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• MRAPs, Irregular Warfare, and Pentagon Reform

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  "Mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles offer an excellent case study for investigating the current debate over the Pentagon's approach to developing and fielding irregular warfare capabilities. MRAPs first gained prominence for their ability to protect U.S. forces from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and because the Pentagon did not deploy them en masse to Iraq until almost 5 years of fighting had passed. More recently, following extraordinary efforts to field more than 10,000 MRAPs quickly, the program has been criticized as wasteful and unnecessary. [...]. The controversial MRAPs raise two questions. First, does the MRAP experience support Secretary Gates' contention that the Pentagon is not sufficiently able to field irregular warfare capabilities? To resolve this issue, we have to determine whether MRAPs actually are a valid irregular warfare requirement, and if so, whether the Pentagon should have been better prepared to provide the kind of force protection armored vehicles like the MRAP provides. Second, what factors best explain the MRAP failure, whether that failure is determined to be the delayed fielding of MRAPs or the fact that they were fielded at all? More specifically, is the acquisition system to blame, as is commonly supposed? We conclude that MRAPs are a valid irregular warfare requirement and that the Pentagon should have been better prepared to field them, albeit not on the scale demanded by events in Iraq."

  National Defense University Press

  Schmidt, Matthew J.; Fitzsimmons, Berit G.

  2009-06
• Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

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  "Nearly 20 years have passed since the United States began worrying in earnest about the risks of regional weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation. Never have weapons so seldom used commanded such attention for so long. It is one of the more notable continuities across the post-Cold War administrations. Countering WMD: Looking Back, Looking Ahead, the seventh Occasional Paper of the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction at the National Defense University, examines the evolution of U.S. perceptions of the WMD threat and major responses to that threat from the Clinton administration to the first few months of the Obama administration. It also considers why our worst fears for WMD use and proliferation have not been realized and anticipates some of the major WMD challenges that lie ahead."

  National Defense University Press

  Carus, W. Seth; Caves, John P.; Bernstein, Paul I.

  2009-10
• Interagency National Security Teams: Can Social Science Contribute?

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  "There is a consensus that many national security problems require interagency solutions.1 However, as veteran national security legislator Ike Skelton noted, the current national security system has trouble meeting this requirement: 'For many years, we've repeatedly heard from independent blue-ribbon panels and bipartisan commissions that when it comes to interagency collaboration on national security, our system is inefficient, ineffective, and often down-right broken.' Many of those same blue-ribbon panels and commissions have recommended interagency teams as a potential solution to interagency coordination problems. Recently, for example, the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review Commission called for more 'interagency teams with capabilities to plan for and exercise, in an integrated way, departmental and agency responsibilities in predefined mission[s].' Historical descriptive accounts indicate interagency teams can indeed perform with great effectiveness, but recent research also suggests that interagency team effectiveness is not widespread, easily replicated, or well-understood. It would be easier to act upon the recommendations for more interagency teams if national security executives knew with greater certainty what factors and what conditions make these teams effective."

  National Defense University Press

  Orton, James Douglas

  2011-03
• Greater than the Sum of Its Parts: Putting the Inter into the Interagency

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  "Interagency is a made-up word that is reasonable as an adjective but only a fairy tale as a noun. That will not change until the executive branch of the Federal Government is dramatically reorganized in order to put the inter into the interagency. This reorganization must be done horizontally (to align worldwide departmental and agency regional areas of interest and to integrate regional responsibilities under true interagency leadership within regional interagency directorates) and vertically (to allow the President's senior leadership team to administer regional interagency directorates as true interagency efforts). Only then will executive branch departments and agencies move beyond merely coordinating individual disparate efforts, as they do in their current incarnation at best, to being greater than the sum of their parts, and intending and achieving truly integrated effects, with the kinds of dominant and persistent results necessary to advance U.S. interests in this volatile, interconnected 21st-century world."

  National Defense University Press

  Jorgensen, Eric A.

  2011-03
• Comprehensive Approach in Afghanistan

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  "Today, the Afghan people and the international community have an opportunity to secure large areas of terrain and population from the Taliban while simultaneously creating sufficient governance and security capacity in the Afghan government to enable them to take the lead in their own country. Above all, we can prevent the return of al Qaeda, the fundamental reason we are there. Training and operations to create this environment are ongoing and meeting with a steady level of success. Although the war is far from over, positive trends are developing that demonstrate this approach is working and that the international community and the Afghan people are heading in the right direction. The best way to combine their efforts is to improve on the current level of cooperation between security forces, other government activities, and the rest of the actors involved, which can be called the Comprehensive Approach, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) term for bringing together all the elements of effort--political, economic, cultural, military, and so on."

