Prism: A Journal of the Center for Complex Operations 

About: Prism: A Journal of the Center for Complex Operations is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): National security & Terrorism. It has an ISSN identifier of 2157-0663. Over the lifetime, 155 publications have been published receiving 813 citations.

Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

Abstract: Team of Teams: New Rules Of Engagement for a Complex World By Stanley A. McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell Portfolio 290 pp. ISBN-13: 9781591847489REVIEWED BY CHRISTOPHER J. LAMBGeneral Stanley McChrystal (Ret.) and his team have written what is arguably the most important book on national security in the past decade, but it is not likely to be recognized as such in Washington, D.C. Before explaining the book's import and why many in the nation's capital will underestimate its significance, we first need a summary of the book and its contents.The book, Team of Teams: New Rules Of Engagement for A Complex World, is a great read and like McChrystal's previous best seller, My Share of the Task: A Memoir, takes readers on an interesting journey. In My Share of the Task, McChrystal catalogued his time as a former Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, and then later, as Commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan. In it McChrystal shares his experience and reasoning as he struggles to understand not only the strengths and weaknesses of our adversaries but also those of our own war machine and national security decisionmaking process. One of the many things that make that book compelling is McChrystal's candor about his learning process, which he explains in detail. In short and simple terms, what General McChrystal and his forces did was revolutionize counterterrorism operations with unprecedented levels of cross-organizational-including interagency- collaboration that permitted a real-time fusing of intelligence and operations.Team of Teams is a similar journey of discovery, but one that puts McChrystal's extensive military experience in a much broader context. McChrystal says he and his team wanted to know whether the organizational transformation they forged by trial and error in the heat of battle to defeat elusive enemies using age-old unconventional tactics and 21st century technology "was a one-off occurrence that emerged from the unique factors of post2003 Iraq, or whether it was a microcosm of a broader changed environment that impacts almost every organization in today's world." The authors conclude the latter and wrote the book to explain why.The book is highly readable; erudite without being impenetrable, and full of illustrative examples. The overall structure of the book is logical. It begins by arguing the environment has changed due to social and technological factors; then explains the significance of these changes for organizations and the resultant changes required for successful performance in such an environment; and concludes with leadership lessons for how to make transformed organizations function well. Chapters typically begin with military examples that illustrate a concept, then broaden to include interesting and often fascinating examples from other fields of endeavor and organizational experiences. Each chapter ends with a "recap" shadow box that offers a set of bullets reviewing main points.Most of the military examples in Team of Teams relate how the U.S. Special Operations Command had to dramatically change its organization and culture to achieve the agility necessary to keep pace with the terrorists and insurgent networks in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries. Although Team of Teams is sprinkled with examples from military operations, anyone hoping for a historical account of the U.S. military's fight against terrorists and insurgents should read My Share of the Task. Indeed, reading My Share of the Task before Team of Teams will help readers who want to more fully appreciate the difficulty of the task General McChrystal took on and the tremendous impact he had before his career ended in Afghanistan for what this reviewer believes were poorly thought through political reasons.McChrystal was able to retain the traditional strengths of the U.S. Special Operations Command, which include vast resources and superbly trained and equipped forces, while augmenting those capabilities with assets from across the national security architecture. …

Women and Wars: Contested Histories, Uncertain Futures

Abstract: Women and Wars: Contested Histories, Uncertain Futures By Carol Cohn Polity, Cambridge, UK, 2012 256 pp., $26.95 ISBN-13: 978-0745642451REVIEWED BY KRISTEN A. CORDELLCarol Cohn's December 2012 anthology Women and Wars uses descriptions of the varied roles of women during conflict to push forward an agenda for full inclusion of their perspective in securing the peace. Women and Wars fills the vacuum left by the "women as victims" approach that characterized the early 2000's, with a diverse array of options for understanding the roles and perspectives that women have during conflict, including: soldiers, civilians, caregivers, sex workers, refugees and internally displaced persons, anti-war activists, and community peacebuilders.Over the last two years the expansion of information on women, peace, and security has been vast both within academia and policy circles. The space once characterized by "awkward silences,"1 between feminist researchers and security practitioners is closing rapidly - assisted by an improved understanding of why gender matters during conflict and post conflict. During the preparation of the 2011 U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, the U.S. government reached out to a consortium of civil society groups and academics, of which the author was a member. They were looking for "proof" (both empirical and anecdotal) that gender matters in stability operations, and data to show that women's equality is foundational to stability and security. Cohn's book is an excellent example of such proof. It is a series of well tested, field based examples of why gender matters during and after war.As founding director of the Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, Cohn's access and professional history have led to a book the strengths of which lie firstly in its diversity of subjects (the roles of women in war), and, secondly, in its' diversity of effort (the chapter authors). An introductory chapter provides context and concepts, setting the stage for an inclusive understanding of peace and security. Individual chapters within the book are authored by well-known scholars and practitioners, regularly relying on real life examples of impacts and outcomes. Chapters are organized thematically and cover such issues as security sector reform, disarmament, sexual and gender based violence, returnee and refugee issues. As a result, the traditional lens through which womens' participation in conflict has been seen for so long, that of victimhood, erodes with each compelling and wellwritten chapter.Research has proven that the inclusion of women earlier in the process of peace building and peacekeeping leads to greater security for the state as a whole.2 We also know that gender parity plays a strong role in state stability. A 2005 study funded by the Canadian government assessing what factors make fragile states more so, concluded that "gender parity may play a strong and measurable role in the stability of the state"3 even when separated from other known correlations. In other words, it showed that it is not just a matter of more developed societies being more stable, and more developed societies also being societies marked by greater gender equity, but rather that gender equity may well increase stability.4 Inequitable societies (i.e. societies in which a portion of the population, principally women and/or ethnic minorities, are oppressed) show a much higher propensity to solve their international disputes by initiating violence and war.5 Countries with a lower level of gender equality are more likely to engage in violence, international crises, and disputes.6Transversely, research shows, as do many failed "nation building experiments," that leaving women out of rebuilding and renegotiating in the post conflict space has dramatically harmful impacts on the direction of society by reducing stability and prosperity.7 In other words, inclusivity begets stability. …

