Parameters | Spring 2025

Download the Full Issue of Parameters | Spring 2025

FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

Antulio J. Echevarria II

Welcome to the Spring 2025 issue of Parameters. This issue consists of an In Focus special commentary, three forums (Russia, Ukraine, and NATO; Strategic Competition and Managing National Security; and Joint Sustainment Strategies), the regular Civil-Military Relations Corner installment, and a review essay.

Keywords: strategy, sociology of war, militias, contemporary war, Ukraine, Bacha Bazi, Helmand, trauma, UK troops, veterans, nuclear strategy, Eastern Europe, hypersonic weapons, Russian strategy, European security, NATO, interoperability, US Army Interoperability Measurement System (AIMS), Multinational Interoperability Assessment Tool (MIAT), Standing NATO Maritime Group (SNMG), grand strategy, Department of Defense, China, great-power competition, US foreign policy, national security, presidency, international crises, political science, strategic studies, medical evacuation, maritime operations, novel capability, World War II, Joint health service, USTRANSCOM, Transportation Command, contested homeland, conflict, Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise

IN FOCUS

Soldiering and Silences: Witnessing Child Sexual Abuse in Afghanistan
Caroline Kennedy-Pipe and Martin Thorp
©2025 Caroline Kennedy-Pipe and Martin Thorp

Based on interviews with United Kingdom veterans, this special commentary offers a new interpretation of war trauma. Few studies investigate the emotions soldiers experience when witnessing child sexual assault. During the Afghan campaign, personnel witnessed acts of rape by allies in the Afghan security services on boys—usually excused as the local practice of Bacha Bazi—and were directed not to intervene. This special commentary examines the effects of these actions on soldiers and the mission, highlighting how soldiers were impacted by what they witnessed but could not stop.

Keywords: bacha bazi, Helmand, trauma, UK troops, veterans

RUSSIA, UKRAINE, AND NATO

Ukraine’s Not-So-Whole-of-Society at War: Force Generation in Modern Developed Societies 
Ilmari Käihkö and Jan Willem Honig
©2025 Ilmari Käihkö

This article argues that Ukraine offers a cautionary tale regarding the two main modern models of force generation. Neither the professional high-tech war model, favored by Western militaries, nor the whole-of-society war approach, said to have saved Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, proved successful formulas for Ukraine. Considering that Ukraine is fighting for survival, with Russian forces inside the country, the failure of both models in action has serious implications for NATO member states as they deliberate their choices regarding future force generation.

Keywords: strategy, sociology of war, militias, contemporary war, Ukraine

Russian Novel Nuclear Weapons and War-Fighting Capabilities 
Spenser A. Warren
©2025 Spenser A. Warren

This article argues that Russia’s novel nuclear-capable weapons will have a minor but real impact on Russian war-fighting capabilities in Eastern Europe. Using publicly available assessments, it evaluates the weapons’ characteristics individually and when taken together to determine their possible impact on war fighting, deterrence, and arms control. Additionally, it analyzes Russian war-fighting concepts to project how Russian strategists think about their use and how they might integrate them into Russian war-fighting concepts. The study’s conclusions will assist military strategists and policy practitioners plan for a potential regional war on NATO’s eastern flank.

Keywords: nuclear strategy, Eastern Europe, hypersonic weapons, Russian strategy, European security

Measuring Interoperability Within NATO: Adapted Off-the-Shelf Tool or Bespoke Solution?
John R. Deni, Matthew R. MacLeod, Sarah E. Stewart, Katherine M. Banko, and Adrian Jones
©2025 John R. Deni
©His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, 2025

Despite decades of work on interoperability, NATO Allies cannot measure, assess, and build upon it fully and accurately. The lack of agreed formats or standards for collection, management, and the communication of findings have prevented the Allies from developing common interoperability measurement and assessment tools. Nonetheless, NATO could adopt extant standards, methodologies, processes, or tools to achieve its interoperability objectives. Testing this notion through use cases, the authors identify practical and conceptual hurdles to adopting an off-the-shelf solution. They conclude that the Alliance may need to create assessment standards, methodologies, processes, and tools from scratch, despite the difficulties of doing so.

