Military Review

Fighting Identity: Why We Are Losing Our Wars

Specifically, these eras track the morphing identity of the Greco-Roman world and the late-medieval transformation of the Mediterranean world (the emergence of the Ottomans as successors to both the Byzantine and Sunni Arab commonwealths). Consider what was happening: * International relationships were marked by migrations of peoples, economic big changes, and "outside" shocks like grand pandemics and abrupt climate change. * Societies were shaken by new ideas and new movements, leading to n...

The 'Armed Reconciler': The Military Role in the Amnesty, Reconciliation, and Reintegration Process

Generally centering on the UN and other international organizations as the prime movers in national reconciliation, the literature tends to view amnesty in an instrumental light, as one step necessary to start a societal healing process.3 As defined in the Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military, amnesty is "an official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offenses." Amnesty must be applied to and accepted by all parties to the conflict. * In the reconciliation pro...

The Law of Occupation and Post-Armed-Conflict Governance: Considerations for Future Conflicts

Judge advocates provide commanders and their staffs legal advice on the application of occupation law in specific instances in military operations. This article provides an overview of some fundamental principles of occupation law to help commanders and their staffs appreciate, understand, and better prepare for future operations. It is not intended, in any way, to be a substitute for the legal advice provided by their servicing judge advocates. The statements, opinions, and views expressed h...

The Preemption of Nuclear Weapons

A missile launched by either the Soviet Union or the United States might not reach its target for 18 to 30 minutes-enough time to begin a nuclear counterattack.2 In assessing the legality of nuclear weapons use, the UN's International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion in 1996 indicating that a nation might be justified in using nuclear weapons in order to save itself.3 The court's decision seemed to ratify the Cold War doctrine of mutually assured destruction. It could increase its...

Armed Humanitarian Intervention and International Law: A Primer for Military Professionals

Just-war theorist Michael Walzer argues that armed humanitarian intervention is morally justified, perhaps even required, in response to massacre, rape, ethnic cleansing, state terrorism, [and] contemporary versions of bastard feudalism, complete with ruthless warlords and lawless bands of armed men.

The Chinese Military's Strategic Mind-Set

The Science of Military Strategy, a compilation of essays by academicians at the Chinese Academy of Military Science (AMS), examines Chinese military strategy from historical, cultural, and contemporary vantage points and captures the essence of Sun Tzu's and Mao's strategic thought.9 Peng Guangqian and Yao Youzhi, the book's editors, are major generals in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and are known for their thoughtful strategic analyses. The book's postscript notes that the project te...

China's Pragmatic Rise and U.S. Interests in East Asia

Past, Present, and Future, argue that China's current grand strategy is calculative and has three components-a nonideological approach necessary for continued economic growth, a deliberate restraint on the use of force, and an expanded involvement in regional and global multilateral forums.2 Chinese politics expert Avery Goldstein talks of a transitional strategy that puts a premium on sustaining a peaceful environment necessary for the growth that will enable it to rise to the position of a ...

Army Planning Doctrine: Identifying the Problem Is the Heart of the Problem

Staff Organization and Procedure, established problem solving as the bedrock of Army doctrine.1 In all subsequent versions of FM 101-5, its successor FM 5-0, Army Planning and Orders Production, and a wide range of other doctrine manuals, writers consistently framed professional competence in terms of solving problems. In order to fill the gap, Army doctrine and officer education should emphasize how to * Analyze the operational environment to grasp facts related to the variables of context,...

The Future of the Uniformed Army Scientist and Engineer Program

Assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Claude M. Bolton says, We must ensure that our warfighters have the capabilities they need to accomplish the nation's military demands in this new and emerging global environment...We must develop, acquire, and sustain key military capabilities that enable us to prevail over current challenges and to hedge against, dissuade, or prevail over future threats...The world situation demands an Army that is strategically resp...

The Strategic Plans and Policy Officer in the Modular Division

FA 59 officers provide specific expertise on the use of military forces and the combinations of national capabilities that can best achieve the commander's strategic end state.2 The FA 59 officer is educated to exploit interdisciplinary approaches in support of diagnosis, analysis, assessment, and execution, thereby facilitating the commander's ability to see and operate beyond traditional operational concepts in order to achieve desired strategic effects.3 This is perhaps an FA 59 officer's ...

Brigade Headquarters for National Guard Civil Support Teams: A Homeland Security Imperative

IN MAY 1998, after a series of presidential decision directives and congressional actions, President Bill Clinton announced the formation of 10 weapons of mass destruction-civil support teams (WMD-CST) within the National Guard.2 The original 10 teams were located 1 per Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) region to coordinate with federal agencies and synchronize training and operational responses to terrorist incidents region-wide. The JFHQ is not staffed or resourced to perform the ...

Is Iraq Another Vietnam?

In comparing the war in Iraq to the Vietnam War, Robert Brigham's Is Iraq Another Vietnam? concludes that three similarities overwhelm the differences between the two wars: the initial reasons for waging the wars have been discredited; stable societies had or have to be rebuilt out of chaos; and U.S. public support for the wars declined, thereby limiting future foreign policy options.

Building Moderate Muslim Networks

The book's authors provide an overview of the "war of ideas" going on in the Muslim world, criticize the shortsighted U.S. approach to this "war," and call for a clear long-term policy.

