Defense and Security Studies Commons^™

Getting The Best Out Of Joint Warfighter Development, Charles Davis, Jeffrey Turner, Mary Bell

Joint Force Quarterly

The article explores whether the Department of Defense (DoD) is producing optimal joint warfighters for U.S. military operations. Joint warfighting, crucial for conducting effective joint operations, requires leaders with a joint mindset. The development of skilled joint warfighters hinges on three key elements: balanced Service representation, experienced faculty, and a rigorous curriculum. The Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS) at the National Defense University exemplifies this integration, emphasizing proportional Service representation, faculty with extensive joint experience, and practical exercises to foster collaboration and interdependence. The article stresses the increasing need for joint warfighters capable of planning and executing complex, multidomain operations.

Taking Cues From Complexity: How Complex Adaptive Systems Prepare For All-Domain Operations, Benjamin Selzer

Joint Force Quarterly

How can a complex adaptive systems (CAS) model guide a Service when facing future challenges at the individual and Service/institutional levels? This article provides recommendations on how to address these challenges taken from the study of CAS. These studies can inform efforts to develop doctrine, education, training, planning, and eventual implementation of joint all-domain operations (JADO) doctrine.

Book Review: Age Of Danger: Keeping America Safe In An Era Of New Superpowers, New Weapons, And New Threats, John A. Nagl

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Authors: Andrew Hoehn and Thom Shanker

Reviewed by Dr. John A. Nagl, professor of warfighting studies, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations, US Army War College

Dr. John A. Nagl overviews Andrew Hoehn and Thom Shanker’s contributions with their recent book, Age of Danger, which is “well worth readers’ attention.” Nagl describes Hoehn and Shanker’s emphasis on the importance and relationship between the US intelligence community and the US Department of Defense. His review also focuses on the US relationship with China and Russia, the latter of which is featured as “[t]he acute threat” in what Nagl calls …

Book Review: The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare On How Leaders Rise, Rule, And Fall, Zachary Griffiths

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Eliot A. Cohen

Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Griffiths, special assistant, Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army

Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Griffiths provides an insightful review of Professor Eliot A. Cohen’s book on leadership lessons through the lens of William Shakespeare’s work, a method that “helps readers see common challenges in new ways.” Griffiths describes Cohen’s structural approach to the book—a blend of modern examples with Shakespearean counterparts—and writes that The Hollow Crown’s “effective structure allows chapters to stand on their own while remaining part of a cohesive whole.” Griffiths also notes that “[a] deep appreciation …

Book Review: Cold Rivals: The New Era Of Us-China Strategic Competition, Jeffrey Reeves

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Editor: Evan S. Medeiros

Reviewed by Dr. Jeffrey Reeves, associate professor, Naval War College, Naval Postgraduate School

Naval War College associate professor Dr. Jeffrey Reeves provides a thoughtful critique of this anthology on relations between the United States and China. After a brief note on US-Chinese relations during the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations, Reeves offers suggestions for further reading and implies that the book, while providing a “historical account of US-China relations and [chronicling] its evolution,” is not unique in its contributions compared to similar literature, though he does praise two chapters on economics and technology that “stand out.”

Book Review: The Decline And Fall Of Republican Afghanistan, Whitney Grespin

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Authors: Ahmad Shuja Jamal and William Maley

Reviewed by Dr. Whitney Grespin, visiting research fellow, King's College London, UK Defence Academy; non-resident fellow, Joint Special Operations University; and Africa Regional Program Lead, DSCA/DSCU Institute for Security Governance

Foreign-policy expert Dr. Whitney Grespin reviews a “deservedly cutting reflection on mistakes made and lessons not learned during the Afghanistan War.” She notes the book’s “valuable perspective,” as one of the authors was in Kabul when it fell. Distilling the book’s contents into a detailed, useful overview, Grespin provides a helpful roadmap for readers interested in these topics and concludes the book is …

Executive Summary, William T. Eliason

Joint Force Quarterly

JFQ is certainly the Chairman’s journal, but it exists solely to give voice to you and your ideas on the joint force, jointness in general, and how best to fight and win our Nation’s wars and secure the peace. For over 30 years, the best and brightest among us have sustained the dialogue within these pages, whether physical or virtual. Help us continue this great tradition by sending us your articles and adding to the growing body of knowledge that is Joint Force Quarterly.

