Recent Publications

U.S. Defense Strategy After Saddam
July 1, 2005 — Author: Dr Michael E O'Hanlon In this defense strategy and budget book, Michael O'Hanlon argues that America's large defense budget cannot be pared realistically in the years ahead. But given the extreme demands of the Iraq mission, particularly on the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, he suggests how reductions in various weapons modernization programs... MORE

U.S. Security Strategies: Trade Policy Implications for Latin America
April 14, 2004 — Author: Dr Max G Manwaring The Summit of the Americas Center and Latin American and Caribbean Center of Florida International University, and the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College held the first of a series of mini-conferences dealing with security issues in the Western Hemisphere in Miami, Florida, on February 26, 2004. The... MORE

Perspectives from Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia: Hemispheric Security
July 1, 2003 — Authors: Dr Luiz Bitencourt, AMB Pedro Villagra Delgado, Maj Gen Henry Medina Uribe There is a lack of a common view regarding precisely "What is a threat?" and "What is security?" which is the heart of the stability problem in Latin America. These authors acknowledge that the traditional definition of security and threat is no longer completely... MORE

The United States and Colombia: The Journey from Ambiguity to Strategic Clarity
May 1, 2003 — Author: Dr Gabriel Marcella American strategy towards Colombia has shifted from a counternarcotics focus to more comprehensive support for that nation's security. This shift recognizes that Colombia's problems are deeply rooted and go beyond illegal narcotics. In the last year the Bush administration committed the United States to help Colombia... MORE

Strategic Effects of Conflict with Iraq: Latin America
March 1, 2003 — Author: Dr Max G Manwaring The author has been asked to analyze four issues: the position that key states in their region are taking on U.S. military action against Iraq; the role of America in the region after the war with Iraq; the nature of security partnerships in the region after the war with Iraq; and the effect that war with Iraq will have... MORE

Mapping Colombia: The Correlation between Land Data and Strategy
March 1, 2003 — Author: Dr Geoffrey Demarest The mapping of Colombian national territory, however, is fundamental to the problem of control of national territory. As a threshold matter, policy, strategy, and military asset management in contemporary conflict in virtually any unstable part of the world must deal with the problem of governance in "lawless areas."... MORE

Plan Colombia: Reality of the Colombian Crisis and Implications for Hemispheric Security
December 1, 2002 — Author: Dr Luz E Nagle The author analyzes Colombia's problems and makes recommendations regarding what it will take to achieve stated U.S. and Colombian objectives in that crisis situation. She also examines the concomitant issue of "spillover" from the Colombian crisis into the rest of the Latin American region. The results and recommendations of... MORE

Colombia’s Conflicts: The Spillover Effects of a Wider War
October 1, 2002 — Author: Mr Richard Millett This monograph is the first in a new Special Series of monographs that stems from the February 2001 and the March 2002 conferences--co-sponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College and The Dante B. Fascell North-South Center of the University of Miami--that dealt with the "Implementation of... MORE

Nonstate Actors in Colombia: Threat and Response
May 1, 2002 — Author: Dr Max G Manwaring Colombia's deeply rooted and ambiguous warfare has reached crisis proportions in that Colombia's "Hobbesian Trinity" of illegal drug traffickers, insurgents, and paramilitary organizations are creating a situation in which life is indeed "nasty, brutish, and short." The first step in developing a macro-level vision,... MORE

The Past as Prologue: A History of U.S. Counterinsurgency Policy in Colombia, 1958-66
March 1, 2002 — Author: Mr Dennis M Rempe The author outlines the history of U.S. counterinsurgency policy and the recommendations made by U.S. Special Survey Teams in Colombia from 1958-66. An examination of that history and the concomitant recommendations indicates that a review of that record would be in order. This monograph comes at a time when the United... MORE

Colombian Army Adaptation to FARC Insurgency
January 1, 2002 — Author: Dr Thomas A Marks The author points out that Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgents actively are pursuing a strategy to mobilize the disaffected and disposed people of Colombia, and to control the entire national territory. At the same time, he argues that no one in the national political establishment has taken the... MORE

Colombia’s Paramilitaries: Criminals or Political Force?
December 1, 2001 — Author: Mr David Spencer The intent of this monograph was to explore the multiple dimensions of Colombia's ongoing crisis and inform the public debate regarding the challenges faced by the statesmen, intellectuals, military strategists, and others who take on the responsibility to deal with that crisis. Hopefully, it will also generate serious... MORE