This monograph analyzes a Heavy Brigade Combat Team’s (HBCT) preparedness to counter a hybrid threat. The analysis consists initially of developing broad understanding of hybrid warfare/ threat by reviewing numerous proposed definitions. With a general understanding of hybrid warfare/ threat determined, subsequent analysis identified six tenets of hybrid threat from the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) approved definition. The author’s initial hypothesis is that an HBCT is prepared to confront a ...Read more >

Operations in Afghanistan frequently require United States ground forces to engage and destroy the enemy at ranges beyond 300 meters. While the infantryman is ideally suited for combat in Afghanistan, his current weapons, doctrine, and marksmanship training do not provide a precise, lethal fire capability to 500 meters and are therefore inappropriate. Comments from returning soldiers reveal that about fifty percent of engagements occur past 300 meters. Current equipment, training, and doctrine ...Read more >

Years of U.S. Army involvement in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have underscored the complexity of contemporary operating environments. This complexity within the current operating environment requires U.S. Army leaders not to make simple decisions but complex decisions. Therefore, success on the modem battlefield requires U.S. Army leaders to understand complexity. Current U.S. Army training doctrine does not have a prescribed method for training its leaders in complexity or complex ...Read more >

When the Anny transfonned to a brigade centric force, ground forces gained the tactical capabilities and flexibility promised. What the Anny lost was the role and purpose of the division. Administrative, training, and expeditionary task executed by divisions throughout history identified shortcomings in divisional structure and encouraged change. Divisional structures flexible enough to synchronize subordinate elements and maximize adaptive behavior will be required in the era of persistent ...Read more >

As with a local insurgency, the Global War on Terror requires the US and her allies to win the support ofneutral, wavering and hostile audiences in addition to defeating an enemy. At the tactical and operational levels of war, those audiences comprise the populations among which the US Anny and its enemies operate. The populations face competing demands for support both from US and from its enemies. In what is sometimes referred to as a war of ideas, populations caught between opposing ...Read more >

The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of how modern terrorist groups manage to survive in the face of aggressive counterterrorist operations by security forces. Al Qa’ida survives to this day, despite the destruction of their Afghanistan sanctuary, the loss of countless key personnel, and continuous pressure by the United States and their allies. Why has al Qa’ida survived? Since much of the literature on terrorism focuses on how to eliminate them, this research paper focuses on ...Read more >

This monograph reminds us that logistics is both an art and a science. Focusing on a case study of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) operations in Afghanistan during 2006 and 2007, it shows the need for including art into the preparation of the logistician for future operational challenges. The argument is organized in five sections. Section one examines logistics theory and looks at why there is a perception that logistics is only a science. Section two discusses how logistics theory is used in ...Read more >

Military theorists such as David Alberts contend that information technologies will allow for wider and more rapid sharing of information. In order to take advantage of the emerging possibilities presented by information technologies the theorists recommend changes to the structure of information age military organizations and changes to the methods for command and control of military forces. Some of their ideas have implications for the traditional function of command. This monograph asks how ...Read more >

The United States sits at an interesting decision point in its history- What is the future of United States cyberspace efforts? How will the government be organized to manage the risks and vulnerabilities created by the interdependencies of integrating nearly everything with the cyberspace domain? How will the government take advantage of the potential benefits associated with integrating into the cyberspace domain? The Obama administration’s 60-day review of the state of US cyberspace policy ...Read more >

On September 11, 2001 a relatively obscure Islamic organization, executed an attack against the United States with catastrophic effects. Most of the United States, as well as the world, could not fathom how a single organization could conceive, coordinate and execute such a devastating attack against the world’s last remaining superpower. This paper argues that the attacks by Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda were the result or reflect a failure to follow the National Security Strategies developed ...Read more >

The growth of the internet has been the biggest social and technological change of my lifetime. It is a massive force for good in the world in the way it drives growth, reduces barriers to trade, and allows people across the world to communicate and co-operate. As we saw this spring in the Arab world, it can help give the unheard a voice and hold governments to account. It will have a huge role to play in supporting sustainable development in poorer countries. At the same time our increasing ...Read more >

Since the events of September 11, 2001 the United States military counternetwork operations, theory, and doctrine have failed to account for the form, function, and logic of clandestine cellular networks used by both interstate insurgencies, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as by global insurgencies, like al Qaeda and its associated movements. The failure to understand the form, function, and logic of clandestine cellular networks has led to the incorrect application of ...Read more >

To what extent do the Chinese cyber-warriors--within the People?s Liberation Army along with both state and non-state sponsored hackers/crackers--represent a viable threat to both the security and prosperity of our nation as a whole? In the past several years the Chinese have developed a myriad of both lethal and non-lethal cyber-weapons with the intention of denying or degrading an adversary?s ability to use space-based intercommunication network platforms. The PRC and PLA have demonstrated a ...Read more >

The information sphere is an integral part of the current environment. The center of gravity (CoG) theory currently is matched for conventional, linear, industrial age warfare in the physical domain. The CoG concept is thus not suited to work in the fast changing information environment and needs revision. Nevertheless, the GoG concept is deeply ingrained in United States military doctrine. The CoG concept can be refined to be useful in operational design, by information theory and strategic ...Read more >

The Army Leader Development Strategy (ALDS) builds on our Army’s experiences since the end of the Cold War including the past eight years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and on our assessment that the future operational environment will be even more uncertain, complex, and competitive as hybrid threats challenge us across the full spectrum of operations. Our enemies regular and irregular will be well armed, well trained, well equipped, and often ideologically inspired. We must overmatch their ...Read more >