Strategic Studies Institute

21st Century Warfare Studies

Added May 03, 2013

Type: Monograph

Cyber Infrastructure Protection: Vol. II. Edited by Dr. Tarek N. Saadawi, COL Louis H. Jordan, Jr, Dr. Vincent Boudreau.

View the Executive Summary

This book is a follow-on to our earlier book published in 2011 and represents a detailed look at various aspects of cyber security. The chapters herein provide an integrated framework and a comprehensive view of the various forms of cyber infrastructure protection.

Added April 26, 2013

Type: Monograph

Sharing Power? Prospects for a U.S. Concert-Balance Strategy. Authored by Dr. Patrick Porter.

View the Executive Summary

Sharing Power examines alternative U.S. grand strategies. It argues that, while retrenchment is prudent, new strategies will also have to cope with dilemmas that can be mitigated but cannot be avoided.

Added April 04, 2013

Type: Monograph

Making Strategic Sense of Cyber Power: Why the Sky Is Not Falling. Authored by Dr. Colin S. Gray.

View the Executive Summary

Cyber is now recognized as an operational domain, but the theory that should explain it strategically is very largely missing. As the military establishment accepted the revolution in military affairs as the big organizing idea of the 1990s, then moved on to transformation in the early-2000s, so the third really big idea of the post-Cold War Era began to secure traction—cyber. However, it is one thing to know how to digitize; it is quite another to understand what digitization means strategically. With respect to cyber power, Dr. Colin Gray poses and seeks to answer the most basic of the strategist’s questions, “So what?”

Added November 14, 2012

Type: Monograph

Jihadist Cells and "IED" Capabilities in Europe: Assessing the Present and Future Threat to the West. Authored by Dr. Jeffrey M. Bale.

The increasing diffusion and application of expertise acquired by jihadists in fabricating “improvised explosive devices” and the extent to which local jihadist cells in the West may or may not be connected to veteran terrorist groups and networks in other countries and regions are vital concerns for Western military forces and security and intelligence agencies as they relate to these veteran terrorist groups and networks in other countries and regions of the world.

Added August 16, 2012

Type: Monograph

Transnational Organized Crime, Terrorism, and Criminalized States in Latin America: An Emerging Tier-One National Security Priority. Authored by Douglas Farah.

The emergence of new hybrid (state and nonstate) transnational criminal/terrorist franchises in Latin America operating under broad state protection now pose a tier-one security threat for the United States. Similar hybrid franchise models are developing in other parts of the world, making understanding the new dynamics an important factor in a broader national security context.

Added December 23, 2011

Type: Monograph

Organizational Change in the Russian Airborne Forces: The Lessons of the Georgian Conflict. Authored by Dr. Rod Thornton.

Russia’s best troops are to be found in the Airborne Forces. These were the only Russian troops to emerge with their reputation intact after the conflict with Georgia in 2008. They can represent a formidable foe. This monograph examines the current state of the Airborne Forces and why they might be seen as "formidable."

Added October 31, 2011

Type: Monograph

Arms Control and Proliferation Challenges to the Reset Policy. Authored by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.

What are the prospects for further progress in the reset policy with Russia regarding arms control and nuclear proliferation by North Korea and Iran? This monograph attempts to postulate where we are, and possibly where we should be going, or will be going, with respect to these issues.

Added July 08, 2011

Type: Monograph

The New Aztecs: Ritual and Restraint in Contemporary Western Military Operations. Authored by Dr. Zhivan Alach.

The Western way of war has come full circle. After centuries, indeed millennia, of evolution toward increased totality and brutality, it has turned back once again to the ritualistic and restrained methods of primitive warfare.

Added May 09, 2011

Type: Book

Cyber Infrastructure Protection. Edited by Dr. Tarek N. Saadawi, COL Louis H. Jordan, Jr.

This book answers several essential questions: What is cyberpower; how do we deal with emerging threats in cyberspace; what are the lessons that have already been learned; and where are the current cyberspace vulnerabilities?

Added July 20, 2010

Type: Monograph

Got Vision? Unity of Vision in Policy and Strategy: What It Is and Why We Need It. Authored by Dr. Anna Simons.

