Recent Publications

A Changing International Order? Implications for the Security Environment
October 1, 2020 — Dr. Carol Evans, Christopher Ankersen, William G. Braun III, Ferry de Kerckhove, Kathryn M. Fisher, 2020Each year, the Kingston Consortium on International Security (KCIS)—a partnership of the academy and the military—organize a conference on international security. This conference seeks to inform debate and advance knowledge in the field of... MORE

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“Training Better Arab Armies”
September 25, 2020 — US security force assistance missions to Arab partner states have had limited success, due in part to a tendency to impose American doctrine, which embodies American cultural values and norms, on Arab armed forces. Accordingly, US security force assistance missions should train Arab partners to fight in a manner better suited to their own cultural... MORE

“Two Worlds - African American Servicemembers, WWII and Today”
September 23, 2020 — The theory of social stigma provides a context for the subjective experience of African American servicemembers in World War II. Those experiences reveal the paradox the military faces when addressing racial discrimination. An examination of these experiences suggests only a collective response by African American servicemembers will solve this... MORE

“Technology and Strategic Surprise - Adapting to an Era of Open Innovation”
September 21, 2020 — Technological revolutions affecting state power are either open or closed. The precursor to the digital age is not the twentieth century, with state-controlled programs yielding nuclear weapons, but the late nineteenth century, when tinkerers invented the radio, airplane, and high explosives—all crucial to subsequent wars. To avoid strategic... MORE

SSI Live 82 – Striking the Balance: US Army Force Posture in Europe, 2028
September 21, 2020 — Within the context of Europe, the US Army must develop a force posture that best navigates the tensions between deterring or defeating armed conflict at an acceptable cost, successfully competing below armed conflict, and maintaining global responsiveness and institutional flexibility through the global operating model and dynamic force employment... MORE

“Enduring Information Vigilance - Government after COVID-19”
September 14, 2020 — The framework of Enduring Information Vigilance will help ally and partner governments deny advantages adversaries gain through their use of information operations in our new global perpetual information environment. This approach recognizes the persistent threat, unifies responses within and between governments, and resolves societal fissures... MORE

“Disintegrating the Enemy - The PLA’s Info-Messaging”
September 8, 2020 — The DoD can exploit weaknesses in Chinese military attempts at political warfare, or “enemy disintegration,” most recently observed in PLA media on the subject of the pandemic. Targeted information efforts will signal the United States’ refusal to be intimidated, expose untruths in Chinese government messaging to its citizens, and reassure relevant... MORE

“A Bizarre Pair: Counterinsurgency Lessons for Cyber Conflict”
September 4, 2020 — The lessons of counterinsurgency have deeper implications for cyber conflict than previous research has identified. Two decades of experience in Iraq and Afghanistan provide insights into the cyber strategy of defending forward including treating major cybersecurity and technology companies as host-nation partners and focusing on winning the hearts... MORE

Mission Command of Multi-Domain Operations
September 2, 2020 — Mark Balboni, John A. Bonin, Robert Mundell, Doug Orsi, 2020This research monograph explores the Army’s emerging concept of multi-domain operations and its implications on the mission command approach. The transition to multi-domain operations changes the traditional view of how Army commanders and staffs conduct operations in the physical... MORE

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“The COVID-19 Enemy Is Still Advancing”
September 1, 2020 — The US military has a historical precedence for dealing with a pandemic while simultaneously conducting large-scale combat operations. Two twentieth-century examples assess the extent to which the military adapted operations following an influenza outbreak, and make clear military and civilian leaders must balance strategic objectives when facing... MORE

NATO Needs to Focus on the Black Sea
August 4, 2020 — Robert E. Hamilton, 2020, the Foreign Policy Research InstituteWilliam of Ockham would like a word with those who worry more about a potential Russian invasion of the Baltics than ongoing interventions in the Balkans.“Of two competing theories, the simpler explanation” is to be preferred, wrote William of Ockham, an injunction that some Western... MORE

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SSI Live 81 – Addressing Hypercompetition in the Indo-Pacific Theater
July 24, 2020 — Given the multifaceted great power competition underway in the Indo-Pacific theater, how can the United States military best position itself? What role can and should the Army play in facilitating a joint approach? After a two-year hiatus, SSI Live returns as Dr. John R. Deni discusses a major newly released SSI study on USINDOPACOM theater design... MORE