  National Defense University Press

  Stavridis, James

  2011-03
• Human Security in Complex Operations

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  "Complex operations take place in zones of insecurity. In these zones, ordinary people face a range of everyday risks and dangers. They risk being killed, tortured, kidnapped, robbed, raped, or displaced from their homes. They risk dying from hunger, lack of shelter, disease, or lack of access to health care. They are vulnerable to man-made and natural disasters--hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, or fires. These risks and dangers feed on each other. They are very difficult to eliminate; hence, the current preoccupation with 'persistent conflict' or 'forever wars.' These have a tendency to spread both to neighboring regions--growing zones of insecurity in places such as East Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, or the Balkans--and, indeed, to the inner cities of the industrialized West. Yet our security forces, largely based on conventional military forces designed to meet a foreign attack, are unsuited to address these risks and dangers; indeed, the application of conventional military force can often make things worse--as we have learned painfully in Iraq and Afghanistan. Already, a range of private actors, security contractors, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), militia, warlords, and criminal gangs have rushed to fill the vacuum created by the failure of public institutions to provide security, contributing both to security and, more often than not, to greater insecurity."

  National Defense University Press

  Kaldor, Mary

  2011-03
• Ministerial Advisors: Developing Capacity for an Enduring Security Force

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  "The United States has spent billions to train and equip the Afghan security forces. As the transition to civilian-led reconstruction begins, effective and accountable security institutions are urgently needed to maintain operational and tactical gains. The Ministry of Defense Advisors (MoDA) program deploys senior DOD civilian specialists to advise officials in the Afghan government on critical issues including weapons auditing and logistics, legislative affairs, and food services. These are services essential to building enduring security institutions and strong civil-military partnerships. The MoDA program provides intensive predeployment training in cultural and mentoring skills and offers back-fill funds to advisors' home offices, helping ensure that the most qualified senior- and mid-level civilians are recruited for deployment."

  National Defense University Press

  Schear, James; Caldwell, William B.; Digiovanni, Frank C.

  2011-03
• Airpower in Counterinsurgency and Stability Operations

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  "In 2001, the U.S. military, aided by indigenous forces, swiftly toppled a Taliban government responsible for providing sanctuary to al Qaeda. In 2003, the Iraqi military disintegrated in the face of a devastating demonstration of American power that ended the regime of Saddam Hussein. America showcased its unique ability to project power over vast distances to achieve substantial results. Unfortunately, those initial victories were short-lived. As the security situations deteriorated in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States became engaged in longer term irregular conflicts. American and allied militaries struggled to adapt their doctrine, training, and technology to counter an elusive foe. While ground forces relearned and incorporated counterinsurgency (COIN) lessons, Airmen explored how airpower's flexibility, responsiveness, and bird's-eye view of the battlefield could respond to those lessons. This reexamination of airpower revealed several enduring principles. Most important is that Airmen must gain airspace control, so the full advantages of rapid mobility, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and precision strike are available to the commander. At higher altitudes, the adversary generally ceded control, but at lower altitudes, control could be contested. By controlling the air and space over Iraq and Afghanistan, the air component was able to transport thousands of personnel, drop supplies to isolated units, evacuate wounded, gather real-time intelligence, and conduct precision strikes to disrupt and destroy insurgent forces. In addition, air and space control allows Airmen to conduct train, advise, assist, and equip missions for indigenous air forces and to strengthen civil aviation infrastructures necessary for national sovereignty and economic growth. These lessons have been a staple of airpower employment since its inception, and they remain relevant today and in the future."

  National Defense University Press

  Schwartz, Norton A.

  2011-03
• Enhancing U.S. Support for UN Peacekeeping

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  "As the United States establishes its strategic priorities to enhance national security, support for peacekeeping is increasingly important. Particularly following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Pentagon has viewed failed states (also referred to as 'undergoverned' or 'ungoverned spaces') as a threat to U.S. national security. President Barack Obama's restoration of the Cabinet status of his Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Susan Rice, reflects the administration's recognition of the overall importance of the UN, including its key role in peacekeeping. Over the last 4 years, the Center for Technology and National Security Policy and, since 2008, the Center for Complex Operations at the National Defense University have hosted a unique series of offsite informal discussions designed to facilitate open and frank discussions of what more the United States might do to support burgeoning UN peacekeeping activities. In five sessions, these offthe- record, informal discussions occurred between the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) and Department of Defense (DOD).1 The Department of Field Support (DFS) was added following its creation in 2007, and the State Department began participating at a senior level in 2009. This series was conceived by Hans Binnendijk, director of the Institute for National Security Studies at the National Defense University, and led by Dr. Binnendijk and me. Ambassador James Dobbins, director of the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center, has served as session moderator."

