Strategic Studies Institute
United States Army War College
Recent Publications
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Added June 14, 2013
Nigerian Unity: In the Balance
Authored by Gerald McLoughlin, Lieutenant Colonel Clarence J. Bouchat (USAF, Ret.).
View the Executive Summary
The existence of Nigeria as a unified state is in jeopardy. To counter this, the United States should better support Nigeria through some practical steps and thereby significantly advance both countries’ interests. -
Added June 10, 2013
The Future of the Arab Gulf Monarchies in the Age of Uncertainties
Authored by Dr. Mohammed El-Katiri.
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This monograph assesses the challenges facing the Arab Gulf’s rulers, and proposes meaningful political reform as a means of mitigating these challenges. -
Added June 04, 2013
Avoiding the Slippery Slope: Conducting Effective Interventions
Authored by Dr. Thomas R. Mockaitis.
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Operation ODYSSEY DAWN was the most recent in a long list of foreign interventions by the U.S. military. Difficult as such operations may be, the need for them remains a constant in international security. The author considers how to mount such interventions effectively without getting bogged down in protracted occupations that are costly in blood in and treasure. -
Added May 31, 2013
Return of the Balkans: Challenges to European Integration and U.S. Disengagement
Authored by Mr. Janusz Bugajski.
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For the first time in modern history, the entire Balkan Peninsula has the opportunity to be included under one security and developmental umbrella combining NATO and the European Union. Unfortunately, this historic vision is being undermined by a plethora of political, social, economic, ethnic, and national disputes and the shortcomings of Western institutions in eliminating potential security challenges. -
Added May 28, 2013
Asia-Pacific: A Strategic Assessment
Authored by Dr. David Lai.
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The U.S.-China power transition has become a defining factor in the Asia-Pacific, conditioning the calculation of policy among the Asia-Pacific nations. A rising China brings mixed blessings—opportunities for development, but risks for conflict. -
Added May 17, 2013
The Challenge of Drug Trafficking to Democratic Governance and Human Security in West Africa
Authored by David E. Brown.
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International criminal networks—some with links to terrorism—represent an existential threat to democratic governance of already fragile states in West Africa, and are using drugs to buy political power, fray West Africa’s traditional social fabric, and create a public health crisis. Drug trafficking represents the most serious challenge to human security in the region since resource conflicts rocked several West African countries in the early 1990s; international aid to the subregion’s “war on drugs” is only in an initial stage, and progress will be have to be measured in decades, not years. -
Added May 13, 2013
War and Insurgency in the Western Sahara
Authored by Staff Researcher.
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Home to the largest functional military barrier in the world, the Western Sahara has a long history of colonial conquest and resistance, guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency, and evolving strategic thought. This monograph explores the past, present, and future of the region, including its relationship to developments in Morocco, Algeria, and elsewhere in North Africa. -
Added May 03, 2013
Cyber Infrastructure Protection: Vol. II
Edited by Dr. Tarek N. Saadawi, COL Louis H. Jordan, Jr, Dr. Vincent Boudreau.
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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
Sharing Power? Prospects for a U.S. Concert-Balance Strategy
Authored by Dr. Patrick Porter.
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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 11, 2013
Egypt's New Regime and the Future of the U.S.-Egyptian Strategic Relationship
Authored by Gregory Aftandilian.
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This monograph, completed in August 2012, analyzes the developments in Egypt from January 2011 to August 2012 and addresses the following questions that are pertinent to U.S. policymakers: How does the United States maintain good relations and preserve its strategic partnership with Egypt under Cairo’s new political leadership and the changing political environment in the country? How does it do so while adhering to American values such as supporting democracy even when those coming to power do not share U.S. strategic goals? -
Added April 04, 2013
Making Strategic Sense of Cyber Power: Why the Sky Is Not Falling
Authored by Dr. Colin S. Gray.
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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 April 01, 2013
From Chaos to Cohesion: A Regional Approach to Security, Stability, and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authored by Diane E. Chido.
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African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are increasingly proving their ability and willingness to unite to halt and prevent conflict and to further regional economic and political objectives. USAFRICOM is uniquely positioned to strengthen REC capacity as a first step in a longer-term Pan-African integration process for enhanced continental stability and security. -
Added March 20, 2013
Governance, Identity, and Counterinsurgency: Evidence from Ramadi and Tal Afar
Authored by Dr. Michael Fitzsimmons.
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Western thinking on counterinsurgency seems to be that success in countering insurgencies depends on a perception of legitimacy among local populations. However, it may be more correct to consider the identity of who governs, rather than on how whoever governs governs. -
Added February 05, 2013
Strategic Stability: Contending Interpretations
Edited by Elbridge A. Colby, Michael S. Gerson.
This edited volume offers the most current authoritative contemporary survey of the concept of strategic stability, a central plank in U.S. policy on nuclear weapons and great power relations. -
Added January 31, 2013
Talking Past Each Other? How Views of U.S. Power Vary between U.S. and International Military Personnel
Authored by Colonel Richard H. M. Outzen.
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The gap between the U.S. military’s self-image and its image in the eyes of an international military audience is examined. When considering U.S. power, do response patterns indicate great difference between how U.S. military officers view themselves and how they are viewed by their international peers? If so, is there anything that the United States can do about it, or does a fundamental and pathological anti-Americanism predetermine outcomes? -
Added December 31, 2012
The Impact of President Felipe Calderón’s War on Drugs on the Armed Forces: The Prospects for Mexico’s “Militarization” and Bilateral Relations
Authored by Dr. George W. Grayson.
