This report evaluates a complete range of time-critical conventional strike options within several realistic scenarios. It explores and illuminates various attributes associated with the different means of accomplishing a time-critical conventional strike from strategic standoff capability. The report pinpointed four parameters of interest to focus on: target set, accuracy, basing, and kill mechanism. In addition, the author was asked to assess each alternative strike capability using four principal measures of effectiveness and issue specific recommendations for preferred approaches based on specific dominate requirements. Illustrations.

Jake Keller finds himself in a familiar position—on the run for his life and desperate to find the shadowy figures behind a global conspiracy. CIA agent Jake Keller and his partner, Curt Roach, are in Yemen on an important mission. They've been tipped off to a secret meeting of top al Qaeda leaders. The plan is to interrupt the meeting with a few unexpected visitors—a pair of Hellfire missiles from an orbiting drone. But the drone stops responding to their signals and soon disappears over the horizon. When next seen, the drone is attacking innocent pilgrims in Mecca. Jake and Curt are staggered. The U.S. government is desperate to disavow this atrocity. Who better to blame than a couple of rogue CIA agents? With all the governments of the Middle East looking for them and no help from their own side, they are in a desperate race to stay ahead of the mob and find out who's actually behind the crime.

This book offers an overview of the ethical problems posed by Information Warfare, and of the different approaches and methods used to solve them, in order to provide the reader with a better grasp of the ethical conundrums posed by this new form of warfare. The volume is divided into three parts, each comprising four chapters. The first part focuses on issues pertaining to the concept of Information Warfare and the clarifications that need to be made in order to address its ethical implications. The second part collects contributions focusing on Just War Theory and its application to the case of Information Warfare. The third part adopts alternative approaches to Just War Theory for analysing the ethical implications of this phenomenon. Finally, an afterword by Neelie Kroes - Vice President of the European Commission and European Digital Agenda Commissioner - concludes the volume. Her contribution describes the interests and commitments of the European Digital Agenda with respect to research for the development and deployment of robots in various circumstances, including warfare.

Cyber weapons and the possibility of cyber conflict—including interference in foreign political campaigns, industrial sabotage, attacks on infrastructure, and combined military campaigns—require policymakers, scholars, and citizens to rethink twenty-first-century warfare. Yet because cyber capabilities are so new and continually developing, there is little agreement about how they will be deployed, how effective they can be, and how they can be managed. Written by leading scholars, the fourteen case studies in this volume will help policymakers, scholars, and students make sense of contemporary cyber conflict through historical analogies to past military-technological problems. The chapters are divided into three groups. The first—What Are Cyber Weapons Like?—examines the characteristics of cyber capabilities and how their use for intelligence gathering, signaling, and precision striking compares with earlier technologies for such missions. The second section—What Might Cyber Wars Be Like?—explores how lessons from several wars since the early nineteenth century, including the World Wars, could apply—or not—to cyber conflict in the twenty-first century. The final section—What Is Preventing and/or Managing Cyber Conflict Like?—offers lessons from past cases of managing threatening actors and technologies.

The Iranian Quds Force enlists the help of Iranian expatriate Ash Esfahani to arrange for a cartel hit man. The mission is to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The plot is uncovered, and the FBI and DEA infiltrate using undercover agent Victor "V-Rod" Rodriquez, aka Hector Cruz. After gaining the trust of the Iranian expatriate, Cruz must now gain the trust of Quds Force operative Ali Falahian. As the story evolves, the motivation and intent of the Iranian planners is exposed. In 2020, Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani was assassinated by a US missile strike. In retaliation, the regime developed "Thirteen Revenge Scenarios." The Iranian public and leadership were led to believe Soleimani's death lay solely at the feet of the American government, but the general's death has ties back to the IRGC. Soleimani's successor, Abdul Reza Sasani's motives are suspect. His rise to senior Quds Force general to replace Soleimani was, by all accounts, natural and expected--only Falahian has long suspected Sasani's role in his mentor's death and has vowed to retaliate. Ali Falahian has a storied past. As a young intelligence officer in Iraq, he orchestrated the Iranian IED campaign that resulted in many hundreds of US casualties. He was also instrumental in the attack on the Karbala Communication Compound that led to the death of several US military and CIA personnel. CIA operator David James "D. J." Dixon has been hunting Falahian ever since. The assassination attempt on the Saudi ambassador is not the only threat facing the FBI's National Joint Terrorism Task Force. While the NJTTF chases down intelligence leads and attempts to thwart an attack, Ali Falahian moves on to the next of the "Thirteen Revenge Scenarios."

A crack team of explorers find themselves stark naked, in the dark, and totally clueless. Buried deep beneath an Earth shattered by war, devastated by disease, and ravaged by alien monsters.

This book focuses on strategic special operations and how these have led to the achievement of major foreign policy goals, which is illustrated by six case studies. The study specifically focuses on the alignment of the policies, strategies, and tactics that dominated these operations, providing a fresh perspective. Theoretically, the work underscores the continued relevance of relative superiority as the dominant theory in the field. Importantly, it aligns the potential ways of achieving and sustaining relative superiority with the ability to conduct contemporary special operations across multiple domains, thereby generating cross-dimensional effects. In terms of methodology, the book includes a description and analysis of six distinct case studies in special operations, ranging from short-term surgical strikes to sustained special warfare campaigns and spanning multiple geographic regions – including in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine, and the South China Sea. From that perspective, relative superiority theory is extrapolated to explain how this critical condition can be achieved and sustained during protracted special operations. The unique value of this research is underscored by the author's collection of exclusive primary source data on the operations in the respective countries. The book’s conclusions explain how the personnel involved fulfill the strategic promise of special operations, given their position within the larger framework of foreign policy. This book will be of much interest to students of special operations, military and strategic studies, defense studies, and security studies in general.