Recent Articles

Shaping China's Security Environment: The Role of the People's Liberation Army Dr Andrew Scobell, Dr Larry M Wortzel Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "For 2 decades after the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established, there was no question that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had a central role in shaping China’s security and foreign policy. Indeed, the PLA also was a major actor in domestic policy. The new leaders that took over China in 1949 all came from the military or Communist Party cadre who fought the Nationalists from 1927 through the Anti-Japanese War, and then fought the final battles of the civil war. At the local, provincial, and national level, the Party, the Army, and the government were almost synonymous. The PLA’s influence in national policy declined in subsequent decades, however. Today, one must carefully count the number of senior leaders with military connections in the Communist Party Politburo to debate the extent of PLA influence in China. "

China-ASEAN Relations: Perspectives, Prospects, and Implications for U.S. Interests Dr Jing-dong Yuan Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have undergone significant changes over the past 15 years. ASEAN’s concerns over Beijing’s drive for military modernization and its assertive posture in territorial disputes over the South China Sea of the early 1990s are replaced with growing economic ties and shared geo-political interests for building regional security through multilateral processes. Since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Beijing has expanded its influence as a major political force in the region and a locomotive for economic recovery and future opportunity. What explains China’s successful diplomatic offensive and what implications do closer China-ASEAN ties have for the United States?"

Ukraine After the Orange Revolution: Can It Complete Military Transformation and Join the U.S.-Led War on Terrorism? Dr Deborah Sanders Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Ukraine is located at a pivotal crossroads in Europe between east and west and has the potential to play an important role in combatting terrorism in two ways. First, by consolidating democracy and democratic control over its armed forces, Ukraine can be a stabilizing force in Eurasia. Second, the country can contribute toward the defeat of terrorism by developing niche capabilities, particularly in its peacekeeping forces. Dr. Deborah Sanders, the author of this External Research Associates Program (ERAP) monograph, argues that for Ukraine to be an effective U.S. ally in the war on terror, it must engage in comprehensive military transformation..."

Belize 2021: Ends, Ways, Means and Risk Management: Belize National Security Strategy Formulation Process Workshop #2 COL Dale C Eikmeier, Prof Bernard F Griffard Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "On August 22, 2006 planners representing Belize’s security organizations and other government agencies reconvened to continue their national security strategy formulation process. Their initial efforts in June 2006, reported in CSL Issue Paper, Belize 2021: Developing a National Security Strategy for the Future, July 2006, Volume 06-06, produced the Belize 2021 Vision, its national goals, and identified tiered threats to success that required counter-strategies. This paper looks at the continuing process to develop Belize’s roadmap to 2021 exercised during this second strategy formulation workshop."

Collins Center Update - Volume 8, Issue 4: July - September 2006 Bert B. Tussing, Dennis M. Murphy, Colonel (R) Carol Kerr, Professor B. F. Griffard, Colonel Dale C. Eikmeier, Mr. Bill Waddell, Mr. Bill Wimbish, Collins Center Update by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership

"What If?" -- A Most Impertinent Question Indeed Mr Nathan P Freier Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "We are in an era of persistent, purposeful, and increasingly complex resistance to American primacy. Unfortunately, the strategic discourse necessary to guide us through our current predicament has yet to coalesce around an appropriate logic. Despite 5 years of irregular conflict, military purists in and out of uniform continue their search for clean boundaries between war and peace—boundaries that will again allow them to focus on the most traditional conceptions of “warfighting” at the expense of those concepts and capabilities necessary to our success against the likeliest and most strategically consequential future challenges."

Strategic Challenges for Counterinsurgency and the Global War on Terrorism Dr Williamson Murray Books by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "In March 2006, President George W. Bush signed a new National Security Strategy that he refers to as a “wartime national security strategy.” He also states in the introduction that to follow the path the United States has chosen, we must “maintain and expand our national strength.” One way to do this is to study and propose solutions to the complex challenges the United States faces in the 21st century. At the U.S. Army War College, the students have embraced this challenge and spend a year developing their intellectual strength in areas that extend well beyond the familiar operational and tactical realm to which they are accustomed."

The Future of Transatlantic Security Relations Mr Patrick B Baetjer, Dr Joseph R Cerami, LTG Richard A Chilcoat Colloquium Report by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute Sponsored by: U.S. Army’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Security Series, U.S. Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, The European Union Center for Excellence at Texas A&M University, The George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, The George Bush School of Government and Public Service "The Transatlantic Security Relationship has been an anchor of European and U.S. foreign policy since the closing days of World War II. As the conflict drew to a close, a new one rose from its ashes. The Cold War and its many harrowing moments reinforced, time and again, the importance of maintaining close ties and mutual understanding across the ocean—a distance that has grown ever smaller in this age of globalization."

North Korean Civil-Military Trends: Military-First Politics to a Point Mr Ken E Gause Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Unlike the study of other authoritarian regimes, first the Soviet Union and more recently China, which have given rise to a cottage industry of analysis on all aspects of things military, the same cannot be said of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), the armed forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). In the small world of Pyongyang watchers, articles and books devoted to the KPA are few and in most cases deal with the armed forces themselves (order of battle) rather than the high command that oversees the machinery."