News

Effective July 1, 2026, the National Intelligence College (NIC) officially joins the National Defense University (NDU) as the university's sixth college.

At 32 years and now 119 issues, Joint Force Quarterly has had over 40 people involved in making the magic happen. As great as JFQ has become, two significant events will undoubtably change how this journal is produced and delivered. Primarily because of changes in the media environment at large and the budgetary pressures across government, National Defense University (NDU) Press will be significantly reducing the available print copies of JFQ beginning with the next edition, JFQ 120, due after the New Year. And after 25 years of brilliant service, longtime Executive Editor Dr. Jeffrey Smotherman has retired.

The military and economic dominance of the United States in the post-Soviet era compelled adversaries to shift their strategies away from largescale conventional warfare. Instead, they have increasingly focused on contesting American decisionmaking through cognitive warfare, leveraging psychological, informational, and technological domains to erode strategic advantage. Unlike traditional warfare, cognitive warfare shapes how individuals and organizations perceive reality, evaluate choices, and act on information.

The subject of military history as taught in the U.S. Army’s school system is much in the air of late. The editors of Parameters chose in 1981 to reintroduce Michael Howard’s timeless article on military education writ large. Such an introduction could serve just as well some 40 years later, when the state of joint professional military education (JPME) remains a heated source of debate.

A growing chorus of U.S. defense analysts, lawmakers, and military officials has emphasized that the United States lacks the munitions production capacity to meet the demands of the contemporary strategic environment.

In 1945, General Henry “Hap” Arnold observed that in the future, “science and research will have the same relative importance as pilot training.”

In the wake of America’s long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military faced an urgent need to pivot from counterinsurgency back to conventional warfighting, especially against peer competitors like China and Russia.

This article examines how U.S. Joint Special Operations Forces (SOF), particularly through SAG-U and CJSOTF-10, have rapidly adapted to support Ukraine amid Russia’s full-scale invasion, offering a model for future joint force innovation.