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• Toward a National Security Policy and Strategy for Now and the 21st Century

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  In the confusion of effort that has resulted from trying to deal with homeland defense in the complex contemporary global security environment, strategic considerations have played little part in the debate and actions pertaining to national and global security. The general result in the United States has been the ad hoc and piece-meal crisis management of security affairs. That approach, in turn, has led to ad hoc, piecemeal, and less-than-desirable results---and high personnel, monetary, and political costs. As a consequence, many participants in the Conference on Homeland Security, 2000, either call for or respond to a call for clear policy direction---and a strategy and organizational structure that provides the basic guidance regarding how to better defend the United States and its global interests. Manwaring and Corr intend to establish the philosophical underpinnings and a beginning point for a field theory from which to achieve the vision necessary for greater success in safeguarding the American homeland. In that connection, it must be remembered that, in the highly integrated global system, global defense is homeland defense.

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.; Corr, Edwin G.

  2000-10
• Security and Civil-Military Relations in the New World Disorder the Use of Armed Forces in the Americas: An Anthology from a Symposium Cosponsored by the Chief of Staff, United States Army, the George Bush School of Government and Public Service, and the U.S. Army War College

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  In December 1998, the U.S. Army War College joined with the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University to cosponsor a conference entitled "The Use of Land Forces in the Americas." It was held on December 15, 1998, at the Bush School and was hosted by the President of Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Lieutenant General Marc Cisneros, USA (Retired). The various presentations, the level and scope of participation, the candor of the dialogue, the outstanding support provided by the cosponsors, and the relaxed atmosphere generated by the personal efforts of General Cisneros and former President Bush all contributed to a forward-looking and fruitful meeting. This book stems from the symposium, however it is not a comprehensive record of the proceedings. Rather, the book is organized as an anthology of the best of a series of excellent symposium presentations, revised in light of the discussions that took place there, and complemented by an explanation of the strategic interests of the United States in Latin America and an overview. The anthology examines the major political, economic, and social trends in Latin America; strategic issues that relate to the use of U.S. armed forces in the Americas; and, civil-military relations for now and the future.

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  1999-09
• State and Nonstate Associated Gangs: Credible 'Midwives of New Social Orders'

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  "This monograph introduces a misunderstood aspect of 'wars among the people.' The author addresses the interesting subject of the multifaceted nature and predominant role of gangs operating as state and nonstate proxies in the modern unbalanced global security environment. In every phase of the process of compelling radical political change, agitator-gangs and popular militias play significant roles in helping their political patrons prepare to take control of a targeted political-social entity. As a result, gangs (bandas criminales or whatever they may be called) are important components of a highly complex political-psychological-military act--contemporary irregular asymmetrical political war. In these terms, this monograph is relevant to modern political discussions regarding 'new' socialism, populism and neopopulism, and hegemonic state and nonstate challenges to stronger opponents. More specifically, this monograph examines examples of contemporary populism and neopopulism, 21st century socialism, and a nonstate actor (al-Qaeda) seeking regional and global hegemony. They are: first, paramilitary gang permutations in Colombia that are contributing significantly to the erosion of the Colombian state and its democratic institutions, and implementing the anti-system objectives of their elite neo-populist sponsors; second, Hugo Chavez's use of the New Socialism and popular militias to facilitate his populist Bolivarian dream of creating a mega-state in Latin America; and, third, al-Qaeda's strategic and hegemonic use of political-criminal gangs to coerce substantive change in Spanish and other Western European foreign and defense policy and governance."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2009-05
• Building Regional Security Cooperation in the Western Hemisphere: Issues and Recommendations

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  Today's Western Hemisphere strategic environment is unique. In stark contrast to many other parts of the world, countries in the Western Hemisphere are not threatened militarily by their neighbors. Twenty-five years ago, the vast majority of the governments in Latin America and the Caribbean were under either communist or autocratic rule. Today, every country in the hemisphere except one is a democracy. Democracy is the goal and the accepted model for government in the Western Hemisphere. This is significant because democracies tend to look out for the welfare of their people, seek positive relations with their neighbors, and, most importantly, do not make war against each other.