Keywords: NATO, interoperability, US Army Interoperability Measurement System (AIMS), Multinational Interoperability Assessment Tool (MIAT), Standing NATO Maritime Group (SNMG)

STRATEGIC COMPETITION AND MANAGING NATIONAL SECURITY

Adapting US Defense Strategy to Great-Power Competition
Ionut C. Popescu
©2025 Ionut C. Popescu

American defense strategy must shift to face the challenges of the new era of great-power competition. This article outlines the trade-offs involved among competing priorities and regions and proposes five strategic pillars to guide the development of a US military strategy, doctrine, and force structure optimized for the needs of the great-power competition era. Without the strategic planning needed to align the Pentagon’s investments and decisions according to great-power competition requirements, the United States may fail to prevent an avoidable strategic disaster by not preparing properly for China’s likely military quest for regional and, later, global hegemony.

Keywords: grand strategy, Department of Defense, China, great-power competition, US foreign policy

Tyranny of the Inbox: Managing the US National Security Agenda
Neil N. Snyder
©2025 Neil N. Snyder

Presidential management style, foreign policy preferences, and domestic political interests all affect the national security agenda. International crises, however, are particularly likely to garner the attention of the National Security Council. This article analyzes a novel data set of all the issues raised at National Security Council meetings from 1947 to 1993 and finds that contemporaneous crises are very likely to be discussed, but that crisis management attenuates the Council’s attention to noncrisis national security matters. The results suggest presidents focus on crises at the expense of other strategic matters, and they do so when political conditions favor crisis management.

Keywords: national security, presidency, international crises, political science, strategic studies

JOINT SUSTAINMENT STRATEGIES

Bridging Sky and Sea: Joint Strategies for Medical Evacuation in the Indo-Pacific
Mahdi Al-Husseini, Samuel J. Diehl, and Samuel L. Fricks

This article contends that the US Army should coordinate agile and expeditious Joint medical evacuation operations in the Indo-Pacific and develop novel capabilities to do so effectively. There has been limited discussion among scholars and practitioners on modern maritime medical evacuation tactics and techniques inspired by history and informed by contemporary threats. This article introduces three new medical evacuation capabilities and makes six recommendations to advance a Joint maritime medical evacuation operating concept. It provides a framework for medical planners developing evacuation systems in maritime theaters and justifies how and why the US Army should play a substantial role in these systems.

Keywords: medical evacuation, maritime operations, novel capability, World War II, Joint health service

Deploying and Supplying the Joint Force from a Contested Homeland
Bruce Busler

This article argues that the United States must prepare for “the fight to get to the fight,” focusing on deploying and sustaining military forces from a contested homeland amid near-peer threats. It extends existing literature by emphasizing US Transportation Command’s role in mitigating cyber, kinetic, and infrastructure vulnerabilities. The methodology includes scenario-based analysis of adversary actions, leveraging intelligence estimates and modeling for resilience in transportation networks. This piece provides actionable insights into fortifying logistics systems crucial for strategic mobility and operational success, ensuring readiness and deterrence in contested environments.

Keywords: USTRANSCOM, Transportation Command, contested homeland, conflict, Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise

CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS CORNER

Civil-Military Relations and Democratic Backsliding
Carrie A. Lee

This article identifies a gap in the field of civil-military relations: the relationship between the military and the quality of a democracy.

Keywords: civil-military relations, strategy, decision making, recruiting, defense budget

REVIEW ESSAY

By All Means Available: Memoirs of A Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy
by Michael G. Vickers
reviewed by Todd Greentree
©2025 Todd Greentree

Todd Greentree examines By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy by Michael G. Vickers, who Greentree views as an exemplar of strategic leadership for current and future leaders.\

Keywords: intelligence, special operations, strategy, Afghanistan, gray zone, Cold War

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