Category: Articles
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A War Studies Classic
A War Studies Classic This year we are seeing the refurbishment of a classic in war studies and military history. There is a new edition of the book Makers of Modern Strategy. As a guide through our IWP course # 628 on “Military Strategy,” I have been excited to examine the new volume of May 2023…
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The Books That Churchill Read: The self-education of a statesman
Winston Spencer Churchill wrote with warmth and humor about his early education — and its limits. Certain passages had a touch of the tremulous, given the discipline to which he was subjected by one or two nasty schoolmasters. Biographers have shown interest in the relevant pages of My Early Life (1930), that winning autobiography. But not there,…
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A Disturbing Parallel: Putin’s aggression and German actions in the late 1930s
Below is the transcript of a video that IWP professor Dr. Christopher C. Harmon did for the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare at Marine Corps University, where he is a Distinguished Fellow. There is value in thinking along historical parallels. And there can be a little danger in a parallel drawn artificially. In Vladimir…
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The Timing of Terrorism: The Obsessions with Dates
The Timing of Terrorism: The Obsessions with DatesBy Christopher C. Harmon This month is the black anniversary of September 11, 2001. It has many meanings for us, but was that date in particular selected by Al Qaeda? A few suggest there is a link to the last day of battle in 1683 at the gates…
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Innovation and Historical Continuity in Great Power Competition
Innovation and Historical Continuity in Great Power Competition Abstract: Even in this age of remarkable changes, the character of warfare and the continuities of geography and politics are weighty and instructive. Politicians and strategists often relearn the most fundamental lessons about these continuities. It is thus no surprise that the current security establishment in China…
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Iran as Competitor: Measured, Violent, Relentless
Read more: Marine Corps University, Brute Krulak Center for Innovation & Creativity In April the United States government imposed new sanctions on a large, well-functioning segment of state power and governance of Iran: the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Iran is of course a long-time rival power to the United States in the Middle East, and it…
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How Do We Learn?
How Do We Learn? How is it that we anticipate a coming threat, so as to understand and meet it? Unusually, the danger may be new. The Internet was revolutionary, so cyber attack is largely a new threat to us. It cannot be met by hiring more postal inspectors but must be considered and defeated…
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Remembering 23 October
The article below by Prof. Christopher Harmon was published on October 22, 2013 in the “PTSS Daily” newsletter of the Program on Terrorism & Security Studies at the George C. Marshall Center. The 23rd of October, which falls on a Wednesday this year, signals the 30th anniversary of one of the most significant dual-bombings in the history of low-intensity…
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Spain’s ETA Terrorist Group is Dying
Originally published at Orbis Orbis Volume 56, Issue 4, Autumn 2012, Pages 588-607 The armed organization “Basque Fatherland & Liberty” undertook a struggle for an independent homeland vis-à-vis Spanish central government over half a century ago. But today, the author argues, the ETA appears doomed for three reasons. First, Spanish statesmen of the late 1970s…