  National Defense University Press

  Soderberg, Nancy

  2011-03
• Nation-building Interventions and National Security: An Australian Perspective

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  "In their compelling book Fixing Failed States, Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart offer a sobering prognosis for global stability and human security. They assert that '[f]orty to sixty states, home to nearly two billion people, are either sliding backward and teetering on the brink of implosion, or have already collapsed.' This reality has profound implications for the future of foreign interventions for the purpose of nation-building. What might this entail for Australia? And what is involved in nation-building in failed or failing states? According to Ghani and Lockhart, the situation 'is at the heart of a worldwide systemic crisis that constitutes the most serious challenge to global stability in the new millennium.'"

  National Defense University Press

  Smith, Michael G.; Shrimpton, Rebecca

  2011-03
• Metrics for the Haiti Stabilization Initiative

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  "The Haiti Stabilization Initiative (HSI) was an innovative interagency program prototype designed to secure and stabilize the highly volatile urban slum of Cité Soleil. Between 2007 and 2010, HSI successfully tested a sophisticated Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) program using a variant of the Department of Defense supported system Measuring Progress in Conflict Environment (MPICE). Through MPICE, HSI and its analysis partner Logos analyzed outcomes and impacts within key sectors. The analysis revealed that one needs a clear 'theory of change.' However, many stabilization or counterinsurgency programs do not evaluate themselves. They lack a provable hypothesis, and proving causality of change based on program efforts remains a challenge. Furthermore, it is critical to measure the achievement of 'outcomes' within and across sectors, not just mechanical 'outputs' of programs. It is also necessary to triangulate data and overlap sources. Toward that end, perception-based data (surveys, focus groups, expert elicitations sessions) and objective data (MINUSTAH statistics, crime reports) provided for a rich form of 'triangulation' analysis."

  National Defense University Press

  Becker, David C.; Grossman-Vermaas, Robert

  2011-03
• Rethinking the Fundamentals of State-building

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  "Plans for state-building or stabilization missions should take account of the political nature of the state that is being built. A state is a political system that puts some people into positions of power and induces the rest of the nation to accept their authority. The feasibility and cost of a state-building mission can depend critically on the way that the state distributes power. In particular, when foreign forces help to defend the authority of a state, its national leaders have more incentive to centralize political power narrowly around themselves. But such centralization can alienate key local leaders and so can substantially increase the need for costly foreign efforts to maintain the state. Planners for state-building missions need an analytical framework for recognizing the vital importance of such questions about the constitutional distribution of power. For a framework to be broadly applicable in different countries, it should be derived from a general analysis of incentives in political organizations, not from a projection of some idealized view of our own political system. This article develops such a framework."

  National Defense University Press

  Myerson, Roger B.

  2011-03
• Joint Force Quarterly: Spring 1998, Issue 18 [June 1998]

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  "NDU Press produces Joint Force Quarterly in concert with ongoing education and research at National Defense University in support of the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. JFQ is the Chairman's joint military and security studies journal designed to inform and educate national security professionals on joint and integrated operations; whole of government contributions to national security policy and strategy; homeland security; and developments in training and joint military education to better equip America's military and security apparatus to meet tomorrow's challenges while protecting freedom today."

  National Defense University Press

  Reichart, John F.

  1998-06
• Partnership for the Americas: Western Hemisphere Strategy and U.S. Southern Command

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  "Since its creation in 1963, United States Southern Command has been led by 30 senior officers representing all four of the armed forces. None has undertaken his leadership responsibilities with the cultural sensitivity and creativity demonstrated by Admiral Jim Stavridis during his tenure in command. Breaking with tradition, Admiral Stavridis discarded the customary military model as he organized the Southern Command Headquarters. In its place he created an organization designed not to subdue adversaries, but instead to build durable and enduring partnerships with friends. His observation that it is the business of Southern Command to launch 'ideas not missiles' into the command's area of responsibility gained strategic resonance throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America, and at the highest levels in Washington, DC. Pursuing his vision for the Americas with limited resources, Admiral Stavridis made the most of every ship, airplane, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, and Coastguardsman committed to the region, employing each on constructive missions designed to create goodwill and mutual respect."

