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Category: JFQ

Two military personnel analyze satellite imagery on a computer monitor. One woman, wearing glasses and a fleece jacket, points to a section of the map displayed on the screen, while the other, in camouflage uniform, observes attentively. The setting appears to be a military or intelligence operations room equipped with computers and monitors.

July 15, 2025

Intelligence Reform at 20: How Joint Military Intelligence Lost Its Groove and How to Get It Back

In a 2015 Joint Force Quarterly article, several analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) proposed a vision for how the Defense Intelligence Enterprise (DIE) would lead analytic transformation into what we now call “strategic competition.”

Book cover of The Insurgent's Dilemma: A Struggle to Prevail by David H. Ucko. The cover features a black-and-white historical photograph of a man standing on horseback, aiming a rifle, with others around him. The title is in bold red and blue text at the top, and the author's name appears at the bottom in white. The image conveys a theme of guerrilla warfare or armed rebellion

July 15, 2025

The Insurgent’s Dilemma

As an expert on insurgency in Latin America, my investigations of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) led me to observe an interesting dilemma: The FARC adopted methods that made it militarily strong yet undermined the popular base it was trying to mobilize.

Book cover of Space Warfare: Strategy, Principles and Policy (Second Edition) by John J. Klein. The cover features a cosmic scene showing Earth from space with illuminated city lights on the surface, and a large celestial body, possibly the Moon, rising above the Earth's horizon with a glowing light behind it. The background is filled with stars. The title and author’s name are prominently displayed below the image, with the Routledge logo in the bottom right corner.

July 15, 2025

Space Warfare

The second edition of Space Warfare: Strategy, Principles and Policy, John Klein’s landmark work on spacepower, is a substantial expansion and update to the original.

Book cover for Human, Machine, War: How the Mind-Tech Nexus Will Win Future Wars, edited by Nicholas Wright, Michael Miklaucic, and Todd Veazie. The image shows a pilot in a futuristic cockpit with glowing digital controls and displays, looking out at a landscape filled with advanced aircraft and holographic interfaces, suggesting a fusion of human and machine capabilities in warfare.

July 15, 2025

Human, Machine, War

The U.S. military is often criticized for emphasizing the application of exquisite and ever more expensive technology over other factors in its conception of future warfare.

B-21 Raider hovers above desert ground while conducting flight testing.

July 15, 2025

The Long Pivot: The Development of the Joint Warfighting Concept

The final withdrawal of troops from Iraq in December 2011 left most U.S. military leadership with the desire to shift their focus from counterinsurgency—which had achieved a position of intellectual dominance in the U.S. military during the war on terror in the late 2000s—back to conventional warfighting.

U.S. military personnel in camouflage uniforms work intently at computer stations in a command center. One service member points at a screen while others focus on their monitors. The environment suggests a high-tech operations or cyber defense setting.

July 15, 2025

A Conditions-Based Look at a Cyber Force

The 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy explicitly calls to “deter cyberattacks from state and non-state actors and will respond decisively with all appropriate tools of national power to hostile acts in cyberspace, including those that disrupt or degrade vital national functions or critical infrastructure.”

Medical professionals provide intensive care unit skills training. Three individuals, wearing face masks and protective clothing, including one in an Australian Air Force uniform with a red cross patch, work together using a manual resuscitator. The image is framed from a low angle, possibly through medical equipment, emphasizing the urgency and teamwork in a clinical setting.

July 15, 2025

Revive: Getting Medical Supplies and Expertise Right in Distributed Maritime Operations

In the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military medical enterprise achieved historical highs for saving lives and treating extreme injuries.

An F/A-18F Super Hornet from the "Fighting Redcocks" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 22 launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in the Philippine Sea, April 22, 2025.

July 15, 2025

Increasing Operational Access: A Strategy for the Western Pacific

The geostrategic challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Western Pacific is a contest that the United States must counter with the collective implementation of the instruments of national power in pursuit of improved operational access for the U.S. joint force.

SpaceX’s Starship SN8 prototype shortly after liftoff from Boca Chica, Texas.

July 15, 2025

T-BIRRD: Transforming the Future of Military and Humanitarian Logistics

The adage “amateurs discuss tactics, professionals discuss logistics” resonates more profoundly than ever in an age of rapid technological advancements and global challenges.

A woman is shown with facial recognition technology overlaying her face. On the left side of the image is a digital rendering of her smiling face with facial landmark points connected by lines, and on the right, the actual woman’s face is covered by a shaded facial map with similar landmarks. Blue rectangular frames highlight both the rendered and actual faces, indicating biometric analysis.

