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Parameters Autumn 2006 Michael R. Melillo |
Outfitting a Big-War Military with Small-War Capabilities Unfortunately, it took the tragedy of 9/11 and the challenges posed by an adaptive enemy for the U.S. to realize it was not prepared to fight war on terms other than its own choosing.  |
Parameters Spring 2005 Colin S. Gray |
How Has War Changed Since the End of the Cold War? For the West, and for the most part, 12 of the past 15 years can fairly be described as an interwar period. That brief no-name era, usually referred to neutrally as the post-Cold War period, came to an explosive end on 11 September 2001.  |
Parameters Autumn 2008 Daniel S. Roper |
Global Counterinsurgency: Strategic Clarity for the Long War Though policy initiatives since September 11, 2001 have positively influenced certain agencies in their efforts to secure America, some steps have actually limited the nation's effectiveness in countering the threats it faces.  |
Parameters Winter 2005/2006 Jeffrey Record |
Why the Strong Lose Why has the United States fared consistently well against such powerful enemies as Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union, but its record against lesser foes is decidedly mixed?  |
Parameters Summer 2007 Frank G. Hoffman |
Neo-Classical Counterinsurgency? A look at the impact and implications of the classical school of thought on revolutionary warfare and an evaluation of the newly issued Army/Marine counterinsurgency (COIN) manual.  |
Parameters Summer 2008 Kenneth Payne |
Waging Communication War This article sets out to explore the ramifications of poor communication and lack of support of the population in a modern war.  |
Parameters Autumn 2006 Raymond L. Bingham |
Bridging the Religious Divide Academicians, east and west, hotly debate the fundaments of the war on terror. In our nation's capital, decision-makers and renowned scholars meet regularly to posit the pros and cons of U.S. foreign policy.  |
Parameters Summer 2005 R. D. Hooker |
Beyond Vom Kriege: The Character and Conduct of Modern War While the methods used to wage war are constantly evolving, the nature and character of war remain deeply and unchangeably rooted in the nature of man.  |
Parameters Winter 2005/2006 Ryan Henry |
Defense Transformation and the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review As the Department of Defense enters its third Quadrennial Defense Review this year, it is important to understand how central the QDR has become to the work of the department -- and how different this QDR is compared to its predecessors.  |
Parameters Summer 2007 Clancy & Crossett |
Measuring Effectiveness in Irregular Warfare There is little foundational understanding of what success means in irregular warfare that will assist analysts in interpreting operational effectiveness.  |
Parameters Autumn 2007 Christopher M. Schnaubelt |
Whither the RMA? The present Department of Defense (DOD) focus on technological solutions to increase capabilities may be misguided by a vision of a high-tech Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA).  |
Parameters Autumn 2008 Robert M. Cassidy |
Terrorism and Insurgency Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century: International Perspectives is a collection of essays that provide insight into the challenges that make this perennial and irregular war exceedingly difficult.  |
Parameters Summer 2007 Brian Reed |
A Social Network Approach to Understanding an Insurgency A network analysis of war and insurgency differs markedly from conventional approaches, a fact that might require us to rethink some of our more conventional analytical tools.  |
Parameters Summer 2007 |
Book Reviews Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar offers fresh insights on the war... Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945 by Catherine Merridale is social history at it's best... etc.  |
National Defense March 2006 James A. Gavrilis |
Army Must Address Irregular Warfare Needs The Army's largest-ever modernization program, the Future Combat Systems (FCS), is expected to deliver a kit bag of new capabilities for the tactical force. It's easy to see how FCS technologies will provide a clear advantage in the conventional fight, but it is less clear how this program will improve capabilities in unconventional warfare.  |
Parameters Spring 2004 Robert R. Tomes |
Relearning Counterinsurgency Warfare Thirty years after the signing of the January 1973 Paris peace agreement ending the Vietnam War, the United States finds itself leading a broad coalition of military forces engaged in peacemaking, nation-building, and now counterinsurgency warfare in Iraq.  |
Parameters Winter 2006/2007 |
Book Reviews From Omaha Beach to Dawson's Ridge: The Combat Journal of Captain Joe Dawson. By Cole C. Kingseed... The Making of a Terrorist: Recruitment, Training and Root Causes. Edited by James J. F. Forest... etc.  |
Parameters Summer 2007 Patrick Porter |
