National Defense University Press (NDU Press)

U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force - Crisis Response - Central Command, provide assistance during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 20. U.S. service members are assisting the Department of State with an orderly drawdown of designated personnel in Afghanistan.

Risk: A Weak Element in U.S. Strategy Formulation

Risk is an enduring reality in strategic decisionmaking. The rigorous assessment of risk is—or should be—a critical step in strategy development.

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Jameson Dudley, left, crew master with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 252 (VMGR-252), and U.S. Army Sgt. Nijoku Odom, right, intelligence analyst with 303rd psychological operations company (303rd POCO), throw leaflets from a KC-130 Super Hercules over southern Afghanistan.

Being Believed: Persuasion and the Narrative in Military Operations

To the renowned scholar Thomas Schelling, the central aspect of nuclear deterrence is being believed.

U.S. Army Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment arrive at Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii, Oct. 7, 2024, during the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center 25-1.

The Urgency of Warfighting Renewal: Five Principles for Today’s Professional Military Education

When Secretary of Defense General James Mattis published the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS), one statement in the summary companion document garnered great attention—and reaction—among the professional military education (PME) community: “PME has stagnated, focused more on the accomplishment of mandatory credit at the expense of lethality and ingenuity.”

Sailors carry Intelligence Specialist 2nd Class Isaac Eaker, from La Jolla, California, assigned to intelligence department’s satellite imagery analyzation division, to an elevator on the flight deck during a medical drill aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) while underway in the Pacific Ocean.

Bullets, Bandages, and Fairy Dust: Improving DMO Health Services Support With Wargaming

Significant gaps in understanding persist across the joint and combined maritime enterprise when it comes to wargaming distributed maritime operations (DMO) and expeditionary advanced base operations (EABO) despite continued campaigns of learning.

Sgt. Maj. Gregory Byrd, the operations sergeant major for the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, conducts mission analysis with a group of staff officers during annual training at Camp Ripley.

| Jan. 27, 2025

Adopting a Data-Centric Mindset for Operational Planning

Jeremiah Hurley and Morgan Greene

The Department of Defense (DOD) and its Service components are investing in advanced technologies to gain and maintain a competitive advantage over adversaries and pacing threats such as China and Russia.

Live fire exercise conducted by Irish Defence Forces Artillery School at Glen of Imaal range in County Wicklow, Irelan

| Jan. 27, 2025

Celtic Security in the Atlantic: How Does Ireland Secure Europe’s Western Flank?

Patrick J. Smith

In a moving speech to the Finnish parliament last summer, Speaker Matti Vanhanen warned that Russia will continue using “brutal military power on a large scale to pursue its own illusory goals.”

Chinese soldiers browse news on desktop computers at People’s Liberation Army garrison in Chongqing, China.

| Jan. 27, 2025

Is the PLA Overestimating the Potential of Artificial Intelligence?

Koichiro Takagi

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is using artificial intelligence (AI) to build a world-class military.

Two B-1B Lancers assigned to Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, fly in formation above Gulf of Mexico.

| Jan. 27, 2025

Updating the TACS/AAGS for Large-Scale Combat Operations

Matthew Neuenswander

The Theater Air Control System (TACS)/Army Air-Ground System (AAGS) has been a staple of joint air-ground doctrine since May 1966, when General William Westmoreland, commander, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, integrated the air and ground systems into the first joint air-ground operations system.