The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon-and to Restore It Sixty Years Later

Foremost among the builders was Brehon Burke Somervell, the engineer officer who rose from lieutenant colonel to lieutenant general in just two years because of his ability to organize huge construction projects as the U.S. Army mobilized for World War II. In the process, he concealed both the size and the actual cost of the structure because he believed-correctly-that the looming war would require a much larger headquarters than anyone before Pearl Harbor could have imagined.

Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965

Moyar presents a chronological narration of events, reinterprets each significant event from his revisionist viewpoint, and explains why the orthodox interpretation is wrong. [...] the true story of the early years of the Vietnam War is not that South Vietnam was winning, but that the northern insurgents avoided armed confrontation with the South Vietnamese Army until their insurgent proxies were better prepared to fight.

Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation During the Second World War

Italian Occupation During the Second World War, Davide Rodogno gives us an indepth analysis of Germany's junior partner, Italy, and its foreign policy goals and operations, particularly in the Balkans, during World War II.

Mr Letters

Given the technology being used by the forces expected to be encountered in today's combat, an argument can be made that the P-38 or the Mosquito would be a more effective aircraft (and certainly more cost effective with the P-38 coming in at approximately 1/750th the price of an F-22-quite frankly, I'd prefer having 750 aircraft available to provide "air support" to only one...) for "counter insurgency" warfare than any of the more modern (and certainly more "sexy") aircraft in service today...

Correction

Military Review unintentionally inserted factual error into Major John M. Hawkins's review of James H. Willbanks's The TET Offensive: A Concise History in its July-August edition.

Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy: United States Navy Awarded the Medal of Honor

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as the leader of a special reconnaissance element with naval special warfare task unit Afghanistan on 27 and 28 June 2005.

Book Reviews

Beating Goliath: Why Insurgencies Win

An assistant province advisor in the Vietnam War and a professor of strategy at the Air War College who has written extensively on current security issues, Record bases his theoretical analysis on the work of Andrew Mack, Ivan Arreguin-Toft, and Gil Merom, political scientists who believe that material strength is no guarantee of victory against opponents with superior will and strategy.

Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb

At times, however, Davis lapses into academic jargon: "The car bomb plus the cell phone plus the Internet together constitute a unique infrastructure for global networked terrorism that obviates any need for transnational command structure or vulnerable hierarchies of decision-making."

The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual

The University of Chicago edition has a rugged cover, rounded comers, and fits into Army Combat Uniform-cargo-trouser pockets; Sarah Sewall's introduction is worth the price of the book alone, and part of the book's profit goes to the Fisher House Foundation, which supports military families. FM 3-24 is a new field manual, not just a reissue of old concepts and platitudes.lt incorporates the efforts of some of the Army's leading theorists and practitioners of counterinsurgency, among them Li...

Russia's Islamic Threat

The net effect is that Putin is dismantling the "asymmetrical fiscal federalism" established by President Boris Yeltsin that made some concessions to state/regional sovereignty and reduced inter-ethnic competition for resources in potentially unstable regions.

1st Place

S.W.E.T. And Blood: Essential Services in the Battle Between Insurgents and Counterinsurgents

The Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War proved this convincingly.4 On the other hand, public scrutiny and Israeli adherence to the rule of (international) law ensure that Israel will not, for example, bomb Hezbollah aid convoys or reconstruction projects, services that could be broadly construed as threats to Israel's future security. ZJAIs A zakat-jihad activist insurgency (ZJAI) generates popular support by establishing an unarmed infrastructure that provides essential services like sewage ...

2st Place

Clarity and Culture in Stability Operations

Unfortunately, Thomas Barnett's theory that disconnectedness [from globalization] defines danger anticipates greater U.S. military involvement-and hence more stability operations-across the globe.4 Barnett claims that U.S. military intervention will be required in gap and seam states, since eliminating the threats originating from those regions is the surest way to ensure worldwide stability and security.5 The Report of the National Intelligence Council's 2020 Project depicts a world with an ...

2st Place

Becoming an Adaptive Leader

Even if they do not recognize his name, they probably remember a New York Times article about him, "The Fall of the Warrior King," which tells how Sassaman, a rising star in the Army officer corps, resigned after Soldiers under his command pushed two Iraqi civilians into the Tigris River for violating a local curfew.1 One of the Iraqi civilians survived; the other either drowned or escaped and went into hiding. While authors like Wong have highlighted the necessity for adaptive leadership in...

Feature Review

The Art of Counter-Revolutionary War

The author, Colonel Jack McCuen, retired in 1976 after a distinguished 28-year career that included service as commander of an armored cavalry squadron, director of the Internal Defense and Development course at both the Vietnamese National Defense College in Saigon and the U.S. Army War College, and chief of the Military Assistant Group-Indonesia. If one subscribes to an indirect, unorthodox approach to this long, irregular war, The Art of Counter-Revolutionary War offers several best pract...

Feature Review

No End in Sight

Ferguson depicts in detail how the American decisions to not declare martial law, to disband the Iraqi Army, and to prevent Ba'atii Party members from serving in a new government drove many thousands of Iraqis into the streets, then into mosques (the church being the only remaining functioning community institution), and then into various (and often competing) militias defined by religious sect, tribal affinity, or other local loyalty, thus severely inhibiting the prospects for Iraqi national...