Recent Publications

Army Professionalism, the Military Ethic, and Officership in the 21st Century
December 1, 1999 — Authors: Major John A Nagl, COL Tony Pfaff, Dr Don M Snider The authors address what they—and many others—perceived to be a decline in military professionalism in the Army officer corps. The authors first describe the ethical, technical, and political components of military professionalism and then address the causes for the decline. They conclude... MORE

Land Power and Dual Containment: Rethinking America’s Policy in the Gulf
November 1, 1999 — Author: Dr Stephen C Pelletiere In an attempt to regain some control of the strategic commodity, Washington developed special relationships with the two foremost oil procedures, Iran (under the Shah) and Saudi Arabia. In 1979 the Shah was overthrown and, with the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini, America became—in the eyes of Iranians—the Great... MORE

The Fog of Peace: Finding the End-State of Hostilities
November 1, 1999 — Author: Mr Manfred K Rotermund The author provides us with a new way of thinking about peace and how to achieve it. Peace, he argues, arrives only when domestically centered progress is established in a post-conflict environment. The end of hostilities is only the end of the shooting. It is not the end of danger. It is not the end of the... MORE

The Growing Imperative to Adopt “Flexibility” as an American Principle of War
October 15, 1999 — Author: LTC Robert S Frost The author makes it clear that he is not interested in throwing out the old tried and true existing Principles of War, he only wants thought given to their expansion to include a principle of Flexibility. After all, the hallmark of the course of instruction at the U.S. Army War College is the new environment in which its... MORE

China’s Strategic Modernization: Implications for the United States
September 1, 1999 — Author: Major Mark A Stokes Conventional wisdom portrays the People's Republic of China (PRC) People's Liberation Army (PLA) as a backward continental force that will not pose a military challenge to its neighbors or to the United States well into the 21st century. PLA writings that demonstrate interest in exploiting the revolution in military... MORE

America’s Army in Transition: Preparing for War in the Precision Age
September 1, 1999 — Author: Maj Gen Robert H Scales The following two articles were written during and immediately after the war in Kosovo. The first is an adaptation of an earlier work written after a trip to Asia in 1998. In that essay, I suggested that foreign militaries were beginning to perceive our fixation on a firepower-centered way of war as an exploitable... MORE

Mediterranean Security into the Coming Millennium
August 1, 1999 — Author: Dr Stephen J Blank The papers included in this volume represent just such an effort to lay a firmer foundation for this continuing dialogue and to bring together different points of view. In October 1998, the Strategic Studies Institute, assisted by Pepperdine University, assembled a distinguished group of analysts from the United States,... MORE

Transnational Threats from the Middle East: Crying Wolf or Crying Havoc?
May 31, 1999 — Author: Prof Anthony H Cordesman There is no doubt that the Middle East can present significant potential threats to the West. The author of this monograph examines these threats in order to put them into perspective--to distinguish between "crying wolf" and "crying havoc." After thorough analysis, he contends that the problems caused by narcotics... MORE

Future Warfare
May 1, 1999 — Author: Maj Gen Robert H Scales Throughout U.S. history, the American military services have had an unfortunate penchant for not being ready for the next war. Part of the problem has had to do with factors beyond their control: the American policy has been notoriously slow to respond to the challenges posed by dangerous enemies. On the other hand,... MORE

The Future U.S. Military Presence in Asia: Landpower and the Geostrategy of American Commitment
April 6, 1999 — Authors: Maj Gen Robert H Scales, Dr Larry M Wortzel The United States strategic framework in the Pacific has three parts: peacetime engagement, as described above, which includes a forward presence; crisis response, which builds on forward-stationed forces, the "boots-on-the ground" and, if necessary, fighting and winning any conflict that might... MORE

Pacific Security Today: Overcoming the Hurdles
March 24, 1999 — Author: Mr Thomas M Molino In November 1998, Science Applications International Corporation's (SAIC) Center for Global Security and Cooperation, in conjunction with the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), cosponsored its first Asia security conference at the NPS in Monterey, California... MORE

Landpower and Ambiguous Warfare: The Challenge of Colombia in the 21st Century
March 10, 1999 — Author: Dr Richard Downes On December 10 and 11, 1998, over 100 scholars, civilian government officials, and military officers from the United States, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama and Mexico gathered at the U.S. Army War College to discuss "Landpower and Ambiguous Warfare: The Challenge of Colombia in the 21st Century." While the conference... MORE