase in China-Latin America-U.S. Relations? R. Evan Ellis Article by US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) began to open its economy in 1978, its relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean has passed through four phases. Prior to its 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), it conducted limited engagements through principally diplomatic and cultural vehicles aimed at building relationships and winning diplomatic recognition among countries of the region."

United Nations Special Forces Manual United Nations Peacekeeping Missions Manual by the US Army War College, Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, United Nations "For several decades, United Nations peacekeeping has evolved significantly in its complexity. The spectrum of multi-dimensional UN peacekeeping includes challenging tasks such as helping to restore state authority, protecting civilians and disarming, demobilizing and reintegrating ex-combatants. In today’s context, peacekeeping missions are deploying into environments where they can expect to confront asymmetric threats from armed groups over large swaths of territory. Consequently, the capabilities required for successful peacekeeping missions demand ever-greater improvement."

Strategic Insights: Brazil's Election 2014:Continuity or Change for the "Sleeping Giant"? José de Arimatéia da Cruz Article by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "On October 26, 2014, Brazilians went to the polls to elect a new president in one of the closest and most highly contested election in Brazil’s contemporary history since the military returned to their barracks in the early-1990s. The final results showed President Dilma Rousseff winning re-election with 51.6 percent in a runoff against her opponent, Aécio Neves, who received 48.4 percent. The choice for president could not have been more distinct between two diametrically opposite candidates; Rousseff, running for re-election as the candidate of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Worker’s Party or PT), and her opponent, former Governor and current Minas Gerais Senator, Neves, the candidate of the opposition Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (Brazilian Social Democracy Party or PSDB)."

United Nations Peacekeeping Missions Military Aviation Unit Manual United Nations Peacekeeping Missions Manual by the US Army War College, Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, United Nations "This first edition of the United Nations Manual on Military Aviation provides field commanders and their staff a guide for planning and conducting military aviation operations in support of United Nations peacekeeping operations. What is more, United Nations Headquarters and Mission staff will find this manual an essential reference as they plan for, generate and employ military aviation for UN Missions."

Human Elements of Military Operations Lieutenant Colonel Brent A Kauffman War Game Report by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The U.S. Army War College (USAWC) conducted a workshop focused on understanding the human elements of military operations. Two groups of experts from the behavioral and social sciences participated in an interdisciplinary examination of what human elements military leaders, planners, and soldiers need to consider when operating in foreign lands. This workshop did not focus on any one past, current, or future operation, but rather sought to develop usable, holistic frameworks—applicable for the broad range of military operations—to inform future military concepts. "

The Effective Use of Reserve Personnel in the U.S. Military: Lessons from the United Kingdom Reserve Model Dr Shima D Keene Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "The U.S. Army and the British Army are undergoing similar processes of rebalancing between regular and reserve personnel. The British armed forces are currently at a more advanced stage of this change than the United States, and consequently there are useful lessons to be drawn from their experience to date. This is particularly the case in a time of growing defense austerity; in addition to their smaller scale, the United Kingdom’s (UK) armed forces have great familiarity with undertaking missions and maintaining close to full-spectrum capability while subject to severe and apparently insurmountable resource constraints. Studying how this is made possible may also provide valuable pointers for a U.S. defense force in an era of sequestration and budget cuts."

Army Support of Military Cyberspace Operations: Joint Contexts and Global Escalation Implications Mr Jeffrey L Caton Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Military cyberspace operations have been ongoing since before the advent of the Internet. Such operations have evolved significantly over the past 2 decades and are now emerging into the realm of military operations in the traditional domains of land, sea, and air. The goal of this monograph is to provide senior policymakers, decisionmakers, military leaders, and their respective staffs with a better understanding of Army cyberspace operations within the context of overall U.S. military cyberspace operations. It first looks at the evolution of Department of Defense (DoD) cyberspace operations over the past decade. Next, it examines the evolution of the Army implementation of cyberspace operations. Finally, it explores the role of cyberspace operations in the escalation of international conflict."