States and their security forces often assume future insurgency will be versions of Mao Zedong’s “people’s war,” and counterinsurgency remains backward looking without a theoretical foundation to situate it within broader global security environment

TO READ MORE Enter your email to get instant access to this article and to receive our free email newsletter: What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review: A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having…

Steven Metz is the author of “Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy.” In addition to having been on the faculty of the Air War College, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and several universities, he has been an adviser to…

Refocusing professional military education on China could produce a future U.S. military better prepared for likely challenges, more adept at deterring conflict, and succeeding if deterrence fails. The U.S. military has an elaborate professional

Steven Metz Steven Metz is Professor of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College. This essay is solely the work of the author and does not represent the official position of the U.S. Army or U.S. Army War College. Under the…

Twenty years of costly counterinsurgency (COIN) efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have left many national security experts—and the American public—ready to move on. However, while the United States may be over COIN, COIN is not done with the United…

I live half an hour from the Gettysburg battlefield and go there often, normally seeking the less-visited parts of the field at times when there are few other visitors, reaching for the deep spirit of the place undistracted. Recently, though, these…

President Joe Biden’s recent announcement that all U.S. military forces would leave Afghanistan this year drew immediate criticism from a wide range of national security experts and elected officials. Some of this reflected fear of a human rights…

For this Whiteboard we reached out again to several scholars with the following prompt: What should be the Biden administration’s top foreign policy priority? Readers are invited to make their own contributions in the comments section. DEMOCRACY AT…

The US Army War College Quarterly Parameters The US Army War College Quarterly Parameters Volume 47 Number 3 Parameters Autumn 2017 Article 4 Fall 9 1 2017 Abandoning Counterinsurgency Reviving…

A year ago, the U.S. Army was busy retooling from counterinsurgency to long term competition with China and Russia. Its focus was on what it called “multi-domain operations” particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, and on modernizing to fight large…

This essay is part of a 2020 Defense Priorities symposium on Department of Defense budget cuts. Read more essays in the series here. The long term costs of recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and the ensuing development of a broader approach to…

Leadership and innovationSteven MetzDr Steven Metz senior research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute US Army War College and nonresident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible…

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Editor’s Note: Guest columnist Steven Metz is filling in for Candace Rondeaux this week. On April 15, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un failed to make his annual visit to Kumsusan Palace in Pyongyang to celebrate the birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il…

Like every other American institution, the United States military is struggling to deal with the spread of the novel coronavirus. Its immediate focus is on supporting civil authorities during this crisis while staying prepared for other missions. It…

Don't believe the hype—it only justifies a strategy of global primacy and an outsized, expeditionary military. Americans normally question involvement in faraway conflicts but support them when the threat justifies it. Once the adversary is…

Steven Metz RSIS / Commentaries / Country and Region Studies / East Asia and Asia Pacific / Global / Maritime Security / Non-Traditional Security / South Asia / Southeast Asia and ASEAN

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump ended U.S. support for Kurdish forces in Syria. “Let Syria and Assad protect the Kurds” he tweeted, abruptly abandoning an alliance that had taken shape during the Obama administration and eventually led to…

Editor’s Note: This will be Steven Metz’s final weekly column for World Politics Review. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Steve for more than six years of keen insights into U.S. strategy, national security and defense policy, all…