Tag: Department of Defense (DoD)

Featured article: U.S. Special Operations Forces and the Interagency in Phase Zero by Kyle Johnston The events of September 11, 2001, redefined the American model of security—no longer was the threat of American military power enough to deter large-scale attacks on the homeland. In the year that followed that historic day, President George W. Bush laid […]

Featured article: Moral Courage and Intelligent Disobedience by Ted Thomas and Ira Chaleff The military needs men and women who have courage–the physical courage to go into battle, to overcome fear in the face of bodily injury or death, mental pain, and lifelong disabilities. Militaries run on physical courage. Without it, they run from a fight and […]

Featured article: Civil Affairs History and Doctrine: From Military Government to Interagency Partner by Thomas R. Geisinger The 2014 Army Operating Concept (AOC), “Win in a Complex World,” stresses the need for American military power to prevent conflict and shape future wars as much as win them.1 To do this, U.S. forces must take advantage […]

On March 23, senior defense officials spoke before the House Committee on Armed Services on the subject of traditional weapons of mass destruction and the use of new synthetic biological tools. Dr. Arthur T. Hopkins, acting assistant secretary for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, testified on the Department of Defense’s (DoD) expanding responsibilities in countering […]

Featured article: The Tumultuous Recent History of U.S. Stabilization and Reconstruction Efforts: The Way Ahead? by David A. Anderson The U.S. has been directly involved in some level of foreign stabilization and reconstruction effort since the end of World War II (WWII): from the occupation and reconstruction of post-WWII Japan/Germany, the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan), […]

In a recent Homeland Security Today article, a former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official stated that DHS is in need of reauthorizing legislation that will reaffirm and update the department’s organizations and functions. Daniel M. Gerstein, who was the undersecretary (acting) and deputy undersecretary in DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate from 2011 to 2014, also said that […]

Yesterday, Mr. Gustav A. Otto presented on the subject of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at the latest InterAgency Brown-Bag Lecture. The DIA is one of our nation’s least understood intelligence organizations, and is the premier all-source military intelligence organization, providing authoritative assessments of foreign military intentions and capabilities. Otto, who is the Defense Intelligence Chair and DIA Representative […]

Featured article: Outsider: The Army Interagency Experience at the Department of Commerce by Samuel T. Fuller A U.S. Army strategist’s core competency is the ability to take an executive-level concept and turn it into an order. This order will move or manage personnel, equipment, and effects between military formations in line with the commander’s intent. The […]

Featured article: The Use of Special Operations in Conflict Resolution: Assessing the Value of Peace Warriors by Spencer B. Meredith, III Special Operations Forces (SOF) can serve as conflict resolution experts in places civilian peace practitioners cannot go. While to some this may seem like a controversial claim given the potential recourse to violence as SOF engage in […]

Featured article: Five Lessons for Strengthening Interagency Relationships by Thomas M. Kreutzer Most Americans know Okinawa only through the lens of history. Students of modern geopolitics, however, understand that in addition to being a tropical paradise the island plays host to members of the American military who honor the nation’s treaty obligations to Japan, while helping to […]