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.; Fontela, Wendy; Gizzard, Mary . . .

  2003-10
• Inescapable Global Security Arena

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  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. Then he analyzes the complex threat and response situation and outlines a multidimensional response to these problems. Finally, he enumerates some civil-military implications for playing effectively in the contemporary global security arena. His recommendations focus on the interagency and the military in general, and the U.S. Army in particular.

  Army War College (U.S.)

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2002-04
• Papers from the Conference on Homeland Protection

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  "On April 11-13, 2000, the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute sponsored a major conference that examined what the Department of Defense must do "to insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence," given the increasing contemporary threats to the U.S. homeland. This book highlights the issues and themes that ran through the conference. As such, it is not a comprehensive record of the proceedings. It is organized as an anthology of the best of a series of outstanding conference presentations, revised in light of the discussions that took place there. Finally, the anthology is complemented by an overview and four specific recommendations. Those recommendations look to the future and place emphasis on the transformation strategy that conference participants considered essential to safeguard the American homeland now and into the future."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2000-10
• New Chapter in Trans-American Engagement

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  From the Introduction: "General Fraser and the conference dialogue stressed the critical need to develop a serious hemispheric partnership for opening 'A new Chapter in Trans-American Engagement.' In that connection, over 20 major issues and recommendations were put forward (some of which were redundant) at the 2010 Western Hemisphere Security Colloquium, held on May 25-26, 2010, in Miami, Florida. In one way or another, virtually every issue and recommendation stresses that building a viable regional security partnership in the Hemisphere is not a strictly short-term, or unilateral, or even bilateral defense effort. Regional security will result only from long-term, multilateral, civil-military partnering efforts. Thus, the generalized results of the colloquium emphasize three highly interrelated needs and an associated recommendation."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute; National Defense University. Institute for National Strategic Studies

  Manwaring, Max G.; Baker, Eva Silkwood

  2010
• Street Gangs: New Urban Insurgency

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  "This monograph explains the linkage of contemporary criminal street gangs (that is, the gang phenomenon or third generation gangs) to insurgency in terms of the instability it wreaks upon governments and the concomitant challenge to state sovereignty. Although differences between gangs and insurgents regarding motives and modes of operations exist, this linkage infers that gang phenomena are mutated forms of urban insurgency. In these terms, these 'new' nonstate actors must eventually seize political power to guarantee the freedom of action and the commercial environment they want. The common denominator that can link the gang phenomenon to insurgency is that some third generation gangs' and insurgents' ultimate objective is to depose or control the governments of targeted countries."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2005-03
• Latin America's New Security Reality: Irregular Asymmetric Conflict and Hugo Chavez

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  "Since his election as President of Venezuela in 1998, Hugo Chavez has encouraged and continues to encourage his Venezuelan and other Latin American followers to pursue a confrontational 'defensive,' populist, and nationalistic agenda that will supposedly liberate Latin America from the economic dependency and the political imperialism of the North American 'Colossus' (the United States). Chavez argues that liberation, New Socialism, and Bolivarianismo (the dream of a Latin American Liberation Movement against U.S. hegemony) will only be achieved by radically changing the traditional politics of the Venezuelan state to that of 'direct' (totalitarian) democracy; destroying North American hegemony thoughout all of Latin America by conducting an irregular and asymmetric 'Super Insurgency,' or 'Fourth-Generation Warfare' to depose the illegitimate external enemy; and building a new Bolivarian state, beginning with Venezuela and extending to the whole of Latin America. This is not the rhetoric of a 'nut case.' It is, significantly, the rhetoric of an individual who is performing the traditional and universal Leninist-Maoist function of providing a strategic vision and the operational plan for gaining revolutionary power. In pursuit of this Bolivarian dream, Chavez has stirred the imaginations of many Latin Americans-especially the poor. Additionally, he has aroused the imaginations of many other interested observers around the world. And now, Hugo Chavez is providing political leaders-populists and neo-populists, new socialists, disillusioned revolutionaries, and oppositionists, and submerged nomenklaturas worldwide-with a relatively orthodox and sophisticated Marxist-Leninist-Maoist model for the conduct and implementation of an irregular Super Insurgency."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2007-08
• Security of the Western Hemisphere: International Terrorism and Organized Crime

