Digital Commons Network^™

From Framework To Toolchain: Implementing Zero Trust Architecture In Cloud-Native Environments For Dow Compliance, Shelby C. Snyder

Military Cyber Affairs

Federal agencies face a fiscal year 2027 target for enterprise-wide Zero Trust deployment, but NIST SP 800-207A defines logical components without identifying the Kubernetes technologies that implement them. This paper proposes a three-tier mapping of the Policy Engine, Policy Administrator, and Policy Enforcement Point to service mesh, microsegmentation, and perimeter tooling, stating the criteria by which each component is classified. It then applies a defined rubric to six Zero Trust vendors across component alignment, Kubernetes capability, federal authorization posture, and evidence quality, finding that no single vendor covers all three tiers. The mapping is a testable architectural proposition; a Stage …

From Monopoly To Orchestration: The Hilltop And Farm Youth And The Changing Organization Of State Coercion - The Israeli Case, Idan Yaron

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Drawing on more than a decade of ethnographic fieldwork – as a social anthropologist, studying the Far Right in Israel, on the ground, and through intimate and prolonged relationships with opinion leaders and rank-and-file activists – this essay examines the Hilltop and Farm Youth in the West Bank to reconsider Charles Tilly's influential account of state formation and the organization of coercion. It asks a simple but troubling question: why would a powerful modern state, fully capable of suppressing autonomous violent actors, sometimes allow them to persist? I argue that Tilly's theory should be confirmed, adapted, and amended. His fundamental …

Book Review: Multidomain Operations: The Pursuit Of Battlefield Dominance In The 21st Century, Chase Metcalf

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Edited by Amos Fox and Franz-Stefan Gady

Reviewed by: Colonel Chase Metcalf, director of campaign planning, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations, US Army War College

This critical assessment challenges assumptions behind one of the US military’s most prominent operational concepts. Its arguments raise important questions about doctrine, strategy, and future warfare.

©2026 Chase Metcalf

Book Review: “Review Essay On Three Works About The Ukraine War”, John A. Nagl

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

• The Russian Invasion of Ukraine: February–December 2022: Destroying the Myth of Russian Invincibility, by John S. Harrel

• Black Sea Battleground: The Road to Ukraine, edited by Glen E. Howard

• Beyond Ukraine: Debating the Future of War, edited by Tim Sweijs and Jeffrey H. Michaels

Reviewed by: John A. Nagl, General John J. Pershing Professor of Warfighting Studies, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations, US Army War College

A sweeping review of contemporary conflict, this review essay shows how the war in Ukraine is reshaping global security thinking and forcing strategists to confront hard …

Book Review: The Weight Of Sand: My 450 Days Held Hostage In The Sahara, Michael Margolius

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Edith Blais

Reviewed by Commander Michael Margolius, US Navy, professor, US Army War College, and former J3 of the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency

In his review of The Weight of Sand: My 450 Days Held Hostage in the Sahara, Michael Margolius views the ordeal faced by author Edith Blais through the lens of a personnel recovery agent. Blais and her boyfriend were kidnapped and held for 15 months by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin gunmen. Margolius points out the many small and practical things that helped Blais survive and how her story can help agencies learn from her experience to …

Book Review: Warfare In Peacetime: Proxies And State Powers, Scott Heal

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Christopher C. Harmon

Reviewed by Scott Heal (US Army)

Warfare in Peacetime: Proxies and State Powers defines proxy, lists the advantages and disadvantages of using proxies, and offers seven case studies, including the USSR and East Germany, the United States and the Nicaraguan Contras, and Iran and Hezbollah. The reviewer notes, “those studying limited warfare or the challenges in understanding and addressing gray-zone activities will find Harmon’s framework and analysis practical and informative.”

Book Review: Death, Dominance, And State-Building: The Us In Iraq And The Future Of American Military Intervention, Connor Halliday

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Roger D. Petersen

Reviewed by Major Connor Halliday (US Army), instructor of international affairs at the United States Military Academy

Death, Dominance, and State-Building: The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention, by Roger D. Petersen, analyzes America’s strategy in Iraq over the last 20 years and offers lessons learned for future US military interactions and state-building ventures. Reviewer Connor Halliday notes, “Military practitioners, strategists, and scholars of civil wars and state-building will all find Petersen’s work insightful and thought-provoking. The book’s value lies not just in its analysis of Iraq, but in its broader lessons …

War And Power: Who Wins Wars—And Why, Frank Hoffman

Joint Force Quarterly

Frank Hoffman reviews Phillips Payson O’Brien’s War and Power: Who Wins Wars—and Why, which proposes a multidimensional framework for assessing national power and explaining military outcomes. O’Brien argues that success in war depends on more than the size of a state’s armed forces or inventories of weapons. His concept of “Full Spectrum Powers” evaluates five interacting elements: economic and technological strength, political leadership, social and governmental structures, military effectiveness, and alliances. Drawing on conflicts including the world wars, the Cold War, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Russo-Ukraine War, the book examines how states generate, adapt, and sustain military power. …

Training For Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations From El Salvador To Afghanistan, Tobias Bernard Switzer

Joint Force Quarterly

Tobias Bernard Switzer reviews Frank K. Sobchak’s Training for Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations from El Salvador to Afghanistan, a comparative study of efforts to build host-nation special operations forces in El Salvador, Colombia, the Philippines, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Sobchak evaluates five factors that may influence advisory outcomes: consistency in advisor pairing, language proficiency, partner-to-advisor ratios, authority to organize host-nation units, and combat advising. He finds that advisors’ ability to organize partner forces is most strongly associated with combat effectiveness, while language proficiency is less decisive than commonly assumed. Switzer interprets these factors as measures of two broader …

