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 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.Item The Readiness–Utilization Trade Space in U.S. Army Aviation: Policy, Decision Behavior, and Information Quality(North Carolina State University, 2026-03-06)This dissertation investigates how information, readiness metrics, and policy design jointly shape maintenance and utilization decisions in U.S. Army aviation. Focusing on AH-64 Apache units, the work examines how OR and usage interact as coupled outcomes of maintenance capacity and policy design. The first phase characterizes observed decision behavior. Using a generalized additive model (GAM), we quantify the relationship between OR, phase maintenance proximity, and daily aircraft utilization. Results show that while units continue to fly aircraft despite degraded readiness ratings, they systematically avoid flying aircraft approaching or emerging from phase maintenance. These patterns reveal implicit prioritization rules not captured by aggregate readiness metrics and indicate a measurable gap between doctrinal guidance and observed unit behavior. Building on these findings, the second phase develops a data-driven framework to compare the impact of unit-level decision-making on efficiency outcomes. Units are evaluated along a Pareto frontier defined by OR and flying hours per aircraft, and a self-organizing map identifies latent decision-making profiles associated with distinct efficiency profiles. The results show that units operating under similar policy environments can achieve different performance outcomes on the frontier and that differences in decision behavior help explain these differences. The final phase embeds these behaviors within a controlled simulation environment to assess the operational value of prognostic information. A decision-tree policy, optimized using a heterogeneous island-model genetic algorithm, is evaluated under varying levels of remaining useful life (RUL) prediction accuracy. A factorial experimental design isolates the causal effects of information quality and policy adaptation. The findings show that performance gains are driven primarily by signal quality and exhibit diminishing returns beyond moderate prognostic accuracy. Collectively, this work demonstrates that readiness outcomes emerge from a joint system of metrics, policies, and information quality. These results provide a principled basis for evaluating legacy readiness measures and prioritizing investments in data-informed maintenance capabilities.Item The Iatrogenic Paradox: When Information Operations Undermine Strategic Objectives(Irregular Warfare Center, 2025-09)This paper examines the phenomenon of iatrogenic influence, information operations that unintentionally produce outcomes counter to their intended goals, and argues that the U.S. military’s current approach to information operations (IO) requires fundamental reassessment. Using the war in Afghanistan as the central case study, the paper demonstrates how two decades of military-led IO, despite tactical successes, contributed to strategic failure by inadvertently strengthening adversarial groups such as the Taliban. The analysis traces the historical evolution of both military and non-military U.S. influence capabilities, highlighting the longstanding dominance of civilian agencies in global information efforts and the limitations inherent to military-led campaigns, particularly regarding cultural understanding, credibility, and long-term engagement. The paper assesses structural gaps, organizational overlap, and the risks of information fratricide across the U.S. government. It concludes by recommending a refined, specialized military IO role focused on mission sets historically proven effective, such as surrender appeals, civilian non-interference messaging, and enemy demoralization, while shifting broader influence responsibilities back to civilian organizations with the expertise and longevity required for strategic impact. These recommendations aim to reduce the risk of iatrogenic effects and enable a more integrated, precise, and sustainable national information strategy.
Communities in USMA Athena
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