Recently added articles from Parameters:
In this issue ...(From the Editor)
Dec 22, 2008 ... As we usher in a new year we begin a new era in America's defense and policy arenas. With the seating of President Obama and his administration the American people are certain to witness change in the manner in which their nation's leadership directs the military's role in national ...
Preserving infrastructure: a 21st Century challenge.
Dec 22, 2008; ... As the United States marked the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), one of the most urgent tasks remained the continued protection of the nation's critical infrastructure. Since its principal ...
The 21st Century security environment and the future of war.
Dec 22, 2008; ... Some commentators and observers of international affairs--including the author--claim to have a unified theory of strategy, a unified theory of war, and a cunningly connected meta-narrative for the twenty-first century, indeed for all of history. They exult in being reductionists (in the ...
Crafting strategy in an age of transition.
Dec 22, 2008; ... The United States is at a transition point nearly unparalleled in its history. Years of war abroad have severely strained America's military, and the ongoing economic crisis will force ever-greater constraints on all forms of discretionary spending. Rising regional powers, energy scarcity, ...
COIN in the real world.
Dec 22, 2008; ... The nations most likely to be affected by insurgencies, those without extensive resources, refined organization, or a responsible political environment, need a more realistic counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy than that articulated in classic and contemporary counterinsurgency theory. The ...
Georgia's cyber left hook.
Dec 22, 2008; ... "In the very near future, many conflicts will not take place on the open field of battle, but rather in spaces on the Internet, fought with the aid of information soldiers .... This means that a small force of hackers is stronger than the multi-thousand force of the current armed forces." ...
Reconsidering Afghanistan: time for an "azimuth check".
Dec 22, 2008; ... For some time now, our trajectory and strategy in Afghanistan have been flat. We are not losing, and we are not winning. We find ourselves in an operational stalemate where progress on governance, reconstruction, and economic development--the core of our state-building strategy--is slowing ...
United States-Iranian relations: the terrorism challenge.
Dec 22, 2008; ... With more than 70 million people, the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the most populous countries in the Middle East. In addition to this large and talented human-resource pool, Iran possesses a variety of natural resources, most notably hydrocarbon deposits: the world's second largest ...
Binding the nation: national service in America.
Dec 22, 2008; ... The United States has been at war for more than seven years, and the end to its struggle against religious extremism is nowhere in sight. Thus far the majority of the campaign has been waged by the military. With the prolonged counterinsurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq has come a growing ...
Editor's shelf.
Dec 22, 2008 ... Our friends at Routledge publications have provided readers with a new series on Strategy and History, edited by two of Parameters' stalwarts, Colin Gray and Williamson Murray. The series focuses on the theory and practice of strategy. It is designed as a review of historical cases that ...
The Anzio campaign.
Dec 22, 2008; ... Long after the liberation of Italy by the Allies in World War II, questions concerning the merits of conducting the Italian campaign linger. As correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote in Brave Men, "There was some exhilaration in Italy, and some fun along with the misery and the sadness, but on the ...
The Long War: A New History of U.S. National Security Policy since World War II.
Dec 22, 2008; ... The Long War: A New History of U.S. National Security Policy since World War II. Edited by Andrew J. Bacevich. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. 608 pages. $75.00. After a successful career as an Army cavalry officer, Andrew Bacevich turned to academia and is enjoying a ...
The Tet Offensive: A Concise History.
Dec 22, 2008; ... The Tet Offensive: A Concise History. By James H. Willbanks. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. 272 pages. $29.50. James Willbanks, a retired Army officer and military historian, is Director of the Department of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff ...
General William E. DePuy: Preparing the Army for Modern War.
Dec 22, 2008; ... General William E. DePuy: Preparing the Army for Modern War. By Henry G. Gole. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2008. 364 pages. $35.00. Henry Gole's biography of General William DePuy accomplishes two valuable functions. First, it tells the story of one of the most ...
Torture: When the Unthinkable Is Morally Permissible.
Dec 22, 2008; ... Torture: When the Unthinkable Is Morally Permissible. By Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007. 114 pages. $53.50 ($17.95 paper). This slim volume is essentially an extended commentary that builds on a controversial op-ed piece the ...
Fighting the War on Terror: A Counterinsurgency Strategy.
Dec 22, 2008; ... Fighting the War on Terror: A Counterinsurgency Strategy. By James S. Corum. St. Paul, Minn.: Zenith Press, 2007. 267 pages. $25.95. Fighting the War on Terror: A Counterinsurgency Strategy essentially offers a primer for those atypical military professionals who in this late ...
The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848.
Dec 22, 2008; ... The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848. By Martin Dugard. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2008. 446 pages. $29.99. Generations of West Point plebes have memorized General Winfield Scott's encomium to their Mexican War forbears: ...
Nothing Less Than Full Victory: Americans at War in Europe, 1944-1945.
Dec 22, 2008; ... Nothing Less Than Full Victory: Americans at War in Europe, 1944-1945. By Edward G. Miller. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2007. 346 pages. $32.95. Taking a prominent line from General Dwight D. Eisenhower's 6 June 1944 D-Day message to the soldiers, sailors, and airmen ...
Terrorism, Government, and Law: National Authority and Local Autonomy in the War on Terror.
Dec 22, 2008; ... Terrorism, Government, and Law: National Authority and Local Autonomy in the War on Terror. Edited by Susan N. Herman and Paul Finkelman. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2008. 219 pages. $75.00. A book on this subject would have been improbable pre-11 September ....
Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters.
Dec 22, 2008; ... Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters. By Hans Blix. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2008. 95 pages. $14.95. This compact book is written by someone with impeccable credentials; the author served from 2000 to 2003 as the head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and ...