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  "International terrorism and organized crime (ITOC), are engaged in what the Organization of American States (OAS) has recently defined as 'grave common crime.' ITOC are powerful enough to destabilize, challenge, and destroy targeted societies and states. The increasing influence and power of ITOC are generating transnational threats. The threat posed by ITOC is too great and too complex for civilian institutions to confront by themselves. The military could and should assist in internal protection missions if its operational role is carefully limited by a legal democratic regime. Today's security requirements call for a coordinated and cooperative application not only of all national civilian and military resources but also those of a variety of international and functional organizations. Because success against ITOC requires close unilateral and multilateral coordination, the responsibility should devolve to the OAS."

  National Defense University. Institute for National Strategic Studies

  Manwaring, Max G.

  1998-04
• 'New' Dynamic in the Western Hemisphere Security Environment: The Mexican Zetas and Other Private Armies

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  "This monograph is intended to help political, military, policy, opinion, and academic leaders think strategically about explanations, consequences, and responses that might apply to the volatile and dangerous new dynamic that has inserted itself into the already crowded Mexican and hemispheric security arena, that is, the privatized Zeta military organization. In Mexico, this new dynamic involves the migration of traditional hard-power national security and sovereignty threats from traditional state and nonstate adversaries to hard and soft power threats from professional private nonstate military organizations. This dynamic also involves a more powerful and ambiguous mix of terrorism, crime, and conventional war tactics, operations, and strategies than experienced in the past. Moreover, this violence and its perpetrators tend to create and consolidate semi-autonomous enclaves (criminal free-states) that develop in to quasi-states--and what the Mexican government calls 'Zones of Impunity.' All together, these dynamics not only challenge Mexican security, stability, and sovereignty, but, if left improperly understood and improperly countered, also challenge the security and stability of the United States and Mexico's other neighbors."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2009
• Security in the Americas: Neither Evolution Nor Devolution - Impasse

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  This monograph comes at a time of promise for greater economic integration between the United States and Latin America, but also one of profound concern about the deteriorating security situation in several countries in the region. Importantly, the benefits of stability, economic growth, and democracy depend on effective national sovereignty and security. These realities are gaining credence as we grow to understand that Colombia is a paradigm of the failing state, and that has enormous implications for the well-being of the Western Hemisphere. Yet, no consensus on the threat and how to deal with it has emerged. As a consequence, hemispheric security cooperation is at an impasse. In this context, Dr. Max Manwaring identifies the political-strategic challenge of effective sovereignty and security, with a focus on nontraditional threats. He recommends that leaders rethink the problem of nontraditional threats and develop the conceptual and strategic-political multilateral responses necessary to deal effectively with them. Piecemeal tactical-operational level responses to nontraditional threats and actors must be supplemented by broader strategic-political efforts. Also, cooperative national and international efforts designed to inhibit and reverse the processes of state failure must supplement military and law-enforcement emphasis on the attrition of individual "narcoterrorists."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2004-03
• Shadows of Things Past and Images of the Future: Lessons for the Insurgencies in Our Midst

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  "This monograph comes at a time when U.S. and other world political and military leaders are struggling with the 'new' political-psychological aspects of unconventional conflict. Unfortunately, the strategic theory of unconventional political war has played little part in the discourse. Yet political-insurgency war is the most likely type of conflict to challenge the maintenance and enhancement of global and regional security over the near-to-long term. Contemporary political-insurgency war is a threat we can ill afford to ignore. Through the analysis of the cases of Argentina (1969-79), Peru (1962-present) and Italy (1968-82), the author identifies the political-strategic challenges of modern unconventional conflict. He stresses the political complexity of insurgency and the broader implications for the promises of democracy, free market economies, and prosperity implicit in the mandates to civil-military forces that confront global and regional instability. These cases are significant because they address counterinsurgency as much as they do insurgency. As a consequence, this examination is a logical point from which to begin to understand how governments and international organizations might ultimately control--or succumb to--the strategic challenges of political-insurgency war. The author's recommendations impose no easy set of tasks. Nevertheless, if the U.S. and other global leadership ignore the highly political aspects of modern unconventional conflict, the resultant instability and possible state failure will adversely shape the security environment in which all nations must struggle to survive."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2004-11
• Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivarian Socialism, and Asymmetric Warfare

