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761. Fighting a Global Counterinsurgency

Author:
Thomas Donnelly
Publication Date:
12-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
More than two years after the September 11 attacks, the American military finds itself entrenched in a host of open-ended, low-level counterinsurgency campaigns across the Muslim world. These guerrilla conflicts have become, to no small extent, the operational reality that defines the global war on terror. But our current experience in Iraq—the central front of that broader conflict—suggests that the Pentagon still has a long way to go before it can prosecute these "small wars" with the same primacy it displayed during the "big war" this spring. Thus, if the United States is to succeed in creating a different kind of Middle East, it must create a different kind of military, redefining defense transformation to meet the strategic challenge now before us.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Middle East

762. U.S. Counterinsurgency in Iraq

Author:
Thomas Donnelly
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Since sweeping Saddam Hussein's regime from power this spring, U.S. forces in Iraq have been confronted by an amorphous guerrilla resistance, concentrated around the so-called Sunni Triangle. While growing numbers of Iraqis are working with coalition soldiers, provisional authorities, and international aid workers to lay the foundations for a democratic society, insurgents are waging a determined campaign of terror against them. To prevail, the U.S. military must develop an effective counterinsurgency strategy. History offers several precedents on how to do so.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, and Middle East

763. Iraq Is the Central Front

Author:
Thomas Donnelly
Publication Date:
10-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
On the evening of September 7, President George W. Bush declared the struggle to establish a more decent political order in Iraq "the central front" in the global war on terror. This was not merely a rhetorical flourish in the president's speech. Rather, it represents a further clarification of the Bush Doctrine and of U.S. national security strategy for the twenty-first century. What is at stake in Iraq extends beyond the borders of Mesopotamia. It defines what sort of world the American superpower wants-and what sort of sacrifices it is willing to make to create it.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, and Middle East

764. Fighting Terror: Lessons and Implications from the Iraqi Theater

Author:
Thomas Donnelly
Publication Date:
08-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
U.S. military operations in Iraq offer valuable lessons about the broader global war against terror. The ultimate prize in this conflict was never simply Saddam Hussein's elusive weapons programs, but the chance to establish a more durable international order. In sweeping aside the Ba'athist regime and by helping the Iraqi people build a prosperous, pluralistic, democratic society, the struggle between the forces of political liberty and the forces of repressive Islamism is now being joined in the heart of the Arab world. It is a battle we cannot afford to lose.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, and Arabia

765. A Swift, Elusive Sword: What if Sun Tzu and John Boyd Did a National Defense Review?

Author:
Chester W. Richards
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
What kind of question is: “What if Sun Tzu and John Boyd did a National Defense Review?” Sun Tzu, if he existed at all, has been gone some 2,500 years. The late Col. John R. Boyd, U.S.A.F., while intimately involved in fighter aircraft design during his active duty years, wrote practically nothing on hardware or force structure after he retired, when he created the strategic concepts for which he is best known today.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

766. Honing the Sword: Strategy and Forces After 9/11

Author:
Marcus Corbin
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
In 2001, prior to the attacks of Sept. 11, the Center for Defense Information published a national security review and force structure entitled Reforging the Sword: Forces for a 21st Century Security Strategy. Happily for the authors of Reforging, the Sept. 11 attacks did not make it obsolete. To the contrary, its emphases on working more closely with allies, on lighter, more agile forces, on intelligence, and on the importance of nonmilitary components of a conflict were important elements of the conduct of the counterattack by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. The events of Sept. 11 and Operation Enduring Freedom have reinforced the need raised in Reforging to prepare for new threats, and have enhanced the prospects for some of its proposed new directions, particularly in the area of allied collaboration if a multilateralist administration took office. This report updates Reforging the Sword in light of events on and since Sept. 11, 2001. The suggestions here use as a foundation the predilections spelled out in Reforging for working with allies, for taking the nonmilitary elements of modern war into consideration, and for trying to keep humans in the war-fighting loop.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

767. Egypt as a Failing State: Implications for US National Security

Author:
Ruth M. Beitler and Cindy R. Jebb
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
Short-term solutions to more profound, long-term problems are not sufficient to safeguard United States interests in the Middle East. This paper challenges the current United States policy towards Egypt and its underlying assumption that regime stability supercedes a US interest in true political development. The key question in this paper queries why the status quo policy towards Egypt is no longer fulfilling US objectives when it has been a successful pillar for US Middle East policy in the past. One can easily understand the seductive nature of adhering to the status quo policy by recalling Anwar Sadat's initiatives moving Egypt squarely from the Soviet camp to the American one, the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, and Egypt's support during the Gulf War in 1991. The United States must take bold new steps towards its relationship with Egypt and leverage Egypt's historical regional leadership to better support US interests for the future.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, Soviet Union, Arabia, and Egypt

768. Love Us Not, Just Follow Us

Author:
Ehsan Ahrari
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
The lone superpower has become the sole recipient of world criticism as well as praise and envy. According to a recent survey issued by the Pew Research Center, “Images of the United States have been tarnished in all types of nations: among longtime NATO allies, in developing countries, in Eastern Europe, and, most dramatically in Muslim societies.” That is the price of excellence. If others cannot be as good as you, the least they can do is admire and emulate you. The United States is criticized, and even hated in some regions, but the overriding variable is the global feeling of envy toward it. The survey underscores that the leadership of the superpower is an established phenomenon, at least for now, while its negative image continues to linger.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Globalization
Political Geography:
United States and Middle East

769. War In Iraq: What's Next For The Kurds?

Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Assuming the U.S.-led military operation to topple Saddam Hussein proceeds, the threat is very great of large-scale violence, centred on Kirkuk, erupting in Northern Iraq between Kurds and Turks. If that is to be averted, the United States must urgently take three important steps: get its own forces to Kirkuk first, ensure that Turkey exercises restraint, and simultaneously persuade the Iraqi Kurds to take no action that will risk provoking Turkey.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Foreign Policy, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Turkey, Arabia, and Kirkuk

770. Iraq Policy Briefing: Is There An Alternative To War?

Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The policy dilemmas posed by the Iraqi crisis are much more acute, and the issues much more finely balanced, than most of those publicly supporting or opposing war are prepared to acknowledge. There is still broad international agreement about the objectives to be pursued: ensuring that Iraq does not constitute a threat, disarming it of the weapons of mass destruction it still retains (as demanded by Security Council Resolution 1441), and improving the condition of the Iraqi people (as demanded both by common decency and the Iraqi people themselves). But following the inspectors' reports to the UN Security Council on 14 February 2003 and the extraordinary scale of the worldwide anti-war demonstrations over the following days, achieving international consensus on how to achieve these objectives appears as difficult as ever.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Foreign Policy, United Nations, and War
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, and Arabia