Recent Articles

Will War's Nature Change in the Seventh Military Revolution? Dr. F G. Hoffman Article by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press This article examines the potential implications of the combinations of robotics, artificial intelligence, and deep learning systems on the character and nature of war. The author employs Carl von Clausewitz’s trinity concept to discuss how autonomous weapons will impact the essential elements of war. The essay argues war’s essence, as politically directed violence fraught with friction, will remain its most enduring aspect, even if more intelligent machines are involved at every level.

Strategic Insights: Nuclear Posture Review: Three Reasons the Army Should Care Dr Michael Fitzsimmons Article by US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Debate over the Trump administration’s new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is now in full and predictable bloom. While many of its conclusions demonstrate continuity with the Obama administration’s modernization plans, controversy has centered on two of the review’s recommendations: to deploy new low-yield weapons on sea-launched ballistic and cruise missiles; and to signal the potential for nuclear retaliation against an adversary’s non-nuclear strikes on certain critical targets. Critics accuse the new policy of lowering the threshold for nuclear use. The policy’s authors and their defenders argue to the contrary that Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal and strategies have lowered the threshold for nuclear use, and buttressing U.S. deterrence capabilities is the safest response."

Strategic Insights: Nuclear Posture Review: Three Reasons the Army Should Care Michael Fitzsimmons Article by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "Debate over the Trump administration’s new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is now in full and predictable bloom. While many of its conclusions demonstrate continuity with the Obama administration’s modernization plans, controversy has centered on two of the review’s recommendations: to deploy new low-yield weapons on sea-launched ballistic and cruise missiles; and to signal the potential for nuclear retaliation against an adversary’s non-nuclear strikes on certain critical targets. Critics accuse the new policy of lowering the threshold for nuclear use. The policy’s authors and their defenders argue to the contrary that Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal and strategies have lowered the threshold for nuclear use, and buttressing U.S. deterrence capabilities is the safest response."

Avoiding the Trap: U.S. Strategy and Policy for Competing in the Asia-Pacific Beyond the Rebalance COL (R) Frederick J. Gellert, Dr David Lai, Prof John F Troxell Book by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "This book explores the validity of the U.S. rebalance to the Asia Pacific; analyzes the ends, ways, and means of the strategy to meet U.S. and regional partner security objectives; and considers the effectiveness of the U.S. Government effort. This book focuses on the impact of China’s increasing national power on U.S. objectives and those of Asia-Pacific nations"

Strategic Insights: Challenges in Using Scenario Planning for Defense Strategy Dr Michael Fitzsimmons Article by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press

Stability Operations in Kosovo 1999-2000: A Case Study Mr Jason Fritz Peacekeeping Institute Publication by the US Army War College, Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute "This case study examines the intervention and stability operations in Kosovo from March 24, 1999 through approximately 2 years thereafter. Set during the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia and preceded by ethnic carnage in Bosnia, Croatia, and elsewhere, the intervention, named Operation ALLIED FORCE, was executed in order to protect Kosovars of Albanian descent from the ethnic cleansing of the Serbian leaders of the remaining federation of Yugoslavia. The operation was also intended to exhibit the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) resolve in the face of rampant violence within Europe."

Supporting, Non-Standard Mission Role: U.S. Operations in Liberia, 2014–2015, that Enabled the U.S. and UN Response to the EVD Outbreak Ms. Alix J. Boucher Reports and Misc. Publications by the US Army War College, Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute "Operation UNITED ASSISTANCE (OUA), which deployed to Liberia between September 2014 and June 2015, provides an example of how a Joint Force can support a lead federal agency (LFA), in this case the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other interagency and international partners to end a raging epidemic of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). This EVD outbreak began in late 2013, when Emile Ouamouno, a two year old from Meliandou, a village in Guinea, close to the border with Liberia and Sierra Leone, died of a hemorrhagic fever. Soon after, many of his relatives and their connections, who lived across the region, also became ill and died. In March 2014, a team from the Institut Pasteur in France confirmed that the hemorrhagic fever spreading through the region was EVD. By then, more than 2,400 people had died from the disease. By the time the epidemic ended, in Liberia alone, 15,227 cases of EVD had been confirmed through laboratory tests and 11,310 people had died."

Strategic Insights: Proxy War Norms Dr C. A. Pfaff Article by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press

Armed Robotic Systems Emergence: Weapons Systems Life Cycles Analysis and New Strategic Realities Dr Robert J Bunker Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College Press "This important monograph focuses on the emergence of armed robotic systems on the early 21stcentury battlefield and the new strategic realities that their fielding may entail. It utilizes a little known—yet decades old—weapons systems life cycle analytical approach, to place these warfighting technologies in a larger strategic context. This is provided by means of case studies focusing on the developmental progression of the knight from the 9th through the 16th century, the battleship from the 19th through the 20th century, and the tank from the 20th into the 21st century."