Category: Expert Analysis

The 2011 revolution in Libya, a revolution that was part of what is now known as the Arab Spring, succeeded in putting an end to the 42-year rule of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and brought about the election of a transitional council. The fall of Gaddafi did not, unfortunately, bring an end to Libya’s suffering. The General […]

H. John Poole defines “distributive operations” as small units (roughly squad-sized) working alone. While he primarily writes about the application of “distributive operations” to counterinsurgency, the use of many small, autonomous units scattered across the battlespace has come to the forefront of ISIS’ tactics in Al Anbar province. ISIS’ commander in Al Anbar is believed […]

Since the very beginning of the war against international terrorist elements in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, a confluence of Haqqani Network, Al Qaeda, localized insurgency elements, and Afghan Taliban have carefully cultivated a hub of operations and a substantial haven in southeastern Afghanistan. As many know of Afghanistan’s recent history, the domination of the […]

Since they first caught the attention of the world in late 2013, ISIS (or ISIL) seems to have taken over as the ones to hate in the world of terrorist organizations. Not to say that the others are not out there, but a combination of media attention and ruthless tactics have helped thrust ISIS into […]

Nuclear power facilities are designed to withstand any number of “incidents,” to include natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Defense is arrayed in-depth, in layers.

Blue Forces (BLUFOR) pushed off the FOB late in the afternoon, just as the sun started to make its descent towards the horizon. White Cell “higher command” had issued yet another FRAGO to the patrol before stepping off their LD. Halfway through the week-long field exercise, the strains of the prior days began to make […]

According to recent reporting from IHS Janes and the Long War Journal, images released via Twitter by the Islamic State show a militant firing the advanced FN-6 MANPADS (man-portable air defense system) at an Iraqi helicopter conducting operations in the vicinity of the embattled Baiji Refinery in early October. The refinery, one of Iraq’s largest and […]

People are always asking, “What do I need to do to become a Navy SEAL?” Or they say, “Those Rangers are all psychos and mindless killing machines; that’s not for me.” Or, perhaps someone thinks they have what it takes, physically, to be a Special Forces soldier, but they don’t know if they have the […]

There has been a trend in recent years that seems to the author to be metastasizing, one in which people view current threats, particularly the asymmetric ones, in a binary, black-and-white sort of way. Either a threat is an existential one, that is going to leave the U.S. in complete wreckage, or it is nothing. Examples […]

Earlier this year, the U.S. Air Force began to finalize its plans to retire its premiere close air support (CAS) aircraft, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II. According to their master plan, all of the Warthogs in the USAF inventory will be mothballed in the Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Center by 2019.  The retirement is driven […]

Conflicts in high profile geopolitical hot spots such as Gaza, Hong Kong, and Eastern Ukraine have continued to dominate media headlines and cable television news cycles. As such, many other burgeoning insurrections have begun to languish far below the public’s radar. Separatist movements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia of Georgia, Catalan of Spain, and Scotland of […]

It seems like every year or two, there is a storm of rumors about upheaval in or related to North Korea. Most of them are along the same lines; utter collapse of the only visibly Stalinist regime in the world (visibly—most similar states in other parts of the world don’t get the attention that the […]