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Case Studies in Operational Culture draws together the experiences of 22 field grade military officers from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, as well as two of our military allies, Canada and Australia. Each of these officers has written a succinct summary of the cultural challenges that he or she faced in a previous operation, along with an explanation of the lessons learned as a result. Applying the cultural concepts described in two previous volumes in this series, Operational Culture for the Warfighter and Applications in Operational Culture, these essays provide detailed illustrations of how specific cultural factors had a direct impact on the success of military operations.

This volume presents a collection of 38 articles, interviews, and speeches describing many aspects of the U.S. Marine Corps' participation in Operation Enduring Freedom from 2001 to 2009. This work is intended to serve as a general overview and provisional reference to inform both Marines and the general public until the History Division completes monographs dealing with major Marine Corps operations during the campaign. The accompanying annotated bibliography provides a detailed look at selected sources that currently exist until new scholarship and archival materials become available. Additional support for this work came from Dr. Fred H. Allison, embedded reporter Kristin Hen-derson, Colonel James A. Hogberg, the Center for Naval Analyses, the Combat Studies Institute, Joint Force Quarterly, Leatherneck Magazine, Marine Corps Gazette, Marine Corps University Press, Marine Corps Times, Military Review, Rolling Stone, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Seapower, the United States Institute of Peace, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, and The Washington Post for permission to reprint their articles. Their cooperation made this anthology possible

Dealing with tribal systems has posed a continuing challenge to Al-Qaida as it operates in the Middle East and Africa, where a tribal environment is still an integral part of society in many of the countries. How Al-Qaida views and manages the tribal system within its individual areas of operation in many cases can mean the difference between success and failure, and the jihadist movement cannot ignore this issue, which has been a major factor affecting its prospects, especially in Iraq. This study examines Al-Qaida's experience dealing with the tribes in Iraq in terms of a triangular relationship involving the Sunni tribes, Al-Qaida, and the government (or the United States as the governing authority in the initial stages), with latter two entities often competing for the allegiance of the tribes.

When the U.S. military invaded Iraq, it lacked a common understanding of the problems inherent in counterinsurgency campaigns. It had neither studied them, nor developed doctrine and tactics to deal with them. It is fair to say that in 2003, most Army officers knew more about the U.S. Civil War than they did about counterinsurgency. The U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual was written to fill that void. The result of unprecedented collaboration among top U.S. military experts, scholars, and practitioners in the field, the manual espouses an approach to combat that emphasizes constant adaptation and learning, the importance of decentralized decision-making, the need to understand local politics and customs, and the key role of intelligence in winning the support of the population. The manual also emphasizes the paradoxical and often counterintuitive nature of counterinsurgency operations: sometimes the more you protect your forces, the less secure you are; sometimes the more force you use, the less effective it is; sometimes doing nothing is the best reaction. An new introduction by Sarah Sewall, director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, places the manual in critical and historical perspective, explaining the significance and potential impact of this revolutionary challenge to conventional U.S. military doctrine. An attempt by our military to redefine itself in the aftermath of 9/11 and the new world of international terrorism, The U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual will play a vital role in American military campaigns for years to come. The University of Chicago Press will donate a portion of the proceeds from this book to the Fisher House Foundation, a private-public partnership that supports the families of America’s injured servicemen. To learn more about the Fisher House Foundation, visit www.fisherhouse.org.

Featuring 4 reports and 25 personal essays from diverse voices-both straight and gay-representing U.S. Marine Corps, Army, Navy, and Air Force veterans and service members, this anthology examines the impact of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and its repeal on 20 September 2011 in order to benefit policy makers, historians, researchers, and general readers. Topics include lessons from foreign militaries, serving while openly gay, women at war, returning to duty, marching forward after repeal, and support for the committed same-sex partners and families of gay service members.

A Book on Books, has been prepared to provide a guide for the United States Marine Corps Professional Reading Program. Read to Lead in Today's Corps. This publication is directed to all Marines, as we are all bound by a common pursuit of professional knowledge. Our profession is warfighting, and, therefore, the emphasis of the professional reading program is on books that will make the individual Marine a better warfighter. This is not homework; this is not drudgery. The selected books have been chosen for their intrinsic excitement as well as their content. Many of the books will be hard to put down. This publication is your roadmap to the professional reading program and serves as a handy reference on how the program works and what the books are about. Let it guide your efforts in developing your own reading program.

Full color publication. Includes maps and photographs.

"The selections in this collection include journalistic accounts, scholarly essays, and Marine Corps summaries of action. Our intent is to provide a general overview to educate Marines and the general public about this critical period in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps, the United States, and Iraq. Many of the conclusions are provisional and are being updated and revised as new information and archival resources become available. The accompanying annotated bibliography provides a detailed overview of where current scholarship on the period currently stands"--Foreword.