The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was one of the most effective—and brutal—insurgent movements of recent times. With the strategic goal of seceding from Sri Lanka and establishing a separate state to be known as “Tamil Eelam,” the LTTE waged a bloody war for 30 years, until the Sri Lankan military finally defeated it in May 2009...

Airpower is strategically important in conventional warfare. The ability to bypass an enemy’s land and naval forces and directly target its political, economic, and industrial hubs can prove tremendously advantageous in state-on-state war-fare. Yet, the application of strategic air power in the context of irregular conflicts is problematic for even the world’s most sophisticated militaries.

For almost 11 years, coalition forces in Afghanistan have been battling an insurgency in a very complicated environment that includes Islamic religious fanatics, warlords, and common criminals. Kinetic actions are not enough to prevail. In this protracted war, winning the support of the population is imperative...

The deliberate killing on December 25, 2011, of the leader of Darfur’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Khalil Ibrahim, inspired mixed reporting at first. In their initial reports, the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), claimed that Khalil died due to the wounds he sustained during a clash between his forces and the SAF while fighting his way toward Kordofan to join the Sudan Peo-ple’s Liberation Movement-North, which was already fighting the SAF in that area...

The leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran has empowered Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), or Pasda-ran, to such an extent that the IRGC has become the center of gravity not only for the security, but also for the economy of the regime. This power, enabled by a lack of credible political checks and balances or separation of powers, is a critical strength for the Pasdaran and the current regime...

On the eve of September 11th’s first anniversary, Damien Hirst, the acclaimed and highly successful golden boy of the art establishment’s yBa (young British artists) “high art lite” collective, made the following remark: “The thing about 9/11 is that it’s kind of an artwork in its own right...

Author Rusty Bradley is a former non-commissioned officer who, after earning his commission through Officer Candidate School, passed Special Forces selection and then successful-ly negotiated the SF Qualification course. In Lions of Kanda-har: The Story of a Fight Against All Odds, Bradley describes events that happened during his third tour in Afghanistan in 2006...

Modern insurgents rarely fight only one enemy for the territory they contest. Besides the counter-insurgents—be they state security forces, foreign occupation troops, or both—the insurgents often have to battle other insurgents, to settle whose political vision for their post-revolutionary government will prevail. These power struggles sometimes continue after the counter-insurgent is bested, and a new cycle of civil war ensues...

I recently received an email from a student in which he made the following observation: of the ten highest military service awards America bestows, the qualifying criteria for each involves either physical courage and brav-ery, or extended periods of service with extreme responsibility. Not one, my student observed, is for demonstrating moral courage...