Journal

An update on week 3 of Stanford University’s Hacking for Defense course.

As both national parties' primary campaigns have unfolded, “Mattis 2016” references have quickly shed their levity.

Conventional warfare is a dying platform by which asymmetric warfare and terrorism have replaced the conventional warfare dynamic.

While COIN doctrine might not be a magic bullet to end the war, it seems to be a better option than trying to kill one's way out.

An update on week 2 of Stanford University’s Hacking for Defense course.

The role of religion in peace operations is understudied and undertheorized. Needed by peace and stability operations leadership is a well-developed and nuanced understanding.

Although the military must be prepared to fight a conventional state on state conflict, it is an insurgency that the United States Government is more likely to confront.

Due in part to the rapid digital penetration of the Internet and social media over the past decade, there are novel ways of tracking cartel and gang activity.

A model for actively integrating deception planning into the brigade level orders process, specifically during mission analysis, course of action development, and course of action analysis.

America must take better advantage of its security structure and change the status quo of being the world’s first line of defense.

Mad Scientist series - If we put on our Mad Scientist hats, the Army’s “Win in a Complex World” stops short of how far we could push technology and a vision for 2025 and beyond.

The U.S. and our military should broaden its approach and adopt a more comprehensive response to the growing religious extremist threat.

Stanford University has just conducted its first Hacking for Defense class and 8 teams have hit the ground running.

Daesh's Wilaya AlForat, or the Euphrates State, along the Iraqi-Syrian border is the heart of the terrorist organization’s homeland, yet it is not understood and is easy to bypass.

Russia has increasingly tested the resolve of Europe and the West, inciting and then intervening in manufactured crises in Georgia and Ukraine. The Baltic States could be the next target of Russian enlargement.

Dedication is a learned quality and uncommonly common among those that do the heavy lifting for our society.

The US has adopted a more “direct action” approach to issues such as Boko Haram, and moved away from traditional skills sets such as Foreign Internal Defense.

Relatively junior civilian officials and NGO representatives are making decisions with long-term strategic ramifications on the “modern war battlefield”.

With varying degrees of urgency, history often returns to the question of whether Russia is Europe.

The unprecedented rate of technological change will significantly alter modes of logistical support in the future and this article aims to contribute to the dialogue.

The Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement has expanded from Darfur to other warzones in Sudan, promoting a countrywide revolution against an aging government.

The Human Terrain System has found itself in the news again. A feat of considerable effort as the program ceased operations in September 2014.

While cartel drones are typically considered a tool for smuggling, they are increasingly seen as having application for other purposes including espionage, surveillance, and as weapons.

The long term viability of Russian autocracy is more threatened by the standard of living in Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland, than by any foreign military.

Human Insecurity in Mali: Overcoming Obstacles to Economic Solvency and Democratic Governance through External Intervention

Mad Scientist series - The U.S. Government must improve its capability to rapidly analyze foreign populations and the need for this capability will only increase.

Healthcare delivery in ISIS is characterized by a very low doctor/patient ratio of 1/50,000. Most doctors and healthcare professionals have left or have gone underground.

It is necessary to embrace the notion that current impressions and metrics likely represent a high degree of inaccuracy when used in a predictive model.

Mad Scientist series - Weather conditions within dense urban and complex terrain environments will influence a greater populace and can negatively influence military operations.

Mad Scientist series - In light of the contemporary operating environment, terrorist activity and political violence will continue to have direct and indirect effects on European security.

The importance of network analysis and socio-cultural understanding within the military intelligence community and how it was used to capture Saddam Hussein.

As the United States is eagerly, if not desperately, trying to build its anti-Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/IS) coalition, Iran is increasingly appearing to be an important potential player in that arrangement.

Mad Scientist series - Biomarker-based far-forward diagnostic strategies and technologies have the potential to transform military healthcare in megacities and dense urban areas.

The challenge is to not only identify and define the threat of ISIL, but to influence a wide network of interagency stakeholders to take decisive measures.

Prestige weapons, often symbols of power and policy, rarely affected the outcomes of tactical engagements.

A cadre concept would ensure that a Combatant Commander had a well-trained core of professionals and platforms to perform small-scale riverine operations if required.

The primal motivational pattern of diplomatic coercion as understood within the context of intertribal warfare is important to study.

Although the U.S. is heavily invested in the region, stability in the Pacific will continue to be a secondary priority to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

Mad Scientist series - An analytic framework in support of framing, mapping, and developing courses of action for operations in dense urban areas.

Many of the declassified letters from bin Laden’s “bookshelf” are about mundane concerns with reference to family and al-Qaeda members abroad, the remainder refer to jihadi matters.

Americans as a whole, do not fully understand the current IED attack capabilities and the threat posed to the U.S.

“Mad Scientist” series - There is a need for improved pain control on the battlefield, as well as in higher echelons of casualty care.

“Mad Scientist” series - The need for an Integrated Global Health Surveillance and Response Program through a complex web of surveillance, education, and interactive coordination.

Unconventional warfare and political warfare offer valuable strategic options beyond traditional military means to achieve national policy objectives.

“Paper Tiger (noun): one that is outwardly powerful or dangerous but inwardly weak or ineffectual” -Merriam-Webster.com

Skilled armies sometimes choose to emphasize attrition over maneuver warfare because circumstances warrant such decisions.

This paper identifies challenges faced by Geographic Combatant Commanders when operating as part of a multinational force or an interagency team.

What might really be interesting but hidden within the various conceptions of gray zone conflict, ambiguous warfare, political warfare, and their ilk.

The US-led Coalition adjusted its logistics strategy, setting out to create an Afghan system based on the model of “pull” sustainment. The Afghans  were, and are, not ready.

Bloodbath on the beaches: The Mexican drug gangs riding on JET SKIS to blast victims ‘James Bond-style’.