Journal

The so-called IS is experiencing some loss of key personnel and territory under US and EU bombardment and Iraqi army advances. But those extremists are adapting to the changing conditions.

Existing US security assurances and other means coupled with modest policy adjustments are sufficient to compel the Kingdom to forego nuclear proliferation ambitions.

A future capability that is explained in this paper is that machines will have the ability to remove humans from the real-time decision-making loop.

Does the shift in the language of concept development from the operational concept to the joint operating concept make the former term obsolete or does it leave out something important?

Should covert intelligence agencies and organizations within an open government and society, like the United States, be treated as anathema to the Body Politic?

Only through coordination and collaboration with trusted, close-knit allies, can the United States expect to maintain and develop its own national security.

The DoD should shift from predominant reliance on high-technology empowered U.S. military dominance towards prioritization of U.S.-Allied dominance.

Man-machine teaming is inexorable and Special Warfare needs a blueprint to transform along with it.

There has been a significant devaluation of the relationship between those responsible for setting and executing strategy and those providing intelligence and assessment supporting strategy.

The U.S., and its peerless military in particular, should begin deploying diverse and scalable elements of national power to promote coalitions to deter Chinese aggression.

While power is the substance of international relations, culture is a significant part of the overall picture that must not be either overlooked or over-emphasized.

Like his May 2015 address, al-Baghdadi again illogically and illicitly reduces the entirety of Islam as a religious faith to a single act--fighting.

As with all commanders, I had given much thought to the key areas of focus that would support us in building combined arms close combat competencies at various levels within the Brigade.

The basis for COIN rules of engagement and background for the conflict between the right to self-defense and the protection of civilians found in international law and the Law of War.

Now that the Pentagon has decided to integrate females into combat arms units the question turns to how to do so in the best manner possible.

The classical principles of counterinsurgency, while still exceptionally appropriate for countering regionally dominant insurgencies, are inadequate for countering modern global insurgency.

The term “terrorist organization” offers little insight and limits our understanding and approach. ISIS is an insurgent organization using terrorism as a tactic.

With the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2016 the United States Congress has embraced what Russia, Iran, China, Al Qaeda and even ISIS have long known.

Gray Zone conflicts are not new, the El Salvador conflict in the 1980s and the Somalia Wars in the 1990s are examples of past Gray Zone or Shadow Wars supported by minimum US SOF Forces.

“If we [the U.S.] take out ISIS, we have Assad. If we take out Assad, we have ISIS. If we take out both, we have a vacuum.”

Jihad - Today this ancient Arabic word has near universal recognition, but also near universal misunderstanding.

“The threat that hovers over every secret is betrayal.”

The American Military has never been better tactically. However it is increasingly disconnected from the Republic it serves.

The escalation of conflict in Donbas, Ukraine, with particular focus on the contribution of various parties to the escalation of violence.

The Qods Force is responsible for bolstering Hezbollah over thirty years ago and they have been working together across the globe ever since.

The Abu Bakr al Baghdadi Gang has “gone to war” with the civilized world – using spectacular slaughter to political ends. The civilized powers must respond, but how?

The current context of the Middle East demands complex multifaceted strategies that merge hard, soft and smart power.

As the militaries improve their ability to conduct operations, the next logical step is to ensure they can interoperate with U.S. and other allied nations.

The Levant increasingly appears a place where anarchy might be the only order of the day unless a number of anti-ISIS actors come up with a plan to destroy that entity.

As a western ally with a predominantly Sunni population, Turkey’s geostrategic importance and ideological role is critical in tempering the rise of Islamic extremism.

Fire in the Lake, a political-military board game of the Vietnam War, is the latest in the counterinsurgency series of games from publisher GMT.

Small Wars Journal interview with Dr. Russell W. Glenn, associate professor with the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, The Australian National University.

America’s approach to the threat of global terror has been one dimensional and strategically ineffective.

Frankly, it might be a good idea not to drop bombs on oil trucks with drivers inside.  However wise it may be, it is not legally required.

Because of the pace of technological change, failing to recognize today’s shifting security environment is perhaps understandable. 

The driving storyline of extremist Islam, often referred to simply as the Narrative, states that the West and its allies are continuing in a historical effort to destroy Islam.

A proper application of Clausewitz’s Center of Gravity provides the framework for an anti-ISIS strategy.

If the Army is to remain a dominant land power, the security and defense of Army and DoD networks must be viewed as a critical warfighting task.

America’s approach to the threat of global terror has been one dimensional and strategically ineffective.

How can the military best give soldiers an advantage on the future battlefield?

Striking our homeland, the cancer that is ISIS threatens not only our citizens, but threatens our way of life within our own communities as envisioned by country’s first leaders.

The hard irreconcilable realities and complexities encountered by NTM-A's mission, and the central role it played in ‘transitioning security to an Afghan lead’.

GO-1X represents an incomplete understanding of Islamic cultural values, provides marginal operational utility, persists in multiple conflicting versions, and suffers from inconsistent application.

The addition of the cyber domain begs the question: What about when the human terrain is the Key Terrain and control of it represents the decisive point?

Cyber-crime is a criminal activity that is informational, global, and networked. It is the product of networked technologies that have transformed the division of criminal labor.

In various domains of security and conflict, analysts increasingly predict that machines will take on progressively larger components of human reasoning and decision-making.

Salik was changing the Afghan Great Game, from the soil up.

The Marines had the fastest rifles in the village of Binh Nghia. It wasn't long until the second fastest belonged to their comrades-in-arms, the Popular Forces.

This may be the sensational media headline in the near future as DOD continues to struggle over the strategy to fight ISIS in Syria.

ISIL's real strength comes from an ability to operate as a decentralized network projecting power on the battlefield and in the information sphere.