Civilian Skills for African Military Officers to Resolve the Infrastructure, Economic Development, and Stability Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa Ms Diane E Chido Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "In the United States, we often think of the military as an alternative to college, as a professional training ground, for a wide variety of skills that may include computer science, electronics, cooking, or medicine. We have comprehensive job placement and support programs for separating service members. Our military training includes discipline, teaming concepts, and a respect for civil society, traits expected to remain with a military member for life. Through U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) partnership programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, many officers are currently benefitting from military-to-military training opportunities to learn aspects of military science and other basic training. A small number of officers will gain valuable skills they can use throughout their military careers or even in civilian life."

Security and Governance: Foundations for International Stability Mr Dru Lauzon, Mr Andrew Vine Colloquium Brief by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, Queen’s Centre for International Relations, Queen’s University Defence Management Studies, Land Force Doctrine and Training System of the Canadian Forces "Stability operations in fragile states are likely to remain an important focus of the foreign policy of Western countries for the foreseeable future. The central question to consider when launching these operations is whether a particular type of intervention is more effective than others, and to determine what insights can be drawn from previous deployments in failed and fragile states."

Brazil's Security Strategy and Defense Doctrine Mr Andrew Fishman, Dr Max G Manwaring Colloquium Brief by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, with The Center for Latin American Issues, The George Washington University "In September 2007, Brazil’s President Lula mandated the establishment of a national defense strategy. In December 2008, the Minister of Defense, Nelson Jobim, sent that strategy to the President. In 2010, President Lula signed executive orders to implement the new strategy (the Projecto Nacional) ..."

Should ROTC Return to the Ivy League? LTC Ernest A Szabo Op-Ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) has opened the possibility of Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs returning to Ivy League and other elite (highly selective) universities and colleges. These institutions have not supported initiatives to maintain ROTC programs on their campuses due to the discriminatory nature of DADT, or perhaps they used the DADT policy as a rationale to keep programs, which had been closed during the Vietnam era, from returning."

2010 SSI Annual Strategy Conference Report "Defining War for the 21st Century" COL Phillip R Cuccia, Dr Steven Metz Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The Strategic Studies Institute’s XXI Annual Strategy Conference, held at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from April 6-8, 2010, addressed the topic of the meaning of war. While it did not seek to produce a definitive answer to questions about the nature and definition of war, it did highlight the crucial questions and their implications, including issues such as whether the cause of war is shifting, whether all forms of organized, politically focused violence constitute war, and the distinction between passive and active war."

Civil-Military Relations in Medvedev's Russia Dr Stephen J Blank Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "The panel presented here was devoted to civil-military relations in Russia. This is, as the papers included here show, a critical topic in understanding the domestic and foreign policy trajectories of the Russian state. The papers provided here do not deny that civilian control exists. But they both show how highly undemocratic, and even dangerous, is the absence of those democratic controls over the military and the police forces in Russia which, taken together, comprise multiple militaries. These papers present differing U.S. and European assessments of the problems connected with civilian and democratic controls over the possessors of force in the Russian state and should stimulate further reflection upon these issues and those related to them."

Predictions, Observations, and the Free Lunch COL Louis H Jordan Jr Op-ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "My first prediction for the New Year was going to be that Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell (DADT) would be repealed, but in a surprise move the outgoing Congress beat me to it by making that a reality. Now comes the time for the certification process and implementation. The public is tired of the continued debate, the readiness argument is long suspected of being a red herring, and policies viewed as exclusionary usually have a very limited shelf life. The date on the toe-tag will be 2011."

The Conflicts in Yemen and U.S. National Security Dr W Andrew Terrill Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "Yemen is not currently a failed state, but it is experiencing huge political and economic problems that can have a direct impact on U.S. interests in the region. It has a rapidly expanding population with a resource base that is limited and already leaves much of the current population in poverty. The government obtains around a third of its budget revenue from sales of its limited and declining oil stocks, which most economists state will be exhausted by 2017. Yemen has critical water shortages aggravated by the use of extensive amounts of water and agricultural land for production of the shrub qat, which is chewed for stimulant and other effects but has no nutritional value. All of these problems are especially difficult to address because the central government has only limited capacity to extend its influence into tribal areas beyond the capital and major cities..."

Strangely Silent: The Missing Strategic Debate in the 2010 Mid-Term Elections Dr Robert H Dorff Op-ed by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute "As dust settles on the November 2, 2010, elections—and the dust storm leading to the November 6, 2012, elections begins—there is no dearth of analysis and explanation of what these mid-term elections meant. Traditional Republican victories combined with some untraditional Tea Party victories yielded an historic shift in power in the House of Representatives, and echoed across state legislatures and governorships throughout the country. Those results suggest that “lower taxes, less government spending, and smaller government” will prevail in the policymaking that begins in earnest in January."