  National Defense University Press

  Starvridis, James G.

  2010-11
• Nonstate Security Threats in Africa: Challenges for U.S. Engagement

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  "This article provides an overview of Africa's irregular, nonstate threats, followed by an analysis of their strategic implications for regional peace and stability, as well as the national security interests of the United States. After reviewing the elements of the emerging international consensus on how best to address these threats, the conclusion highlights a number of new and innovative tools that can be used to build political will on the continent to confront these security challenges. This article is intended as a background analysis for those who are new to the African continent, as well as a source of detailed information on emerging threats that receive too little public or policy-level attention."

  National Defense University Press

  Le Sage, Andre

  2010-12
• Post- 9/11 Stability Operations: How U.S. Army Doctrine Is Shaping National Security Strategy

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  "It was only a matter of time before the elevated language of post-9/11 security discourse, and the phrase the global war on terrorism itself, was bound to reap both practical applications and studied reversals. Without the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan and each country's challenging reconstruction projects, one might expect idealist solutions to this historical juncture. Only 8 short years ago, the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States (NSS 2002) offered just that, the virtues of pressing for freedom and democracy against a new breed of post--Cold War threats. In now memorable language, the policy document linked 'the great struggles' of the 20th century 'between liberty and totalitarianism' to a 'single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise, displaying the 'black and white' worldview of unchallenged power, NSS 2002 grouped 21st-century nations together that 'share a commitment to protecting basic human rights and guaranteeing political and economic freedom,' arguing that these values would 'assure their future prosperity.' Such values, it noted, are 'right and true for every person' in 'every society,' and, in turn, 'the duty of protecting' them 'against their enemies' is the 'common calling of freedom-loving people across the globe and across the ages'--a role spearheaded by the United States insofar as it enjoyed 'unparalleled military strength and great economic and political influence.'"

  National Defense University Press

  Armstrong, Nicholas J.; Zoli, Corri

  2010-12
• Thucydides' Other 'Traps': The United States, China, and the Prospect of 'Inevitable' War

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  From the Introduction: "The notion of a 'Thucydides Trap' that will ensnare China and the United States in a 21st-century conflict--much as the rising power of Athens alarmed Sparta and made war 'inevitable' between the Aegean superpowers of the 5th century BCE [before the common era]--has received global attention since entering the international relations lexicon 6 years ago. Scholars, journalists, bloggers, and politicians in many countries, notably China, have embraced this beguiling metaphor, coined by Harvard political science professor Graham Allison, as a framework for examining the likelihood of a Sino-American war. As Allison summarizes the concept, 'When a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power, alarm bells should sound, extreme danger ahead. This is a big insight earned for us by Thucydides. And Thucydides said, famously, it was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable. This was the war between Athens and Sparta that basically destroyed classical Greece'."

  National Defense University Press

  Misenheimer, Alan Greeley

  2019-06
• U.S. Security Policies in the Western Pacific

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  "The security environment, issues, and challenges facing the United States today in the Western Pacific are growing more complex. This paper aims to reiterate three themes - First, it is important for the United States to work closely with Japan in developing Japans future security role in the region (including supporting legitimate Japanese concerns and grievances toward North Korea and China); but part of this task for the United States is to assure other East Asian governments and publics that the United States is watchful for any signs of a resurgence of Japanese militarism and also to send signals to extreme revisionist elements in Japan that the United States does not buy into their view of Japans past. Second, future U.S. decisions regarding the U.S. military presence in South Korea may be so sweeping in scope that, collectively, they could threaten the foundations of the alliance. Third, the Pentagon and the Pacific Command ought to consider their contacts with Congress carefully in planning future steps to restore relations with the Indonesian military."

  National Defense University Press

  Niksch, Larry A.

  2005
• Transforming the Armed Forces: An Agenda for Change

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  "This chapter begins with background on why transformation is needed, what some of its main features are, factors in achieving it, the current status of change within the United States, and some key issues. Some issues are for the United States alone, but it is appropriate in this volume on globalization to highlight two points. The first is that participants in future coalitions will have widely varied capabilities. The second is the importance of developing a consensus among friendly nations worldwide about how to increase the effectiveness of multinational political, economic, and military instruments for extended versions of deterrence and compellence."

