Christopher C. Harmon

This year we are seeing the refurbishment of a classic in war studies and military history. There is a new edition of the book Makers of Modern Strategy. As a guide through our IWP course # 628 on “Military Strategy,” I have been excited to examine the new volume of May 2023 and inquire into…

Warfare in Peacetime offers an expansive and elaborated portrait of overseas proxy wars. The structure and substance will prepare observers, analysts, and participants seeking to understand challenges before American and other statesmen. The work helps frame the morass in Syria, with all its foreign links; the contest for influence in Libya, where innumerable hands vie for…

Winston Spencer Churchill wrote with warmth and humor about his early education — and its limits. Certain passages had a touch of the tremulous, given the discipline to which he was subjected by one or two nasty schoolmasters. Biographers have shown interest in the relevant pages of My Early Life (1930), that winning autobiography. But not there,…

Below is the transcript of a video that IWP professor Dr. Christopher C. Harmon did for the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare at Marine Corps University, where he is a Distinguished Fellow.  There is value in thinking along historical parallels.  And there can be a little danger in a parallel drawn artificially. …

This month is the black anniversary of September 11, 2001.  It has many meanings for us, but was that date in particular selected by Al Qaeda?  A few suggest there is a link to the last day of battle in 1683 at the gates of Vienna, a titanic Moslem-Christian struggle for western Europe.  Americans might…

This Citizen’s Guide addresses the public policy issues of terrorism and counterterrorism in the United States after Bin Laden’s death. Written for the thinking citizen and student alike, this succinct and up-to-date book takes a “grand strategy” approach toward terrorism and uses examples and issues drawn from present-day perpetrators and actors.

In April the United States government imposed new sanctions on a large, well-functioning segment of state power and governance of Iran: the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

From chants and pamphlets to the Internet, terrorist propaganda can be deadly effective.

The Terrorist Argument: Modern Advocacy and Propaganda, co-authored by Christopher C. Harmon and Randall G. Bowdish and published by Brookings Institution Press, is an entirely original study of the strategic communications of violent sub-state actors.

The 23rd of October, which falls on a Wednesday this year, signals the 30th anniversary of one of the most significant dual-bombings in the history of low-intensity conflict.  Soldiers of France and the United States, dispatched to Lebanon to keep peace amidst its civil war, were destroyed in great numbers by vehicle bombs driven into their two…