Having the right "who" to devise strategy is critical to success in counterinsurgency or any asymmetric, cross-cultural encounter. This monograph contends that if we do not get the "who" right, none of the "whats," in terms of what we do, matters.

Added June 03, 2010

Type: Monograph

Human Intelligence: All Humans, All Minds, All the Time. Authored by Mr. Robert D. Steele.

The author explores the centrality of Human Intelligence in meeting the needs of the U.S. Army, as well as the Department of Defense, and the whole of government, for relevant information and tailored intelligence essential to creating a national security strategy; for defining whole of government policies that work in harmony; for acquisition of the right capabilities at the right price in time to be useful; and for operations, both local and global.

Added April 19, 2010

Type: Book

Short of General War: Perspectives on the Use of Military Power in the 21st Century. Edited by Dr. Harry R Yarger.

In this anthology, students in the U.S. Army War College Class of 2008 critically examine the emerging 21st century security environment and offer diverse and innovative thoughts on how military power should be applied in situations short of general war.

Added November 16, 2009

Type: Monograph

YouTube War: Fighting in a World of Cameras in Every Cell Phone and Photoshop on Every Computer. Authored by Dr. Cori E. Dauber.

Terrorist attacks are media events designed to draw the attention of the press since, without a larger audience, a terrorist attack will have accomplished very little. Shaping the attitudes and perceptions of the public can undermine the public will to fight. This is done by shaping media coverage.

Added November 03, 2009

Type: Op-Ed

Army Football and Full Spectrum Operations. Authored by Dr. Stephen Gerras.

Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the November 2009 newsletter.

Added October 28, 2009

Type: Monograph

Schools for Strategy: Teaching Strategy for 21st Century Conflict. Authored by Dr. Colin S. Gray.

Education in strategy is feasible and important. Few would-be strategists are beyond improvement by some formal education. However, for such education to be well-directed, it needs to rest upon sound assumptions concerning the eternal nature yet ever shifting character, meaning, and function of strategy, and the range of behaviors required for effective strategic performance.

Added September 16, 2009

Type: Student (Carlisle) Papers

Baghdad ER--Revisited. Authored by Colonel Erin P Edgar.

The China Dragons of the 28th Combat Support Hospital deployed in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM from September 2006 until November 2007. Their service epitomizes the strides that have been made in military combat medicine.

Added August 11, 2009

Type: PKSOI Papers

Toward a Risk Management Defense Strategy. Authored by Mr. Nathan P. Freier.

The author outlines eight principles for a risk management defense strategy. He argues that these principles provide “measures of merit” for evaluating the new administration’s defense choices.

Added May 22, 2009

Type: Monograph

State and Nonstate Associated Gangs: Credible "Midwives of New Social Orders". Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.

The author addresses the subject of the multifaceted nature and predominant role of gangs operating as state and nonstate proxies in the modern unbalanced global security environment. In every phase of the process of compelling radical political change, agitator-gangs and popular militias play significant roles in helping their political patrons prepare to take control of a targeted political-social entity. As a result, gangs (bandas criminales or whatever they may be called) are important components of a highly complex political-psychological-military act—contemporary irregular asymmetrical political war.

Added January 10, 2008

Type: Colloquium Brief

COIN of the Realm: U.S. Counterinsurgency Strategy. Authored by Dr. Steven Metz, Ralph Wipfli.

Given the wide-ranging and deep impact of counterinsurgency, the participants in the "Future Defense Dilemmas" seminar conducted by The Brookings Institution and the Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, explored two key questions: (1) Is the United States pursuing and executing the right strategy? And (2) Does the military’s focus on counterinsurgency detract from other defense and security needs?

Added August 21, 2007

Type: Monograph

Negotiation in the New Strategic Environment: Lessons from Iraq. Authored by Mr. David M Tressler.

With thousands of negotiations being conducted by U.S. soldiers in Iraq—from junior to senior leaders—the aggregate effect of successful or failed negotiations has an impact on the ability of the U.S. military to accomplish its mission there as well as meet American strategic goals. The author argues that the military’s strategic success in the future may increasingly depend on an expanded range of training that includes negotiation skills and practice. By analyzing the negotiating experience of U.S. Army and Marine Corps officers in Iraq, he offers recommendations to improve negotiating effectiveness and predeployment negotiation training.

