An important debate (though not necessarily a new one) has been brought to the forefront by two recent articles. In the first, Maj. John Spencer and Dr. Lionel Beehner argue that declining physical fitness in our nation is adversely—and dangerously—affecting our military readiness, and in turn, our national security. This…
http://www.lzxray.com/sites/default/files/AfterActionReport.pdf https://youtu.be/wYK4jrhepdU https://youtu.be/AQVte-dL86Y “Mansions of the Lord” is a hymn written by Randall Wallace and set to the music of Nick Glennie-Smith. “Mansions” was originally written for the 2002 film We Were Soldiers, and was performed by the United States Military Academy Glee Club and the Metro Voices: To…
Editor’s note: This two-part story by Richard Russo from February 8, 2017 is based on the work of the 2014 cohort of fellows of the chief of staff of the Army’s Strategic Studies Group, which examined future operation environments, particularly large urban areas—megacities. The story is entirely fictional, and does…
http://mwi.usma.edu/russian-ukrainian-war-understanding-dust-clouds-battlefield/ Amos C. Fox | January 17, 2017 | Commentary & Analysis “Russian aggression in Ukraine has been interpreted as the harbinger of a new era of warfare, one in which cyber threats, hybrid tactics, and gray-zone operations are ascendant. But there are lessons to be learned in the conventional…
https://www.lawfareblog.com/terrorists-insurgents-something-else-clarifying-and-classifying-generational-challenge “Our hope is that our taxonomy of VNSAs (Violent Non State Actors) can help analysts and scholars to better conceptualize the range of VNSA types and the relationships among them. They are too often lumped together as “terrorist” groups, but as this spectrum makes clear, doing so oversimplifies the…
“With North Africa still stunned by the destabilizations of the Arab Spring, and conflicts in Mali and Libya continuing, there is no appetite in neighboring countries for a new outbreak of war over Western Sahara. Nevertheless, over the past year I have heard Algerian officials and both Western and African…
https://www.dni.gov/files/images/globalTrends/documents/GT-Full-Report.pdf Paradox of Progress “The achievements of the industrial and information ages are shaping a world to come that is both more dangerous and richer with opportunity than ever before. Whether promise or peril prevails will turn on the choices of humankind.” “Every four years since 1997, the National Intelligence…
The Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) at the University of Pennsylvania is accepting applications for the Center’s 2017 Summer Internship Program. CERL is a non-partisan interdisciplinary institute dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the rule of law in twenty-first century warfare and national security. The…
I https://www.us-cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/JAR_16-20296.pdf “Today, I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election. These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate…
