This thesis is a case study of the 1923 Greco-Turkish population exchange and asserts the compulsory expulsion effectively prevented genocide of Orthodox Christians living in Asia Minor. To support this argument historical evidence leading up to the exchange is presented and examined for specific genocide indicators. Contemporary terms and viewpoints of genocide and mass atrocities are used to assess the historical facts and support the hypothesis. The study further addresses the long term results of the exchange. This study is focused only on the events that support the thesis and does not...

U.S. Special Operations Command has publicly acknowledged that special operations forces (SOF) require conventional force support. Review of the 2009 force design update for the Band V Special Forces Group shows that Special Forces (SF) operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the structure of the modular Brigade Combat Team influenced the development of the SF Group Support Battalion (GSB) and the SF forward support companies (FSCs). As SF's primary mission, unconventional warfare should provide a central, unique, and specific influence in both organizational designs for all units...

Nearly 100 years ago, the US Army and its international partners committed a task force in 1918 to northern Russia while simultaneously conducting large scale combat operations in western Europe during World War I. Like many modern expeditionary operations in the last ten years, the Allies in north Russia operated in a hostile environment with ill-defined problems in an immature theater of operations. Since there are similarities between the Allied expeditionary force of 1918 in north Russia and US expeditionary operations in the last decade, a case study focused on the operational approach...

Legal positivists dominate discussions concerning legitimacy in military operations. From their perspective, the only valid form of legitimacy is an expression of will from sovereign rulers through international organizations. Thus, resolutions from the UN and regional organizations are important prerequisites for military operations. Unfortunately, such a strict focus on procedural expressions of sovereign will leads to irreconcilable paradoxes such as the procedural norms of sovereignty and protection of basic human rights. If states possess a sovereign right of non-interference from...

Counterinsurgents have raised and employed irregular security forces in many campaigns over the last century. Irregular security forces are indigenous forces, not part of the regular police or military organizations of the host nation, that are recruited locally to provide a basic level of security in a given area. Irregular security forces, when used in conjunction with all other available capabilities, contribute to, but do not in and of themselves ensure success. While irregular security forces can be effective in conducting local security, intelligence gathering, surveillance and other...

With the advent of Field Manual (FM) 3-24, Counterinsurgency, a debate has arisen concerning the manual's origins and its applicability to today's insurgencies. Critics, such as Colonel Gian Gentile, claim that the manual is overly influenced by French theories focused on stopping a Maoist type insurgency and this influence precludes its utility for other types of counterinsurgency campaigns. Those who support the manual, such as Colonel (retired) Peter Mansoor, point to the timing of its December 2006 publication in relation to the surge of forces into Iraq in January 2007 and the...

Gathering and sharing intelligence is crucial to ensuring our national security. The intelligence community (IC) is commonly blamed when there is a failure to foresee actions against U.S. interests at home and abroad. While intelligence is usually compartmentalized, there are occasions where the benefits of sharing intelligence far outweigh the risks. The author believes intelligence sharing amongst members of the community has increased since the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA), however the overall effectiveness of that sharing leaves much room for...

Today's operational environment finds irregular warfare alive and well. Irregular forces' organization, size, composition, and depth of support vary greatly on the battlefield. These dynamics correspondingly impact their overall influence and effect on a given conflict, as irregulars may serve as a mere harassment or weigh heavily on the final results. The state of Missouri and the surrounding region were no strangers to guerrilla and irregular warfare during the American Civil War. Pre-existing conflict and competing sentiments for secession or neutrality laid the roots for a violent...

This thesis is a case study on ethics within war. The thirteenth century Albigensian Crusade was a war against a heretical religious ideology known as Catharism whose tenets threatened the social order of Europe. The campaign took place in present-day southern France, a region that was at the heart of medieval Christendom. While the Church had recognized the area's slow decline into heresy for over a century, only during the papacy of Pope Innocent III did the situation escalate to necessitate armed conflict. Following the papal call to crusade, Christian nobles and knights from France and...

United States Army combat engineers were not properly trained to conduct their mission during World War II. Research of combat engineer training and operations during the interwar period and subsequently in the Pacific, North African, and European theaters revealed the extraordinary efforts required both to train new engineers and to develop selectees into capable combat engineer units. This research demonstrates that significant reductions to military personnel levels and readiness during the interwar period required a hasty fielding of forces in wartime that were not trained to previously...