  National Defense University Press

  Davis, Paul K., 1943-

  2004
• Coast Guard: Past Catalyst, Future Tool

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  "The Coast Guard has been a helpful catalyst of globalization in the past, and it can provide a uniquely valuable tool for U.S. policy in the future. Nonetheless, with nontraditional threats to maritime security on the rise, the Coast Guard will need to be modernized and otherwise updated so that it will be capable of performing its future missions. Only then can it be an equal partner with the Navy in what has come to be called the 'National Fleet'. A key element in the renaissance in the Nations sea services will be the revolution in thinking about the shared purpose, operational integration, and common effort between the Navy and the Coast Guard that the National Fleet concept entails. The Navy-Coast Guard collective task is to build fully interoperable, multi-mission, naval and maritime forces for tomorrows challenges at the best price for the U.S. citizen. To do that, the Navy and Coast Guard must work even more closely together."

  National Defense University Press

  Truver, Scott C.; Terriberry, Timothy L.

  2004
• Future U.S. Defense Strategy

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  "U.S. defense policy and strategy should be anchored in strategic fundamentals, not in surface events and fleeting newspaper headlines. This chapters thesis of impending changes to U.S. and allied defense plans rests on three key judgments about fundamentals. To a degree, they already apply today, and they will gain force in the medium term of 5 to 10 years as well as in the more distant future: Owing to globalization and other dynamics, the democratic community likely will make further progress, but major parts of the outlying world will continue to face turmoil, not only in politics and economics but also in security affairs. As a result, U.S. national security strategy will be changing, and U.S. forces often will be required to perform different strategic missions than they do today. Moreover, some of these missions will occur at new places well removed from the bases and alliances inherited from the Cold War. U.S. forces will themselves be changing, in response to new doctrines and structures, and to new information systems, weapons, and munitions. A decade or so from now, U.S. forces will operate much like Michael Jordan played basketball: at high speed and above the rim."

  National Defense University Press

  Kugler, Richard L.

  2004
• Emerging U.S. Defense Strategy: Are We Preparing for the Global Era?

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  This paper aims to answer the following questions: How should our national security strategy factor in the implications of globalization? What parts of current U.S. military strategy should be retained, and what new capabilities and responsibilities are needed considering the age of globalization? Do we need a new joint strategy that combines peacetime strategic shaping, swift wartime power projection, and decisive strike operations? "This paper will address these questions by first addressing how globalization - defined as the 'dynamic process of change characterized by the growing cross-border flows of trade, investments, finances, technology, ideas, cultures, values and people' - is affecting the emerging security environment and then analyze the resulting implications this has for U.S. national security and military strategy. After then defining the U.S. power projection and presence capabilities needed to cope with the demands of an increasingly globalized security environment, the paper will address the relative merits of multilateralism and unilateralism with respect to U.S. defense strategy and then conclude by assessing how well, particularly in light of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's current experience in the soon-to-be-completed Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), the Defense Department is transforming itself to meet the challenges and threats of the Global Era."

  National Defense University Press

  Murdock, Clark A.

  2002
• Foreign Policy in the Information Age

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  "A new approach to U.S. foreign policy is urgently needed - one based on an in-depth reassessment of American interests and our ability to advance them. Call it the Global Era or call it the Information Age, it is time to set aside Flat Earth strategies and to try to understand the properties of this other new world, ironically, one of which may be that we are moving to an Earth that in some ways has become flatter after all. This chapter will seek to lay a foundation for that new view by exploring the specific changes in the character of international relations that have resulted and will result from the continuing Information Revolution. In addition, it will illustrate those changes in character with a special look at how they have resulted and will result in a new and rapidly changing set of threats to the national interests of the United States."

  National Defense University Press

  Rothkopf, David J. (David Jochanan), 1955-

  2004
• Economics and National Security: The Dangers of Overcommitment

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  "As the global economy races ahead, more and more demands for U.S. security services are surfacing throughout the world. With this rapidly evolving scenario comes a pressing need for the United States to study the situation carefully and develop a comprehensive strategy in this arena. How best to proceed, from an economists point of view, is explored in this chapter."

  National Defense University Press

  Denoon, David P.H.

  2004
• Globalization: Strategic Implications for the United States

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  Something called globalization has become a surging, relentless, and irreversible force in our era. But what is it? What is new and different about it? Does it make the world safer or more dangerous? What can the United States do about the new challenges that it poses? What goals, strategies, tools, and ways of making decisions does the United States need in this new environment? This paper aims to answer these questions.

  National Defense University Press

  Frost, Ellen L.

