Recent Articles

Preparing for NATO Missions: Integrated Force Planning in the Albanian Armed Forces Prof Bernard F Griffard, Dr R Craig Nation, Prof James W Shufelt Jr Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Albania’s reintegration into the European community began immediately after the fall of the communist dictatorship in 1990. Following the 1992 elections, which marked the emergence of a multi-party political system, the government’s long-term goals were membership in the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). To this end, on January 26, 1994, the Albanian Parliament approved the country’s participation in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. Subsequently, Albania participated in NATO and EU peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and supported allied efforts to respond to Serbian action in Kosovo and resolve Kosovo’s political status. Following the attacks on the United States in September 2001, Albania joined the “Coalition of the Willing,” providing military forces for coalition and NATO operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Albania’s demonstrated commitment to the alliance was rewarded on April 1, 2009, with full NATO membership"

Enhancing Professional Military Education in the Horn of Africa Prof Bernard F Griffard, Prof John F Troxell Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Strategic planning is a way of thinking. It is a process of defining a national strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating resources (capital and people) to pursue this strategy. In today’s challenging economic environment, employing the strategic planning process is critical for a nation to fully evaluate the impacts of its identified strategic ends, ways and means."

Toward a Risk Management Defense Strategy Mister Nathan P Freier PKSOI Paper by US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute "Current fiscal and operational realities no doubt constrain the defense decision space. It is realistic to view the coming era as one of general defense and national security evolution, complemented by some targeted revolution within the Department of Defense (DoD). Toward that end, the current Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR 10) must rationalize competing visions about the certainty of future unconventional threats and lingering uncertainty about evolving traditional challenges. Doing so requires adoption of a new risk management defense strategy."

The Role of Cuban Paramilitary Organizations (People's Militias) in the Post-Castro Era Dr Max G Manwaring Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Armed nonstate groups all over the world are directly challenging targeted governments’ physical and moral right and ability to govern. This almost chronic chaos is exacerbated by traditional nationstate actors using nonstate popular militias, youth leagues, gangs, or their equivalents to help the take control, maintain control, or regain control of a given political-economic-social entity. It is in this context that popular militias have been organized, trained, and nurtured in Cuba."

Collins Center Update, Volume 11, Issue 3 (Summer 2009) Professor James Kievit, Mr. John Auger, Dennis M. Murphy, Professor Bernard F. Griffard, Major (P) John A. Mowchan, Mr. William O. Waddell, Mr. Kevin J. Cogan. Collins Center Update by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership

United States and Mongolia Conduct Exercise Gobi Wolf Arthur L Bradshaw Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Cooperation between the United States and Mongolia has developed dynamically since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1987. Today Mongolia and the United States share a growing and strong cooperative partnership based on shared values, a commitment to democracy and free-market economy, and the global war against terrorism. To that end the two nations are partnering in several areas to expand expertise and training to Mongolia as it reconfigures its government from a Soviet-style bureaucracy to a more western, interagency-based structure."

The Militarization of the Collective Security Treaty Organization COL John A Mowchan Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Russia has reenergized its efforts to evolve the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) from a largely symbolic political organization to a more cohesive militarized security alliance. At the forefront of these efforts is a Russian-led plan to create a new CSTO Rapid Reaction Force (RRF) and a larger Central Asian Military Group. While both initiatives are still in the initial phase of development, the militarization of the CSTO alliance and its transformation into a credible security organization could bolster the Kremlin’s ability to limit U.S. and Western influence in Eurasia. It could also allow Russia an enhanced ability to increase its control over former Soviet-controlled states and re-create an alliance similar to the Warsaw Pact."

Strategic Vision Workshop: Land Power in the 21st Century LTC Artur M Loureiro Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership, with Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA), National Security Faculty and Researchers at Texas A&M University, Bush School of Government, Scowcroft Institute "This iteration of the Strategic Vision Workshop was a continuation of previous workshops conducted in the greater Boston area that involved the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The results of these previous workshops were reported in a May 2008 CSL Issue Paper, Volume 5-08. This issue paper provided an overview of the discussions that took place in each of the academic institutions listed previously. The chief architect of the “Strategic Choices” Brief was Major General David Fastabend, now recently retired, who at the time was the G-3/5/7"

USSOUTHCOM Interagency Meeting on Food Security Mr Brent C Bankus, Ms Marcela Ramirez Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The 1994 United Nations Development Program’s “Human Development Report” surfaced the concept of human security, which suggests that global and regional stability increasingly turns on the welfare of the individual. Regional security is best achieved by providing “freedom from want and freedom from fear” for the people, for which food security is an essential component."