Center of Gravity Determination in the Global War on Terrorism

Abstract

Current United States Armed Forces doctrine for campaign planning cites center of gravity identification as the most important task confronting campaign planners. The President of the United States declared war on terrorists and governments that support terrorists on 21 September 2001. The primary target of this declaration the terrorist organization a Qaeda that claimed responsibility for the attacks of 11 September 2001 continues to exist despite the two-year joint combined and interagency campaign to destroy it. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to properly identify al Qaeda's strategic center of gravity supporting critical capabilities and critical requirements and the resulting critical vulnerabilities. Further it is to provide a template for the application of the center of gravity determination analytical tool to other terrorist organizations that may threaten the United States or our allies.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 03, 2004
Accession Number
ADA423285

Entities

People

  • Joe E. Ethridge Jr

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Center Of Gravity
  • Commerce
  • Doctrine
  • Engineering
  • Governments
  • Gravity
  • Middle East
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Nongovernmental Organizations
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Students
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.
  • Systems Analysis and Design