Good Anthropology, Bad History: The Cultural Turn in Studying War To wage war, become an anthropologist. Today's military confrontation of "the West vs. the rest" replays ancient differences between strategic cultures.  |
Parameters Summer 2005 Christopher M. Ford |
Speak No Evil: Targeting a Population's Neutrality to Defeat an Insurgency Using Iraq as a model, this article seeks to examine the relationship between the people and the insurgency, with the ultimate questions being: What role does the civilian population play in the insurgency, and how can this situation be influenced to achieve success?  |
Parameters Summer 2006 Shawn Brimley |
Tentacles of Jihad: Targeting Transnational Support Networks As the five-year anniversary of the 11 September attacks approaches, America faces an enemy that is both a transnational organization and a growing ideological movement. As long as the war in Iraq continues, more recruits will join the disparate terror networks that feed off the conflict.  |
Reason July 2006 Logan & Preble |
Are Failed States a Threat to America? The Bush administration's nation-building efforts are a big mistake.  |
National Defense August 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Future War: How The Game is Changing "It's hard to concentrate on a grand strategy when your house is on fire," said Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Joint Forces Command. Even as they cope with the frantic demands of two major wars, military leaders say they have a clearer sense of the future than they did in the 1990s.  |
Parameters Summer 2006 David W. Barno |
Challenges in Fighting a Global Insurgency Strategy in a global counterinsurgency requires a new level of thinking. A world of irregular threats and asymmetrical warfare demands that we Americans broaden our thinking beyond the norms of traditional military action once sufficient to win our wars.  |
Popular Mechanics February 12, 2009 Joe Pappalardo |
The Future of War: Can Special Ops Become Business as Usual? Is the Pentagon capable of shifting its resources and strategies over to so-called irregular warfare? Experts at the Special Operations Conference in D.C. debate whether or not the U.S. is ready for a new kind of fight.  |
National Defense August 2007 James A. Gavrilis |
Army Must Embrace Unconventional Fight Even a major unconventional campaign such as Iraq can have major conventional operations as part of it. In war the two are not mutually exclusive. The trick is finding the right mix.  |
National Defense December 2006 Sandra I. Erwin |
Latest Pentagon `Roadmap' Reveals Serious Frustration Roadmaps -- which involve lengthy studies and exhaustive reports -- can be quite useful in highly technical areas that require in-depth research. The latest Pentagon roadmap, however, seeks to address the decidedly non-technical issue of "irregular warfare."  |
Parameters Summer 2008 Robert M. Chamberlain |
With Friends Like These: Grievance, Governance, and Capacity-Building in COIN This article questions the assumption that enhancing the power of the state will make the population less likely to support insurgents.  |
National Defense August 2007 Breanne Wagner |
Special Operators Criticized for Snubbing Unconventional Approaches As U.S. special operations forces undergo a shift in responsibilities and a surge in personnel, a heated debate has developed about their future priorities.  |
Parameters Summer 2005 Michael H. Hoffman |
Rescuing the Law of War: A Way Forward in an Era of Global Terrorism Terrorists are gaining an astonishing legal edge over US and other armed forces deployed against them. Judicial intervention in the law of war since September 11, 2001 already far exceeds anything ever before experienced, by any nation, in the history of warfare.  |
National Defense October 2005 Sandra I. Erwin |
Marines Probing New Ways to Fight Future Insurgencies Officials stress that the aim is not to write a war plan for the current conflict Iraq, but rather to generate fresh ideas for countering so-called "irregular" threats in the coming decades.  |
National Defense February 2008 Breanne Wagner |
Special Operators Ponder the Right Mix of Roles and Missions U.S. Special Operations Command is growing. From 48,000 personnel today, its numbers are expected to increase to 58,000 in the coming years. But how will they be used?  |
Parameters Winter 2006/2007 Jim Baker |
Systems Thinking and Counterinsurgencies This article presents the essentials of a successful counterinsurgency strategy by applying a technique known as systems thinking. Systems thinking has proven successful in other contexts at explaining human behavior, policy choices, unintended consequences, and the resistance of systems to change.  |
National Defense February 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Foreign Policy Ambition Overlooks War Lessons The Obama administration has endorsed a major expansion of ground forces, and a surge in military capabilities to conduct "irregular" warfare against non-state actors.  |