Added April 10, 2007

Type: Monograph

Biodefense Research Supporting the DoD: A New Strategic Vision. Authored by Colonel Coleen K. Martinez.

The author examines why, despite devoting decades of research to developing countermeasures against biological agents, the Department of Defense has few products in its arsenal. She concludes that the military requires significant change in program structure and management to begin fielding protective drugs and vaccines for the warfighter efficiently.

Added January 04, 2007

Type: Letort Papers

Naval Transformation, Ground Forces, and the Expeditionary Impulse: The Sea-Basing Debate. Authored by Professor Geoffrey Till.

While naval forces often are out of sight and out of mind to land forces engaged in expeditionary operations, their contribution is vital and becoming much more so. But they face major challenges, which if not resolved may mean the end of what has been called the "expeditionary era."

Added September 06, 2006

Type: Op-Ed

"What If?" -- A Most Impertinent Question Indeed. Authored by Mr. Nathan P. Freier.

Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the September 2006 newsletter.

Added August 02, 2006

Type: Op-Ed

Doctrine that Works. Authored by Dr. Douglas V. Johnson, II.

Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the August 2006 newsletter.

Added November 01, 2005

Type: Monograph

Fourth-Generation War and Other Myths. Authored by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.

Dr Antulio J. Echevarria II critiques the theory of fourth-generation warfare, examining its problematic assumptions and logical flaws. He argues that this theory is hopelessly flawed and that its proponents undermine their credibility by subscribing to it.

Added June 01, 2005

Type: Monograph

Pseudo Operations and Counterinsurgency: Lessons from Other Countries. Authored by Dr. Lawrence E. Cline.

The author argues that pseudo operations in which specially trained government troops--preferably supported by guerrilla defectors--infiltrate guerrilla groups have been very effective in previous operations. If used with care, such operations can be useful in future counterinsurgency campaigns.

Added December 01, 2004

Type: Monograph

Deception 101--Primer on Deception. Authored by Dr. Joseph W Caddell.

The author reviews the basic concepts related to "deception," defining terms, providing historical examples, and discussing problems associated with deception.

Added November 01, 2004

Type: Monograph

Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in the 21st Century: Reconceputalizing Threat and Response. Authored by Dr. Steven Metz, LTC Raymond A. Millen.

Modern insurgency warfare presents fresh challenges for the United States, which must re-conceptualize its approach to fighting such conflicts. Because the dominant characteristics of insurgency--protractedness and ambiguity--effectively stymie the American military's approach to war, the United States needs to reorient its strategic thinking.

Added November 01, 2004

Type: Monograph

Shadows of Things Past and Images of the Future: Lessons for the Insurgencies in Our Midst. Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.

The author identifies the political-strategic challenges of modern unconventional conflicts, with a focus on the political complexity of insurgency. This report comes at a time when U.S. and other world political and military leaders have been struggling with the "new" political-psychological aspects of insurgency/terrorist war.

Added May 01, 2004

Type: Monograph

Learning from the Stones: A Go Approach to Mastering China's Strategic Concept, Shi. Authored by Dr. David Lai.

The author introduces a new approach to learning about the different ways of strategic thinking and interaction in Chinese culture. It is through learning the Chinese board game called go,that is a living reflection of Chinese philosophy, culture, strategic thinking, warfare, military tactics, and diplomatic bargaining. The author suggests that a little knowledge of go will take U.S. leaders a long way in understanding the essence of the Chinese way of war and diplomacy.

Added March 01, 2004

Type: Monograph

Toward an American Way of War. Authored by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.

This monograph addresses trends in American strategic thinking to the war in Iraq. It argues that the American way of war is really a way of battle and offers some recommendations for change.

Added December 01, 2003

Type: Monograph

Insurgency in Nepal. Authored by Dr. Thomas A. Marks.

