War Room is the online journal of the U.S. Army War College, created through the gracious support of the U.S. Army War College Foundation. It is a home for smart discussion about all facets of national security to include strategic theory, theater and campaign planning, military innovation, the future of war, the history of war, national security, professional military education, military organizations, international relations, leadership, and significant issues facing those who serve and their families.
War Room is a creator-friendly forum open to everyone from acknowledged experts and leaders in their respective fields to first-time authors.
You do not have to be affiliated with the Army War College to write for War Room!
If you are interested in writing for War Room, please read on! (And please do read this entire page before submitting.)
Editorial Philosophy
We publish short-form (1,200-1,800 words) articles on national security topics of enduring interest. Our quick test for whether an article is of enduring interest is whether it will still be of interest in six months. Authors can (and are encouraged) to engage with current events, but as a vehicle for illustrating some larger enduring concept, trend, or lesson.
If in doubt, send us a short pitch at warroomeditors@gmail.com and we will happily discuss and help develop your idea. Early discussion and refinement are in the best interest of authors and editors!
Formatting Guidance. Submissions that do not meet these guidelines will be rejected without substantive editorial review.
- Be concise. Have a point and get to it. Our preferred length is approximately 1,500 words, and we reject submissions longer than 2,000 words.
- Be correct. War Room follows the Associated Press Stylebook on matters of punctuation, grammar, and style. Our editors will help ensure articles conform to these guidelines.
- Be simple. Many of our readers enjoy War Room content on their smart phones. Many sub-heads (like this page), the use of bullets (also like this page), or complex graphics all translate poorly onto the small screen. For most articles, three to four sub-heads, no bulletized lists, and no graphics will be the most effective presentation.
- Support assertions with facts from legitimate sources and provide due acknowledgement to other scholars’ work. War Room is an on-line journal for one of the senior institutions of U.S. military professional military education. Though we do not employ the full academic apparatus of peer review and citations in endnotes, academic integrity is important to us. Our editorial team will ask authors to provide citations in the form of hyperlinks to reputable sources to ensure that our articles offer defensible intellectual positions. In practical terms, authors should provide a hyperlink to the most accessible (i.e., not behind paywalls) and credible source for the assertion or fact in question. When a reference is to a published book that is not available in full text, please use the publishing house page rather than Amazon or some other third-party seller. If an author is uncertain of how to handle a specific citation, they are welcome to highlight the passage in question with their submission e-mail or as an embedded comment in the Word document. Be cautious when linking to online sources. Do not link directly to leaked classified documents or materials inappropriately acquired or posted; link only to unclassified opensource materials. More specifics available here.
- The details. Please send articles in a Word document that includes a short bio of 100 words or less (does not count against word limit).
Writing Guidance
- Do your own work. Submissions must be substantively the work of the author(s) rather than others, whether human or machine.
- Start strong but be brief. The first hundred words are critical in short-form on-line publishing. The lede should include a hook that draws in readers and provides a sense of your overall argument. This is hard to do, but worth the effort and makes the entire article better.
- Have an argument or point. We do not publish articles or podcasts that are merely informational or promotional, no matter how worthy the cause.
- Write for the educated generalist. Write in an engaging, accessible style. Use concrete examples and vignettes to illustrate your points, especially when they are theoretical or abstract. Write in the active voice. Generally, favor short paragraphs to long ones (remember, your article will primarily be read on screen.) Avoid military jargon, and do not use acronyms or initialisms that you would not see in the New York Times.
- Be personal when appropriate and in moderation. Many War Room authors have some personal tie or experience to the subject matter. When used judiciously these connections can make the work both more engaging and persuasive by adding an element of human interest and credibility. Ultimately, however, War Room’s focus on enduring elements of national security and best practices in writing place a limit on how far the personal aspect can be employed. Articles must be bigger than one person’s story and rely on more evidence than “and I was there.”
- Be inclusive. Do not assume all your readers are American. (Thus, it is best to avoid “we” unless the narrow group is quite clear.)
- Respect others. We encourage humor, provided it shows appropriate respect to others and excludes foul or inappropriate language. Also, academic discourse is not the place for ad hominem attacks.
- Quote selectively. Include quotations selectively and only when they are immediately relevant to supporting your argument. Avoid using block quotations. We echo the guidance of the guidance of the University of Wisconsin Writer’s Handbook, which recommends using quotations in four instances: 1) to show that an authority supports your point (which is generally not used in academic writing); 2) to present a position or argument to critique or comment on; 3) to include especially moving or historically significant language; 4) to present a particularly well-stated passage whose meaning would be lost or changed if paraphrased or summarized.
Additional Tips
- Respect the format. Our word limit precludes a comprehensive treatment of the complex topics that are standard for national security. You should choose one facet to explore, one illustrative example, or one underexplored area for your subject. It is good practice (in any writing) to explicitly discuss the limits of your scope and identify areas for future work.
- Be smart but also be interesting and even fun. The quality of content will always be the central editorial criterion for War Room, but engaging writing and, when appropriate, humor only increase the influence of good thought.
- Be specific. Whenever possible, assign actions or decisions to specific people or groups. Do not say “the United States” if you mean “the U.S. Congress” or “military leaders” if you mean “The Chief of Staff of the Army.” If you make recommendations, be specific about who you recommend take the action.
Security and Policy Review (for employees of the U.S. Government)
Per Department of Defense (DoD) policy, military members (whether active or reserve) and DoD civilians must clear any articles with their local public affairs office prior to submission to War Room. DoD authors must include an appropriate disclaimer that the article represents solely the author’s views and not necessarily those of DoD. Employees of other government agencies (federal, state, or local) are encouraged to do the same. Including such disclaimers speeds up the editorial process. If you require that your organization separately review an article, please inform the War Room editors.
War Room welcomes provocative articles and so will not reject submissions because they are critical. Articles, however, must accurately state U.S. Government policy, not include classified information, not contain ad hominem (i.e., personal) attacks on people featured in the article, or make significant unsubstantiated claims.
The War Room Editor-in-Chief has final release authority for content published on War Room.
Other Notes
- As is standard, War Room only publishes original work. Any submission must be different from other work that you have previously published. Also, please indicate if a submission is currently under review for publication elsewhere.
- War Room reserves the right to refuse publication for any reason.
- The content on War Room reflects the views of the authors and other contributors. These views are not necessarily those of the United States Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
- War Room offers no compensation for submissions and does not accept any offers for advertising.
Submission and Editorial Process
- Send all submissions, pitches, or podcast ideas to warroomeditors@gmail.com.
- The managing editor will ensure that submissions meet the submissions criteria outlined above.
- In rare cases, articles will be accepted as is with only minor copyediting.
- More commonly, authors will receive feedback through the managing editor with comments and suggestions for revision.
- In their response, authors should keep track changes on as they work with editors. Authors are not required to concur with all editorial feedback. Where authors choose to disregard it, they should include a brief comment in relevant section of the document, explaining their decision. Our editorial staff welcomes dialogue with authors!
- Once the article is ready for publication, the War Room editorial staff will conduct a final copyedit.
The War Room Editorial team strives to complete the editing process in an efficient, friendly, and helpful manner. Our aim is to do as few rounds of revision as possible, but as many as necessary. For many articles, this may include two or three rounds of revision.