This book offers a multidisciplinary treatment of targeting. It is intended for use by the military, government legal advisers and academics. The book is suitable for use in both military training and educational programs and in Bachelor and Master degree level courses on such topics as War Studies and Strategic Studies. The book first explores the context of targeting, its evolution and the current targeting process and characteristics. An overview of the legal and ethical constraints on targeting as an operational process follows. It concludes by surveying contemporary issues in targeting such as the potential advent of autonomous weapon systems, ‘non-kinetic’ targeting, targeting in multinational military operations and leadership decapitation in counter-terrorism operations. The deep practical experience and academic background of the contributors ensures comprehensive treatment of current targeting and use of force issues. Paul Ducheine is Professor for Cyber Operations and Cyber Security, Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda, The Netherlands; and Professor of Law of Military Cyber Operations and Cyber Security at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Michael Schmitt is Charles H. Stockton Professor & Director, Stockton Center for the Study of International Law, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, and Professor of Public International Law, University of Exeter, UK. Frans Osinga is Chair of the War Studies Department, Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda, The Netherlands, and Professor of Military Operational Art and Sciences.

The process of targeting the enemy and his elements of power is an essential component of achieving victory in modern warfare. Targeting is an intellectual military discipline that combines rigorous scientific analysis, a deep understanding of weapons effects, and sound operational judgment into a coherent systematic process. The Joint Targeting Process is the critical linkage in translating desired effects into the actions that accomplish objectives and achieve victory. It provides military commanders a methodology to systematically generate and refine a series of options to accomplish objectives and provides solutions to defined problems. The process attempts to evaluate the merits of possible solutions to a problem using an adaptable, effects-based approach to problem solving. The current Joint Targeting Process is highly effective in prosecuting traditional kinetic targets; however, it is questionable whether the process is fully capable of addressing non-lethal, non-kinetic, and indirect means of achieving the commander's desired effects. Current targeting doctrine evolved as an alternative to the notion of attrition warfare and grew with the evolution of technology. In a conventional, linear environment, the Joint Targeting Process optimizes the use of existing capabilities to accomplish military and political objectives. In an irregular, non-linear environment however, the Joint Targeting Process has difficulty identifying targets and matching appropriate capabilities to achieve desired effects. The Joint Targeting Process provides an iterative methodology for identifying and prioritizing enemy centers of gravity and then projecting power against them. This process became an airpower-dominated, destruction-based system that derived from an attrition-based ground warfare doctrine. The process uses an airpower-optimized approach to avoid protracted ground conflicts that result in an attrition-based or exhaustion-based solution to modern conflict. The methodology of the process focuses predominantly on kinetic combat operations against nation states possessing established infrastructure and fielded forces. The Joint Targeting Process is not fully effective in the emerging Joint Operational Environment where operations occur in ungoverned territory against non-state adversaries in an environment characterized by uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. This monograph undertakes a systematic approach to evaluating the effectiveness of the Joint Targeting Process within the context of the Joint Operational Environment. To address the question of how best to apply targeting to the current operating environment, this monograph examines the genesis of the current joint targeting methodology and discusses how our current joint doctrine developed, the evolution of targeting within traditional linear warfare doctrine, and the current application of military targeting. Additionally, it examines the emerging operational environment, characterizes the relevant operational context of targeting, and discusses how that context has changed since the development of targeting doctrine. This understanding of the evolution of targeting doctrine, coupled with an accurate assessment of how commanders and planners currently apply doctrine, provides observations on the current effectiveness of systematic targeting procedures. Finally, this monograph provides an analysis of joint targeting effectiveness in the Joint Operational Environment and provides recommendations for improving joint targeting doctrine. The last section will conclude this study with a summary of the previous topics discussed and some closing thoughts on future joint targeting.

In Finding the Target, Frederick W. Kagan describes the three basic transformations within the U.S. military since Vietnam. First was the move to an all-volunteer force and a new generation of weapons systems in the 1970s. Second was the emergence of stealth technology and precision-guided munitions in the 1980s. Third was the information technology that followed the fall of the Soviet Union and the first Gulf War. This last could have insured the U.S. continuing military preeminence, but this goal was compromised by Clinton's drawing down of our armed forces in the 1990s and Bush's response to 9/11 and the global war on terror. The issue of transformation leads Kagan to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's vision of a ''new ''military; the conduct of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; and the disconnect between grand strategic visions such as the Bush Doctrine's idea of ''preemption ''and the underfunding of military force structures that are supposed to achieve such goals.

During a decade of global counterterrorism operations and two extended counterinsurgency campaigns, the United States was confronted with a new kind of adversary. Without uniforms, flags, and formations, the task of identifying and targeting these combatants represented an unprecedented operational challenge. The existing, Cold War-era doctrinal methods were largely unsuited to the cyber-warfare and terrorism that have evolved today. Rise of iWar examines the doctrinal, technical, and bureaucratic innovations that evolved in response to these new operational challenges. It discusses the transition from a conventionally focused, Cold War-era military approach to one optimized for the internet age, focused on combating insurgency networks and conducting identity-based targeting. It also analyzes the policy decisions and strategic choices that caused these changes. This study concludes with an in-depth examination of emerging technologies that are likely to shape how this mode of warfare will be waged in the future, and provides recommendations for how the US military should continue to adapt to be combat its foes in the digital age.

This book seeks to clarify the legal concept of proportionality in international humanitarian law, as it applies during armed conflict. It is argued in the book that a refocus of the interpretation of the proportionality rule is warranted to enhance the protection of civilians. More precisely, this book seeks to dissect the origins of the rule, determine how its components must be interpreted and how it is to be applied in practice. The book considers practical situations that may arise in the conduct of military operations and searches for the limits international humanitarian law sets to commanders' assessments of proportionality during armed conflict. The book concludes that proportionality is an inherently subjective and imprecise yardstick that nonetheless serves to protect civilians during armed conflict.

Handbook of Terrorist and Insurgent Groups: A Global Survey of Threats, Tactics, and Characteristics examines the most current and significant terrorist and insurgent groups around the world. The purpose is to create a descriptive mosaic of what is a pointedly global security challenge. The volume brings together conceptual approaches to terrorism, insurgency, and cyberterrorism with substantive and empirical analyses of individual groups, organisations, and networks. By doing so, not only does the coverage highlight the past, present, and future orientations of the most prominent groups, but it also examines and illustrates their key characteristics and how they operate, including key leaders and ideologues. Highlighting specific, individual groups, the chapters collectively present a robust and comprehensive outlook on the current geography of terrorism and insurgency groups operating in the world today. This comprehensive volume brings the collective expertise and knowledge of more than 50 academics, intelligence and security officials, and professionals together, all of whom are considered subject experts in their respective areas of research and practice. The volume is based on both desk-based and fieldwork conducted by experts in these areas, incorporating analyses of secondary literature but also the use of primary data including first-hand interviews on the various groups’ regions of operation, their tactics, and how their ideologies motivate their actions.

This book introduces students to the essential questions of the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law.