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  "This monograph comes at a time when the U.S. and Venezuelan governments are intensifying an ongoing series of acrimonious charges and countercharges. Each country has argued repeatedly that the other is engaged in a political-economic-military struggle for Western Hemisphere hegemony. On a more personal level, the United States maintains that President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is playing a destabilizing role in the region, and is compromising the quality of democracy and the exercise of power in Venezuela and other parts of the Americas. Chávez rebuts that the only destabilizing factor in the hemisphere is President George W. Bush, and that democracy and power long since have been perverted by American capitalists and local elites for their own purposes. And the U.S.-Venezuelan verbal sparing match continues unabated. The author's intent is to explain who Hugo Chávez is, where it appears that he is going, and how he intends to get there; and the implications for democracy and stability in Latin America. He concludes that-in the worst case-Chávez is developing the conceptual and physical bases for an asymmetric 'Super Insurgency.' This timely monograph contributes significantly to an understanding of the new kinds of threats characteristic of a world in which instability and irregular conflict are no longer on the margins of global politics. For those responsible for making and implementing national security policy in the United States, the rest of the Western Hemisphere, and elsewhere in the world, this analysis is compelling. The Strategic Studies Institute is pleased to offer this monograph as part of the ongoing debate on global and regional security and stability."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2005-10
• Strategic Opportunities: Charting new Approaches to Defense and Security Challenges in the Western Hemisphere

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  "The Latin American and Caribbean Center of Florida International University, the U.S. Southern Command, and the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College held the eighth in a series of major annual conferences dealing with security matters in the Western Hemisphere in Coral Gables, Florida, on March 9-11, 2005. The conference brought together over 180 participants representing ten countries, to include the Ministers of Defense of Chile, Guatemala, and Honduras, and the Secretary of the Interior and Police of the Dominican Republic. Additionally, other high- and mid-ranking representatives of government, the military, academia, the private sector, and the media participated in a robust program of panels, discussions, and work shops to exchange perspectives and evaluate today's strategic environment, review internal and external defense and security challenges, and examine hemispheric leadership and cooperation. At base, the dialogue centered on the contemporary threat environment and need for flexible response and imagination in dealing with a full spectrum of nontraditional security threats."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2005-03
• Hemispheric Strategic Objectives for the Next Decade

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  "The Latin American and Caribbean Center of Florida International University, the U.S. Southern Command, and the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College held the seventh in a series of major annual conferences dealing with security matters in the Western Hemisphere, in Miami, Florida, on March 17-19, 2004. The conference focused on 'Hemispheric Strategic Objectives for the Next Decade.' This event brought together over 190 leading representatives of government, the military, academia, and the private sector from the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the European Union. Attendees participated in a program of 'on-the-record' panels and discussions to exchange perspectives with fellow experts on the region. The principal objectives were to evaluate the evolving definitions of hemispheric security, review the debate surrounding the institutional structures that will support it, and examine the concepts required to strengthen security cooperation in the Western Hemisphere."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2004-03
• U.S. Security Strategies: Trade Policy Implications for Latin America

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  "Security was defined as 'freedom from avoidable internal or external threats to a country's territory, citizens, institutions, and interests.' Regional security, free trade, economic performance, and effective sovereignty are closely related. Instability, social violence, crime and criminal anarchy, and terrorism thrive as a result of poor economic performance. Not understanding and dealing with the linkages among these elements can endanger effective sovereignty, and lead a country into failing and failed state status. The cumulative negative effects of the current U.S. security and trade policy in the hemisphere come at a time when regional economies are in decline, and emphasize four highly related recommendations: Advance hemispheric understanding of the nontraditional internal security concerns of each country, and those that the region as a whole faces. Develop multilateral or bilateral civil-military structures and processes to identify and address threats, and find mutually acceptable solutions in the contemporary security environment. Foster expanded dialogue, consultations, and cooperation for building consensus principles and concepts for regional security and economic cooperation- and enhanced trade. Go beyond training and equipping small units to fight narco-terrorists, and adapt U.S. military efficacy to the contemporary threat environment at the strategic level. The United States shares with its Latin American neighbors an increasingly and vitally important financial, commercial, and security/stability stake in the political and economic growth of the hemisphere. Any kind of political economic- security deterioration in the region will profoundly affect the health of the regional economies, the U.S. economy-and the concomitant power to act in regional and global security arenas."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2004-02-26
• Strategic Logic of the Contemporary Security Dilemm

