About the Initiative

For the third year in a row, the French École de Guerre has had the great opportunity to work in close cooperation with PRISM. Six École de Guerre students completed research papers with the support of PRISM. The partnership has enhanced the ability of the officers in École de Guerre to understand key global issues and has further strengthened their ability to interact with American partners. 

 

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

Joint Force Quarterly 117 | May 29, 2025

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

Thomas F. Lynch III

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.

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Book covers for 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

Joint Force Quarterly 117 | 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

Frank Hoffman

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.

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

Joint Force Quarterly 117 | May 29, 2025

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

Joseph J. Collins

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.

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Air Force military training instructors lead formation of graduates at Air Force Officer Training School class 24-06 graduation parade, in Montgomery, Alabama, March 14, 2024

Joint Force Quarterly 117 | May 21, 2025

America Needs Bold, Visionary, and Strategic Joint Force Leaders

James W. Browning

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.

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Soldier crouches as enemy fire passes overhead just off one of the beaches on east coast of Leyte Island, Philippines, October 20, 1944 (National Archives and Records Administration/Carl Wienke/U.S. Army Signal Corps)

Joint Force Quarterly 117 | May 21, 2025

Movement and Maneuver at Leyte, October 1944

Michael M. Trimble, Douglas W. Burkman, and Michael L. Simmons

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.

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Wounded Marine gets injection of blood plasma from Navy Hospital Corpsman during battle for Okinawa, May 1945 (U.S. Marine Corps)

Joint Force Quarterly 117 | May 21, 2025

Both Joint and Not Medical Support at Okinawa, 1945

Sanders Marble

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.

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A team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle at 11:01 P.M. Pacific Time Feb. 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. This test launch is part of routine and periodic activities intended to demonstrate that the United States' nuclear deterrent is safe, secure, reliable and effective to deter twenty-first century threats and reassure allies(U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Landon Gunsauls)

| May 21, 2025

Obstacles to Integrating Deterrence

Jeffrey A. Larsen and James J. Wirtz

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.

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Illustration of global chip shortage crisis and U.S.-China trade war.

Joint Force Quarterly 117 | May 21, 2025

Defusing Weaponized Interdependence: A New Approach to Measuring Country Reliability

Michael F. Harsch and Shaun Lee

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.

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Sailors participate in mass casualty drill on flight deck of aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, South China Sea, February 6, 2023.

Joint Force Quarterly 117 | April 17, 2025

Toward a 21st-Century Medical Offset Strategy

George A. Barbee and Benjamin J. Ingram

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

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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, December 11, 2024.

Joint Force Quarterly 117 | April 17, 2025

Protecting ACE: Air Defense and Agile Combat Employment

Ian D. Richardson

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

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