Russia's Soft Strategy to Hostile Measures in Europe
They've been called political warfare, measures short of war, gray zone warfare, and a host of other terms. Russia has used a wide range of hostile measures to expand its influence and undermine governments across the European continent. These tactics should be appreciated for what they are: part of a larger, coherent Russian effort, but ultimately not an insurmountable one.
Feb 26, 2019 War on the Rocks
What Border Walls Can and Cannot Accomplish
States have been building walls since ancient times. Some were arguably quite successful, others less so. At the core of prudent policy lies a basic question: What can walls realistically accomplish?
Jan 8, 2019 Fox News Channel
The More Things Change: Explaining Continuity in Defense Strategy
United States presidential administrations from Clinton to Trump have championed different approaches to military and defense policy. The verbiage of the National Defense Strategy, however, remains relatively the same and the numbers reflect more incremental rather than monumental shifts.
Apr 25, 2018 War on the Rocks
Political Warfare Is Back with a Vengeance
The United States' principal adversaries are fighting and gaining ground by employing a host of tactics short of all-out war. This form of warfare, once called political warfare, is back with a vengeance, empowered by new tools and techniques.
Apr 13, 2018 The National Interest
Minding the Gap: The Military, Politics, and American Democracy
The gap between Americans' confidence in the military versus its civilian counterparts has widened over the last several decades. This has led former military officers to play an increasingly prominent role in politics and changed the civil-military balance in potentially unhealthy ways.
Dec 18, 2017 Lawfare
Five Lessons from Israel's Wars in Gaza
After a decade of operating against Hamas in Gaza, the Israel Defense Force has learned many lessons about urban warfare against hybrid adversaries. The last confrontation teaches five basic lessons that apply well beyond Gaza.
Aug 3, 2017 War on the Rocks
Why Strategies Disappoint — and How to Fix Them
Strategies fail because leaders are unwilling to make difficult decisions at the risk of being wrong. Can the new U.S. administration succeed in fixing the strategy process?
Mar 20, 2017 Lawfare
Five Simple Strategy Lessons for a New Secretary of Defense
Secretary of Defense James Mattis will need to lay the intellectual groundwork to fulfill President Trump's promise of “a great rebuilding” of the United States military. History suggests that how the strategies are developed may be as important to their success as what they say.
Mar 2, 2017 RealClearDefense
Understanding the U.S. Military's Morale 'Crisis'
The military's discontent may stem from dissonance between the commitment to, and pride in, the mission in Iraq and Afghanistan and the knowledge that these sacrifices have not yielded the desired results. Those wars arguably have prompted a crisis of confidence within the military itself.
Jun 29, 2015 Lawfare
The Foreign Policy Essay: Hearts, Minds, & ISIL
Defeating ISIL will not come from winning hearts and minds and soft power, nor will it come from a handful of precision airstrikes. It will require hard, bloody ground combat. The United States may not want to admit this, but it is the grim truth nonetheless.
Oct 13, 2014 Lawfare
The Grim Lessons of 'Protective Edge'
For all the attempts to find technological quick fixes or enforce a permanent settlement, Operation Protective Edge has highlighted that a war of attrition, known as a 'long war,' remains the only viable strategy in the current environment.
Sep 3, 2014 The American Interest