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  "This monograph provides a brief examination of: 1) the relatively recent evolution of international conventions and declarations that contribute directly to the contemporary diplomatic-legal definition of security; 2) salient scholarly thinking relating to political-diplomatic-legal principles that have become integral parts of the United Nations (and various other international efforts to confront threats to citizen and collective security and human well-being); and, 3) selected post-Cold War military responses to hegemonic non-state actors. The security dilemma, then, is more than a question of determining what aggression is and what aggression is not. Rather, it is now a question of: Why, when, and how to intervene to protect people and prevent egregious human suffering. This question, in turn, encompasses more than a redefinition of security. It is nothing less than a redefinition of sovereignty. Sovereignty was, in the past, the control of territory and the people in it. Sovereignty is now the responsibility to protect peoples' well-being in a given territory."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2011-12
• Venezuela as an Exporter of 4th Generation Warfare Instability

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  From the monograph foreword: "The Latinobarometric Polls underline the fact that even though most Latin American countries' Gross Domestic Products (GDP) have been improving since 2001, there are deep flaws in the political-economicsocial systems throughout the region. Popular dissatisfaction stems from deep-rooted socioeconomic and political inequalities, general distrust of most national institutions, and a specific lack of confidence in the police, the legislatures, and the political parties. There are also rising popular expectations regarding currently nonexistent rights. Consequently, Latin America, as it did in 1960-90, appears to be a revolutionary, insurgent, criminal, and populist dream. Thus, the Americas appear to be particularly susceptible to state (and their proxies) and nonstate actors that promise the security, stability, and prosperity national governments have generally failed to provide. Accordingly, Venezuela and President Hugo Chavez have become exporters of asymmetric, unconventional, and undeclared war. If left ignored and unchecked, these wars compel radical, unwanted, and epochal political-economic-social system change. [...] This monograph comes at a time when there are well over 100 ongoing small, unconventional, asymmetric, and revolutionary wars in which hegemonic states and their proxies and violent nonstate actors are helping their own organizations or political patrons bring about radical change and acquire putative power. Accordingly, the author of this monograph, Dr. Max Manwaring, examines a cogent case that illustrates how would-be revolutionaries all around the world might seek to realize their dreams. They would include populists and neo-populists; the New Left, New Socialists, and 21st Century Socialists; criminal nonstate actors, agitators, gangs, and popular militias; and other 'modern mercenaries.'"

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2012-12
• Strategic Logic of the Contemporary Security Dilemma

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  From the summary: "This monograph provides a brief examination of: 1) the relatively recent evolution of international conventions and declarations that contribute directly to the contemporary diplomatic-legal definition of security; 2) salient scholarly thinking relating to political-diplomatic-legal principles that have become integral parts of the United Nations (and various other international efforts to confront threats to citizen and collective security and human well-being); and, 3) selected post-Cold War military responses to hegemonic non-state actors. The security dilemma, then, is more than a question of determining what aggression is and what aggression is not. Rather, it is now a question of: Why, when, and how to intervene to protect people and prevent egregious human suffering. This question, in turn, encompasses more than a redefinition of security. It is nothing less than a redefinition of sovereignty. Sovereignty was, in the past, the control of territory and the people in it. Sovereignty is now the responsibility to protect peoples' well-being in a given territory."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2011-12
• Strategic Effects of the Conflict with Iraq: Latin America

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  Latin Americans maintain a strong bias against North American interventions. At the same time, Latin's perceive that a possible war against Iraq and its leadership would be directed against the wrong foe and in an inappropriate manner. The U.S.-Latin American partnership is an unequal relationship. The result of balancing Latin interests against those of the "Colossus of the North" is a dilemma. Even so, the United States shares with its Latin American neighbors an increasingly and vitally important financial, commercial, and security/stability stake in the political and economic growth of the hemisphere. Any kind of political-economic-social-security deterioration in the region will profoundly affect the health of the U.S. economy-and the concomitant power to act in the global security arena. This document analyzes four issues: the position that key states in the Latin America region are taking on U.S. military action against Iraq; the role of America in the region after the war with Iraq; the nature of security partnerships in the region after the war with Iraq; and the effect that war with Iraq will have on the war on terrorism in the region.

