Protection Warfighting Function Professional Media List

By Protection Journal

| Protection, 2023 Annual Issue

Read Time: < 6 mins

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This list is an important reference for the professional development of all protection leaders in the Army. Continuous self-development is one of the ways that we can maintain and improve our skills, challenge and refine our beliefs, and reach our full potential in an ever-changing world. These resources will improve our understanding of the protection warfighting function and its role in the diverse myriad of Army missions. These resources are intended to complement our professional military education and serve as a means of continuing education between professional military education courses. This list is a living document that is under continuous revision. Suggestions and recommendations are welcome and can be sent to <usarmy.leonardwood.mscoe.mbx.protection-fmp@army.mil>.

Protection

7 Seconds to Die, A Military Analysis of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, John F. Antal, Casemate, 2022, ISBN 978-1-63624-123-4. The Nagorno-Karabakh War was the first war in history to be won primarily by robotic systems, and its impact on the protection warfighting function cannot be overstated.

The Character of Harms: Operational Challenges in Control, Malcolm K. Sparrow, Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0521872102. This book is dedicated to the science and art of creating coherent, over-arching protection programs for federal, state, and local governments and organizations faced with dozens of unrelated and sometimes highly technical protection, risk reduction, response, and safety responsibilities and efforts.

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, St. Martin’s Press, 20 October 2015, ISBN 978-1-25006-705-0. Detailing the mindset and principles that enable sea, air, and land (SEAL) units to accomplish the most difficult missions in combat, this book explains how to apply them to any team, family, or organization. Each chapter focuses on a specific topic, such as cover and movement, decentralized command, and leading up the chain, explaining what they are, why they are important, and how to implement them in any leadership environment.

Breaking Doctrine Podcast, Episode 7: “Protection,” Major Chris Parker, Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 2021, available on various podcast applications. This podcast, featuring Major General James E. Bonner (Commanding General, Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri) and Brigadier General Naïve F. Knell (former Commandant, U.S. Army Military Police School, Fort Leonard Wood), discusses the protection warfighting function, one of the largest and most diverse of the warfighting functions.

AUSA 2023: Homeland Defense Seminar: The Future of Homeland Defense—Setting the Theater for Multi-Domain Operations, Army Multimedia and Visual Information Division, 10 October 2023, <https://www.dvidshub.net/video/899919/ausa-2023-homeland-defense-seminar-future-homeland-defense-setting-theater-multi-domain-operations>. Major General James E. Bonner chairs a high-level panel discussing power projection from the homeland, with an emphasis on protection. Protection-focused opening remarks are delivered by General Glen D. VanHerck, commander of the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Nuclear Weapons Effects Simulation, Luis Palacios, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, 9 November 2022, <https://www.dvidshub.net/video/863746/nuclear-weapons-effect-simulation>. This is a Research and Development Nuclear Technologies Department, Defense Threat Reduction Agency-developed visualization video of the simulated effects of a 10-kiloton nuclear detonation against military units at various distances from ground zero. The video is intended only as a simulation to better aid warfighters in understanding what types of effects to expect after a low-yield nuclear detonation.

Protection (Strategic Landpower IRP PT 3), Jennifer Hunt et al., U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 23 June 2023, <https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/podcasts/23slirp-3/>. This podcast explores the potential role of the National Guard in strengthening cybersecurity defenses as a result of the rising prevalence of cyber threats. It also addresses the complexities of air and missile defense, which necessitate advanced technologies, strategic planning, and international cooperation. It concludes by highlighting the role of solid defense mechanisms in deterring potential aggressors, thereby preserving peace.

Critical Infrastructure Protection: Assessing the Risk in the Post Pandemic, Homeland Defense & Security Information Analysis Center, 15 September 2021, <https://hdiac.org/webinars/critical-infrastructure-protection-assessing-the-risk-in-the-post-pandemic/>. This webinar examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has posed new challenges for critical infrastructure protection, including the identification of decision makers and organizational responses to incidents. Many institutions are facing emerging threats and hazards as they return to regular operations, and this session reviews traditional and emerging risks and discusses the steps needed to safely manage the overall change in risk paradigm.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2d edition), Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Random House, 2010, ISBN 978-0-81297381-5. This update of the 2007 classic discusses risk, future planning, and the role of an almost infinite number of highly unlikely and unforeseen events—“a must read” for the protection planner.

United States Bomb Data Center (USBDC) Explosives Incident Report (EIR): 2022, U.S. Bomb Data Center, Huntsville, Alabama, 2022, <https://www.atf.gov/file/181946/download>. This short booklet reviews the 966 bombing incidents that occurred in the United States in 2022, and discusses bombing data for the last 5 years.

“The Maneuver Enhancement Brigade is the Support Area Command Post,” Military Review Online Exclusive, Colonel Patrick E. Proctor et al., U.S. Army , October 2018, <https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/Army-Press-Online-Journal/documents/Proctor-Barber.pdf>. The authors of this article underscore the significance of cybersecurity in modern defense architectures, asserting that as warfare increasingly shifts to the digital realm, robust cyberdefense measures are integral to ensuring national security. They advocate for continual innovation and upgrades of cybersecurity systems to counter evolving digital threats, effectively reinforcing defense mechanisms.

History

The Bay of Pigs, Howard Jones, Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 9780199743810. This is a dramatic account of the disastrous attempt to overthrow the prime minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, in April 1961. Drawing on recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency documents, Jones deftly examines the train of self-deceptions and missteps that led to the invasion of U.S.-trained exiles at the Bay of Pigs. Ignoring warnings from the ambassador to Cuba, the Dwight D. Eisenhower presidential administration put in motion an operation that proved nearly unstoppable, even after the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. Meanwhile, both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon had voiced confidence in the outcome of the invasion.

Delaware’s Ghost Towers: The Coast Artillery’s Forgotten Last Stand During the Darkest Days of World War II (2d edition), William C. Grayson, AuthorHouse, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7414-4906-1. This short book explores how, when faced with depressed economic conditions prior to World War II, our Army responded to a new and revolutionary threat and goes on to describe how we protected a key section of our coastline throughout the war.

Saratoga: Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War, Richard M. Ketchum, Holt and Company, 1997, ISBN 978-0-712665025. In the summer of 1777, under General John Burgoyne, the British launched an invasion of America from Canada. It was the campaign that was supposed to crush the rebellion, but instead resulted in a series of battles that changed America’s history and the history of the world.

Fiction

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, P.W. Singer and August Cole, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, ISBN 978-0-544-70505-0. This very popular protection-heavy fictional novel has aged extremely well and is worth a reread, given today’s latest international climate and developments.