The U.S.-led strategy to defeat the Islamic State has been criticized for a lack of clarity, overemphasis on tactical objectives, and insufficient attention to the underlying causes of the greater civil conflict across both Iraq and Syria. This report assesses the current strategy and presents three options, derived from subject-matter-expert input. It recommends a new strategy to address root causes.
This report explores the relationship between armies and nation-building and argues that U.S.-sponsored Security Force Assistance (SFA) could become more effective by focusing less on force structure, military capabilities, and readiness, and focusing more on ideology and the extent to which a client army complements a host nation's larger nation-building project.
This report describes how the Israel Defense Force evolved to meet an adaptive and determined hybrid adversary during its wars in Gaza. It then draws a series of lessons from the Israeli experience for the U.S. Army and the joint force: from the importance of armored vehicles and active protection systems to the limitations of airpower in urban terrain and of conventional militaries to deter nonstate actors.
This report presents findings from an examination of six historical case studies — in Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uganda, and Yemen — in which the mission of special operations forces in each of the six countries transitioned over time to include some level of inclusion in the U.S. embassy's Security Cooperation Office, with a focus on what lessons these experiences offer for the transition of SOF in Afghanistan.
Testimony presented before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade and Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats on November 7, 2017.
This paper offers recommendations for U.S. policy for a postconflict transition in Syria that prevents state collapse and reduces the potential for the recurrence of war and the reemergence of terrorist groups. These objectives are best achieved by working with Russia and through the United Nations Security Council, especially in the absence of a regional consensus to end the war, and by avoiding any postconflict plans for the division of Syria.
This issue highlights recent RAND research on suicide prevention; on the scope of the humanitarian and security crisis in the Mediterranean region; and on what RAND is doing to improve the security and well-being of people throughout the Middle East.
Testimony presented before the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate on November 30, 2017.
This publication is part of a series of four RAND Perspectives (PE) each focusing on different challenges in the Mediterranean region. The focus of this PE is on regional foreign policy dynamics and their implications for stability and security
Provides a historical analysis of the ways in which militaries have deployed light and mechanized infantry with armored forces during close urban combat in order to to identify the advantages and costs of this warfighting approach and inform how the Army might confront foes in complex, urban environments in the future.
