The author presents a stimulating paper about conducting aerial warfare, defined as the use of "the destructive instrument of airpower applied against an enemy in time of war." He challenges Airmen to acquire mental agility commensurate with the unprecedented flexibility of their instruments. The author fills a critical gap in aerial warfare literature. Most works focus on the technical or tactical aspects of the profession and medium, but stop short of discussions of the broader nature of war itself. Consideration of war in that larger sense is essential for those who seek to understand and...

Over the last two decades, the Air Force's fleet of aircraft has shrunk 40 percent, while the average inventory age has increased from eight years in 1973 to a projected 26.5 years by 2012. Concurrently, this smaller, older fleet has been tasked with 2.3 million flight hours per year since the end of Operation Desert Storm. In an environment of flat bud-gets, limited manpower, and an aging, shrinking fleet, the Air Force seeks cultural transformations to remain the world's premier air, space, and cyberspace force. The trans-formation initiative Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century...

The literature on effects-based operations (EBO) seems to grow each day. Myriad definitions have appeared in service and joint doctrine writings as well as in other writings. Most are too far reaching for current capabilities, and they may be too far reaching for future capabilities. Both the United States Air Force (USAF) and the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) EBO definitions encompass all facets of national policy, including strategic outcomes. USAF and USJFCOM are attempting a quantum leap when smaller, more manageable steps are indicated to enable and embed an EBO culture in...

The Air Force has challenged leaders to integrate and use quality principles as a way to improve operations throughout the service. In this study Lt Col David F. Bird, USAF, reminds us that these quality principles apply to emergency response forces----both before and during a crisis. He proposes that senior leaders view quality concepts and principles as a way of creating an environment to spark the highest performance by their subordinates and not as giving up authority or control. At wing level, the disaster control group forms in response to a crisis incident ranging from an aircraft...

In "Preventing Catastrophe: US Policy Options for Management of Nuclear Weapons in South Asia," Lt. Col. Martin J. "Marty" Wojtysiak, USAF, proposes a response to the dangerous proliferation of nuclear weapons in India and Pakistan. This paper highlights the threat in "The Nuclear Catastrophe of 2005," a gripping projection of the worst case scenario on the current realities of the Indian subcontinent. Written a year after the "catastrophe," it vividly describes the events leading up to the disaster as well as the grim aftermath of a South Asian nuclear war. The remainder of the paper looks...

This study examines the rise of operations other than war (OOTW) as a new and prominent tasking for the armed services of the United States. The author, Lt Col Charles W. Hasskamp, USAF, is an advocate of the OOTW mission, and he argues that the US Special Forces Command is an excellent instrument for the task. The author bases his position on these points. First, the end of the cold war has provided the United States a respite from the focused geopolitical strategy and challenge of "containment." Unfortunately, without the stability coerced by a bipolar world, the shutters have come off and...

The author has been following the establishment of the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) as called for in the Treaty of Rome since first teaching an elective, Morality and War: Implications for the War Fighter, at the Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) in January 2000. Almost from the beginning, his thoughts harkened back to what he believed Winston Churchill was warning us about the future - his words were something like, "Be ever mindful of the ghost of Nuremberg coming back to haunt us." This notion haunts us today. According to author Bradley Smith, it was at America's...

As an unconventional analytical source, Michel Foucault contributes new power perspectives to intelligence analysis; and he gives a nontraditional look at growing, evolving threat environment. As highlighted in "The Foucault Reader," Foucault's analytical edge confronts these threats "by refusing to separate off knowledge from power." "His strategy has been to focus his work, both political and intellectual, on what he sees as the greatest threat - that strange, somewhat unlikely, mixing of the social science and social practices developed around subjectivity." Foucault's theories address the...

In this excellent essay Lt Col David G. Curdy examines the prospects for democratic transitions in the Middle East. Henotes that with the conclusion of the cold war, the basis for US Middle East policy, which had centered around oil, Israel, and the Soviet Union, should be reexamined and, perhaps, redesigned. Moreover, major political events stemming from the 1990--91 Gulf War have reenergized efforts to implement democratic processes within the region. Colonel Curdy argues that the West has generally held the view that democracy and Islam are mutually exclusive and incompatible. However, he...

Since the end of the Gulf War, the debate over whether there should be a separate space service, equal with the Air Force, Army, and Navy, has grown in proportion to the indispensable value of space operations to our nation's defense. Increasing dependency on space-systems is a fact of military life. In this we-documented essay, Col. Michael C. Whittington compares the leading arguments for a separate space force to the cogent arguments for an independent air force made by airpower advocates during the interwar years of 1920-1940. The airpower issues in 1920 and the space power issues of...