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Tyranny of the Inbox: Managing the US National Security Agenda
March 20, 2025 — Presidential management style, foreign policy preferences, and domestic political interests all affect the national security agenda. International crises, however, are particularly likely to garner the attention of the National Security Council. This article analyzes a novel data set of all the issues raised at National Security Council meetings from 1947 to 1993 and finds that contemporaneous crises are very likely to be discussed, but that crisis management attenuates the Council’s attention to noncrisis national security matters. The results suggest presidents focus on crises at the expense of other strategic matters, and they do so when political conditions favor crisis management... MORE

Adapting US Defense Strategy to Great-Power Competition
March 20, 2025 — American defense strategy must shift to face the challenges of the new era of great-power competition. This article outlines the trade-offs involved among competing priorities and regions and proposes five strategic pillars to guide the development of a US military strategy, doctrine, and force structure optimized for the needs of the great-power competition era. Without the strategic planning needed to align the Pentagon’s investments and decisions according to great-power competition requirements, the United States may fail to prevent an avoidable strategic disaster by not preparing properly for China’s likely military quest for regional and, later, global hegemony. ... MORE

Measuring Interoperability Within NATO: Adapted Off-the-Shelf Tool or Bespoke Solution?
March 20, 2025 — Despite decades of work on interoperability, NATO Allies cannot measure, assess, and build upon it fully and accurately. The lack of agreed formats or standards for collection, management, and the communication of findings have prevented the Allies from developing common interoperability measurement and assessment tools. Nonetheless, NATO could adopt extant standards, methodologies, processes, or tools to achieve its interoperability objectives. Testing this notion through use cases, the authors identify practical and conceptual hurdles to adopting an off-the-shelf solution. They conclude that the Alliance may need to create assessment standards, methodologies, processes, and tools from scratch, despite the difficulties of doing so... MORE

Russian Novel Nuclear Weapons and War-Fighting Capabilities
March 20, 2025 — This article argues that Russia’s novel nuclear-capable weapons will have a minor but real impact on Russian war-fighting capabilities in Eastern Europe. Using publicly available assessments, it evaluates the weapons’ characteristics individually and when taken together to determine their possible impact on war fighting, deterrence, and arms control. Additionally, it analyzes Russian war-fighting concepts to project how Russian strategists think about their use and how they might integrate them into Russian war-fighting concepts. The study’s conclusions will assist military strategists and policy practitioners as they plan for a potential regional war on NATO’s eastern flank... MORE

Ukraine’s Not-So-Whole-of-Society at War: Force Generation in Modern Developed Societies
March 20, 2025 — This article argues that Ukraine offers a cautionary tale regarding the two main modern models of force generation. Neither the professional high-tech war model, favored by Western militaries, nor the whole-of-society war approach, said to have saved Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, proved successful formulas for Ukraine. Considering that Ukraine is fighting for survival, with Russian forces inside the country, the failure of both models in action has serious implications for NATO member states as they deliberate on their choices regarding future force generation... MORE

Soldiering and Silences: Witnessing Child Sexual Abuse in Afghanistan
March 20, 2025 — Based on interviews with United Kingdom veterans, this special commentary offers a new interpretation of war trauma. Few studies investigate the emotions soldiers experience when witnessing child sexual assault. During the Afghan campaign, personnel witnessed acts of rape by allies in the Afghan security services on boys—usually excused as the local practice of bacha bazi—and were directed not to intervene. This special commentary examines the effects of these actions on soldiers and the mission, highlighting how soldiers were impacted by what they witnessed but could not stop... MORE

From the Editor in Chief
March 20, 2025 — Welcome to the Spring 2025 issue of Parameters. The issue consists of an In Focus special commentary, three forums (Russia, Ukraine, and NATO; Strategic Competition and Managing National Security; and Joint Sustainment Strategies), and the regular Civil-Military Relations Corner... MORE

Assessing the Zeitenwende: Implications for Germany, the United States, and Transatlantic Security
February 27, 2025 — This volume examines Germany’s Zeitenwende, a policy shift sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Key themes include national security, defense spending, energy diversification, and evolving ties with Russia, China, NATO, and the EU. Despite progress, challenges in strategy, defense, and sustainability raise concerns for Washington and transatlantic cooperation... MORE

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Toward a More Effective DoD Contribution to Strategic Competition in the Western Hemisphere
February 21, 2025 — Innovative new thinking is needed on the security challenges the People’s Republic of China poses in Latin America and the Department of Defense’s role in the US response, including (1) enhanced security cooperation that helps key democratic partners succeed and provides the United States leverage and situational awareness, and (2) anticipating how the People’s Republic of China may exploit its commercial and other activities in the region in times of war... MORE

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Book Review: Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America’s First Black Generals
January 31, 2025 — Author Doug Melville’s multigenerational biography presents the little-known story of his family and two of its military veterans who always believed in the American dream—Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis Sr., the first Black US Army general, and his son, General Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the first Black US Air Force brigadier general. Dr. Wylie W. Johnson reviewed the book because he was so impressed when he heard then–Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. speak in chapel at his evangelical college... MORE

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