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Integration of Female Marine Pilots and Naval Flight Officers 1990-2000

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CNA research on the integration of female Marine aviators offers some insights that senior service leaders should consider as they evaluate the expansion of assignments and MOSs for female Marines.

North Korean Leadership Dynamics

/analyses/2014/north-korean-leadership-dynamics

Kim Jong-il’s death in December 2011 brought about the hereditary transition of power to a third generation. Kim Jong-un assumed the mantle of Supreme Leader.

Drone Strikes in Pakistan Reasons to Assess Civilian Casualties

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CNA analyzed publically available data to determine the likelihood of civilian harm per strike in the drone campaign in Pakistan. From this data, we see that the U.S. has improved its ability to reduce civilian casualties during drone strikes in Pakistan over the past several years, as measured in the percentage of strikes causing civilian casualties and the number of civilian casualties occurring per incident.

Bone Dry and Flooding Soon

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CNA Corporation, sponsored by the Skoll Global Threats Fund, executed two instances of a political decision-making game designed to explore information-sharing and cooperation over water on the Indian subcontinent. The game explored how Bangladesh, China, India, and Pakistan manage water resources between the Brahmaputra, Indus, and Ganges rivers. The first instance of the game took place in January 2014 in the Washington, DC area, and was played primarily by American subject matter experts. The second instance of the game was held in June 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and was played by retired senior officials with policy and military backgrounds, and water experts from all four South Asian countries. This document summarizes the second (regional) instance of the game, identifies strategic insights from the regional instance, and compares the two instances deriving further insights based on that comparison.

Improving US India Cooperation in Indian Ocean

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The CNA Corporation conducted this study to determine how the United States can best deepen coordination with India on humanitar- ian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) in the Indian Ocean. This study builds on the findings of a 2012 CNA Corporation study, U.S.- India Security Burden-Sharing?, which identified HA/DR as a functional area in which the United States could advance naval relations with India. This is due to the frequency with which natural disasters strike the region, especially the Bay of Bengal, and, for India, the relative domestic political palatability of working with the United States in the aftermath of natural disasters. The United States is increasingly looking to India to contribute to se- curity in the Indian Ocean. Deepening U.S.-Indian economic con- nections, shared democratic identities, declining U.S. defense budgets, and the rise of China have drawn the United States closer to India as a security partner in the region.

Independent Assessment of the Afghan National Security Forces

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This assessment, tasked by the United States Congress, was made by analysts in CNA’s Center for Strategic Studies. Dr. Jonathan Schroden led this work, and many CNA analysts con- tributed to the results. Their names are on the cover. The CNA analysts involved in this assess- ment have considerable experience with Afghanistan’s security situation, many having been assigned in Afghanistan and having worked with United States, NATO, and Afghan security forces, and knowing the local language. The Center for Strategic Studies engages in analysis of security matters of many kinds in all parts of the world. We have significant expertise in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. On-the-ground experience, knowledge of local languages, and use of local primary source data to produce empirically-based analyses are hallmarks of our regional work. This report contains the best opinion of CNA at the time of issue. It does not necessarily represent the opinion of the Sponsor, the Secretary of Defense.

Were the Afghan National Security Forces Successful

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With all of the recent developments pertaining to a possible bilateral security agreement (BSA) regarding future troop presence and military cooperation between the United States and Afghanistan, another important aspect of the future of Afghanistan has gotten much less attention. The Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) just finished their first year of being fully in the lead for providing security in Afghanistan, with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in support. With 2013 behind us, it is time to take stock of how the ANSF performed.

The Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership

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The Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) is a multiyear, interagency program aimed at countering terrorism (CT) and countering violent extremism (CVE) in the Sahel and Maghreb. By U.S. government standards, TSCTP is an exceptional program for its ability to marshal interagency resources in support of a multifaceted approach to regional security that spans the “3Ds” – Diplomacy, Defense, and Development. However, like many other foreign assistance programs, TSCTP is not without planning and implementation challenges, which will be detailed in this study.

No Security Without Us

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This paper is intended to serve as a primer on the salient aspects of tribalism in Sunni areas of Iraq, with an emphasis on al Anbar province. It provides a brief summary of the nature of modern tribalism, tribal structures and organization, and the role of tribal leadership. It also details important tribal customs designed to inhibit the escalation of violence. The research for this paper was conducted by the author while embedded as a CNA analyst with the U.S. Marine Corps in al Anbar province in 2007, and some of what follows first appeared in a chapter in Deborah Isser’s Customary Justice and the Rule of Law in War Torn Societies. We include this material as part of this occasional paper with permission from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Press Books.

Are We Winning

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In more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States’ armed forces have encountered myriad challenges in their efforts to execute simultaneous counterinsurgency campaigns. Assessing progress on the ground—what we will refer to here as “operations assessment”—has proven an especially challenging task. For CNA analysts, as well as uniformed operations research and systems analysis (ORSA) personnel, the operations assessment process has grown in importance and consumed increasing analytic resources over the course of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). While there have been new and innovative approaches to operations assessment in recent years, there has also been a great deal of relearning old lessons from previous eras (under different conditions). This relearning is, at least in part, attributable to the lack of a comprehensive history of operations assessment.