FMSO's Operational Environment Watch provides translated selections and analysis from a diverse range of foreign articles and other media that our analysts believe will give military and security experts an added dimension to their critical thinking about the Operational Environment. Current issue: PDF HTML

Featured FMSO Publications

• The Ansar of Yemen: The Huthis and al-Qaeda, by Lucas Winter, FMSO-JRIC Analyst. This article was previously published in Small Wars Journal on May 1, 2013.
• Jordan and Saudi Arabia after the Arab Spring, by Lucas Winter, FMSO-JRIC Analyst. Release date: May 8, 2013.
• Chinas Cyber Incursions: A Theoretical Look At What They See And Why They Do It Based On A Different Strategic Method Of Thought, by Mr. Timothy L. Thomas, May 2013.
• The Wariness in Kazakhstan of Chinese Economic Investments and Interests, By Matthew Stein, February 2013.
• The Goals of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Its Impact on Central Asia and the United States, Mr. Matthew Stein, January 2013.

Featured International Research Collaboration

• An Update on the Taiwan Defense Situation (2011-2012), by Lianna Nicole Faruolo
• The Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Caspian and the Northern Distribution Network: Central Asia in the Crossfire Survival or War?, by Zhulduz Baizakova
• The Republic of Kazakhstan Update: Military Doctrine and Policy, by Georgiy Dubovtsev
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – A Malady Shared by East and West: A Sri Lankan Look at Combat Stress and Trauma, by Dr. Ruwan M. Jayatunge
• Kazakhstan’s 2011 Military Doctrine: Reassessing Regional and International Security by Roger N. McDermott

Featured University Research Collaboration

• Mega-Cities & Mega-Events: Lessons from Favelas for the Future by Molly Martin
• From Arab Spring to the Russian ‘Evolution’: Technological Impacts on Protest and Censorship by Patrick Callen
• History and Identity within the Sandžak Region by Sandra King-Savic
• The Patriotic Education Campaign in China and the Rise of Chinese Nationalism A Comparison between Official Doctrines and Public Opinion by Ruoxi Du
• Insurgency in Balochistan by Jason Heeg

Featured Foreign Area Officer (FAO) Research Collaboration

• Drug Control in Central Asia An Assessment of Compliance with International Law, By Major Timothy A. Krambs, U.S. Army
• The Strategic Implications of Chinese Companies Going Global, by COL Heino Klinck, U.S. Army
• Fergana as FATA? Central Asia after 2014 – Outcomes and Strategic Options by COL Ted Donnelly, U.S. Army. This article was previously published in CONNECTIONS: The Quarterly Journal Volume XI, Number 1, Winter 2011, p. 11

Featured Interagency Research Collaboration

• Israeli Assault on Gaza Aid Flotilla, by LCDR Hans Staffelbach. Introduction by Karen Kaya, FMSO Analyst.

Featured COCOM Research Collaboration

• Political Islam and the Economy and Politics in Turkey, By Shana R. McClean and A.A. 
• Jihad, Shariah and Their Implications for Security and Geopolitics, By Dr. Jevdet Rexhepi, Regional Functional Scholar-Eurasia, Cultural Knowledge Consortium, Ft. Leavenworth, KS.
• Europe’s Somali Diaspora: Both a Vulnerability and a Strength, By Robert W. Kurz, FMSO-JRIC Analyst.

The Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is an open source research organization of the U.S. Army. Founded as the Soviet Army Studies Office in 1986, it was an innovative program that brought together military specialists and civilian academics to focus on military and security topics derived from unclassified, foreign media. The results were unclassified articles and papers that provided new understandings and broad access to information from a base of expertise in the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, and foreign and U.S. defense communities and universities.

Today FMSO maintains this research tradition of special insight and highly collaborative work. FMSO conducts unclassified research of foreign perspectives of defense and security issues that are understudied or unconsidered but that are important for understanding the environments in which the U.S. military operates. FMSO's work today is still aimed at publication in unclassified journals and its research findings are taught in both military and civilian venues in the United States and around the world. FMSO is organized in the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command under the TRADOC G-2.