Training for Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations from El Salvador to Afghanistan, Online, New America

[Online] Training for Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations from El Salvador to Afghanistan
Event

One of the most difficult security challenges of the post–Cold War era has been stabilizing failing states in an era of irregular warfare. A consistent component of the strategy to address this problem has been security force assistance where outside powers train and advise the host nation’s military. Despite billions of dollars spent, the commitment of thousands of advisors, and innumerable casualties, the American efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq failed catastrophically. Nevertheless, there were pockets of success. The Iraqi Special Operations Forces held back the Islamic State in 2014 long enough to allow American and allied forces to flow back into the country, and many Afghan commando units fought to the bitter end as their country disintegrated around them. In his new book Training for Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations from El Salvador to Afghanistan, Frank K. Sobchak examines what made those units successful while the larger missions ended disastrously. Examining cases from El Salvador, the Philippines, and Colombia to Iraq and Afghanistan, Sobchak explores factors from the partner force ratio to language training to advisor involvement in combat, with findings that at times challenge existing orthodoxy.

Join New America’s Future Security Program as they welcome Frank K. Sobchak to discuss his book Training for Victory and the effectiveness of Special Forces advisory operations. Sobchak is a retired Special Forces colonel who served in various assignments in war and peace during a twenty-six-year military career. He is Chair of Irregular Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute, U.S. Military Academy and a Senior Fellow at the Global and National Security Institute, University of South Florida, and a Fellow (contributor) for the MirYam Institute. In addition to Training for Victory, he is the coauthor of The U.S. Army in the Iraq War. The conversation will be moderated by New America Vice President and Arizona State University Professor of Practice Peter Bergen.

Join the conversation online using #TrainingforVictory and following @NewAmericaISP.

PARTICIPANTS

Dr. Frank K. Sobchak
Author, Training for Victory
Chair of Irregular Warfare Studies, Modern War Institute at West Point

MODERATOR

Peter Bergen
Vice President, New America
Co-Director, Future Security
Professor of Practice, Arizona State University

Why Anti-Democratic Populists Keep Winning Elections

Narrated by: Peter L. Bergen
Aug 20 2024
Length: 40 mins

Ben Rhodes, a former national security advisor to Barack Obama, has a theory. Based on interviews he did with journalists, activists, and dissidents facing anti-democratic movements around the world, he explains how right-wing leaders with an authoritarian bent have exploited the downsides of globalization to seize power—and he says it’s due in no small part to major blunders made by the United States.

Chicago Prepares for Protests at the DNC, Hoping To Forget 1968

Aug 13 2024
Length: 38 mins

The parallels between the 1968 Democratic National Convention and this year’s are undeniable: An incumbent president dropping out of the race. A party deeply divided over a brutal war. A nation arguing over the right to free expression vs. law and order. And it’s all happening again in Chicago, where in 1968 the streets around the Convention became a bloody battle between protesters and police. Is it going to be possible for the city this time around to accommodate peaceful protesters peacefully protesting? A protest organizer, an eyewitness to the violence of ‘68, and an expert on law enforcement weigh in on preparations for the convention and the lessons to be learned from that violent week in 1968.

GLOBAL SUMMIT ON TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE, NYC

GLOBAL SUMMIT ON TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE
SEPTEMBER 12-13 2024 – NEW YORK, NY
The inaugural Global Summit on Terrorism and Political Violence will take place from September 12-13 in New York, New York, hosted by The Soufan Center. This invitation-only event will bring together leaders from the United States government, intelligence community, international organizations, academia, media, and other key sectors to discuss emerging security challenges and enhance counterterrorism efforts. The Global Summit recognizes the urgent need to prevent the United States from regressing to a pre-September 11, 2001, state of unpreparedness in the face of a rapidly evolving terrorist threat landscape. Over two days of programming, the gathering will address the complex and evolving threat matrix, highlighting the dangers posed by domestic and international terrorism, political violence, non-state actors, technological advancements, and intense geopolitical competition and challenges.

