Welcome to USMA Athena
USMA Athena is a secure digital service managed by the United States Military Academy Library to make the work of USMA scholars freely available, while also ensuring these resources are organized to preserve the legacy of USMA scholarship. The mission of USMA Athena is to showcase the academic impact and intellectual capital that has become synonymous with the celebrated heritage of educational prowess attributed to the Long Gray Line. Scholarship submitted to USMA Athena benefits from added visibility and discoverability via Google Scholar in addition to the use of persistent URLs that will provide enduring access to the work over time.
Recent Submissions
Item Report: West Point Undergraduate Historical Review, Volume 016 (Spring 2026)- Front Matter(West Point Press, 2026)Front Matter includes: Cover Editorial Board Listing Letter from the Editors Table of ContentsItem REPORT: West Point Undergraduate Historical Review, Volume 016(Spring 2026) Full Issue(West Point Press, 2026)REPORT is an open-access undergraduate journal based in the Department of History and War Studies at the United States Military Academy. The journal is published annually by The West Point Press and edited by a team of undergraduate students and faculty advisors. The journal provides a platform to showcase the historical scholarship produced by undergraduate authors. The journal accepts and encourages submissions from undergraduate students at West Point, other service academies, colleges, and universities. Submissions must be related to the field of history (broadly defined).Item Tuning Minds: How Music Drives Nationalistic Propaganda Across Countries(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2025-11-01)This study investigates how different states and political regimes seek to leverage music to persuade their populations and promote an agenda. This research aims to uncover new perspectives on factors contributing to the stability of nuclear-capable nations. This study first employs a qualitative, sociological approach to understanding music using case study datasets for historical and current nations of interest. We then move to a quantitative approach utilizing MATLAB packages that compare the musical elements of song datasets with each other through a measure of Euclidean Distance. This research offers a novel perspective on music and influence, providing valuable insights to the DoD that extend the current understanding of how states may use musicians to influence the culture of the population. The study's findings contribute to our understanding of persuasion in nuclear-capable countries, highlighting areas for future research and potential policy or practical applications. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not reflect the position of the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.Item Modeling drone swarms with a PDE extension of Lanchester’s laws(The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, 2026-04-03)We extend the Lanchester equations of combat modeling by constructing a coupled system of partial differential equations with the goal of representing engagements between an attacking drone swarm and a layered defense. Our model includes an attacking force of drones traversing the battlefield (domain) in an attempt to reach its target. The defending force, which engages the incoming attackers, is made up of a static defense and a mobile drone force capable of intercepting and tracking the attackers. Drone swarm motion is modeled with advection–diffusion terms and engagement at range by nonlocal reaction terms. We solve the underlying model using a finite difference method and investigate how interaction range, swarm dispersion, and the allocation between static and mobile defenses affect attacker survivability. To account for expendable or single-use countermeasure platforms (e.g. kamikaze–style interceptors), we also examine how expendability affects the final engagement outcome. This study provides a foundation for modeling spatially distributed combat dynamics reflecting current and future combat scenarios.Item Mapping Communication Hijacking in the Asia-Pacific: Data-Driven Insights into Disinformation Networks(West Point Press - Cyber Defense Review, 2026-04)This study investigates "communication hijacking"—the strategic co-option and redirection of online discourse—by PRC-sponsored actors within the Asia-Pacific information environment. Using a novel seven-level framework (Persona, Hashtag, Media, Narrative, Campaign, Brand, and Newsjacking), the research categorizes diverse influence activities, including efforts to diminish organizational or individual reputation and exploit real-time media events. Through a multilingual, open-source analysis of data from 2021 to 2024, the study identifies specific hijacking cases that utilize coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB) and synthetic amplification. While finding a preference for creating inauthentic news outlets over direct media hijacking, the research reveals that PRC-sponsored operations use persona-level attacks to target dissidents whereas campaign-level efforts focus on broader objectives like electoral interference. By mapping these tactics, the study provides a taxonomic foundation for communication practitioners in business, government, and the military—particularly those engaged in cognitive warfare and military Operations in the Information Environment (OIE)—to better understand and detect the evolution of digital interference and disinformation practices.
Communities in USMA Athena
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