Blog Posts

"U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday Turkey needs to do more to fight Islamic State and control its borders."

"As the Australian Army seeks to understand the institutional lessons of its last 15 operationally intensive years, it is timely to examine the concept of expeditionary warfare."

"By the time the Human Terrain System was shut down in September, the program had cost American taxpayers more than $700 million and was bereft of purpose."

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"The U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State suffers "from a lack of coherence" and is often operated in a disorganized fashion."

"Warfare is changing, and not just in the most obvious and visible ways." H/T Dave Maxwell.

“You cannot defeat an enemy if you are afraid to name it.”

"Mass migration from rural to urban areas from the 1950s onwards means 80 percent of Latin America's population of around 600 million now live in cities."

Special Operations Today: FSR Interviews LTG Cleveland (Ret.), Formerly Commanding General, USASOC by the Fletcher Security Review. H/T Dave Maxwell.

"Officials said the training scenario was not based on any one potential enemy, but they acknowledged similarities to the ongoing Russian military intervention in eastern Ukraine."

"The events in Iraq over the last month have shown that any success in Iraq requires both the Iraqi government and the United States to go far beyond the war against ISIS."

"The United States is the primary target among western states for lone wolf terrorist attacks, and the frequency of attacks continues to increase."

Iraq’s armed forces and their Shiite militia allies are beginning preparations to retake Ramadi the capital of the heavily Sunni province of Anbar.

This article considers the challenge of maintaining readiness for large-scale irregular warfare contingencies when the national mood has so decisively turned against such operations.

"Claiming the Quran’s support, the Islamic State codifies sex slavery in conquered regions of Iraq and Syria and uses the practice as a recruiting tool."

"The Kremlin is worried about not just what the American troops are teaching the Ukrainians, but what they may be learning from them and the Donbas battlefield."

The Army's retiring top officer says the time may come when the U.S. should consider embedding American forces in Iraqi units to help advise them.

"In what order does the Obama administration rank the biggest external threats to America’s national security?"

Small Wars Journal and Small Wars Journal-El Centro are pleased to announce an updated line up for the Small Wars Journal-El Centro Fellows for 2015.

"The Defense Department earlier this summer released a comprehensive manual outlining its interpretation of the law of war."

"Afghan security forces handled three complex emergencies almost simultaneously, proving perhaps that training of Afghan forces has paid off."

10 recommendations for how the US can better realize its national security interests, including consolidating the many new security assistance authorities.

CNAS CEO Michèle Flournoy and President Richard Fontaine have authored a new policy brief arguing that “current efforts to counter ISIS are not adequate to the task”.

"U.S. officials worry that a confluence of powerful drug-trafficking cartels, terrorist groups and an insecure southern border poses a strategic threat."

"For at least a year after Gaddafi’s ouster, American diplomats focused on governance and economic issues, not security, in their support for Libya."