Russia's Homegrown Insurgency: Jihad in the North Caucasus Dr Stephen J Blank Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The United States has had a bitter set of experiences with insurgencies and counterinsurgency operations, but it is by no means alone in having to confront such threats and challenges. Indeed, according to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the greatest domestic threat to Russia’s security is the ongoing insurgency in the North Caucasus. This insurgency grew out of Russia’s wars in Chechnya and has gone on for several years, with no end in sight. Yet it is hardly known in the West and barely covered even by experts. In view of this insurgency’s strategic importance and the fact that the U.S. military can and must learn for other contemporary wars, the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) felt the need to bring this war to our readers’ attention and shed more light upon both sides, the Islamist (and nationalist) rebels and Russia, as they wage either an insurgency or counterinsurgency campaign."

State-Building Challenges in a Post-Revolution Libya Dr Mohammed El-Katiri Monographs by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "A peaceful transition to a new form of government in Libya is of vital importance not only to the people of Libya, but to neighboring countries—and to security in the broad sense much farther afield. Yet, at the time of this writing, the new interim leadership remains fragile, with limited capacity and sovereignty, and the inability to enforce security is still a critical challenge. There is a risk of conditions being created that could lead to Libya becoming a fragile or indeed a failed state."

How Nation-States Craft National Security Strategy Documents Dr Alan G Stolberg Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "In some manner, shape, or form, every nation state in the international system has a national security strategy or strategies. These strategies are intended to guide the state as it makes its way through the labyrinth of challenges that every nation state faces in the 21st century. The strategy could represent the nation’s overall grand strategy or it could be a national security-related strategy for one particular issue, like force structure development for the armed forces. Strategy making is an art; not a science. Sometimes these strategies work and sometimes they do not. Some are effective and efficient as desired and others are less so..."

The Future of American Landpower: Does Forward Presence Still Matter? The Case of the Army in Europe Dr John R Deni Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "In this monograph, Dr. John R. Deni explores the utility of forward presence in Europe, placing the recent decisions—and, in particular, the arguments against forward presence—in the context of a decades-long tradition on the part of many political leaders, scholars, and others to mistakenly tie the forward-basing of U.S. forces to more equal defense burden sharing across the entire North Atlantic alliance. In assessing whether and how forward presence still matters in terms of protecting U.S. interests and achieving U.S. objectives, Dr. Deni bridges the gap between academics and practitioners by grounding his analysis in political science theory while illuminating how forward-basing yields direct, tangible benefits in terms of military operational interoperability..."

The Prospects for Security Sector Reform in Tunisia: A Year After the Revolution Dr Querine Hanlon Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "In this monograph, Dr. Querine Hanlon of the National Defense University and the United States Institute of Peace finds that Tunisia is well poised to undertake serious security sector reform (SSR). SSR is a comprehensive tool for fixing the dysfunctional security sectors in fragile states emerging from conflict, developing capacities to meet the human security needs of their populations, or transitioning from authoritarian rule. In many fragile states, the security institutions are themselves a major source of insecurity. Dr. Hanlon argues that transforming the security sector into one that is democratically accountable and functions in accordance with the rule of law is an important step toward averting the recurrence of insecurity and conflict and preventing newly democratic or transitioning regimes from reverting to authoritarian rule."

Russia and the Current State of Arms Control Dr Stephen J Blank Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Arms control remains the central issue in U.S.-Russian relations. This is so for many reasons, not least of which are the respective capabilities of these two states and their consequent responsibility for preventing both nuclear proliferation and the outbreak of war between them. Thus the state of the bilateral relationship is usually directly proportional to the likelihood of their finding common ground on arms control. To the extent that they can find such ground, chances for an agreement on what have been the more intractable issues of regional security in Eurasia and the Third World grow, and the converse is equally true."

Hidden Dragon, Crouching Lion: How China's Advance in Africa is Underestimated and Africa's Potential Underappreciated Mr David E Brown Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) has maintained close and positive professional ties with our colleagues at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) in Washington, DC, since ACSS’s founding in 1999. The Africa Center is the preeminent U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) institution for strategic security studies, research, and outreach in Africa. I am pleased that SSI and ACSS are once more able to collaborate in the publication of this monograph, entitled Hidden Dragon, Crouching Lion: How China’s Advance in Africa is Underestimated and Africa’s Potential Underappreciated. Its author, David E. Brown, is currently the Senior Diplomatic Advisor at ACSS. He brings unique perspectives to the important foreign policy issue of China’s rapid commercial and political advance in Africa, having served eight times in China and Africa as a Foreign Service Officer at U.S. Embassies, U.S. Consulates, and the American Institute in Taiwan."

Lead Me, Follow Me, Or Get Out of My Way: Rethinking and Refining the Civil-Military Relationship Dr Mark R Shulman Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "This monograph explains why robust civil-military relations matter and discusses how they are evolving. Without meaningful and reliable civilian control of the military, governments lose some measure of control over the destiny of their nations. In extreme circumstances, a lack of civilian control can even lead to a coup d’état. Part I discusses A More Perfect Military: How the Constitution Can Make Our Military Stronger by Diane Mazur, a book that examines the jurisprudence that has reshaped civil-military relations. Mazur maintains that since the Vietnam era, the U.S. Supreme Court has in effect distanced the Armed Forces from general society in order to create a separate—and more socially conservative—sphere..."

Perspectives on Russian Foreign Policy Dr Stephen J Blank Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The essays collected in this volume comprise a panel on Russian foreign policy that was presented at the Strategic Studies Institute’s (SSI) annual Conference on Russia on September 26-27, 2011, held at Carlisle, PA. These chapters aimed at analyzing not just the day to day diplomacy, but some of the deeper structures of Russian foreign policy, both their material basis in actual policy and the cognitive structures or mentality that underlies it. This issue is now more important with the return of Vladimir Putin to the presidency of Russia and the fact that major transformations in international relations are occurring today across the globe and at an unprecedented pace."