National Defense University Press News

Joint Force Quarterly 119 (4th Quarter 2025)

NDU Press — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 19:55:00 GMT

While not all readers of this journal read my Executive Summary, they do read the results of my team’s work.

Strategic Assessment 2025: Evolving Great Power Competition at Mid-Decade

Thomas F. Lynch III — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 20:12:00 GMT

The geostrategic framework of international relations at mid-decade remains heavily conditioned and shaped by Great Power Competition (GPC) between three rivalrous, globally dominant states: the United States, China and Russia. After more than two decades of mainly cooperation and collaboration, these Great Powers drifted into de-facto rivalrous competition at the end of the 2000s. By the middle of the twenty-tens, their undeclared but obvious rivalry intensified, and their major interactions shifted from those of cooperation and collaboration to competition, confrontation and preparation for potential armed clash.

Understanding Space Frontier Areas

Todd Pennington — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 18:55:00 GMT

Distant reaches of space loom as a strategic horizon. The vast majority of space operations have, so far, been limited to a few families of near-Earth orbits. However, space beyond geostationary Earth orbit, or xGEO, is likely to become important for strategic purposes in the near future. This is especially true of cislunar space, that region of space in which the gravity of Earth’s moon is significant. This paper refers to xGEO and cislunar space as Space Frontier Areas, since missions there have not yet reached sufficient scale to cluster into patterns of use.

Cognitive Warfare and Organizational Design: Leveraging AI to Reshape Military Decisionmaking

Michael S. Silver, Kellen D. Sick, Matthew A. Snyder, and Justin E. Farnell — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 21:41:00 GMT

The military and economic dominance of the United States in the post-Soviet era compelled adversaries to shift their strategies away from largescale conventional warfare. Instead, they have increasingly focused on contesting American decisionmaking through cognitive warfare, leveraging psychological, informational, and technological domains to erode strategic advantage. Unlike traditional warfare, cognitive warfare shapes how individuals and organizations perceive reality, evaluate choices, and act on information.

Combating IUU Fishing in the South American Pacific: An Opportunity to Counter Chinese Influence Closer to Home

Alexander Goodno — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 21:32:00 GMT

In August 2022, USCGC James took evasive action to avoid a Chinese-flagged vessel that was attempting to ram the cutter in the Pacific Ocean. While most confrontations between the United States and China center around Taiwan or the South China Sea, this event took place off the coast of South America—nearly 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) from mainland China. The incident had little to do with Chinese territorial expansion. Instead, it focused on illicit fishing activity, the Chinese vessel being a member of China’s distant water fishing (DWF) fleet, the largest in the world.

Breadth or Depth: The Ongoing Battle in Professional Military Education

Ryan Wadle and Heather Venable — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:10:00 GMT

The subject of military history as taught in the U.S. Army’s school system is much in the air of late. The editors of Parameters chose in 1981 to reintroduce Michael Howard’s timeless article on military education writ large. Such an introduction could serve just as well some 40 years later, when the state of joint professional military education (JPME) remains a heated source of debate.

The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relation in the United States

Lindsay L. Rodman — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 21:03:00 GMT

Kori Schake’s The State and the Soldier is an engaging, compact, and comprehensive examination of U.S. civil-military relations history.

U.S. Arctic Sea Lines of Communication: The Imperative for a Maritime Complex and Corridor in the Bering Region

Samuel Krakower and Troy Bouffard — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 20:18:00 GMT

Maritime activity has been a constant feature of the world’s oceans since the development of seafaring capabilities.

What’s Old Is New: LSCO Casualty Evacuation in the 21st Century

Jonathan S. Pederson — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 17:49:00 GMT

An update and integration of our military medical strategy is needed before the next large conflict.

The Cyber Deterrence Dilemma: Parallels Between Cyber and Intelligence Special Operations

Jorge R. Kravetz — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 16:35:00 GMT

In December 2020, the United States experienced one of the most sophisticated cyber espionage attacks in its history: the SolarWinds supply chain breach.

Political Objectives, Nuclear Forces, and the Enduring Value of U.S. Intercontinental-Range Ballistic Missiles

Michaela Dodge — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 14:00:00 GMT

Intercontinental-range ballistic missiles (ICBMs), or missiles that fly over 5,500 kilometers (approximately 3,400 miles), have been a key component of the U.S. nuclear triad since the 1960s.

Ukraine, the U.S. Defense Industrial Base, and the Elusive Crisis-Era Munitions Production Surge

Bryce Loidolt — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 22:03:00 GMT

A growing chorus of U.S. defense analysts, lawmakers, and military officials has emphasized that the United States lacks the munitions production capacity to meet the demands of the contemporary strategic environment.

Fabrication at the Tactical Edge

Aubry J. Eaton and Dustin T. Thomas — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 18:23:00 GMT

In 1945, General Henry “Hap” Arnold observed that in the future, “science and research will have the same relative importance as pilot training.”

Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence

Nalonie J.M. Tyrrell — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 17:36:00 GMT

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Amy Zegart has long been intrigued—and often confounded—by America’s obsession with what she calls “spytainment”: the blending of espionage and entertainment.

Collisions: The Origins of the War in Ukraine and the New Global Instability

Peter R. Carkhuff — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 17:19:00 GMT

Collisions by Michael Kimmage offers a timely contemporary history of the conflict in Ukraine in which he argues that the war is the culmination of three different yet overlapping geopolitical “collisions” between Russia and Ukraine, Russia and Europe, and Russia and the United States.

A Primer on Ukrainian Special Forces: Beyond Joint

Kevin D. Stringer and Taisiia Vivdych — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:17:00 GMT

Special operations forces (SOF) are significant contributors to joint warfighting. In Ukraine, this truism is on display through headlines like “Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces Destroy Russian Buk-M3 Surface-to-Air Missile System Worth US$45 Million” and “Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces Kill 21 and Injure 40 North Korean Soldiers in Fierce Battle in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.”

Influence by Design: A Network Strategy for Integrated Deterrence

Robert S. Hinck — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 15:44:00 GMT

The 2022 U.S. National Defense Strategy (NDS) and National Security Strategy place integrated deterrence as the centerpiece of U.S. strategy. Integrated deterrence—which “entails working seamlessly across warfighting domains, theaters, the spectrum of conflict, all instruments of U.S. national power, and [America’s] network of Alliances and partnerships”—is to be tailored to specific circumstances and applies a coordinated, multifaceted approach to reducing competitors’ perceptions of the net benefits of aggression relative to restraint.

Executive Summary

William T. Eliason — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 14:07:00 GMT

While not all readers of this journal read my Executive Summary, they do read the results of my team’s work.

Taming the Hegemon: Chinese Thinking on Countering U.S. Military Intervention in Asia

Joel Wuthnow — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 20:00:00 GMT

This report assesses recent Chinese thinking on countering U.S. intervention in Asia, specifically in a Taiwan contingency.

Drone Delivery of Bioweapons: Responsibilities for Force Readiness

James Giordano and Diane DiEuliis — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 19:57:00 GMT

The U.S. National Drone Association recently sponsored the inaugural international U.S. Military Drone Crucible Championship to provide a venue for American and allied military drone training, advanced piloting, operational utility, and countermeasure capability.