Recent Publications

“Crisis Management Lessons from the Clinton Administration’s Implementation of Presidential Decision Directive 56”
October 12, 2021 — In the wake of the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 3-4, 1993, in which 19 American servicemembers were killed and 73 injured, I was tasked to lead an effort to discern the strategic lessons to be learned from the ill-fated US intervention. The study highlighted several shortfalls: the absence of a clear US strategy and whole-of-government plan for the operation, the onset of mission creep as the operation evolved from a humanitarian mission... MORE

State Collapse, Insurgency, and Counterinsurgency: Lessons from Somalia
November 14, 2013 — Author: Dr J Peter Pham View the Executive SummaryFor more than 2 decades, Somalia has been the prime example of a collapsed state, resisting multiple attempts to reconstitute a central government, with the current internationally-backed regime of the “Federal Republic of Somalia” struggling just to maintain its hold on the capital and the... MORE

Avoiding the Slippery Slope: Conducting Effective Interventions
June 4, 2013 — Author: Dr Thomas R Mockaitis View the Executive SummaryThis Letort Paper covers U.S. military interventions in civil conflicts since the end of the Cold War. It defines intervention as the use of military force to achieve a specific objective (i.e., deliver humanitarian aid, support revolutionaries or insurgents, protect a threatened population,... MORE

Somalia: Line in the Sand–Identification of MYM Vulnerabilities
September 1, 2010 — Authors: LTC Eloy E Cuevas, Ms Madeleine Wells The al-Shabaab Organization, also known as the Mujahidin Youth Movement (MYM), and its allies have been active opponents in undermining the United Nations (UN)-supported African Union (AU)peacekeeping forces, the fledging Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and all the UN efforts to support... MORE

Cover for An Army Transformed: The U.S. Army's Post-Vietnam Recovery and the Dynamics of Change in Military Organizations

Two Perspectives on Interventions and Humanitarian Operations
July 1, 1997 — Authors: AMB Robert B Oakley, Dr Earl H Tilford Jr, Dr David Tucker A recent symposium cosponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute and the University of Kentucky's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce examined that grey area between war and peace, between intervention in support of national interests and humanitarian... MORE

Peacekeeping, Peacemaking and Peace-Enforcement: The U.S. Role in the New International Order
February 1, 1993 — Author: Dr Donald M Snow The author examines the bases of American military participation in the array of Third World activities falling under the general rubric of peacekeeping and peace-enforcement. The relevance of this inquiry was underscored by President Clinton in his Inaugural Address, when he added situations where "the will and conscience... MORE