U.S. forward military posture can both deter and provoke armed conflict, and a similar logic pertains below the level of armed conflict. The authors of this report identify how forward posture could deter hostile measures in the competition space below the level of armed conflict through several mechanisms, particularly focusing on the presence of U.S. ground forces.

In 2015, for the first time, millennials outnumbered baby boomers as the largest generational segment of the U.S. population. This report describes how the intelligence community must engage millennials across multiple segments to succeed in the future: millennials as intelligence clients, employees, and partners and as members of the public.

This report discusses the results of occupation surveys administered to soldiers in selected Army military occupational specialties (MOSs) to assess the level and importance of the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed in these MOSs and to develop better crosswalks between military and civilian occupations. The report identifies both a broader range of military-civilian occupation matches and higher-quality matches than existing crosswalks.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has recently been more successful than al Qaeda in gaining U.S. terrorist recruits. The authors undertake a demographic profile of individuals drawn to foreign terrorist organizations and find that the affiliates average terrorists recruited by ISIL is younger, less educated, and more likely to be African American/black or Caucasian/white and a U.S.-born citizen.

The authors reviewed literature on White identity terrorism and racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE) and analyzed social media data from six platforms that host extremist content. They developed a network map that evaluates REMVE network construction, connectivity, geographic location, and proclivity to violence and found that users in the United States are overwhelmingly responsible for REMVE discourse online.