National Defense May 2014 Dan Parsons |
Special Operations a Valuable Tool In Dealing With Bloody African Conflicts Deploying small numbers of specially trained troops, namely Army Special Operations Forces that are well versed in supporting indigenous troops, can pay dividends, said Michael D. Lumpkin, assistant secretary of defense.  |
Reason February 2002 Chris Bray |
The Media and GI Joe How the press gets the military wrong -- and why it matters...  |
Parameters Summer 2006 Robert M. Cassidy |
The Long Small War: Indigenous Forces for Counterinsurgency A task force that organizes and integrates special, conventional, and indigenous forces against terrorists, leveraging the best counterinsurgency practices, would be able to carry out the full range of counterinsurgency requirements within an autonomous area of operations.  |
National Defense April 2008 Sandra I. Erwin |
Changes to Military Strategy, In Time for the Next War Iraq is far from over, but the Defense Department is already rewriting military doctrine so that forces are adequately trained and ready for another Iraq-like conflict years or decades from now.  |
Parameters Summer 2007 |
From the Editor Although hamstrung by a myriad of political, economic, and cultural realities, visionaries share one common opinion regarding the future of the Middle East; Iran will play a pivotal role.  |
Parameters Spring 2006 Anthony Vinci |
The "Problems of Mobilization" and the Analysis of Armed Groups This article attempts to lay the foundation for a more agile, rationalized system of analysis for all types of armed groups which can take into account the evolving and adapting nature of contemporary armed groups.  |
National Defense June 2004 Sandra I. Erwin |
Redefining Combat Among the hard lessons the U.S. Army is learning in Iraq is that the line between "major combat" and "stability operations" is blurred, at best, and that the enemy gets to decide when the war is finally over.  |
National Defense November 2013 Nathaniel H. Sledge Jr. |
Fresh Thinking Needed in Quadrennial Defense Review In order to maintain a robust national defense enterprise, we must make hard choices about systems, people, force structure, infrastructure, investments, operations and management.  |
Reason November 2003 Tim Cavanaugh |
Talking With Terrorists Jessica Stern's new book reports from the front lines of the War on Terror.  |
National Defense August 2005 Lawrence P. Farrell Jr. |
Strategy and Budget Driven by Global War on Terror The final report is not scheduled to be completed and sent to Congress until February, but looking at what is happening in the world today, there are clear indicators of where the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review is headed -- to a change to the current military posture.  |
National Defense March 2006 Lawrence P. Farrell Jr. |
QDR Lays Out Strategy, But Can We Afford It? At first glance, the fiscal year 2007 defense budget reflects the arduous challenges facing the administration in trying to balance long-term strategy and requirements against immediate priorities and fiscal pressures.  |
Wired November 27, 2007 Noah Shachtman |
How Technology Almost Lost the War: In Iraq, the Critical Networks Are Social -- Not Electronic A network-centric approach to war allows us to swiftly locate our target and destroy it, but it doesn't allow us to connect with local people to rebuild a city.  |
National Defense March 2007 Sandra I. Erwin |
Special Forces' Skills `Needed More Than Ever' Experts are questioning whether the Pentagon is making the best use of highly skilled special operations forces in the nation's war against extremist Islamic groups.  |
National Defense August 2005 Harold Kennedy |
U.S. Shifting Focus to `Stability Operations' After years of trying to minimize U.S. participation in peacekeeping operations, the Bush administration is embarking upon an ambitious effort to improve the ability of the military services--and related civilian agencies--to conduct such missions as part of its global war on terrorism.  |
Parameters Summer 2004 Robert M. Cassidy |
Back to the Street without Joy: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Vietnam and Other Small Wars This article aims to distill some of the more relevant counterinsurgency lessons from the American military's experiences during Vietnam and before.  |
National Defense June 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Predicting the Outcome of War: Can Science Help? Digital simulations are staples of military war games. They can be used to recreate just about every aspect of combat. But simulating the complex scenarios of "irregular" warfare is one of the toughest challenges that the Defense Department now faces.  |
National Defense March 2005 Sandra I. Erwin |
Defense Review: Beltway Dogfighting at Its Best Military officials have, in recent weeks, been diligently articulating their thinking on how each service contributes to the overall national security strategy.  |