July 15, 2025

Finding Deepfakes: A Tabletop Exercise About AI, Decisionmaking, and Algorithmic Performance

Early in the scenario, participants discover algorithmic limitations in an artificial intelligence (AI)-based deepfake detection tool.

Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC

July 15, 2025

The Philosophical Foundations of the Civil-Military Relationship

It is not uncommon to hear the phrase “civil-military relations” used as shorthand for “subordination of the military to civilian authority.”

U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Operators assigned to the 24th Special Operations Wing, U.S. Army Special Forces Operators and Ukrainian Special Operations Forces execute a bi-lateral military free fall from a U.S. Air Force MC-130J Commando II assigned to the 352d Special Operations Wing near Vinnytsia, Ukraine

July 15, 2025

Building Strategic Lethality: Special Operations Models for Joint Force Learning and Leader Development

The resurgence of Great Power competition as a dominant feature of the international environment brings a measure of certainty to the joint force.

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Raylin Carter, an aerial observer from Oklahoma with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 362 (Reinforced), 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, participates in flight operations with AH-1Z Viper pilots during a strait transit, Jan. 9, 2023.

July 15, 2025

From High Seas to Highlands: Framing U.S. Defense Strategy With Southeast Asia’s Geography

The 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy prioritized competing with China, and this focus seems likely to continue with the new administration.

People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-10 fighter jet under Southern Theater Command fires rockets at simulated ground targets during live-fire flight training exercise.

July 15, 2025

Rightsizing the PLA Air Force: Revisiting an Analytic Framework

Modernization of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has been an important priority for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) due to the strategic importance of airpower in modern military campaigns.

Supreme Court of the United States

July 15, 2025

Is Mobilization a Major Question?

It is early 2027, and Chinese provocations in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait continue to escalate, as they have since 2018.

Representatives from the 469th Combat Support Sustainment Battalion overseeing administration for mobilizing Soldiers calculate unit throughput during the Level 1 Mobilization Tabletop Exercise, July 16-17, 2022, Fort McCoy, Wis.

July 15, 2025

Executive Summary

Having been a part of joint professional military education (JPME) for nearly 20 years and editor of this journal—dedicated to the joint force and the concept of jointness—for a decade and a half, every day I see the power that our war colleges and this journal give to our students, our graduates, senior leaders of the joint force, the interagency community, our partners and allies, and the interested public around the globe.

Book cover titled "The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power" by Robert D. Kaplan, best-selling author of The Revenge of Geography. The background features a dark, stormy, abstract texture with gray and black tones, evoking a somber and contemplative mood. The title and author’s name are displayed in large, serif font across the center of the cover.

May 29, 2025

The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power

Robert D. Kaplan’s early 2023 book, The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power, is the latest of his nearly two dozen books over the past 35 years.

Three books superimposed over one another in the following order: War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World; The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire; A Call to Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the Future For the Future Force

May 29, 2025

War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World | The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire | A Call to Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the Future Force

The war in Ukraine has been going on for 3 years now, and much has been written about Vladimir Putin’s strategic failures and the valor of the Ukrainian defenders.

Book cover titled "Winning Without Fighting: Irregular Warfare and Strategic Competition in the 21st Century" by Rebecca Patterson, Susan Bryant, Ken Gleiman, and Mark Troutman. The cover features a stylized line drawing of a classical female warrior figure holding a sword, standing atop a globe marked with stars. The background is a solid dark blue with contrasting gold and white text.

May 29, 2025

Winning Without Fighting: Irregular Warfare and Strategic Competition in the 21st Century

Winning Without Fighting is an excellent new book crafted by four veteran scholar-practitioners that presents a strategic framework for winning the competition between the United States and its allies on the one side and an emerging authoritarian axis that includes China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea on the other.

Three U.S. Air Force military training instructors in dress blue uniforms and campaign hats march forward while saluting. They are followed by other uniformed graduates in formation.

May 21, 2025

America Needs Bold, Visionary, and Strategic Joint Force Leaders

While the national security community has consistently faced significant unknowns, disruptions, and wicked problems with no known solutions, today’s leaders must operate in a world unlike anything anyone has ever experienced.

Wounded Marine gets injection of blood plasma from Navy Hospital Corpsman during battle for Okinawa, Japan. The corpsman is using the rifle as a plasma holder.

May 21, 2025

Both Joint and Not Medical Support at Okinawa, 1945

In 1945, the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps invaded Okinawa. Heavy casualties were projected, and medical planning was thorough and multi-layered. Medical support was as joint as anything the period could offer, although quite different from today.

