Joint Force Quarterly 116

Joint Force Quarterly 116

(1st Quarter, January 2025)

Risk in U.S. Strategy Formulation

  • Persuasion in Military Operations
  • Celtic Security in the Atlantic

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Large crowd converges into Saadallah al-Jabiri Square in Aleppo, Syria, on December 13, 2024, to mark overthrow of Syrian regime of Bashar
al-Asad by opposition forces headed by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham

Executive Summary

By William T. Eliason

As we go to press with this issue, Bashar al-Asad, one of the long-time dictators in the Middle East, has fled to Russia, and the Syrian people have risen to make that happen.


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 on April 12th, 2022. 

During their annual training period these staff officers are conducting mission analysis and course of action development to assist in the creation of a training plan and to form the required training itself. Their courses of action will supply subordinate battalions with the necessary information to create their own training plans, giving Soldiers at the lowest level a degree of predictability and stability in what to expect in the coming years.

Adopting a Data-Centric Mindset for Operational Planning

By 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.


General CQ Brown, Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hosts Service Chiefs and Combatant Commanders for Strategic Seminar Series held at Defense Intelligence Agency Headquarters.

The Art of Campaigning: Joint Planners Working at the Intersections of Everything

By Mary Bell, Edgar M. Hollandsworth, Thomas J. Snukis, Jeffrey Turner, Luke P. Bellocchi, Nicholas Anthony, Steve Tribble, Chris Botterbusch, and Justin D. Harper

Understandably, there is quite a bit of confusion about the correct use of the military term campaigning.


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, Aug. 28, 2013. Leaflets were dropped in support of operations to defeat insurgency influence in the area. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Demetrius Munnerlyn/Released)

Being Believed: Persuasion and the Narrative in Military Operations

By Brent A. Lawniczak

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 Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) is the Army’s newest Combat Training Center (CTC) and generates readiness in the environments and conditions where our forces are most likely to operate in. JPMRC 25-01 includes training participants from across the U.S. Joint Force, and multinational Allies and partners.

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

By Christopher M. Marcell, Gaylon L. McAlpine, Reagan E. Schaupp, and Joseph L. Varuolo

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.”


Live fire exercise conducted by Irish Defence Forces Artillery School at Glen of Imaal range in County Wicklow, Ireland, March 15, 2023.

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

By 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, November 14, 2013.

Is the PLA Overestimating the Potential of Artificial Intelligence?

By 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, February 7, 2021 (U.S. Air Force/
Ryan C. Grossklag)

Updating the TACS/AAGS for Large-Scale Combat Operations

By 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.