Victory for Hire: Private Security Companies' Impact on Military Effectiveness

Abstract: Victory for Hire: Private Security Companies' Impact on Military Effectiveness By Molly Dunigan Stanford University Press, 2011 256 pp., $24-95 ISBN: 978-080477-459-8REVIEWED BYT.X. HAMMESIn his January 24, 201 1, memorandum entitled "Strategic and Operational Planning for Operational Contract Support (OCS) and Workforce Mix," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated:At the height of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, contractor numbers well exceeded the military footprint; a simi' lar situation is occurring in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. I do not expect this to change now or in future contingency operations.Although there is historic precedence for contracted support to our military forces , I am concerned about therisL· introduced by our current level of dependency , our future total force mix, and the need to better plan for OCS in the future.The memorandum concluded by stating, "The time is now - while the lessons learned from recent operations are fresh - to institutionalize the changes necessary to influence a cultural shift in how we view, account, and plan for contracted and CEW [Civilian Expeditionary Workforce] support in the contingency environment."In short, the Secretary stated that the United States will continue to use contractors as half of any deployed force, so the Defense Department should figure out how to do it right. Molly Dunigan's Victory for Hire: Private Security Companies' Impact on Military Effectiveness is a good place to start. Dunigan is an Associate Political Scientist at RAND and is also author of its study "Hired Guns: Views About Armed Contractors in Operation Iraqi Freedom."In Victory for Hire, Dunigan set out to achieve two goals. First, she wanted to illustrate the impact that private security companies (PSCs) have on military effectiveness and the probability that a democracy can use them well. Second, she wanted to understand the way differences in structure and identity affect military forces composed of a mix of national militaries and contractors "with an eye to providing policy prescriptions for current U.S. policy." In doing so, Dunigan first explores the theoretical considerations of democratic states using contactors. She then examines both the positive and negative aspects that affect both the providing state and the receiving state. While Dunigan frames her argument within the literature of international relations, her observations are pointed and have practical impacts. She notes:* Private security contractors allow weak state leaders to outsource violence and thus never have to develop a state apparatus. Funding is spent on contractors rather than building state capacity.* Strong democratic states can outsource interventions to contractors. This preserves the strong states' own military forces but hinders the prospect of the host nation developing its own security institutions.* Contractors allow leaders of strong states to avoid restrictions imposed by either the international community or its own legislative branch (a particular concern to this reviewer).Dunigan then takes on the issues generated when contractors operate alongside active military forces - operational coordination issues, morale impact of pay differentials, and impact of contractors on the host nation population's perceptions of U.S. forces. Dunigan concludes that PSCs "serve as force multipliers in Iraq and Afghanistan and thus have a beneficial impact on quality [but] they have a negative impact on integration through the structural and identity-based hindrances to their effective coordination." In particular, she stresses the negative impact that contractor actions have on the perceptions of the population - particularly when the United States is running a population-centric (legitimacy of governance) counterinsurgency campaign.This reviewer traces this negative impact to three facts. First, the United States does not really know whom it is hiring when it hires contractors. …

A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order?

