It was around 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 4, 1979, almost 40 years ago, when Mark Lijek, a 29-year-old American Citizens Services officer for the U.S. Consulate in Tehran, heard commotion outside his office. That day, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and captured 66 Americans. The takeover was, in part, a response to […]
In-Depth411
Facing Challenges of Swift Army Expansion
From WAR ROOM —Online Journal of the U.S. Army War College Portions of this essay are excepted from “The Total Army,” an Elihu Root Study by the 2016 Carlisle Scholars Program at the U.S. Army War College. It is time for the Army to innovate in meeting the challenge of rapid expansion. Since the early 1980s, the U.S. Army has generally preferred to […]
Competing for Regional Power and Peace in Afghanistan
As the Unites States tries to break the long stalemate of war in Afghanistan, regional powers continue jockeying for position, attempting to carve out their own spheres of influence in the country. A combination of fears over the Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch—Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP)—and prospects of mineral wealth have pulled more of Afghanistan’s […]
Is Afghan Opium War a Path to Taliban Peace Talks?
Doubling down on a longtime policy of countering the opium trade in Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan forces began conducting airstrikes against opium production facilities and insurgent funding sources in November. After years of back-to-back record-breaking poppy yields, the move represented a policy shift targeting terror groups and their revenue streams. Opium has long been the […]
Legal Immigration Plagued by Bureaucracy, Red Tape
When 16-year-old Hefzi Lopez said goodbye to her parents, José and Cecilia Lopez, in 2008, she felt betrayed. She was a U.S. citizen by birth, but her parents had been unsuccessful in their efforts to become citizens as well. After nine years of legal battles in the immigration court system, background checks, three lawyers, and […]