Soldier crouches as enemy fire passes overhead just off one of the beaches on east coast of Leyte Island, Philippines

May 21, 2025

Movement and Maneuver at Leyte, October 1944

Today’s joint force is grappling with changes in the character of war as a complex interplay of human innovation, proliferating technology, and international politics drives an expansion of warfighting domains.

Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launch unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with test reentry vehicle from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

May 21, 2025

Obstacles to Integrating Deterrence

This article calls for a strategic shift in how the United States addresses today’s security threats—ranging from peer nuclear adversaries to disruptive emerging technologies.

Chip shortage and US-China trade conflict. Global chip shortage crisis and China-United States trade war concept. China flag and US flag on computer on chip electronic circuit board. Computer hardware.

May 21, 2025

Defusing Weaponized Interdependence: A New Approach to Measuring Country Reliability

Eisenhower School faculty members Michael Harsch and Shaun Lee have developed an interesting analysis method for assessing the willingness of one nation to partner with another. This article explores how growing geopolitical risks are challenging the way countries manage global trade and supply chains.

Three sailors participate in mass casualty drill on flight deck of aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, South China Sea.

April 17, 2025

Toward a 21st-Century Medical Offset Strategy

We are applying a late 19th-century to early 20th-century mindset to try to solve 21st-century problems.

Air Force crew chiefs marshal A-10C Thunderbolt II during Agile Combat Employment exercise in austere location within U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

April 17, 2025

Protecting ACE: Air Defense and Agile Combat Employment

The Agile Combat Employment (ACE) operational scheme of maneuver was developed by the Air Force to address anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) threats.

Military Housing Office sign at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

April 17, 2025

Solving the Crisis: A Partnership Approach for Safe, Affordable Military Housing

Today, 216 Cannon Air Force Base (CAFB) Airmen live in a brand-new, energy-efficient off-base community because of a commitment to eschew old thinking and develop unique housing solutions.

U.S. Marines assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 49 perform water-based exercises while training under the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.

April 17, 2025

Developing Alternative Manning Strategies to Maintain the Combat Effectiveness of the Joint Force

Human capital remains the cornerstone of an effective fighting force. Unfortunately, potential recruits’ propensity and ability to serve in the military are falling.

1. A soldier wrapping a parachute with the title "The Quantum Internet" and other articles listed. 2. Soldiers boarding a boat in rough waters under the title "Defending Forward." 3. A soldier kneeling and creating fire using a bow drill under the title "Strategic Shaping." Bottom row, from left to right: 4. A servicemember operating artillery equipment with the title "Information as a Joint Function." 5. A person directing an aircraft on a runway with the title "Global Health Engagement." 6. Two sailors pulling a heavy rope on a ship deck with the title "The Cyber 'Domain' and Deterrence."

April 17, 2025

Executive Summary

Communication is a critical element to the human experience.

Air Force 90th Fighter Squadron F-22 Raptor takes off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, April 7, 2024, for exercise Agile Reaper 24-1

Jan. 27, 2025

The Future of Stealth Military Doctrine

Stealth military doctrine specifies the use of antidetection technologies for the clandestine movement of friendly forces into unfriendly environments.

Cover of Weapons in Space

Jan. 27, 2025

Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative

In Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative, Aaron Bateman, assistant professor of history and international affairs at The George Washington University and a member of the university’s Space Policy Institute, distills recently declassified U.S., Soviet, and United Kingdom records to provide new insights into the origins, history, and legacy of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).

Cover of The Coming Wave

Jan. 27, 2025

The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma

The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21 st Century’s Greatest Dilemma is an intriguing history of artificial intelligence (AI) and synthetic biology (SynBio) that also affords a lay reader a sense of the state of the art in both fields.

Statues of Greek historian Polybius and Goddess Athena in front of Parliament building in Austria, Vienna

Jan. 27, 2025

Polybian Warfare: The First Punic War as a Case Study in Strategic Competition and Joint Warfighting

The spring winds around Sicily had shifted during the day, but not before Praetor Quintus Valerius Falto had engaged the heavily laden Carthaginian fleet.

Cover of China's Use of Armed Coercion

Jan. 27, 2025

China’s Use of Armed Coercion: To Win Without Fighting

One of the most vexing foreign policy challenges for U.S. analysts, warfighters, and policymakers is how to deal with China’s gray zone activities.

