Recent Publications

Memorandum for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Secure Balance and Flexibility In Future Joint Forces
June 13, 2014 — Author: Mr Nathan P Freier The 25th Annual U.S. Army War College Strategy Conference "Balancing the Joint Force to Meet Future Security Challenges" occurred against the backdrop of a complicated decision making environment. It sought establish a context for future military decision making based on two foundational questions: what are the most... MORE

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Op-Ed: Toward an Army Story: It’s Not The “People” Part, It’s the “Land” Part
June 12, 2014 — Mr. Nathan P. Freier Not surprisingly, the Army has an image problem. It is not difficult to see why. While Army, Marine, and Special Operations Forces (SOF) were away campaigning in two unpopular wars with—to be very generous—only indeterminate and costly outcomes to show for their effort, Washington moved on decisively toward yet another... MORE

2014-15 Key Strategic Issues List
June 1, 2014 — Author: Prof John F Troxell Part II was updated December 9, 2014Parts I and III were updated October 31, 2014For several years, the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) has annually published the Key Strategic Issues List (KSIL). The purpose of this document is to make students and other researchers aware of strategic topics that are of special... MORE

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The Paracel Islands and U.S. Interests and Approaches in the South China Sea
June 1, 2014 — Author: LTC Clarence J Bouchat (USAF, Ret) View the Executive SummaryThe Paracel Islands and South China Sea disputes require better understanding by U.S. policymakers in order to address the region’s challenges. To attain that needed understanding, legal aspects of customary and modern laws are explored in this monograph to analyze the differences... MORE

The Future of American Landpower: Does Forward Presence Still Matter? The Case of the Army in the Pacific
June 1, 2014 — Author: Dr John R Deni View the Executive SummaryThe time has come for a reappraisal of the U.S. Army’s forward presence in East Asia, given the evolving strategic context and the extraordinarily high, recurring costs of deploying U.S. Army forces from the 50 states for increasingly important security cooperation activities across the... MORE

Democratization and Instability in Ukraine, Georgia, and Belarus
June 1, 2014 — Author: Dr Robert Nalbandov View the Executive SummaryThis monograph analyzes the interconnections between the democratic institutionalization of the newly independent states of Ukraine, Georgia, and Belarus, their political (in)stability, and economic development and prosperity. By introducing the concept of regime mimicry into the field of public... MORE

Cyberterrorism after STUXNET
June 1, 2014 — Author: Dr Thomas M Chen View the Executive SummaryThe discovery of STUXNET was a recent milestone in the arena of cyber security because it was the first malware designed to cause real world damage to industrial control systems. It demonstrated that a sufficiently determined adversary might be able to cause physical damage to U.S. critical... MORE

Operational Reservations: Considerations for a Total Army Force
June 1, 2014 — Authors: COL John D Ellis, COL Laura McKnight Mackenzie View the Executive SummaryAs the Army Reserve Components—the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard—assume an “operational” mission as the force drawdowns in overseas contingency operations occur, the Army senior military and civilian leadership should consider the ramifications and... MORE

The Growing Complexity of Sino-Indian Ties
June 1, 2014 — Author: Dr Harsh V Pant View the Executive SummaryAccording to most political observers, the global political architecture is undergoing a transformation with power increasingly shifting from the West to the East. The two most populous nations on the earth, China and India, are on their way to becoming economic powerhouses and are shedding their... MORE

Moving Beyond Pretense: Nuclear Power and Nonproliferation
June 1, 2014 — Author: Mr Henry D Sokolski View the Executive SummaryThe U.S. President and nearly all his critics agree that the spread of nuclear weapons and the possibility of their seizure and potential use is the greatest danger facing the United States and the world. Looking at the way government and industry officials downplay the risks of civilian nuclear... MORE

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Countering Radicalization and Recruitment to Al-Qaeda: Fighting the War of Deeds
June 1, 2014 — Author: Dr Paul Kamolnick View the Executive SummaryThis Letort Paper proposes that actions, policies, and deeds—those of the U.S. Government and al-Qaeda—be leveraged as a means of delegitimizing al-Qaeda terrorist propaganda. Two chief fronts—changing deeds and challenging deeds—is proposed. Changing deeds requires that the United States... MORE

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Op-Ed: Changing the Army’s Culture of Cultural Change
May 16, 2014 — Dr. Leonard Wong Click here for PDF of this article.In a profession as large as the U.S. Army, trying to influence the way organizational members think about specific issues can be a vexing proposition. Certainly new systems, policies, and procedures can force changes in behavior, but often what senior decisionmakers truly desire is a shift in... MORE

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