ABOUT THE SOUFAN CENTER (TSC)
The Soufan Center (TSC) is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization offering research, analysis, and strategic dialogue on foreign policy challenges with a particular focus on global security, conflict prevention and resolution, and the rule of law.
CONTACT
In-person attendance is by invitation only. The Global Summit is open to media coverage by invited members of the press. For credentials, interview requests, media inquiries, and any further information for journalists, please contact the media coordinator: Gaby.Tejeda@thesoufancenter.org.

Post Islamism: The Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, George Washington University, DC

Post Islamism: Conceptual, Social, Political Trends & Policy Framework
The Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) is announcing its inaugural conference on “Post-Islamism: Conceptual, Social, Political Trends & Policy Framework.” The conference will be held in partnership with the Elliott School of International Affairs, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and the Institute of Middle East Studies at George Washington University on September 26, 2024 (09:00 – 17:00) in Washington, D.C.

The conference will examine Post-Islamism within the broader context of global political, social, and economic trends, particularly in Muslim-majority countries and diaspora communities. The return of the Taliban, the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict, the rise of Muslim identity politics in Western nations, China’s growing influence, and the persistence of Islamist terrorism underscore the complexity of the contemporary Islamic world.

The conference seeks to foster critical dialogue, policy development, and public understanding of this critical issue by bringing together leading scholars, policymakers, activists, and practitioners. It will feature a keynote address by General H.R. McMaster, former US National Security Adviser, and panel discussions on various aspects of post-Islamism.

The conference concept note and agenda can be found on the AISS

Website

James W. Foley Legacy Foundation 2024 Bringing Americans Home Event on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON – On July 24, the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation will release the sixth annual edition of Bringing Americans Home, an independent research report that provides new information about the ongoing crisis of Americans taken hostage abroad by terrorists or wrongfully detained by nation states. In addition to data that convey the scale, scope, and recent trends of the crisis, the report highlights the lived experiences of family members of captives and of captives themselves – devastating realities that numbers alone cannot convey.

The Bringing Americans Home reports inform executive branch policymaking and congressional legislation. The research highlights where the government’s efforts are working and where changes could resolve cases more quickly, deter future hostage-taking, hold captors accountable for their crimes and support victims of a hostage-taking event.

The report will be released at an event featuring Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, Foley Foundation President and Founder Diane Foley, members of Congress, a former hostage, the husband of a detained journalist, and report author Cindy Loertscher.

DATE:  July 24

TIME:  10 AM – Noon (end time approximate); arrive by 9:30 AM to process through security

WHERE: Capitol Hill, Senate Visitors Center, Room 215

LIVESTREAM OPTION: After registering, the event may be viewed at bringingamericanshome.org

PROGRAM (subject to change):

Report Overview: author Cindy Loertscher

Panel Discussion: Experiences of Families of Americans Held Captive and Returned Captives

Jeff Woodke, formerly held hostage by JNIM in West Africa for over six years
Pavel Butorin, spouse of Alsu Kurmasheva, detained in Russia since October
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Sagui Dekel Chen, held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October
Diane Foley, President of the Foley Foundation and mother of conflict journalist James W. Foley, who was publicly killed by ISIS in August 2014
Cindy Loertscher, author of the Bringing Americans Home research series
Moderator: Peter Bergen, Vice President, Global Studies & Fellows, New America; Professor of Practice, Arizona State University

SPEHA Interview: U.S. Government Hostage Recoveries: Policy & Practice

Roger Carstens, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, State Department
Interviewer: Peter Bergen

Closing Remarks: Members of Congress

About the Event Partners

New America

Since 1999, New America has nurtured new voices and ideas to help solve complex public problems. Today we are a diverse community of policy experts, technologists, and social entrepreneurs, combining our core expertise in research, reporting, and analysis with new areas of coding, data science, and human-centered design to develop solutions to some of today’s most pressing challenges. Prizing its intellectual and ideological independence and diversity, the organization seeks to reflect and celebrate a new America.

