The nineteenth annual Summer Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy (SWAMOS) was held July 5-19 on the campus of Cornell University.

The two directing faculty of SWAMOS 2015 were Saltzman Institute Director Richard K. Betts and Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations. Responsibility for guiding the workshop was shared among the two, with each taking primary responsibility for organizing sessions at different times during the two weeks.

A variety of accomplished scholars, policy analysts, and military professionals participated for a day at a time: Tami Davis Biddle of the U.S. Army War College, Mark Cancian of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Eliot Cohen of Johns Hopkins SAIS, Carter Malkasian of CNA, Daryl Press of Dartmouth College, and Caitlin Talmadge of the George Washington University. All of the speakers had academic credentials, but some had particularly relevant military experience as well. For example, Dr. Malkasian served as the political advisor to General Joseph Dunford, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and Mark Cancian, a Marine Corps Colonel, served in Iraq as a high-level analyst of combat operations.

SWAMOS familiarizes the next generation of scholars with military policy issues by providing a grasp of terms of reference, techniques of analysis, and illustrative cases. The workshop also aims to foster a network of academics with competence to evaluate military policy choices, support policy-­‐relevant academic research and teaching on strategy, and maintain expertise and resources for informed judgment on military issues within the civilian community.

The twentieth annual SWAMOS will be held July 10-24, 2016. Click here to view the SWAMOS 2016 brochure and application.