REUTERS/Zohra BensemraThe Center for a New American Security has two new interesting papers out; one on contractors in warzones, the other on redefining the missions of special operations forces. Also, the Strategic Studies Institute published an outstanding monograph on the "YouTube war."
From CNAS:
Contractors in American Conflicts: Adapting to a New Reality
When our nation goes to war, contractors go with it. Contractors have become an enduring feature of modern American conflicts, and the United States cannot now engage in hostilities or in reconstruction and stabilization operations without them. At their peak, there were more contractors on the ground in Iraq than American troops in uniform and there are more contractors today in Afghanistan than there are U.S. troops on the ground.
Time for Action: Redefining SOF Missions and Activities
U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) have played a key role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in the broader U.S. effort to destroy al Qaeda and its violent extremist allies. In fact, over the past eight years SOF have experienced their most extensive and transformative use of the modern era. Still, these strategic national assets are not yet fully optimized for success.
Here is the Strategic Studies Institute Monograph:
YouTube War: Fighting in a World of Cameras in Every Cell Phone and Photoshop on Every Computer
Terrorist attacks today are often media events in a second sense: information and communication technologies have developed to such a point that these groups can film, edit, and upload their own attacks within minutes of staging them, whether the Western media are present or not. In this radically new information environment, the enemy no longer depends on traditional media. This is the “YouTube War.” This monograph methodically lays out the nature of this new environment in terms of its implications for a war against media-savvy insurgents, and then considers possible courses of action for the Army and the U.S. military as they seek to respond to an enemy that has proven enormously adaptive to this new environment and the new type of warfare it enables.
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