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The ever wider involvement of the armed forces in Mexican life is examined by addressing the question: “Is Mexican society being ‘militarized’?” If the answer is “yes,” what will be the probable impact on relations between the United States and its southern neighbor? -
Added December 26, 2012
India's Changing Afghanistan Policy: Regional and Global Implications
Authored by Dr. Harsh V. Pant.
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India's perpetually reactive foreign policy ensured that India has been reacting to the actions of other actors in Afghanistan for the last decade without developing an autonomous posture. This will have serious consequences for Indian security once Western forces depart Afghanistan in 2014. -
Added December 19, 2012
Venezuela as an Exporter of 4th Generation Warfare Instability
Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.
We must adapt our approach to the overwhelming reality that just as the world has evolved from an industrial society to an information-based society, so has warfare. The reality of this evolution demonstrates the need for a new paradigm of conflict based on the fact that information—not firepower—is the currency upon which war is now conducted. The new primary center of gravity is public opinion and political leadership. The “new” instruments of power are intelligence, public diplomacy, media, time, and flexibility. The one thing that remains the same is that one level or another of compulsion still defines war. -
Added December 13, 2012
A National Security Staff for the 21st Century
Authored by Dr. Jack A. LeCuyer.
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This monograph offers a new model for the management of the national security system—at the strategic level—which is the first step in transforming our national security system to meet the challenges and opportunities of the global security environment of the 21st century. This monograph provides a proposed response to Section 1072 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which requires the President to report to Congress on the organizational changes required to implement the National Security Strategy of May 2010. -
Added November 30, 2012
Learning by Doing: The PLA Trains at Home and Abroad
Edited by Mr. Roy Kamphausen, Dr. David Lai, Mr. Travis Tanner.
The papers presented in this latest volume in a series on the PLA are a timely and critical look at an evolving and expanding Chinese military and provide context for the changes we may see as the PLA continues to modernize. -
Added November 23, 2012
The Energy and Security Nexus: A Strategic Dilemma
Edited by Dr. Carolyn Pumphrey.
It is hard to overstate the importance of energy. Energy literally drives the global economy. Without question, the links between energy and security are significant, but how so? This book explores the connections between energy and security (human, national, and international) and provides considerable discussion on how best to resolve this strategic dilemma. -
Added November 14, 2012
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 November 02, 2012
Beyond the Battlefield: Institutional Army Transformation Following Victory in Iraq
Authored by Lieutenant Colonel G. Scott Taylor.
Learning lessons from past conflicts is essential to avoid repeating the same mistakes in future wars. Even more important, it is critical to apply those lessons to institutional change to inculcate the lessons of the past conflict–this Paper highlights some of the author’s observations on changes that should be integrated into the institutional Army to ensure that the hard-earned lessons of counterinsurgency fighting and stability operations achieved in the sands of Iraq and hills of Afghanistan are not lost over the years ahead as we withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan. -
Added October 31, 2012
State-Building Challenges in a Post-Revolution Libya
Authored by Dr. Mohammed El-Katiri.
Following the overthrow of Muammar Qadhafi, Libya’s National Transitional Council inherited a difficult and volatile domestic situation. The new leadership faces serious challenges in all areas of statehood. Libya’s immediate future is of critical importance, consequently, it is especially important for Libya's interim government to build the political institutions for a functioning modern democratic state. -
Added October 29, 2012
How Nation-States Craft National Security Strategy Documents
Authored by Dr. Alan G. Stolberg.
This monograph compares and contrasts how different countries craft their national security strategy documents. It highlights similarities as well as differences, and provides lessons learned that all national strategy makers can apply. -
Added October 24, 2012
Russia's Homegrown Insurgency: Jihad in the North Caucasus
Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
The insurgency in the North Caucasus is virtually unknown outside Russia, but it is the greatest threat to Russia’s domestic security. These studies open that “ black box” and provide much analysis that should lead to further reflection on the issues of Islamist insurgency and counterinsurgency. -
Added October 12, 2012
A "Hollow Army" Reappraised: President Carter, Defense Budgets, and the Politics of Military Readiness
Authored by Professor Frank L. Jones.
For more than 30 years, the term “hollow army” has represented President Carter’s alleged willingness to allow American military capability to deteriorate in the face of growing Soviet capability. The true story is more complicated than the metaphor suggests. -
Added October 09, 2012
The Future of American Landpower: Does Forward Presence Still Matter? The Case of the Army in Europe
Authored by Dr. John R. Deni.
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The January 2012 announcement that the United States would reduce the number of Brigade Combat Teams in Europe captured media, popular, and scholarly attention, prompting many to ask: Is the United States turning its back on Europe as it pivots to Asia? Do the Europeans have the wherewithal to defend themselves? Are forward-based U.S. land forces necessary at all? Given the necessity of capable, interoperable coalition partners for the future security threats Washington most expects to encounter, the role of America’s forward military presence in Europe remains as vital as it was at the dawn of the Cold War, but for different reasons. Dr. Deni’s monograph forms a critical datapoint in the ongoing dialogue regarding the future of American Landpower. -
Added September 25, 2012
Lead Me, Follow Me, Or Get Out of My Way: Rethinking and Refining the Civil-Military Relationship
Authored by Dr. Mark R. Shulman.
Troubled relations between the armed forces and civil society sap the vitality of the republic and undermine the effectiveness of the military. This timely monograph launches a discussion about what kind of civil-military relationship we have and how to improve it. -
Added September 21, 2012
Russia and the Current State of Arms Control
Edited by Dr. Stephen J. Blank.
The chapters in this volume focus on Russian developments in arms control in the light of the so-called New Start Treaty signed and ratified in 2010 by Russia and the United States in Prague, Czech Republic.