Parameters, Autumn 2009
A Strategy of Tactics: Population-centric COIN and the Army by Gian P. Gentile
In a sense, population-centric counterinsurgency has perverted a better way of American war which has primarily been one of improvisation and practicality.
Beyond Population Engagement: Understanding Counterinsurgency by Heather S. Gregg
The battle is not the war, however. The long-term goal of a counterinsurgency campaign requires the creation of a functioning state, a government that can stand on its own, provide for its citizens, and promote regional and international stability; this achievement is victory in a counterinsurgency.
Conventional Deterrence in the Second Nuclear Age by Michael S. Gerson
Deterrence is once again a topic of discussion and debate among US defense and policy communities. Although the concept has received comparatively little attention since the end of the Cold War, it seems poised to take center stage in America's national security policy during the coming decades.
Playing for the Breaks: Insurgent Mistakes by Lincoln B. Krause
Insurgent leaders commit strategic mistakes that can significantly retard their efforts, and if properly leveraged by counterinsurgent forces, may lead to the insurgents' defeat.
Filling Irregular Warfare's Interagency Gaps by Lew Irwin
The US government has consistently failed to apply the full weight of its instruments of power during irregular warfare conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, largely due to an inability or unwillingness of various agencies to agree upon the ends, ways, and means needed to prosecute those wars.
The Defense Identity Crisis: It's a Hybrid World by Nathan Freier
The defense enterprise is abuzz with lively debates on "hybrid threats" and "hybrid war." Yet, newly emergent defense trends do not automatically merit exquisite definitions, new doctrine, or new operating concepts. As Frank Hoffman implies, such a caveat might be true of "hybrid warfare."
To Stay a Soldier by Chuck Callahan
A significant number of the medical hold soldiers were men and women caught in the mire of the Army's archaic physical disability evaluation system. This system's disability rating and arduous compensation processes were more than half a century out of date.