McCain Institute at Arizona State University

The McCain Institute is a nonpartisan organization inspired by Senator John McCain and his family’s dedication to public service. Based in Washington, D.C., its programs defend democracy, advance human rights and freedom, and empower character-driven leaders. The Institute’s unique power to convene leaders across the global political spectrum enables it to make a real impact on the world’s most pressing challenges. With the goal of action, not talk, the Institute, like Senator McCain, is fighting to create a free, safe, and just world for all.

About the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation

The Foley Foundation was established the month after the brutal murder by ISIS of conflict journalist and humanitarian James “Jim” Foley in August 2014, with the firm conviction that the United States must prioritize the freedom of Americans unjustly held captive abroad over other policy considerations. Today, the Foundation seeks to inspire the moral courage needed to secure the freedom of Americans held captive unjustly abroad, prevent future hostage-taking, and promote journalist safety. The Foley Foundation connects families of those held hostage or wrongfully detained with the resources needed to endure their loved one’s captivity, and it supports these families’ public advocacy efforts to secure their freedom.

For more information or to learn how you can make an impact, please visit jamesfoleyfoundation.org or contact Amy Coyne at amy.coyne@jamesfoleyfoundation.org or +1 (800) 803-7010.

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Does the Pentagon (or the Cops) Know What Side of the Bed You Sleep On?

July 9 2024

In the wake of 9/11, a massive surveillance system quietly made its way onto our smartphones. The data of millions of Americans is for sale to the highest bidder — and it’s not always clear who’s buying. Here’s how information about everything, from where you got a drink last night (and maybe even with whom) to where you sleep, might be available for purchase by the national security apparatus — or even your own local police department. And they don’t need a warrant.

How Tiny Qatar Became a Global Player

July 2 2024

These days when a thorny international conflict is resolved, more and more often a major player in the negotiation has been the small Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The country has made itself uniquely indispensable on the global stage by trying to play nice with pretty much everyone, including Hamas and Iran. And also by keeping on very good terms with the United States. Peter visits Qatar to see this high-wire act of diplomacy up close.

The One Way Out of an Israeli-Palestinian Forever War

New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman has been thinking about the Middle East since he was 15 years old and he’s been covering the region for 45 years. He remains adamant that the only way forward for Israelis and Palestinians is through a two-state solution. He tells Peter what it will take to get there.

The Presidential Debate: Trump’s bogus claim on terrorism, CNN.com

The topic of terrorism played an unusually large role in this presidential debate, with former President Donald Trump making inaccurate or misleading claims.

Early on, Trump attacked Biden on immigration by claiming that the US is currently seeing the largest number of terrorists coming into the country — a misleading claim that also ignores the fact that the vast majority of the “encounters” by US Border Patrol agents with people on the terrorism watch list in 2023 took place at the northern border with Canada.

Later on, Trump did correctly point out that as president, he authorized the operations that killed the founder and leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani.

But Trump then went on to make a bogus claim (one he has made before) that there was “no terror” during his administration. This one is a real whopper. There were several people charged with terrorism during his presidency. Notably, in October 2017, an Uzbek man carried out a terrorist attack in Manhattan by using a rented truck to fatally strike eight people on a bike path.

It’s also worth pointing out that Trump seems to have a major blind spot when it comes to right-wing domestic terrorism that took place on his watch. In 2019, a 21-year-old White man touted xenophobic and White supremacist beliefs online just minutes before he targeted Latino shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. He killed 23 people in what was the most lethal right-wing terrorist attack in decades, according to the research institution New America.

And, of course, the most spectacular act of domestic terrorism in decades took place at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Some 140 police officers were assaulted while Trump failed to put a stop to it for hours while it unfolded. If elected, Trump has promised to pardon a “large portion” of the rioters — a point that Biden also reminded viewers of during the debate.

Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a vice president at New America, a professor of practice at Arizona State University, and the host of the podcast “In the Room.”