  2004
• Military Power and Maritime Forces

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  "The United States is the dominant power in the global economy and its Armed Forces are the premier in todays globalizing world. It might be thought, therefore, that our national security would be assured in this world. But much of our economic power involves links with the rest of the world, and the nature of those links affects both the underlying strength of our unprecedented military power and how we can use it to protect and further our global interests. Some related, important perceptions on the part of the American public also affect such use. Together, these constraints shape the directions in which our military forces, and especially our naval forces, can and must evolve to serve the Nation in the future. The sources and the nature of the constraints and future strategic needs must be examined before we can specify the naval force characteristics to be sought."

  National Defense University Press

  Deitchman, Seymour J.

  2004
• Choosing Words Carefully: Language to Help Fight Islamic Terrorism

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  "This essay discusses the most egregious and dangerous misuses of language regarding Islamic totalitarian terrorists; a comprehensive study would require a book. We begin with the word 'jihad', which literally means striving and generally occurs as part of the expression 'jihad fi sabil illah', striving in the path of God. Striving in the path of God is a duty of all Muslims. Calling our enemies jihadis and their movement a global jihad thus indicates that we recognize their doctrines and actions as being in the path of God and, for Muslims, legitimate. In short, we explicitly designate ourselves as the enemies of Islam."

  National Defense University Press

  Streusand, Douglas E.

  2006-05-23
• Yemen: Primer and Prescriptions

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  "Yemen is not a failed state. It is fragile and faces challenges--economic, demographic, political, and security--that would sunder other states. There are those who would write it off as a lost cause, dismiss it as a sinkhole of assistance, outsource the solutions to the neighbors, or turn it into a 'Third Front' even though we have not yet completed or been unquestioningly successful in the first two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan. To write it off is premature. To declare it a sinkhole overstates the quality and consistency of our assistance to date. To outsource to the neighbors is abdication, and a counterproductive one at that, and to open a Third Front is pure folly. The United States, along with international partners, has the ability to help Yemen walk back from a precipice if it is willing to commit sufficient resources--financial and political--to a broad, sustained, coordinated, and strategic engagement that learns the right lessons of the first two fronts, understands the challenges that Yemen faces and the historical context that is still at play, and suppresses the impulse to apply the false templates of other fragile and failed states."

  National Defense University Press

  Bodine, Barbara K.

  2010-06
• Thinking About Strategic Hybrid Threats - In Theory and in Practice

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  "As the United States resets in the wake of previous security challenges and assesses future dangers, the risks posed by strategic hybrid threats deserve increased contemplation and deliberation. This article presents a new theoretical framework for addressing such, defining them as the product of principal-agent relationships in which intentions and capabilities are forged into novel hazards. Using Iran, the availability of likely proxies (notably Hizballah), and U.S. vulnerabilities to computer network attacks, the authors construct illustrative examples of how hybrid threats could threaten both the national security and national interests of the United States. They also offer a model (based on the concept of a war council) with which response efforts on the part of public and private sector actors at the local, state, and Federal levels of governance could be organized and managed."

  National Defense University Press

  Cilluffo, Frank J.; Clark, Joseph R.

  2012-12
• Strategic Reflections: Operation 'Iraqi Freedom', July 2004-February 2007

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  "Operations 'Enduring Freedom' and 'Iraqi Freedom' were the first major wars of the 21st century. They will not be the last. They have significantly impacted how our government and military think about prosecuting wars. They will have a generational impact on the U.S. military, as its future leaders, particularly those in the ground forces, will for decades be men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I believe it is imperative that leaders at all levels, both military and civilian, share their experiences to ensure that we, as a military and as a country, gain appropriate insights for the future. [...] I believe that we have not seen the last of the challenges and demands that I faced during my 32 months of combined command in Iraq, and I offer these insights so that future leaders can be better prepared. During my command tenure, the Multi-National Force--Iraq (MNF-I) mission transitioned from one of occupation to one of partnership with three Iraqi governments. We used this period to lay the foundation for and begin the transition to a self-reliant Iraqi government, our mandate from the United Nations (UN). This book primarily addresses the events, decisions, and actions of MNF-I as I perceived them at the time. I have occasionally offered retrospective insights that come from experience and hindsight, but I felt it is more important to focus on what I thought and what I did then to provide the best insight into the challenges I faced and how I dealt with them. It reflects my insights as a commander in one theater of a broader war."

  National Defense University Press

  Casey, George W.

  2012-10