Abstract: A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order? By Richard Haass Penguin Press, 2017 312 pp., $28.00 ISBN-13: 978-0-39956-236-5Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, is an innovative thinker in the field of American foreign policy and international relations. In his recent work, A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order, Haass proposes updating the current world order-that has been with us seemingly since time immemorial, having originated with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648-to help alleviate world disorder.In this new world order, respect for sovereignty and the inviolability of borders would be supplemented by "sovereign obligation," whereby states would be responsible for developments within their borders that affect other states, such as terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, and cyberhacking. Haass views sovereign obligation as a form of realism, the emphasis of which is "less on what another country is (or does within its borders) as it is on what it chooses to do beyond its borders, that is, in its foreign policy." Governments would be "expected not just to live up to agreed upon behaviors but also [to] make sure that no third party carried out prohibited actions from their territory and that any party discovered to be so doing would be stopped and penalized."It is indisputable, as Haass argues, that "states individually or collectively have not just the right but the obligation to act against terrorism as well as against states that harbor or otherwise support terrorists." There is an element of common benefit that will work- and which sounds very much like the concept of collective security. In the context of international organizations, and establishing coalitions to deal with vexing and dangerous cross border issues, states can work together effectively without giving up sovereign rights.Haass believes that for countries to implement sovereign obligation, governments need to forge coalitions of countries as well as nonstate actors. The United Nations is not a practical venue because its concept of sovereign equality-one country one vote- at the General Assembly is not representative of global strength and power. Furthermore, the Security Council excludes not just nonstate actors but also significant countries, such as India and Germany, and no major power will submit a matter for disposition by the Council that would, in effect, diminish that major power's sovereignty. Haass instead advocates the use of consultations to help build legitimacy for sovereign obligation. For example, Haass suggests that it would be essential to include Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook as participants on cyber issues, as well as involving nonstate actors such as major domestic pharmaceutical companies and nongovernmental organizations on global health issues.In a world in which Russia regularly violates the sovereignty of other states, including by cyberhacking and outright invasion, and North Korea brazenly launches missiles in contravention of international law, it is difficult to see how sovereign obligation can be implemented or enforced. Arguably most states would perceive sovereign obligation as a limitation on their sovereign rights, and regretfully in failed states such as Syria sovereign obligation does not have efficacy. Further, one wonders how these ideas can be applied to nonstate actors such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. …

Women as Symbols and Swords in Boko Haram's Terror

Abstract: In June 2014, a middle-aged woman riding a motorcycle approached the military barracks in the North Eastern Nigerian city of Gombe. While being searched at the military checkpoint, she detonated the explosives strapped to her body, ending her life and killing a soldier in the process. With this act, a new chapter in the destructive history of Boko Haram began: the group joined the ranks of terrorist groups around the world that have incorporated women into their organizational profiles. Since the first attack, women and young girls (between the ages of 7 and 17) have been coerced into targeting civilians at markets, bus depots, and mosques. The 89 attacks documented between June 2014 and January 2016, mostly of civilian soft targets, are responsible for more than 1,200 deaths and an even greater number of injuries. The adoption of female sui- cide bombers is not especially surprising as an operational adaptation to increased state surveillance of the group's activities; it has been a tactic adopted by secular and religious terrorist groups from Sri Lanka to Syria. However, Boko Haram depends on female operatives disproportionately, relative to similar insurgencies; for example, the Tamil Tigers used 46 women over the course of 10 years, whereas Boko Haram has deployed more than 90 women in a little over a year and a half.2Though Boko Haram is known to be the most significant source of violence in Nigeria since the transition to democracy in 1999, the group's abuses against women have also earned it international notoriety. When the group abducted the Chibok Girls from their school in April 2014, impassioned advocates around the world promulgated the #BringBackOurGirls movement and popularized the hashtag on social media, demanding that former President Goodluck Jonathan mount a serious effort to rescue the victims. Not only did human rights advocates marshal support through NGOs and public awareness campaigns, but Nigeria's international partners, including the United States, also provided supplementary military support.3 The United States bolstered Nigeria's capacity to monitor the Sambisa Forest, where much of Boko Haram was located, and collect intelligence on the insurgency by providing drones and unmanned surveillance aircraft.4 The attention that the group garnered following these abductions, which facilitated the spread of its propaganda domestically and internationally, may have emboldened the group to rely more heavily on female operatives.5Unfortunately, while the focus on the victimized girls helped garner international support, the effort overlooked the role that women and girls play in the insurgency's operations and ideology, depriving analysts of critical insights about the functioning of the group. The timing of the group's use of females as weapons conforms to the use of genderbased violence globally as a recruitment strategy by terrorist organizations in conflicts as diverse as Turkey, Sri Lanka, and Iraq. Further, Boko Haram's use of female suicide bombers connects it to the broader global extremist movement, which is increasingly deploying female fighters and suicide bombers.6 However, the forced conscription and deployment of young women and girls is a differentiating feature of Boko Haram among other terrorist organizations, many of which have benefited from willing female participation.7 The group's conceptualization of females has also distinguished it from other Islamist movements in North East Nigeria; given the group's origins as a dissident movement, methods of differentiation are critical aspects of the insurgency. Analyzing the group's propaganda and the local religious-political context in which it operates shows how women, and their position within the group's ideology, allow Boko Haram to differentiate itself from other Nigerian Salafi movements. Other Salafi groups have advocated for women's education and have coexisted with the Nigerian secular state-by emphasizing its differences with such movements, Boko Haram portrays itself as the vanguard of "true Islam. …