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2003-03
• Gangs, 'Coups D' Streets,' and the New War in Central America

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  "A new kind of war is being waged in Central America"and elsewhere around the world"today. The main protagonists are what have come to be called first, second, and third generation street gangs. In this war, gangs are not sending conventional military units across national borders, or supporting proxy forces in an attempt to conquer territory or bring down governments. Rather, these nonstate actors are more interested in commercial profit and controlling territory (turf) to allow maximum freedom of movement and action. That freedom of movement within countries and across national borders ensures commercial market share and revenues, as well as secure bases for market expansion. Thus, in addition to drug smuggling, these gangs are known to have expanded their activities to smuggling people, body parts, weapons, and cars; associated murder, kidnapping, and robbery; home and community invasion; and other lucrative societal destabilization activities. What makes all this into a new kind of war is that these commercial motives are known to have been developed into political agendas by more sophisticated gangs."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2005-07
• Internal Wars: Rethinking Problem and Response

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  Asymmetric guerrilla war--insurgencies, internal wars, and other small-scale contingencies (SSCs)--are the most pervasive and likely type of conflict in the post-Cold War era. It is almost certain that the United States will become involved directly or indirectly in some of these conflicts. Yet, there appears to be little or no recognition and application of the strategic- level lessons of the Vietnam War and the hundreds of other smaller conflicts that have taken place over the past several years. In this paper, the author draws from the lessons of the recent past to better prepare today's civilian and military leaders to meet the unconventional and asymmetric warfare challenges that face the United States and the rest of the international community. This country is in a new global security environment that involves the integration of free markets, technologies, and countries to a degree never before witnessed. It is not easy to understand and respond to the many smaller threats--and benefits-- that stem from global integration. Yet, as the country that benefits most from global integration, the United States has a pressing national interest in maintaining and enhancing the new order. By coming to grips analytically with the most salient strategic lessons or rules that dominate contemporary SSCs, political and military leaders can maximize opportunities in the current and future chaos.

  Army War College (U.S.)

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2001-09
• New Master of Wizard's Chess: The Real Hugo Chavez and Asymmetric Warfare

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  "Beginning with the election of Hugo Chavez Frias as President of Venezuela in 1998, the United States and Venezuela have exchanged a continuous series of acrimonious charges and countercharges. Each country has repeatedly argued that the other is engaged in a political, economic, military struggle for Western Hemisphere hegemony. […]. Who is this man, Hugo Chavez? How can the innumerable charges and countercharges between the Venezuelan and U.S. governments be interpreted? What are the implications for democracy and stability in Latin America? In an attempt to answer these and related questions, we center our analysis on the contemporary geopolitical conflict context of current Venezuelan 'Bolivarian' policy. To accomplish this, a basic understanding of the historical, political, and institutional context within which national security policy is generated is an essential first step toward understanding the situation as a whole. Then, a 'levels of analysis' approach will provide a systematic understanding of how geopolitical conflict options have a critical influence on the logic that determines how such a policy as bolivarianismo might be implemented in the contemporary world security arena. This is the point from which we can generate strategic-level recommendations for maintaining and enhancing stability in Latin America."

