Category: Expert Analysis

Two cadets, among 1,000 seniors isolated at the Air Force Academy, committed suicide within days from each other amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This has rattled the service from the senior leadership to its trainees. Unlike other branches, the Air Force has kept cadets on campus. The cadets have been socially distancing in single rooms, away […]

Lebanon isn’t in the news much these days but has the potential to blow up into a major conflict.  The country is facing a couple of big problems right now Firstly, Lebanon is going through one of the deepest economic crises in the world today — a crisis that puts it in the precipice of […]

It was reported early this week that government efforts to track and monitor the coronavirus are stoking fears of global surveillance, at a time when the pandemic is in full gear and public health systems struggle to provide quality care to the increasing numbers of patients or suspected cases. Surveillance? Now? In an effort to […]

Many Americans feared that when WWII came to a close the U.S. economy would slide back into the rut of the Great Depression. However, everyone’s fears were met with just the opposite outcome. American consumers were in a frenzy buying new homes and automobiles, while the aviation and banking industries were booming. The GDP more […]

Editor’s note: This article was written by Frumentarius, a former Navy SEAL officer, CIA case officer, and currently a Lieutenant in a career fire department in the Midwest. It was originally published on Sandboxx.com. Make sure to follow them on Facebook. Whether you are a light infantry platoonhttps://www.sandboxx.us/blog/ leader in the U.S. Army, a senior enlisted […]

In part two, we discussed America’s entry in the “Great War” and the need for propaganda on both the enemy and domestic home front. The Great War was perhaps the first use of what we define as Psychological Operations in a modern sense. But with the Armistice taking effect on November 11, 1918, both the […]

In part one, we reviewed the basic definition of Psychological Operations and its relations to standard propaganda. Psychological Operations is actually a relatively modern concept but had roots long before the advent of the 20th century. The United States government and military, with a few exceptions, did not effectively utilize propaganda or public relations during […]

Psychological Operations. These two words have become so controversial that the U.S. Army in 2010 nonchalantly changed the term to the rather bland and bureaucratic “Military Information Support Operations (MISO).”   Rosa Brooks, Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Rule of Law and International Humanitarian Policy explained: […]

As the Coronavirus takes grip of the world and panic surges across communities, the actual facts of the situation are often being ignored and not taken into consideration. First and foremost, just to put things in perspective, in Spring 2009, the U.S. was faced with the Influenza A/H1N1 virus, better known as the Swine Flu. […]

My personal experiences from Afghanistan have taught me that the Afghanis are resilient people, capable of overcoming natural disasters, political turmoil, and complex insurgencies. Afghanistan’s economic development has been stifled considerably by war and poverty; climate change will only add another hindrance to the list. However, there is a deep desire amongst the Afghan population […]

Ever since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies have been battering al-Qaeda terrorists wherever they have found them. Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, everywhere. What used to be safe havens have now become graveyards. But other bastions have emerged in the meanwhile.  Somalia and Yemen are two of them. Al-Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate was bolstered […]

The task of the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course is identifying the candidates who are suitable for Special Forces training. And two of the primary functions of Special Forces are UW (Unconventional Warfare) and FID (Foreign Internal Defense). It is important that the schools don’t lose sight of that fact as SOF (Special Operations […]