Tag: Iraq

The Abu Ghraib prison debacle, wherein the showcasing of prisoner abuse was strewn across the international media stage, stands out as a glaring missed opportunity for said U.S. military personnel to proactively gain intelligence and actionable information from prisoners… There are numerous online accounts and statements by U.S. military officials condemning the torture and murders that occurred at Abu Ghraib…

Featured article: When Diplomacy Fails: Consent, Risk and Modern Warfare by M. Shane Riza I sat on troop seats in the back of a KC-135 Stratotanker crossing the Atlantic the week before Christmas 1998. My feet were experiencing negative temperatures, while my head felt like it was in the tropics. Such is the environmental control […]

Featured article: An Institutional Analysis of the Commander’s Emergency Response Program by Timothy D. Gatlin The U.S. military has been engaged in protracted warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than a decade, and every aspect of the nation’s strategy, doctrine, and tactical operations is the topic of intense debate among academics, the general public, […]

An interagency review of U.S. government stabilization efforts is expected as early as this month. The Stabilization Assistance Review (SAR) examines how the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and Department of Defense (DoD) coordinate their diplomacy, aid, and military operations, primarily in Syria and Iraq. A State Department official spoke of the […]

Featured article: The Impact of Worldviews on Training and Education in Iraq and Afghanistan by Ted A. Thomas and Seth George As a civil engineer working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1986, I was assigned as the project engineer for building an F-16 airbase in Beni Suef, Egypt. The airbase was in the final […]

Earlier this month, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the Honorable Christine E. Wormuth spoke at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) on the need for whole-of-government collaboration to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In her remarks, Wormuth stressed that combating ISIL is not strictly a military issue. Instead, […]

In the past two month, the U.S. Agency for International Development has released a series of fact sheets outlining their role in the U.S. response to continuing conflict and hardship in Iraq…

On August 13, panelists from various agencies and organizations met at the Stimson Center to discuss possible reform for future post-conflict situations. Among the topics discussed were ways to improve transitional and reconstruction efforts in post-conflict countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Mali…

The Center for Strategic & International Studies has released a study analyzing the causes of instability in the Middle East and North Africa. The study examined the causes of terrorism, insurgency, and other forms of violence, and calls for fully integrated interagency efforts to address the violence…