Recent Publications

Chinese Lessons from Other Peoples’ Wars
November 1, 2011 — Authors: Mr Roy Kamphausen, Dr David Lai, Dr Andrew Scobell The importance of China stems not only from its current international role and its influence on the Asia-Pacific region in particular, but also because China’s impact on global developments will likely continue to grow. One of our enduring imperatives is to accurately survey China’s... MORE

Op-Ed: China’s Aircraft Carrier: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
October 27, 2011 — Dr. David LaiChina test-sailed its first aircraft carrier on August 10, 2011. The maiden sail was remarkably low key, but its significance is far-reaching.China's journey to this début started in the mid-1990s when it approached Ukraine for the possibility of acquiring the half-built, but practically abandoned, Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag. The... MORE

Economic Transition in Afghanistan: How to Soften a Hard Landing
October 25, 2011 — Dr. Leif RosenbergerThe clock is ticking. Between now and 2014, upwards of 150,000 foreign troops and 30,000 contractors will start leaving Afghanistan. Donor aid is also declining. In the past year, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) budget has been cut in half. In other words, the war economy is unraveling.While most of the... MORE

The Afghanistan Question and the Reset in U.S.-Russian Relations
October 1, 2011 — Author: Dr Richard J Krickus The ability of the United States and Russia to cooperate in Afghanistan represents a solid test of their reset in relations. The author provides the historical background to the Afghanistan Question and assesses current events in the Afghan war with three objectives in mind: 1) To determine whether Russian-American... MORE

Real Leadership and the U.S. Army: Overcoming a Failure of Imagination to Conduct Adaptive Work

Natural Gas as an Instrument of Russian State Power
October 1, 2011 — Author: Mr Alexander Ghaleb This monograph is meant to provide an unbiased examination of: the scarcity of natural gas in the contemporary security environment; the salience of natural gas in Russia’s national security strategies; and, the natural gas pipeline politics in Eastern and Central Europe. While the tendency of most energy security... MORE

Presidential Succession Scenarios in Egypt and Their Impact on U.S.-Egyptian Strategic Relations
October 1, 2011 — Author: Mr Gregory Aftandilian Although this monograph was written before the pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt in January 2011, it examines the important question as to who might succeed President Hosni Mubarak by analyzing several possible scenarios and what they would mean for U.S. strategic relations with Egypt. The monograph first... MORE

Mexico’s “Narco-Refugees”: The Looming Challenge for U.S. National Security
October 1, 2011 — Author: Dr Paul Rexton Kan Since 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels, there has been a rise in the number of Mexican nationals seeking political asylum in the United States to escape the ongoing drug cartel violence in their home country. Political asylum cases in general are claimed by those who are... MORE

2011-2012 U.S. Army War College Key Strategic Issues List (KSIL)
September 19, 2011 — Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, IIUpdate: The PDF of the KSIL is now available.Topics with an * are from Headquarters Department of the Army G-3/5 and G-4ForewordThe Key Strategic Issues List (KSIL) is published annually for the purpose of making students and other researchers aware of strategic topics that are, or should be, of special importance to... MORE

Anticipating Contemporary War: How Well Did We Do?
September 12, 2011 — Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II Few recognized it at the time, but in 1974 the eminent British historian Sir Michael Howard wrote what was to become one of the most important phrases for the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)-Transformation era of the 1990s and early 2000s:I am tempted to declare that whatever doctrine the Armed Forces are working... MORE

Profession of Arms — Starfish Metaphor
September 9, 2011 — COL (R) Charles D. Allen The Profession of Arms (PoA) Campaign began with much fanfare, but the Community of Practice (CoP) has since wrestled with many important issues during the planning and conduct of the campaign. While there are many implicit assumptions about the Army as a Profession, the PoA White Paper (December 8, 2010) provided the... MORE

Puncturing the Counterinsurgency Myth: Britain and Irregular Warfare in the Past, Present, and Future
September 1, 2011 — Author: Dr Andrew Mumford This monograph holds that an aura of mythology has surrounded conventional academic and military perceptions of British performance in the realm of irregular warfare. It identifies 10 myths regarding British counterinsurgency performance and seeks to puncture them by critically assessing the efficacy of the British way of... MORE

Threat Posed by Mounting Vigilantism in Mexico
September 1, 2011 — Author: Dr George W Grayson Until the 1980s, Mexico enjoyed relative freedom from violence. Ruthless drug cartels existed, but they usually abided by informal rules of conduct hammered out between several capos and representatives of the dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled the country until the 1990s. Relying on bribes,... MORE