Coping With The Complexity Of The Changing Character Of War: Toward A New Paradigm Of Adaptive Peace, Cedric De Coning

New England Journal of Public Policy

The world has entered a period of heightened geopolitical instability that is compounded by climate change and the emergence of new technologies. The number of conflicts and related deaths are increasing. Dramatic failures in Afghanistan and elsewhere show that the mainstream approach to peace and conflict is no longer effective. The aim of this article is to contribute to re-thinking peace and security in two ways. First, by explaining why trying to influence complex social change process with a determined-design approach is self-defeating. Second, by introducing adaptive peace theory as a normative and functional approach to ending violent conflicts and …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

This issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy, with Lord John Alderdice as the guest editor, examines how, with the advent of sophisticated technologies and AI, the conduct of wars and peacemaking in the opening decades of the twenty-first century has changed, with implications for the future of both and society at large.

Muscat, Madrid, Ulster, And The Holy Land: The Medrc Model Of Environmental Peacebuilding In A Revived Middle East Peace Process, Ciarán Ó. Cuinn

New England Journal of Public Policy

Mandated to assist the Middle East peace process through environmental diplomacy, MEDRC, the last surviving institution of that process, has survived through an institutional and operational approach to conflict resolution separate from the rest of the process. Understanding its transferable approach is important in fields of environmental diplomacy and conflict resolution not only in the context of combating transboundary climate and environmental threats but of using these threats as entry points into a peace process. As the international community grapples with the need for a credible solution to the intractable conflict in Israel and Palestine, the MEDRC approach has implications …

Understanding The Indirect Strategy Moment In Global Affairs, Kumar Ramakrishna

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article argues that policymakers need to better grasp what can best be understood as the “indirect strategy moment” in global affairs. It explains what is meant by indirect strategy in the classical strategic thought, before analyzing how indirect strategy has already been applied in the post-Cold War era. The article will then illustrate how indirect strategy is being applied in the cyber, social media, and telecommunications domains, before arguing that adopting “indirect strategy lenses” appears to be rather important in order to better frame current and ongoing geostrategic developments across a range of issues and domains. A recurring theme …

Vladimir Putin’S Leadership Traits Over 11 Years: A Longitudinal Study Of Putin’S Third Term In Office Using Leadership Trait Analysis, Payton J. Casteel

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

While an abundance of literature has studied the actions and behaviors of Vladimir Putin, the most extensive area involves leadership analysis (Semenova and Winter 2020). Various methods within political psychology have used analyses to study Putin throughout his time in office. However, no published research has studied Putin using leadership trait analysis, nor have any published works studied his changes in leadership leading up to the invasion of Ukraine. Using a mixed methods longitudinal study design on Vladimir Putin from 2012 to 2023, five periods in his third term were identified, with speeches taken and coded using the seven LTA …

The Importance Of Sunni-Iraqi Support In The Rise And Fall Of Isis In Iraq, Deja Meekins

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

ISIS, a Salafi-jihadist terrorist organization stationed in the Middle East, has had its fair share of "successes" and "failures," both of which have been present in Iraq. Toward the beginning of the development of ISIS, it garnered a very powerful supporter base in Iraq. However, that has changed since then; ISIS currently, in 2024, no longer has the support of the vast majority of the Iraqi people. What is the reason for this? This research paper will seek to analyze and answer two major questions: what role does the Iraqi Sunni population play in ISIS’s trajectory of successes and failures …

Women Police Chiefs: A Self-Perception Of Women Officers In Law Enforcement, Tianshi Hao, Jesse Llamas, Kayleigh Axtell, Anshu Lal, Michael Llamas, Mira Fadel, Amor Roma

Education Division Scholarship

A large body of literature substantiates women’s difficulties integrating into all levels of law enforcement. To understand the experiences of women police officers in the force, and to understand how law enforcement leaders view the role of women in leadership positions, this study focused on the perception of six women police officers–specifically, women police chiefs towards women who already assumed leadership positions, overcame challenges entering law enforcement and advancing into leadership positions, and collected their input on organizational decisions, policy, and recruitment of women officers. This study employs a qualitative phenomenological methodology and interviews six women police chiefs in depth. …

