Syria and the Peace: A Good Chance Missed Dr Helena Cobban Book by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "One of the more dismaying aspects of the current peace process has been the failure of Syria and Israel to make a deal. According to Christian Science Monitor correspondent Helena Cobban, these two long-standing foes came very close to composing their decades-old quarrel. The Syrian and Israeli leaders persevered to overcome extraordinary obstacles, but in the end failed. A terrible setback, says Cobban, because so much hard negotiating work had been done up to the very last moment when the whole carefully constructed edifice of peace drifted away."

The Crisis in the Russian Economy Dr Vitaly V Shlykov Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "It seems as if the universal laws of economics do not apply to Russia. According to the economic theory, in the period of transition from a rigidly centralized economy to free market, prices are not set, state-owned businesses are privatized, and then there is a phase--2 or 3 years long--of painful adjustment and rising unemployment. After that--and this has been happening in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the Baltic states--the economy starts growing."

The Arab-Israeli Peace Process: Assessing the Costs of Failure Dr Stephen C Pelletiere, Prof Shibley Telhami, Mr Lawrence R Velte Book by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "As of mid-1997, the fate of the Arab-Israeli peace process is dangerously uncertain. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to begin work on a new Jewish settlement in Jerusalem has so enraged Palestinians that they have effectively walked out of the negotiations. President Clinton has called on his special envoy, Dennis Ross, to exert every effort to get the Palestinians to return. Meanwhile, elements opposed to the peace process from within the Israeli political establishment have pressured the Prime Minister to halt or even reverse the steps taken to date."

Military Medical Operations in Sub-Saharan Africa: THE DoD LTC C William Fox Jr Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Because of the perceived limited national interest in Africa, U.S. "African" policy does not have a strong constituency in the American political process and lacks coherence and focus. U.S. regional involvements tend to be inconsistent and reactive. The result is that the United States invests much more for "cures" to Africa's ills than might be the case if U.S. policy could place more emphasis on "prevention." For their part, at no time in history have African nations been more receptive to U.S. assistance, or more eager for cooperative efforts to address the difficult issues of national development."

From Madrid to Brussels: Perspectives on NATO Enlargement Dr Stephen J Blank Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "When we think about European security, no question is more basic or more complex than that of NATO enlargement. In July 1997, members of NATO will convene in Madrid and decide to invite a number of Central and/or East European states to begin accession talks with NATO, leading to their full membership in 1999. While it is not certain who the invited states will be, there are good grounds for listing Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic as reasonable certainties. Slovenia and Romania are also increasingly mentioned as possibilities. NATO's decision in Madrid will have immense repercussions for Europe, not just for NATO's current members, or for the new candidates, but also for the states not invited. Those presumably include Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Albania, the states emerging out of the former Yugoslavia, and the European neutrals: Finland, Sweden, and Austria, and the Baltic states."

The Russian Military in the 21st Century Dr Alexei G Arbatov Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The very title of this monograph is quite ambiguous. On the one hand, only 3 years are left until the 21st century. This is too short a time to forecast or propose any serious change in a huge and complicated organization like the armed forces of a great power. On the other hand, each century lasts 100 years, and without a crystal ball it is impossible to predict the evolution of armed forces over such a long period, least of all at a time of dynamic and revolutionary shifts in the world's technologies, economics, the geopolitical scene, and the relative military balance between nations."

Command in NATO After the Cold War: Alliance, National, and Multinational Consideration Dr Thomas-Durell Young Book by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The United States, Mexico, and the Agony of National Security Dr Donald E Schulz Book by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "This study analyses the changing nature of U.S.-Mexican national security issues, with a focus on narcotrafficking, the growing militarization of Mexico's counterdrug and police institutions, the danger of spreading guerrilla war, and the prospects of political and economic instability. The conclusion is that Mexico is in the midst of an extended period of transition in which it is extremely vulnerable to disruption on several different fronts simultaneously. While the economy has largely recovered from the 1994-95 peso crisis, it remains both fragile and volatile. Although much progress has been achieved in democratization, there is still a long way to go. Both political and criminal violence are growing. A new guerrilla group has appeared which may prove to be more troublesome than the Zapatistas. At the same time, the drug cartels are increasingly targeting law enforcement officers for assassination."

National Defense into the 21st Century: Defining the Issues Dr Earl H Tilford Jr Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The timing of the QDR comes at a watershed point in the history of our nation and its defense establishment. Rather than facing a single and symmetrical threat from a known enemy, as was the case from 1946 until the end of the Cold War, the nation now faces a range of multidimensional and asymmetrical threats. We do so at a time of constrained budgets and ever more constrained resources, as the nation and its Congress seek to balance the budget by 2002. Simultaneously, the pace of development in military technology is not only expanding more rapidly, but the sophisticated weapons and the technology necessary to employ those weapons are becoming more readily available to a range of potential foes."