“Creating The Point Of The Spear”: The Deployment Of Kitty Hawk (Cv-63) As An Afloat Forward Staging Base During Operation Enduring Freedom, Justin B. Blanton

Joint Force Quarterly

On 27 September 2001, Kitty Hawk (CV-63) received orders to deploy to the northern Arabian Sea to serve as an afloat forward staging base for joint special operations forces (SOF) tasked with conducting raids into Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), the U.S. military response to the terrorist attacks of 11 September. In order to accommodate the SOF, the aging, large-deck carrier reconfigured to deploy with fewer than 20 aircraft: Eight F/A-18Cs, three S-3Bs, two C-2As, and two SH-60F/HH-60H Seahawks. On 1 October Kitty Hawk departed Yokosuka, Japan, transited to Masirah Island, Oman, and embarked Task Force Sword, …

Disjointed Command And Air Domain Challenges In Alaska: The Case For A Single U.S. Combined/Joint Force Air Component Commander, Jeffrey W. Kempff

Joint Force Quarterly

The current command and control (C2) organizational structure over the air domain in Alaska is fragmented and doctrinally inconsistent, undermining homeland defense and reducing wartime lethality. Disjointed roles between the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM)—particularly in the Alaska Theater of Operations (AKTO) and Alaska NORAD Region Area of Operations (ANR AO)—create gaps in unity of command and effort, especially within the air component. This article examines Alaska's fractured air domain organization and command relationships, illustrating operational ambiguity, duplicative efforts, and inconsistencies that delay decision-making. It proposes a focused, near-term solution: unify the …

Mission Over Bureaucracy: Special Operations Command’S Warrior-Driven Model For Defense Innovation, Robert D. Seader

Joint Force Quarterly

In an era of accelerating technological change, military organizations must rapidly develop and field new capabilities to maintain battlefield superiority. Traditional defense acquisition processes, optimized for peacetime oversight and risk avoidance, now take four times longer than in the 1950s, threatening to undermine military effectiveness against rapidly modernizing adversaries. This paper examines how the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has pioneered a fundamentally different acquisition approach that delivers new capabilities in months rather than the decades typical of conventional programs.

Through extensive interviews with senior acquisition leaders, this analysis identifies three core elements of USSOCOM’s success: a mission-centric culture …

Building The Mental Golden Dome: Arming The Joint Force For Defensive Cognitive Warfare, James Davitch

Joint Force Quarterly

Modern conflict increasingly hinges on mental strength, yet current military thinking lacks a clear defense for the mind. This article introduces a vital new concept: protecting military personnel from an adversary's attempts to distort their perceptions, disorient their judgment, and degrade their decision-making. Building on established research into behavioral psychology, the essay integrates this defense into existing military functions, proposing practical steps. It offers a precise explanation of this protective strategy, suggests pre-deployment exercises for joint personnel, and outlines ways to measure effectiveness even under pressure. A detailed, multi-year plan describes how to update joint doctrine, create training programs, and …

Determining Operational Objectives, Milan Vego

Joint Force Quarterly

Full knowledge and understanding of the true meaning of operational objectives are the main prerequisites for sound planning and execution of major operations A major operations (on land, at sea, in the air) is aimed at accomplishing a single operational objective. They can be conducted predominantly by a single service or two or more services. A campaign in a high-intensity conventional war consists of a series of related major/joint operations (on land, in the air, at sea) plus numerous tactical actions aimed to achieve a single military- or theater-strategic objective. Yet despite their importance, relatively little attention is …

From Data To Victory: The Race For Analytic Superiority In Warfare, Robert Grossman, Emily Goldman

Joint Force Quarterly

Artificial intelligence technologies have reached a tipping point after decades of development. They are diffusing widely across defense and national security applications. Twenty-first century warfighters rely on analytic models in all systems, at all echelons, and in all domains. As more powerful models built on ever larger data sets become ubiquitous, militaries are in a new competition to deploy artificial intelligence. Operational art must embrace “analytic superiority.” This is the operational advantage from collecting and ingesting data, building robust models and computing infrastructure, deploying the models into operational systems, and denying adversaries' ability to do the same

This article explains …

Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 120, 3rd Quarter 2026, National Defense University Press

Joint Force Quarterly

Joint Force Quarterly 120, 3rd Quarter 2026, focuses on contemporary defense strategy, joint warfighting, professional military education, operational innovation, and military sustainment. The issue opens with Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge A. Colby’s discussion of the logic underlying the 2026 National Defense Strategy and an executive summary reflecting on the 40th anniversary of the Goldwater-Nichols Act and the future of jointness. Forum articles address analytic superiority in warfare, the development of operational objectives, and new evidence concerning the Lavelle Affair. Contributions on joint professional military education explore defensive cognitive warfare, strategist development, and cyberspace collaboration for homeland defense. …

The Global Chessboard: Strategic Deterrence In A New Era Of Great Power Competition, The 66th Annual Academy Assembly

Space and Defense

The 66th annual Academy Assembly brought together twenty-seven student delegates from civilian institutions and sister military service academies to discuss urgent issues in national affairs. This national student congress was held during March 3-5, 2026 and produced the following committee reports.