Air Force Senior Airman Uchenna Ekwueme, 635th Materiel Maintenance Support Squadron cargo movement technician, processes inbound shipment at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, September 18, 2024

Jan. 27, 2025

It’s the Chain That Broke It: The Strategic Supply Chains Underpinning National Security

In her address to the Eisenhower School student body at National Defense University in February 2024, Jennifer Santos, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy, stated that acquisition leaders can no longer afford to ignore the supply chain vulnerabilities of the industries contracted to provide materiel to the Department of Defense (DOD).

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.

Jan. 27, 2025

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.

Jan. 27, 2025

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.

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.

Jan. 27, 2025

Being Believed: Persuasion and the Narrative in Military Operations

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

Japanese soldiers in Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1905

Jan. 27, 2025

Determining Political Objectives

Political objectives are the key element of a grand or national/coalition security strategy.

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.

Jan. 27, 2025

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

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

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

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.

Grable event, part of Operation Upshot-Knothole, involved 15-kiloton nuclear weapons test using M9 280-millimeter Artillery Fired Atomic Projectile fired from M65 Atomic Cannon, May 25, 1953, in Area 5 of Nevada Test Site

Jan. 27, 2025

Preparing for Adversary Employment of Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons: Tactical Effects, Operational Impacts, Strategic Implications

For the past 30-plus years since the end of the Cold War, the Department of Defense has been able to operate with no real threat of nuclear weapons on the battlefield.

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.

Jan. 27, 2025

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.

A person draped in the Syrian opposition flag looks out over a large protest in a city square, where a massive crowd gathers, many carrying similar flags. The scene is framed by tall buildings and city streets filled with people.

Jan. 27, 2025

Executive Summary

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.

Oct. 22, 2024

The Fragile Balance of Terror: Deterrence in the New Nuclear Age

In his seminal 1958 paper The Delicate Balance of Terror, political scientist Albert Wohlstetter famously argued that nuclear deterrence was far less intrinsically stable than was commonly supposed.

Book cover for "The Military Legacy of Alexander the Great: Lessons for the Information Age" by Michael P. Ferguson and Ian Worthington. The top half features an ancient mosaic depicting Alexander the Great in battle. The bottom half shows a modern military drone flying over a desert landscape. The subtitle emphasizes contemporary military insights, and the cover notes a conclusion by Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, U.S. Army (retired). The publisher, Routledge, is listed at the bottom right.

Oct. 22, 2024

The Military Legacy of Alexander the Great: Lessons for the Information Age

The Military Legacy of Alexander the Great: Lessons for the Information Age offers readers a unique perspective on the relevance of Alexander’s aspirations, battles, campaigns, and leadership for the 21st century.

Book cover of "Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans: The British Occupation of Germany, 1945–49" by Daniel Cowling. The cover features a monochrome image of a British soldier in uniform standing over a large, toppled Nazi eagle emblem with a swastika, symbolizing the fall of Nazi Germany. The title is in bold yellow and white type, and a quote at the top describes the book as "A ground-breaking account of a little-known period" by Giles Milton.

Oct. 22, 2024

Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans: The British Occupation of Germany, 1945–49

As an idea that is teeming with clichés, recent examples of catastrophic failure, and an apparent lack of any institutionalization of lessons, “winning the peace” is an element that must be grappled with in modern strategy.

Remains of Antonov An-225 Mriya, world’s largest cargo plane, destroyed during Russian attack on Antonov Airport, Hostomel, Ukraine, in February 2022

Oct. 22, 2024

From Sparta to Hostomel: The Enduring Role of Joint Forcible Entry Operations

With few exceptions since World War II, the U.S. military possessed global access to intermediate staging bases that enabled it to mass combat power in an uncontested manner prior to war.

Guided-missile destroyer USS Carney launches land attack missiles while operating in U.S. Naval Central Command area of operations, February 3, 2024

Oct. 22, 2024

The Joint Functions: Theory, Doctrine, and Practice

Conflict may be defined as “a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.”

Lieutenant Tushar Madan, left, U.S. Navy exchange officer to Australia’s Headquarters Joint Operations Command J2 branch; U.S. Marine Corps Corporal Brian Vile, center, intelligence specialist; and Corporal Salmon Shaedon, assistant forecaster, both with Marine Rotational Force– Darwin 24.3, operate Skydio drone as part of counter–unmanned aircraft systems field test at Mount Bundey Training Area, Northern Territory, Australia.

Oct. 22, 2024

Better in Pairs: Divide the Indo-Pacific Theater in Half

Every two years the Department of Defense (DOD) reviews the Unified Command Plan (UCP) by assessing the geographic boundaries, missions, and force structure of the unified combatant commands against the operational environment.