Southeast Asia is a key crossroads of the Pacific Region, and conducting military-to-military cooperation with Vietnam directly supports our vital interests in this region. Southeast Asia is a mixture of religious and cultural dynamics. It has many natural resources, to include large oil reserves in Vietnam's territorial waters, and potentially larger oil reserves around the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. These islands have been laid claim to by six Asian nations, of which China and Vietnam are among them. Additionally, China's growing economic prowess and attempts to increase...

The United States' containment policy imposed upon North Korea has been relatively successful for approximately 50 years. This post-World War II strategy has prevented a major war since the conclusion of the Korean Conflict. Our changing world environment characterized by globalization and all its related components; end of the Cold War; increased numbers of failed and non-state actors; rise of terrorist and religious extremist groups; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and associated missile exportation and technology transfer mandates that the nation reexamine its current...

The intent of this book is to propose a different approach to the United State's regional strategy for North Korea. The Korean War ended fifty-one years ago however, the U.S. is no closer to resolving this conflict than it was in 1953. The Korean Peninsula remains a dangerous place and a potential flashpoint threatening the stability of Northeast Asia. North Korea maintains large conventional and non-conventional forces as well as ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. These capabilities threaten South Korea and Japan. North Korea's nuclear weapons program has the potential to...

The United States policy for dealing with a nuclear North Korea has been a combination of containment, deterrence, and limited engagement since 1994. While this policy has prevented war on the Korean peninsula, it has not prevented North Korea from developing a nuclear program and proliferating this technology, as well as missile technology, to numerous countries not friendly to the United States. In order to stop North Korea from transferring weapons technology, the United States needs a new strategic concept. This paper will examine four options that may be used to support the element of...

North Korea is probably the most mysterious and inaccessible country in the world today. Officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Pyongyang regime is headed by perhaps the most mercurial enigmatic political leader alive. No prominent figure of the early 21st century has been more reviled by Americans or considered more dangerous to the United States, with the possible exception of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden than Kim Jong II. The regime Kim leads is generally considered to be one of the most repressive in existence, with a vast gulag, a massive security...

Much hyperbole surrounds the political regime in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea). Many analysts argue that North Korea is a unique political system. What kind of regime is the DPRK, and what kind of leader does it have? A variety of labels are given to the North Korean regime. These include likening the regime to an organized crime family and to a corporatist organism. There are certainly merits to each of these approaches, but each has its limitations. Pyongyang does share some of the attributes of organized crime and certainly engages in criminal activity in...

Intrastate conflicts, ranging from localized rebellions to civil war, increased linearly from 1946 through 1992 and then dramatically decreased in the post-Cold War era. This rise and fall of subnational conflict closely mirrors the "proxy" wars fought by or between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States. Proxy refers to great power hostility expressed through client states" and describes superpower use of these states to pursue strategic and ideological goals within the confines of nuclear deterrent postures extant during the Cold War. This was done in large...

Yemen is not currently a failed state, but it is experiencing huge political and economic problems that can have a direct impact on U.S. interests in the region. It has a rapidly expanding population with a resource base that is limited and already leaves much of the current population in poverty. The government obtains around a third of its budget revenue from sales of its limited and declining oil stocks, which most economists state will be exhausted by 2017. Yemen has critical water shortages aggravated by the use of extensive amounts of water and agricultural land for production of the...

The United States has a window of opportunity to implement a new US-Yemeni policy to secure vital national interests in the Arabian Peninsula and prevent Yemen from becoming the next Afghanistan. After decades of authoritarian rule, opposition groups with the support of the Gulf Cooperation Council nations have forced Yemeni President Saleh to step down. In addition to political strife, Yemen has significant social, economic and security challenges that are likely to result in state failure without external intervention. This creates an opportunity for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to...

This project will use the Allied landings at Anzio during World War II as a historical case study to analyze the importance and complexities of building coherent strategic direction in coalition warfare, as well as relate the conclusions to recent operations in Libya and discuss implications for Coalition Force Commanders in the future. Joint doctrine states that strategic direction leads to unified action; strategic direction translated into commander's intent at the operational and tactical level of war leads to unified action. When strategic direction is not conveyed in commander's intent,...