stability operations

New Army Field Manual Concerns ‘Full Spectrum’ Training

Just so no one misconstrues a previous post as me having issues with Dave Dilegge or Small Wars Journal, let me hat-tip SWJ for this just-released Army field manual about how to train for so-called “full-spectrum” operations, a fancy way of saying the Army needs to train for all contingencies. The manual, known as FM [...]

Another Counterinsurgency Advance

Chalk up another win for the counterinsurgents. The Washington Post reports today that one of the final acts of the Bush-era Gates Pentagon (as opposed to the Obama-era Gates Pentagon) is to elevate irregular warfare — stability operations, counterinsurgency, all that asymmetrical stuff that isn’t two mechanized armies clobbering one another — to the same [...]

An Evolving Role for the Army

A new field manual, based on lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan, seeks to move the military away from its traditional role of fighting a hostile state’s forces to stabilizing weak governments. But can the service accept a subordinate role?