Studying Soviet Low-Intensity Conflicts

Almost all of the wars currently occurring in the world are low-intensity conflicts, several months ago a distinguished Pentagon panel made up of former cabinet members and eminent defense intellectuals published a report titled Discriminate Deterrence. They believe these kinds of conflicts are the wave of the future and that the US military must do more to prepare for them. Military analysts as well as civilian scholars have published and are publishing constantly on the subject. Yet, despite these facts, our senior military leaders are not teaching about these wars; and most of the writing that is being done is essentially limited to our failure in Vietnam.1 This is understandable but hardly sufficient.