'Full spectrum dominance': Donald Rumsfeld, the Department of Defense, and US irregular warfare strategy 2001-2008

This article examines the evolution of US irregular warfare (IW) doctrine and practice from 2001 onwards. It argues that, after 9/11, top-tier civilian policymakers in the US Department of Defense (DoD) and across the US government developed a heightened awareness of asymmetric threats and non-conventional forms of warfare, especially those shaped by contemporary globalisation. The result was a gradual turn towards irregular warfare, led by Rumsfeld and the DoD, designed to ensure ‘full spectrum dominance’ across all modes of conflict. This pre-dated the insurgency in Iraq and the promotion of counterinsurgency in the US Army by General David Petraeus and others. Policymakers' reluctance to acknowledge the insurgency in Iraq was not down to a failure to understand the concept of IW, but because they had viewed Iraq in conventional terms for so many years and were reluctant to admit their mistake

The Joint Chiefs of Staff Incoming Message June Ball/Bercon Charlie One

From Live Oak: June Ball/Bercon Charlie On

The Joint Chiefs of Staff Cable

Cable describing the movement of United States M-108 army to Berlin

The Joint Chiefs of Staff Incoming Message Live Oak Codewords

From Live Oak: Description of new codename

The Joint Chiefs of Staff Incoming Message Return Flight of Army Mohawk Through Corridor

From Bonn: Return Flight of Army Mohawk Through corridor, concurrence of flight procedures and take off patter

Memorandum for General Wheeler and General McPherson

Memo regarding Eastern Europe and the USSR in the Aftermath of the invasion of Czechoslovakia

The Joint Chiefs of Staff Cable on United States Duty Trains

Live Oak message about United States duty trains

The Joint Chiefs of Staff Incoming Message

From Live Oak Paris France: Movement of convoys on the Berlin-Helmstedt Autobah

From: Chief of Staff of the Air Force To:Joint Chiefs of Staff Washington DC Director and Director of the Army Staff Washington D.C.

Supplemental Report Number 1 of Nuclear Accident