Recent Articles

Creating the Future: Visioning, Alignment and Change in the Serbian Armed Forces Prof Bernard F Griffard, Prof James W Shufelt Jr Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "In 1939, when he became the U.S. Army’s 15th Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall realized that he was operating on a different level as he prepared the Army for possible entry into World War II. He was now a strategic leader and strategic leadership was different. In guiding the evolution of the poorly equipped 174,000 man Army of 1939 to the 8.3 million man well-led, modern Army of 1945; General Marshall demonstrated the three critical skills of a strategic leader: the ability to create the future by providing the vision for long-term focus; managing the intricate processes necessary for change; and, building the teams and consensus required to accomplish the desired endstate."

SOLLIMS Sampler - Vol 2, Issue 2 - Economic Stabilization Ms Katrina Gehman PKSOI SOLLIMS Sampler by the US Army War College, Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute "Economic Stabilization relates to the process of establishing the policies and regulatory framework to support basic economic activity and development in a post-conflict environment; encourages trade, as well as national and international investment in indigenous business and in business development; and, seeks protection for the Host Nation’s natural and commercial resources. Economic Stabilization is a vital sector of Stability Operations: it covers reconstruction activities, agricultural development, job creation, public works programs, economic assessments, economic development/sustainment actions, partnering with Host Nation (HN) officials, working with local businesses, and garnering private sector support. In working toward successful Economic Stabilization, our military services and our civilian agencies face tremendous challenges and opportunities, and "partnering" with the HN government, HN society, and other actors is absolutely essential throughout these complex efforts."

Peace & Stability Journal, Volume 1, Issue 2 Mister Robert C Browne Peace and Stability Journal by the US Army War College, Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute "From 26 to 28 October 2010, PKSOI held the 5th annual Stability Operations Training and Education Workshop (SOTEC), entitled “Peace and Stability Operations Education and Training: Teaming Challenges and Best Practices” at the National Conference Center, Lansdowne, Virginia. The workshop provided a forum for trainers and educators from within U.S. Government (USG) civilian and military agencies, academic institutions, and international and non-government organizations to discuss best practices in Stability Operations (SO) training and education (T&E), in order to develop future collaborative projects in management, delivery, and evaluation tools. The goal is to create synergistic effective training and education programs throughout the community while reducing redundancy along common task lines."

Predictions, Observations, and the Free Lunch COL Louis H Jordan Jr Op-ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "My first prediction for the New Year was going to be that Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell (DADT) would be repealed, but in a surprise move the outgoing Congress beat me to it by making that a reality. Now comes the time for the certification process and implementation. The public is tired of the continued debate, the readiness argument is long suspected of being a red herring, and policies viewed as exclusionary usually have a very limited shelf life. The date on the toe-tag will be 2011."

The Conflicts in Yemen and U.S. National Security Dr W Andrew Terrill Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Yemen is not currently a failed state, but it is experiencing huge political and economic problems that can have a direct impact on U.S. interests in the region. It has a rapidly expanding population with a resource base that is limited and already leaves much of the current population in poverty. The government obtains around a third of its budget revenue from sales of its limited and declining oil stocks, which most economists state will be exhausted by 2017. Yemen has critical water shortages aggravated by the use of extensive amounts of water and agricultural land for production of the shrub qat, which is chewed for stimulant and other effects but has no nutritional value. All of these problems are especially difficult to address because the central government has only limited capacity to extend its influence into tribal areas beyond the capital and major cities..."

Civil-Military Relations in Medvedev's Russia Dr Stephen J Blank Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The panel presented here was devoted to civil-military relations in Russia. This is, as the papers included here show, a critical topic in understanding the domestic and foreign policy trajectories of the Russian state. The papers provided here do not deny that civilian control exists. But they both show how highly undemocratic, and even dangerous, is the absence of those democratic controls over the military and the police forces in Russia which, taken together, comprise multiple militaries. These papers present differing U.S. and European assessments of the problems connected with civilian and democratic controls over the possessors of force in the Russian state and should stimulate further reflection upon these issues and those related to them."

Strangely Silent: The Missing Strategic Debate in the 2010 Mid-Term Elections Dr Robert H Dorff Op-ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "As dust settles on the November 2, 2010, elections—and the dust storm leading to the November 6, 2012, elections begins—there is no dearth of analysis and explanation of what these mid-term elections meant. Traditional Republican victories combined with some untraditional Tea Party victories yielded an historic shift in power in the House of Representatives, and echoed across state legislatures and governorships throughout the country. Those results suggest that “lower taxes, less government spending, and smaller government” will prevail in the policymaking that begins in earnest in January."

La Familia Drug Cartel: Implications for U.S.-Mexican Security Dr George W Grayson Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "La Familia Michoacana or as it is also known, La Familia, has emerged as one of Mexico’s strangest and most grotesque drug cartels. Its leaders—Nazario “El Chayo” Moreno González and José de Jesús “El Chango” Méndez Vargas—insist they are doing the Lord’s work when they discipline teenagers for wearing long hair or spraying graffiti on colonial buildings in the Michoacán state capital of Morelia. However, this syndicate is not content with trying to civilize young people..."

Russia's Prospects in Asia Dr Stephen J Blank Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Northeast Asia (NEA) is a place where economic interdependence among the NEA “troika”—China, Japan and South Korea—is growing. Moreover, intense interaction within that troika will determine the extent of further economic (and political) integration in the much wider region—Pacific Asia (which stretches from areas of Pacific Russia in the north to New Zealand in the south). This is a very important fact for Russia, though an understanding of its significance for the country has come only very recently. The long-standing issue for Russia is the future of the Russian Far East (Pacific Russia or RFE), its social and economic development, and its security. Pacific Russia’s future depends to a great extent on its involvement in the NEA regional economy... "