  U.S. Army Combined Arms Center

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2005-09
• Contemporary Challenge to State Sovereignty: Gangs and Other Illicit Transnational Criminal Organizations in Central America, El Salvador, Mexico, Jamaica, and Brazil

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  "In this monograph, Dr. Max Manwaring builds on his 2005 SSI monograph, Street Gangs: The New Urban Insurgency, and illustrates gang and Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) linkage to instability and its aftermath. He explains that gang-generated instability leads to threats to national, regional, and global security, nation-state sovereignty, failing and failed states, and a 'clash of civilizations.' Thus, whether a gang or another TCO is specifically a criminal or an insurgent type organization is irrelevant. The putative objective of all these illegal nonstate entities─taken together, the analytical commonality that directly links gangs, TCOs, and insurgents - is to neutralize, control, or depose governments to assure their own commercial or ideological expectations. In this connection, gangs and their various possible allies (the gang phenomenon) are attempting to ensure that they have maximum freedom of movement and action within and between 'sovereign' national territories. These objectives translate into more than an implicit political agenda."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2007-12
• Three Lessons from Contemporary Challenges to Security

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  "There is much to be learned about the national security threats generated by transnational criminal organizations, insurgents or politicized gang,s and other violent nonstate actors. Regardless of differing sizes, motives, and methods of operations, the primary objective of all gangs is to influence or compel radical policy and achieve political change. The gang phenomenon transcends law enforcement problems to extend to national security and sovereignty concerns. The author analyzes three demonstrative cases with varying forms of nonstate violence--the Jamaican Posses, the Brazilian Primero Comando da Capital (PCC), and the al Qaeda gang that was responsible for the 2004 bombing of the Madrid commuter train station. Three broadly applicable lessons may be drawn. First, locking up gang members in maximum security prisons is an inadequate solution. Second, small gangs can be as lethal and dangerous as large gangs. Third, even in a democracy, the public may favor the security and social services provided by criminal gangs rather than that provided by the government."

  National Defense University Press

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2011-09
• Ambassador Stephen Krasner's Orienting Principle for Foreign Policy (and Military Management) - Responsible Sovereignty

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  "The principal security threats of the past several centuries--war between or among major powers--do not have the urgency they once did. Two new types of threats have been introduced into the global security arena. Violent nonstate actors and other indirect political, economic, and social causes of poverty, social exclusion, corruption, terrorism, transnational crime, the global drug problem, and gangs are a few examples of 'new' threats to global security and stability. Today, even more so than in the past, the evolving concept of national security implies the protection--provided through a variety of nonmilitary and military ways and means--of the popular interests that provide for the well-being of society. This broadened definition of the contemporary security problem makes the concept so vague as to render it useless as an analytical tool. The genius of Ambassador Stephen Krasner, however, helps solve the problem."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2012-04
• Strategic View of Insurgencies: Insights from El Salvador

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  "This following commentary is an exploration of the overwhelming need to maintain a strategic perspective in fighting an insurgency, illustrated by close examination of the continuing insurgency in El Salvador. We believe that in El Salvador, as in all other insurgencies of this sort, three strategic considerations must be kept in mind: The insurgent is dedicated to total victory and all his actions must be judged accordingly; the fundamental goal of the insurgent is not military, but political, namely to undermine the legitimacy of the government; and finally, conducting a counterinsurgency strategy cannot be done in a business-as-usual manner--a special organization and tactics are necessary."

  National Defense University. Institute for National Strategic Studies

  Manwaring, Max G.; Prisk, Court

  1990-05
• U.S. Security Policy in the Western Hemisphere: Why Colombia, Why Now, and What Is To Be Done?

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  "This is one in the Special Series of monographs stemming from the February 2001 conference on Plan Colombia cosponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College and The Dante B. Fascell North-South Center of the University of Miami. In substantive U.S. national security terms, Dr. Manwaring addresses the questions, Why Colombia, Why Now, and What Is To Be Done? He explains the importance of that troubled country to the United States. He points out that the fragile democracy of Colombia is at risk, and that the violent spillover effects of three simultaneous wars pose a threat to the rest of the Western Hemisphere and the interdependent global community. Then Dr. Manwaring makes a case against continued tactical and operational approaches to the Colombian crisis and outlines what must be done. In that connection, he recommends an actionable political-military strategy to attain security, stability, democratic governance, and a sustainable peace. The proposed strategy would not be costly in monetary or military terms. It would, however, require deliberate planning, cooperation, time, and will."

  Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute

  Manwaring, Max G.

  2001-06