Wild Blue Yonder

March 16, 2020
How to Win the Next Space War: An Assessment

The importance of space satellites and their supporting systems cannot be overstated. Their use in the civil and commercial world to provide communications, weather, navigation, timing, and Earth resources monitoring provides major advantages to those who employ the information generated by these
March 2, 2020
Whatever Happens, Happens: Deterring Russia’s Threat of Nuclear Weapons through Non-Nuclear Means

Deterring nuclear adversaries such as Russia will continue to provide challenges to the United States during the remainder of the twenty-first century. While the United States and Russia (formerly the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union) signed multiple arms control and reduction
March 2, 2020
Intelligence-Based Urban Operations: Intelligence Preparation of Battlefield Methodology in Urban Settings

Urban warfare is intelligence and surveillance-intensive. Thorough knowledge of buildings, alleyways, tunnels, and rooftops may have to be acquired, through intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sources and human intelligence (HUMINT), to operate in cities.8 After reviewing US Army
Feb. 24, 2020
Twenty-First-Century Threats in a Complex World: Dealing with DUST in the Wind

Appreciating the spectrum of surprises embedded in dual-use science and technology (DUST) is critical. History displays instances where the inability to gauge and grasp the authenticity of future attacks spelled doom for the victims, leaders, and policy makers involved. Future threat assessments
Feb. 17, 2020
Afghanistan Intelligence War

A comparison between the way the pro-Soviet intelligence agencies carried out strategic interference against the political system in the past and the way the post-2001 pro-Western agencies are interfacing with the political process is important for understanding Afghan politics today. In some ways,
Feb. 17, 2020
Air Corps Infantry: The Original Cross-Functional Airmen

The planes droned by, filling the sky with a chest-rattling thrum. Allied material superiority was in full display as lines of over 1,600 C-47 Skytrains and C-46 Commandos stretched from airfields near London and Paris all the way to the Rhine. Fighters and medium bombers swept the skies and
Feb. 3, 2020
Between Theory and Practice: The Utility of International Relations Theory to the Military Practitioner

This article advances the argument that theory influences the policy makers’ view of the world in ways that impact policy development and, by extension, defense strategy. Thus, it is an indispensable weapon in the senior military advisor’s arsenal. However, these theories tend to overemphasize or
Feb. 3, 2020
Integrating Cyber Effects into the Joint Targeting Cycle

Using guidance presented in JP 3-0, JP 3-60 and CJCSI 3370.01C, cyber effects and targeting may be effectively presented for a combatant commander in the same format as “traditional” targets. With development of better “supported/supporting” command relationships between US Cyber Command and
Feb. 3, 2020
Future Technology and Nuclear Deterrence

The following discussion is speculative in nature given the future orientation of the topic. In many respects it is policy-prescriptive in its focus. This is because there is little possibility of a future in which nuclear deterrence will diminish in importance to international security. On the
Jan. 20, 2020
Operational Plan Orange: American Strategy in a Western Pacific War

While the likelihood of conflict between the United States and China is presently low, it cannot be completely excluded. The days of Western military superiority over China are ending, if not already over. China’s deployment of numerous ballistic missiles, modern aircraft, and cruise missiles amount