Insurgencies in the 21st century are different than the Cold War era ones that generated existing doctrine and strategy, and which shaped the way that most American strategists think about insurgency. This monograph assesses the growing insurgency in Nepal with its potential to further destabilize an already volatile region.

Added September 01, 2003

Type: Monograph

Rethinking Asymmetric Threats. Authored by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.

U.S. policymakers, officials, and writers on defense have employed the terms "asymmetric" or "asymmetry" to characterize everything from the nature of the threats we face to the nature of war and beyond. The author challenges the utility of using those terms to characterize the threats we face, one element of the broader debate over the nature of war, U.S. strategy, and the threats confronting us.

Added March 01, 2003

Type: Monograph

Future War/Future Battlespace: The Strategic Role of American Landpower. Authored by Dr. Steven Metz, LTC Raymond A. Millen.

The trends in the strategic environment in the development of the Future War/Future Battlespace suggest that traditional warfighting has changed in the post 9-11 era. The strategic environment can be classified into four strategic battlespaces, within which future adversaries will operate to thwart U.S. strategic initiatives.

Added March 01, 2003

Type: Monograph

Globalization and the Nature of War. Authored by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II.

Globalization—the spread of information and information technologies, along with greater public participation in economic and political processes—is transforming every aspect of human affairs. What is not yet clear, however, are the impacts of these trends, especially how they might affect the nature of war. This monograph argues that the Clausewitzian trinity—hostility, chance, purpose—is still a valid way of looking at the nature of war in the 21st century.

Added September 01, 2002

Type: Book

Transformation Concepts for National Security in the 21st Century. Edited by Dr. Williamson Murray.

This book represents some of the thinking by students at the U.S. Army War College, considering the nature and direction of transformation. They consider how the transformed joint services of the United States should employ force in the 21st century. The services are exploring concepts such as Effects Based Operations and Rapid Decisive Operations to move swiftly and strike vigorously to secure vi

Added September 01, 2001

Type: Monograph

Internal Wars: Rethinking Problem and Response. Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.

Asymmetric guerrilla war--insurgencies, internal wars, and other small-scale contingencies (SSCs)--are the most pervasive and likely type of conflict in the post-Cold War era. The author draws from the lessons of the recent past to better prepare today's civilian and military leaders to meet the unconventional and asymmetric warfare challenges that face the United States and the rest of the intern

Added July 01, 2001

Type: Monograph

Educating International Security Practitioners: Preparing to Face the Demands of the 21st Century International Security Environment. Authored by Dr. Robert H. Dorff, Brigadier General Daniel J. Kaufman, Dr. James M. Smith, Dr. Linda P. Brady.

The authors examine the challenges of the 21st century international security environment to which future strategic leaders and policy practitioners will need to respond.

Added June 01, 2001

Type: Book

Future Warfare Anthology, Revised Edition. Authored by Major General Robert H. Scales.

Throughout U.S. history the American military services have had an unfortunate penchant for not being ready be the next war. American military institutions have been surprisingly optimistic in weighting their preparedness as they embarked on the nation's wars. Military institutions have always had considerable problems in adapting and innovating during inter-war periods.

Added November 01, 2000

Type: Book

Organizing for National Security. Edited by Dr. Douglas Stuart.

In order for institutional reform to succeed, it will have to be guided by a coherent and compelling national strategy, which must, in turn, be anchored in widely-accepted national interests.

Added September 01, 1999

Type: Book

America's Army in Transition: Preparing for War in the Precision Age. Authored by Major General Robert H. Scales.

The following two articles were written during and immediately after the war in Kosovo. The first is an adaptation of an earlier work written after a trip to Asia in 1998. In that essay, I suggested that foreign militaries were beginning to perceive our fixation on a firepower-centered way of war as an exploitable weakness. In fact, some states, armed with experience gained against us in real war, had already begun to evolve a doctrine to counter our superiority in precision.

Added September 01, 1999

Type: Book

The Growing Imperative to Adopt "Flexibility" as an American Principle of War. Authored by Lieutenant Colonel Robert S. Frost.

