Strategic Studies Institute

United States Studies

Added January 10, 2011

Type: Op-Ed

Predictions, Observations, and the Free Lunch. Authored by COL Louis H. Jordan, Jr.

Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the January 2011 newsletter.

Added November 02, 2010

Type: Op-Ed

America's Most Committed Muslim Ally. Authored by Dr. W. Andrew Terrill.

Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the November 2010 newsletter.

Added May 10, 2010

Type: Op-Ed

Untangling a New Gordian Knot: Don't Ask, Don’t Tell, and Alexander’s Sword. Authored by Dr. Leonard Wong, Professor Douglas C. Lovelace, Jr..

Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the May 2010 newsletter.

Added January 28, 2010

Type: Monograph

The Effects of Multiple Deployments on Army Adolescents. Authored by Dr. Leonard Wong, Dr. Stephen Gerras.

Frequent U.S. Army deployments increase the burden on children who must face the stress and strain of separation and anxiety. The authors take a much-needed, detailed look at the effects of multiple deployments on Army adolescents.

Added November 25, 2009

Type: Colloquium Brief

Leadership and National Security Reform Conference. Authored by Dr. Joseph R. Cerami, Dr. Jeffrey A. Engel, Lindsey K. Pavelka.

The need for significant changes in leader development and government reform to improve the alignment, coordination, integration, and interoperability among largely autonomous U.S. Government agencies was addressed. The two conference panels were challenged to discuss leadership in a broader sense rather than focusing solely at the top, or on presidential leadership.

Added September 25, 2009

Type: Monograph

A "New" Dynamic in the Western Hemisphere Security Environment: The Mexican Zetas and Other Private Armies. Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.

A new and dangerous dynamic has been introduced into the Mexican internal security environment. That new dynamic is represented by a private military organization called the Zetas, and involves the migration of power from traditional state and nonstate adversaries to nontraditional nonstate private military organizations. Moreover, the actions of this irregular nonstate actor tend to be more political-psychological than military, and further move the threat from hard power to soft power solutions.

Added September 25, 2009

Type: Letort Papers

A Comprehensive Approach to Improving U.S. Security Force Assistance Efforts. Authored by Lieutenant Colonel Theresa Baginski, Colonel Brian J. Clark, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Donovan, Ms. Karma Job, Lieutenant Colonel John S. Kolasheski, Colonel Richard A. Lacquement, Jr., Brigadier Simon "Don" Roach, Colonel Sean P. Swindell, Colonel Curt A. Van De Walle, Colonel Michael J. McMahon.

Security Force Assistance may be a new term but the activities are familiar and are related to how the Department of Defense trains, advises, and assists foreign partners' security establishments to accomplish common objectives. Recommendations to improve U.S. performance are provided.

Added September 24, 2009

Type: Letort Papers

Iraq: Strategic Reconciliation, Targeting, and Key Leader Engagement. Authored by Captain Jeanne F. Hull.

Military commanders and diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan have been meeting with important local officials since the inception of those conflicts. These engagements have aided commanders and diplomats alike in furthering their objectives by establishing productive relationships with those who know and understand Iraq’s complex human terrain best—the Iraqis. However, these engagements frequently take place on ad-hoc bases and are rarely incorporated into other counterinsurgency operations and strategies. In some cases, unit commanders fail to see the utility of using these engagements at all--an oversight that contributes to deteriorating security situations and loss of popular support.

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 September 16, 2009

Type: Monograph

Escalation and Intrawar Deterrence During Limited Wars in the Middle East. Authored by Dr. W. Andrew Terrill.

This monograph seeks to analyze military escalation and intrawar deterrence by examining two key wars where these concepts became especially relevant—the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. A central conclusion of this monograph is that intrawar deterrence is an inherently fragile concept, and that the nonuse of weapons of mass destruction in both wars was the result of a number of positive factors that may not be repeated in future conflicts.

Added August 27, 2009

Type: Letort Papers

Mind-Sets and Missiles: a First Hand Account of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Authored by Mr. Kenneth Michael Absher.

A detailed chronology and analysis of the intelligence failures and successes of the Cuban Missile Crisis is provided.

