Decisive Point Podcast

The novel coronavirus is only the latest in a series of global crises with implications for the regional order in the Middle East. These changes and the diverging interests of actors in the region have implications for US strategy and provide an opportunity to rethink key US relationships there. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss4/10Keywords: pandemic, Middle East, novel coronavirus, Covid-19, US strategy

The stability achieved by the US military in the European Theater of Operations after D-Day was the direct result of good military governance concurrently deployed with combat operations. The role of civil affairs in securing this stability has been under-emphasized in analyses of these operations. But an examination of the historical record of these events reveals the necessity of a skilled, effective civil-military effort through civil affairs/military government detachments, civil affairs specialty pools, and G-5 staff sections. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss4/6/Keywords: civil affairs, World War II, D-Day, European Theater of Operations

US military Joint and Army civil affairs doctrine have failed to consider the operational relevance of gender, posing a risk to mission accomplishment and force protection. A comparison of NATO and Australian Defence Force doctrine reveals gender considerations have been included in Allied doctrine in recent years. US land-force operational planning can provide an example of how a focus on civil affairs doctrine could jump-start the process to address the larger doctrinal gender deficit quickly and effectively.Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss4/4/Keywords: NATO, gender, sex, Australian Defence Force, civil affairs doctrine, US military Joint and Army

Statistics behind reported suicide rates in the military are often insufficiently analyzed and portray a distorted picture of reality. Several models for identifying individuals at risk for suicide have been proposed but few show adequate predictive power to be actionable. Instead, a collaborative and consistent effort to address core drivers at the individual level may be more useful. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss4/3Keywords: mental health, suicide, individuals at risk, suicide rates in the military

US security force assistance missions to Arab partner states have had limited success, due in part to a tendency to impose American doctrine, which embodies American cultural values and norms, on Arab armed forces. Accordingly, US security force assistance missions should train Arab partners to fight in a manner better suited to their own cultural preferences and operational requirements.Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss3/10Keywords: Arab armed forces, American doctrine, culture wars, operational requirements

Technological revolutions affecting state power are either open or closed. The precursor to the digital age is not the twentieth century, with state-controlled programs yielding nuclear weapons, but the late nineteenth century, when tinkerers invented the radio, airplane, and high explosives—all crucial to subsequent wars. To avoid strategic surprise, the US government must take a broader view of how today’s open innovation is changing society, and adapt. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss3/8Keywords: strategy, technology, innovation, digital age, technological revolutions

The framework of Enduring Information Vigilance will help ally and partner governments deny advantages adversaries gain through their use of information operations in our new global perpetual information environment. This approach recognizes the persistent threat, unifies responses within and between governments, and resolves societal fissures toward a more global democratic information environment. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss3/4/Keywords: misinformation, propaganda, disinformation, Enduring Information Vigilance, persistent threat

Douglas W. Bristol Jr. “Two Worlds - African American Servicemembers, WWII and Today”The theory of social stigma provides a context for the subjective experience of African American servicemembers in World War II. Those experiences reveal the paradox the military faces when addressing racial discrimination. An examination of these experiences suggests only a collective response by African American servicemembers will solve this problem.Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss3/6Keywords: World War II, racial discrimination, African American servicemembers, Decisive Point Podcast

The lessons of counterinsurgency have deeper implications for cyber conflict than previous research has identified. Two decades of experience in Iraq and Afghanistan provide insights into the cyber strategy of defending forward including treating major cybersecurity and technology companies as host-nation partners and focusing on winning the hearts and minds of global netizens. Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss3/9Keywords: cybersecurity, technology, cyber conflict, cyber strategy, Iraq and Afghanistan

The DoD can exploit weaknesses in Chinese military attempts at political warfare, or “enemy disintegration,” most recently observed in PLA media on the subject of the pandemic. Targeted information efforts will signal the United States’ refusal to be intimidated, expose untruths in Chinese government messaging to its citizens, and reassure relevant third parties of US military resolve.Read the article: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol50/iss3/3Keywords: pandemic, PLA, Chinese military, political warfare