The author makes it clear that he is not interested in throwing out the old tried and true existing Principles of War, he only wants thought given to their expansion to include a principle of Flexibility. After all, the hallmark of the course of instruction at the U.S. Army War College is the new environment in which its graduates should expect to operate--an environment that we at the War College characterize as vague, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. In such an environment, the author argues, Flexibility must be an operating principle, and it would serve all the services well to recognize it as such.

Added March 01, 1999

Type: Monograph

Landpower and Ambiguous Warfare: The Challenge of Colombia in the 21st Century. Authored by Dr. Richard Downes.

The meeting highlighted the urgency of the Colombian crisis and the need for a comprehensive response by Colombia, the United States, and the regional community of nations. Much of the dialogue developed the principal subthemes of the conference: the sources of violence; the role of the guerrillas, paramilitaries, and narcotraffickers; the institutional capabilities and responses of the Colombian government and armed forces; and the role of the United States.

Added December 01, 1998

Type: Book

America's Army: Preparing for Tomorrow's Security Challenges. Authored by Major General Robert H. Scales.

During the early decades of the 21st Century, the Army of 2025 will differ from today's Army in two distinct ways. First, it will achieve unprecedented strategic and operational speed by exploiting information technologies to create a knowledge-based organization. Second, it will exhibit tremendous flexibility and physical agility through streamlined, seamlessly integrated organizations that use new tactics and procedures.

Added May 01, 1998

Type: Book

Redefining Land Power for the 21st Century. Authored by Dr. William T. Johnsen.

In placing land power in context, we can spark an enlarged debate about land power, the strategic and operational versatility it offers policymakers, and its interrelationships with air and sea power. Additionally, we can examine the growing interdependence among the components of national and military power.

Added March 01, 1998

Type: Book

The Age of Revolutions. Authored by Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy.

The Army operates within a global strategic environment. The parameters of warfare now and into the 21st century are much more complex. Today there is a great deal of talk about focusing on high end threats and relying on one dimension of military power, air power, to halt set-piece attacks by any would-be aggressor.

Added June 01, 1997

Type: Book

The Evolution in Military Affairs: Shaping the Future U.S. Armed Forces. Authored by Professor Douglas C. Lovelace, Jr..

Professor Douglas Lovelace articulates the exigent need to begin preparing the U.S. armed forces for the international security environment which will succeed the post-Cold War era. He defines national security interests, describes the future international security environment, identifies derivative future national security objectives and strategic concepts, and discerns the military capabilities

Added June 01, 1997

Type: Monograph

National Defense into the 21st Century: Defining the Issues. Authored by Dr. Earl H. Tilford, Jr..

In March 1996, Colonel Jim Blundell of the Association of the United States Army's Institute for Land Warfare and Dr. Earl H. Tilford, Jr., of the U. S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute envisioned a symposium that would bring all the services together for an open and honest meeting aimed at defining the complex issues that will face the services individually and the Department of Defense corporately during the Joint Strategy Review and Quadrennial Defense Review process.

Added August 01, 1995

Type: Monograph

The Principles of War in the 21st Century: Strategic Considerations. Authored by Dr. Steven Metz, Professor Douglas C. Lovelace, Jr., Dr. Douglas V. Johnson, II, Dr. William T. Johnsen, LTC James Kievit.

For nearly two centuries, the principles of war have guided practitioners of the military art. During the last 55 years the principles of war have been a key element of U.S. Army doctrine, and recently they have been incorporated into other Service and Joint doctrines. The turn of the 21st century and the dawn of what some herald as the "Information Age," however, may call into question whether principles originally derived in the 19th century and based on the experience of "Industrial Age" armed forces still hold. Moreover, despite their long existence, the applicability of the principles of war at the strategic level of warfare has not been the subject of detailed analysis or assessment.

Added February 01, 1995

Type: Book

World View: The 1995 Strategic Assessment from the Strategic Studies Institute. Edited by Dr. Earl H. Tilford, Jr..

Every year the analysts at the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) prepare current assessments for their particular areas of interest. These assessments become the bedrock of the annual SSI Study Program. This year's assessments are crucial given the complexities of the post-Cold War world. Russia remains an enigma wrapped in a riddle with Russian national interests very much paramount in the Kremlin's thinking.