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 October 31, 2008

Type: Op-Ed

Living Perilously in a Bubble. Authored by Dr. Leonard Wong.

Each month a member of the SSI faculty writes an editorial for our monthly newsletter. This is the Op-Ed for the November 2008 newsletter.

Added March 12, 2008

Type: Colloquium Brief

Opportunities for Engaging Minorities. Authored by Dr. Dallas D. Owens.

A colloquium titled “Opportunities For Engaging Minority Communities in Securing Our Nation” was held on February 11, 2008, at The Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and addressed methods for successful engagement by security and public health agencies with Latino, Muslim, and at-risk communities.

Added February 09, 2007

Type: Monograph

The New Totalitarians: Social Identities and Radical islamist Political Grand Strategy. Authored by Dr. Douglas J. Macdonald.

While controversial, the “clash of civilizations” thesis has had a large influence in the debate over the causes of, and possible remedies for, the spread of terrorist activity.

Added February 05, 2007

Type: Book

A Nation at War. Authored by Professor John R. Martin.

One of the basics of strategy is understanding the foe and the type of war in which a nation is involved. The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) does not fit easily into the mold of war, but that is because of too much comparison with conventional wars; the Cold War may provide a better model. This report chronicles the panels and resulting papers from the Seventeenth Annual U.S. Army War College Strategy Conference, held at Carlisle Barracks, PA, in April 2006.

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 September 01, 2004

Type: Book

A Nation at War in an Era of Strategic Change. Edited by Dr. Williamson Murray.

This book contains essays on key national security challenges by students in the Army War College's prestigious Advanced Strategic Art Program. With an introductory essay by prominent military historian Williamson Murray, this book will be valuable to military and civilian leaders.

Added April 01, 2002

Type: Monograph

The Inescapable Global Security Arena. Authored by Dr. Max G. Manwaring.

The author outlines the violent characteristics of the new security-stability environment and briefly examines the problem of terrorism and the related problem of governance. Finally, he enumerates some civil-military implications for playing effectively in the contemporary global security arena.

Added June 01, 1998

Type: Monograph

On Diversity. Authored by LTC Andre H. Sayles.

He provides important arguments in support of the Army's Consideration of Others Program.

Added October 01, 1996

Type: Monograph

Civil-Military Relations and the Not-Quite Wars of the Present and Future. Authored by Dr. Vincent Davis.

The University of Kentucky's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce and the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute hosted a symposium surveying the area between the high end of humanitarian intervention and the low end of low-intensity conflict in the not-quite wars. Military intervention is nothing new in American history.

Added May 01, 1996

Type: Book

The Troubled Path to the Pentagon's Rules on Media Access to the Battlefield: Grenada to Today. Authored by Dr. Pascale Combelles-Siegel.

Ms. Pascale Combelles-Siegel examines the difficult road traveled by the press and the military since Operation URGENT FURY in 1983. She focuses on the development of the 1992 Joint Doctrine for Public Affairs as a practical tool for reducing tension and providing press access to the battle. Her analysis reflects the duality of the relationship and the efforts of both communities to find a modus vivendi.

Added April 01, 1995

Type: Book

American Civil-Military Relations: New Issues, Enduring Problems. Authored by Dr. Douglas V. Johnson, II, Dr. Steven Metz.

The authors were invited to prepare a paper for a conference on Civil-Military Relations in the fall, 1994. That paper was translated into an article for the Winter, 1995 edition of The Washington Quarterly under the title "Civil-Military Relations in the United States: The State of the Debate." Although the intensity of interest in this subject has fallen from the front pages of the newspapers, the authors have here suggested that the debate needs to continue and that it should start with identification of the right questions.

Added December 01, 1993

Type: Monograph

The Military-News Media Relationship: Thinking Forward. Authored by COL Charles W. Ricks, Dr. Rod Lyon, Prof. William T. Tow.

Given the volatile, unstable, and ambiguous environment in which armed forces can find themselves, the actions of field forces have a greater chance than ever before of affecting subsequent strategic decisions made at higher levels. The pressure on field commanders to "get it right the first time" is demonstrably greater than ever.