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Unlocking Russian interests on the Korean Peninsula

The close relationship that once existed between Moscow and Pyongyang is a relic of the Cold War. In fact, there is reason to believe that the two neighbors now share little in common. Yet decades ago, the Soviets exercised tremendous influence over the North Korean regime, anecdotally evidenced by Kim Il-sung's fateful request to Josef Stalin asking to invade the South in 1950. Stalin, after much consternation, finally gave his approval.1 By deferring to Stalin, Kim Il-sung sought continued Soviet support, which he received for roughly 40 years until the breakup of the Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, however, this partnership changed significantly.
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Balancing kinetic effects of Airpower with Counterinsurgency objectives in Afghanistan

In this type of war you cannot - you must not - measure the effectiveness of the effort by the number of bridges destroyed, buildings damaged, vehicles burned, or any of the other standards that have been used for regular warfare. The task is to destroy the effectiveness of the insurgent's efforts and his ability to use the population for his own ends. - General Curtis E. Lemay Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force...
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The Military-Media Relationship: A Dysfunctional Marriage?

After this most recent deployment, Hertling convened an after-action review conference in Garmisch, Germany, and invited Shanker to attend. During the conference, the two had an opportunity to continue their ongoing dialogue on military-media relations. Their conversation shows the relationship becoming increasingly complicated, as these two men from different professions debated the contentiousness-and the common ground that exists between the military and the media during this time of conflict and expansive news coverage....
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Year of the NCO: A Division Commander's perspective

My shoes were shined, my greens had a razor crease in the trousers, and I believed I was looking pretty sharp as I reported to my battalion commander as a brand new second lieutenant. But my palms soon became sweaty after hearing what he had to say the first morning I arrived in Germany back in 1976....
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Future Gulf War: Arab and American Forces against Iranian Capabilities

Gulf Arabs are increasingly taking measure of Iran's capabilities to wage war. Military power is relative, not absolute, and to gauge Iran's capabilities to wage war and threaten the Persian Gulf, one must compare Iran's power against that of its regional rivals. A rough net assessment of strategies and military forces in the Gulf needs to weigh Iranian conventional military power-both in its regular military and Revolutionary Guard forces-against the conventional militaries of Saudi Arabia, the other Arab Gulf states, and the United States. By this scale, Arab and American forces are heavier than Iranian capabilities. But because they are, Iran is likely to turn to its time-tested unconventional ways of war to exploit Arab Gulf state and American vulnerabilities in future conflicts....
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Mind Fitness: Improving Operational Effectiveness and Building Warrior Resilience

Today's complex, fluid, and unpredictable operational environment both demands more from the military in terms of mission requirements and exposes troops to more stressors and potential trauma than ever before. On the one hand, situational awareness, mental agility, and adaptability are characteristics that the military wants to cultivate to succeed in such complex environments. In part, this complexity comes from the number and nature of the different missions the military must concurrently fill. The military needs to be able to mix offensive, defensive, and stability operations conducted along multiple lines of operations, without the benefit of a clearly demarcated "frontline." Many Soldiers liken this complexity and unpredictability to "the faucet," that is, needing to adjust to situations that could change from cold to hot instantaneously. Moreover, Servicemembers must navigate morally ambiguous situations with balance and nonreactivity, while drawing on stores of cultural awareness to "win hearts and minds." Finally, these missions require that decisionmaking be pushed down to the most junior levels, as the doctrine of "distributed operations" makes clear. Such challenges require a tremendous amount of attentional capacity, self-awareness, and situational awareness....
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Fostering a culture of engagement

With less than one half of one percent of the U.S. population in the Armed Forces, it is not surprising that many Americans know little about their military or the sacrifices military members and their families make for the Nation. The professional military is often viewed as a breed apart, a closed hierarchal organization resembling a monastic order. Indeed, some scholars have identified not just a cloister wall, but a growing chasm between the military and American society as a whole. Meanwhile, the necessity for operations security and an institutional penchant for controlling information......
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An Ever-Expanding War: Legal Aspects of Online Strategic Communication

Nearly eight years after 9/11, senior US leadership is redefining the “war on terrorism” as a global counterinsurgency effort, one that requires both kinetic force and indirect, “smart power” collaboration by civilian agencies. “The Department of Defense has taken on many of these burdens that might have been assumed by civilian agencies in the past,” said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. “Forced by circumstances, our brave men and women in uniform have stepped up to the task, with field artillerymen and tankers building schools and mentoring city councils—usually in a language they don’t speak . . . . But it is no replacement for the real thing, civilian involvement and expertise.”...
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Caught in the Net: Lessons from the Financial Crisis for a Networked Future

Since 2000 the Department of Defense (DOD) has committed itself to implementing a vision of the future of combat usually referred to as Network-Centric Warfare (NCW). This vision, as described by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, holds that robustly networking the force will improve information sharing, collaboration, and shared situational awareness.1 The DOD has invested considerable resources in its efforts to develop and implement NCW despite criticism from within and outside the armed forces....
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Tactical Leader Lessons Learned in Afghanistan: Operation Enduring Freedom VIII

The 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry Regiment, learned valuable lessons during its 11 months of train-up and 15 months conducting combat operations in support of foreign internal defense missions in Afghanistan.1 Soldiers spent 90 percent of their time conducting nonlethal counterinsurgency (COIN) actions intended to train the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), connect the population to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA), and improve the infrastructure throughout the area-a mere 10 percent of time was spent on lethal activity. This discussion relates the knowledge and experience gained....
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