The Ambivalence Of The United States In Returning The Houthis As Global Terrorists, Ahmad Bahrul Anshori, Basyir Arif

Journal of Terrorism Studies

The re-designation of the Houthi militant group as a terrorist organisation by the United States (US) could reignite conflict tensions in the Middle East region. This US decision shows the inconsistency of Joe Biden's administration, which had revoked the Houthis' terrorist status at the beginning of his administration. This research aims to analyse the motives for the US decision to re-designate the Houthis as a terrorist group. The method used in this research is an exploratory descriptive qualitative method using data collection techniques, namely observation and literature study. The results of this study conclude that the US's changing attitude towards …

Implication Of Artificial Intelligence On National Security For The Nigeria Security Agencies, Musa Zakari

Journal of Terrorism Studies

The study examines the implications of AI for national security in Nigeria in the field of military logistics for Nigerian security agencies. A documentary research design was utilized for the study. Document analysis of existing policies, reports, and case studies related to AI and national security in Nigeria was utilized. The study revealed that artificial intelligence (AI) has significant prospects for national security for Nigeria's security agencies. It was revealed that AI-powered technologies enable advanced surveillance capabilities, such as facial recognition and video analytics, which aid in identifying potential threats and monitoring security situations more effectively. The Air Force uses …

Propelling Separatism Into Transnational Spaces: A Critical Analysis On The Pro-Ltte Tamil Diaspora In Canada, D.G.Niruka Sanjeewani

Journal of Terrorism Studies

Despite being less discussed, the transnational spaces of diaspora communities are often used by terror groups to achieve their ideological and political targets. Their projection of separatist claims in association with terrorist groups threatens not only the territorial control of the home state but also the security and immigration policies of the host state. Linked to these scopes, pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) diaspora in Canada serving as a case study in this paper to illustrate the dissemination of its separatist ideologies. In addition, this paper also analyses the current rhetoric of the Tamil diaspora for ‘federalism’ that has …

Strategic Pathways To Minimal Deterrence And Counter-Terrorism: Enhancing Brunei’S Defense Capabilities, Brice Tseen Fu Lee, Filip Komšić, Juan Pablo Sims

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This paper explores the strategic enhancement of Brunei’s military capabilities under the guidelines of the Brunei Defense White Paper 2021, focusing on establishing a robust minimal level deterrence. It emphasizes transitioning from conventional defense paradigms to an integrated, technologically advanced military structure tailored to contemporary and future security challenges. The significance of minimal level deterrence is analyzed, illustrating how a proportionate and efficient military force not only deters potential aggressors but also supports counter-terrorism efforts. This approach underscores the dual benefits of ensuring national security while facilitating economic stability and growth, allowing Brunei to allocate resources more effectively between defense …

Eritrean Element: An Overview Of The Relationship Between Eritrea And Ltte During The Sri Lankan Civil War, Punsara Amarasinghe

Journal of Terrorism Studies

The timely imperative of identifying these links is rooted in understanding how external factors assisted one of the most advanced terrorist organizations in the world to accomplish its task. Furthermore, this paper discusses two path dimensions of LTTE-Eritrean relations by examining arm trade and logistics support given by Asmara to LTTE. Furthermore, this paper discusses two path dimensions of LTTE-Eritrean relations by examining arm trade and logistics support given by Asmara to LTTE. The emerging results from this paper prove the Bush administration's hypothesis of describing Eretria as a state sponsor of terrorism along with North Korea.

Historicising Domestic Terrorism And Boko Haram Insurgency In The North East, Nigeria: Issues And Trends, Adesola Sa Adesote, Adekunle Sunday Akande, John Ojo Abimbola

Journal of Terrorism Studies

Since the return to civil rule in 1999, Nigeria has been battling with series of violent agitations from various geo-political zones in the country. These violent agitations which have taken terror dimensions have contributed to national security threat. Terrorists’ attacks have resulted in the killings of hundreds of people and wanton destruction of property that worth billions of naira through bombings. The major thrust of this paper is to investigate the challenge of domestic terrorism with major emphasis on the activities of the dreaded militant Islamic sect, popularly known as Boko Haram since 2009. The paper argues that most of …