Recent Publications

Strategic Insights: Nuclear Posture Review: Three Reasons the Army Should Care
February 14, 2018 — Author: Dr Michael FitzsimmonsDebate over the Trump administration’s new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is now in full and predictable bloom. While many of its conclusions demonstrate continuity with the Obama administration’s modernization plans, controversy has centered on two of the review’s recommendations: to deploy new low-yield weapons on... MORE

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Avoiding the Trap: U.S. Strategy and Policy for Competing in the Asia-Pacific Beyond the Rebalance
February 6, 2018 — Editor: COL (R) Frederick J. Gellert, Dr David Lai, Prof John F TroxellView the Executive SummaryThe Trump administration has recently called for a free and open Indo-Pacific, essentially replacing the Obama-era “Rebalance.” This U.S. Army War College report provides prescient analysis and policy recommendations on how to proceed down the path to... MORE

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Strategic Insights: Challenges in Using Scenario Planning for Defense Strategy
January 30, 2018 — Dr. Michael FitzsimmonsLawrence Freedman and Colin Gray are two of the most famous contemporary scholars of military strategy. Within the past few years, each published a book addressing different aspects of the same practical problem of strategy: defense planning.1 Considered to be strategy’s mundane cousin, defense planning revolves around how a... MORE

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Strategic Insights: Revolutionary Change Is Coming to Strategic Leadership
December 19, 2017 — Dr. Steven MetzClausewitz famously observed that war has an enduring nature and a changing character that evolves over time as technology, society, economics, and politics shift. This observation also applies to strategic leadership: it too has an enduring nature and a changing character.The enduring nature manifests itself as characteristics that... MORE

Strategic Insights: Proxy War Norms
December 18, 2017 — Dr. C. Anthony PfaffCurrent trends in international relations suggest the United States will place a greater reliance on international partners in securing vital national interests. Growing assertiveness by regional state actors, increasingly capable nonstate actors, and a “war-weary” American public suggest the emergence of a “polyarchic” world... MORE

Still Soldiers and Scholars? An Analysis of Army Officer Testing
December 15, 2017 — Authors: Dr Steven J. Condly, Dr Arthur T Coumbe, LTC William L SkimmyhornView the Executive Summary Still Soldiers and Scholars? sheds light on a neglected aspect of talent management, namely, officer accessions testing and evaluation. It does so by tracing the history of officer testing since 1900, identifying and analyzing key developments in... MORE

Parameters VOL. 47 NO. 3 Autumn 2017
November 30, 2017 — Editor: Dr Antulio J Echevarria II FEATURES: Special Commentary. Limits of Negative Peace, Faces of Positive Peace — Patricia M. Shields. A Wake for Counterinsurgency? Abandoning Counterinsurgency: Reviving Antiterrorism Strategy—Steven Metz.Insurgent Defectors in Counterinsurgencies—Jacqueline L. Hazelton. War among (& for) the People. Rethinking... MORE

2017-18 Key Strategic Issues List
November 15, 2017 — Editor: COL Todd E. Key For over a decade, the USAWC has published the annual Key Strategic Issues List (KSIL) to inform students, faculty, and external research associates of strategic topics requiring research and analysis. Part I of the Academic Year (AY) 2018 KSIL, referred to as the Chief of Staff of the Army Special Interest Topics, consists... MORE

Armed Robotic Systems Emergence: Weapons Systems Life Cycles Analysis and New Strategic Realities
November 14, 2017 — Author: Dr Robert J BunkerView the Executive Summary Armed robotic systems—drones and droids—now emerging on the battlefield portend new strategic realities not only for U.S. forces but also for our allies and future potential belligerents. Numerous questions of immediate warfighting importance come to mind with the fielding of these drones and... MORE

Evaluation of the 2015 DoD Cyber Strategy: Mild Progress in a Complex and Dynamic Military Domain
November 2, 2017 — Author: Mr Jeffrey L CatonView the Executive Summary In 2011, the Department of Defense (DoD) released its Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace, which officially recognized cyberspace as an operational domain akin to the traditional military domains of land, sea, air, and space. This monograph examines the 2015 DoD Cyber Strategy to evaluate how... MORE

Terrorist Sanctuary in the Sahara: A Case Study
November 1, 2017 — Author: LTC Joseph C. GuidoView the Executive Summary The idea to deny sanctuary to terrorist groups lies at the heart of contemporary U.S. counterterrorism strategy. Violent extremist organizations in North Africa, most notably the group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), have used remote and sparsely populated areas in the Sahara for... MORE

Closer Than You Think: The Implications of the Third Offset Strategy for the U.S. Army
October 26, 2017 — Editor: Mr Samuel R White JrView the Executive Summary The Defense Innovation Initiative (DII), begun in November 2014 by former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, is intended to ensure U.S. military superiority throughout the 21st century. The DII seeks broad-based innovation across the spectrum of concepts, research and development, capabilities,... MORE