Recent Articles

Precision in the Global War on Terror: Inciting Muslims through the War of Ideas Dr Sherifa D Zuhur Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "This monograph questions the messages conveyed to Muslims about their religion and extremism in the war of ideas. Why do American strategic messages on this issue play so badly in the region? Why, despite broad Muslim disapproval of extremism as shown in surveys and official utterances by key Muslim leaders, has support for bin Ladin actually increased in Jordan and in Pakistan since some polling suggests bin Ladin’s approval in Jordan suffered a great deal after the hotel bombings? A reason that the United States is winning so few “hearts and minds” in the broader Islamic world is confusion and imprecision in American strategic messages. The grand strategy of defining, isolating, and destroying Islamism or radical Islamism may not be possible if America does not proceed more carefully, and listen to what its allies think, know, and feel about their faith."

Baloch Nationalism and the Geopolitics of Energy Resources: The Changing Context of Separatism in Pakistan Dr Robert J Wirsing Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Today the quest for energy security stands at or near the top of most nations’ foreign policy agendas. For energy-dependent countries lacking sufficient energy resources of their own, achieving energy security is a formidable problem. Pakistan, currently the world’s sixth most heavily populated nation, is one such country. To ensure its energy future, its government is active on several fronts, including efforts to more fully exploit the country’s own energy resources, to negotiate the construction of transstate natural gas pipelines, and to build a new coastal seaport at Gwadar, an ambitious project which its developers hope will enable Pakistan to occupy an important place in the emerging Asian energy refining and distribution system."

The Strategy Deficit Mr Nathan P Freier Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "An honest survey of post-Cold War national security policy exhibits a dangerous strategy deficit. The word “strategy” is overused. The concept, too, is poorly applied. It is many things to contemporary policymakers except, well—strategy. In the current environment, strategic communications and strategy have become synonymous. Strategic communications is the carefully crafted but overly general and widely consumable articulation of key political messages—“assure, deter, dissuade, defeat”; “as they stand up, we’ll stand down”; “clear, hold, build”; “phased strategic redeployment”; etc, etc, etc..."

New Media and the Warfighter: Workshop Initial Impressions Dennis M Murphy Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Managing media and “information effects” is a hallmark of the current geo-strategic environment in which the U.S. military fights. The global information revolution and rapid spread of the Internet and other digital media have leveled the playing field between nation-states, non-state actors, multinational corporations and individuals. Anyone armed with mobile technologies such as a camera cell phone and access to the Internet is capable of affecting strategic outcomes at very low cost, using a minimal information infrastructure. The U.S. military has increasingly leveraged advances in information technology to gain advantages in the modern battlefield and to tell their story on a macro level, but has just recently begun to exploit the exploding technology realm at the micro level by co-opting the use of YouTube and blogs to help achieve objectives. Clearly, managing the “message” while controlling the necessary technological “means” represent critical challenges in today’s military operating environment."

Collins Center Update Volume 10, Issue 1 Winter 2008 Colonel Phil Evans, Ritchie L. Dion, Colonel (Ret.) Eugene L. Thompson Collins Center Update by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership

After Fidel, The Deluge? Dr Alex Crowther Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "As Louis XV allegedly said, “Apres moi, le deluge.” Certainly people have thought that Cuba after Fidel would be the same. How would a Cuban state that revolves around him survive his departure? How would a government where no decision is too small for his attention function? How would the generations who have known no one other than the “Maximo Lider” handle the change? Luckily for the Cuban government, the answer is—there will be almost no change in the near future. No deluge, just a drizzle."

Intelligence Scotomas in Central and South America, The Proteus Monograph Series, Volume 1, Issue 4 John B Alexander Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership, Proteus Monograph Series Fellows Program " 'Why should I care?' This response from a U.S. Army staff officer may seem like a strange introduction to a monograph on national security issues, but it actually strikes at the crux of the problem. The comment was made by a lieutenant colonel assigned to the Department of the Army’s G-3 office when told that there were significant problems emerging in South America. He is far from alone in his reflexive analysis, or lack thereof. It is indicative of the understaffed, overworked, and terminally focused attitude that permeates everything in the Pentagon. Combat pilots call this target fixation, and for the Department of Defense, the current target is Iraq and the Middle East."

Building for the Future: China's Progress in Space Technology during the Tenth 5-Year Plan and the U.S. Response Mr Kevin Pollpeter Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "China’s space program has achieved spectacular success in recent years. Since 2003 China has launched two human space flight missions, destroyed a satellite with a direct ascent anti-satellite weapon, and launched a moon orbiter. In this monograph, Mr. Kevin Pollpeter assesses China’s rise as a space power and its implications for the United States. He argues that China’s use of space power is part of an integrated approach to increasing its comprehensive national power and achieving great power status. As a result, China’s increasing space power challenges the United States militarily, economically, commercially, and politically."

Security Sector Reform in Liberia: Mixed Results from Humble Beginnings Mr Mark Malan Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "In this monograph, Mr. Mark Malan of Refugees International finds that the SSR program in Liberia is not governed by an overarching strategic framework, not informed by a wide-ranging and integrating public security concept, and not effectively linked to wider government planning and budgeting processes. He argues that a multi-sectoral, whole-of-government approach to SSR, while conceptually valid, has not been applied in Liberia. He concludes that much more can be done to arrest insecurity in Liberia within a more modest program that focuses primarily on military and criminal justice reform, but that this would require a sustained injection of technical and financial support from the United States. He also calls for the U.S. Government to provide advice and support to the Government of Liberia in the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive national security strategy and policy. "