Professional Writing Samples by Theo Johnson

Personal Best Leadership Experience     In Spring of 2012, while working for a Real Estate firm focused on providing supported educational materials on how to renegotiate loans due to hardship, I enrolled in an open University Masters Seminar on Warfare and Homeland Security at San Diego State University.  The course would provide an outstanding background on the evolution of American Warfare and Homeland Security through a detailed critical review of the strategies, operations and tactics that either worked or lead to trouble. While there were a few other colleagues with background in Political Science, many of my colleagues were seasoned veterans having already served several tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It could have been very easy to be intimidated, withdrawal from classes and wait for a Political Science class with space. Thankfully, I had recently read  The Leader Who Had No Title  by Robin Sharma, and knew that just because I did not have military rank did not m

Al-Qaeda’s Demise In “How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns,” Audrey Cronin challenges us by suggesting that, “once we concentrate on how terrorism ends, forging a successful strategy for its defeat can begin. “    Cronin looks at a range of different case studies of different terrorist groups across history, around the globe and throughout the ideological spectrum to explore the ways in which States have responded to terrorism and how terrorist groups have traditionally come to an end.    Cronin identifies examples of how Decapitation, Negotiations, Success, Failure, Repression and Reorientation have all brought about the end of various terrorist groups ranging from the IRA in Ireland to the Shinning Path in Peru.    She then shifts to an exploration of Al-Qaeda and how it differs and she believes it will be defeated.     Cronin argues that, “Al-Qaeda will end when the West removes itself from the heart of this fight, shores up internati

“Know your Enemy as You Know Yourself and You Can Fight A Thousand Battles Without Disaster.” – Sun Tzu      To understand how to defeat Al-Qaeda, we must see our enemy as more than just some Arab fanatics, but grasp its ideology, its methodology, its grand strategy and its tactics.     It is clear that Al-Qaeda’s end game is an Islamic Caliphate uniting the entire Islamic world under strict Sharia law and traditional Muslim codes.    Its methodology is to sow chaos across the middle east, prompting ethnic conflicts and civil wars that weaken regional regimes and at times, use America and its vast military capabilities to take down mutual foes with the intent to take power as American resolve weakens.     It seems our enemies grand strategy is to terrify the populace and drain the resources of Western Civilization into collapse.    The sad reality is that with all of our military successes, with all of our progress in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and everywhere, they still have fight

On The Origins of the Islamic State and US Foreign Policy in the Middle East by Theo Johnson     The Islamic State developed from Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a group originally founded by “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,” after his exposure to more radical Salafi elements in Jordanian Prisons. Working the Jihadist circuit of the time, he fought in Herat, Afghanistan against coalition forces before fleeing to Northern Iraq. Initially, according to analysts, he fought with Ansar al-Islam, which was actually a militant Kurdish group looking to establish a sovereign Kurdish State. Interestingly, it was largely Zarqawi who was presented as the “link” between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. While the clear contrary agendas of Kurdish separatism and Saddam’s grip on power is obvious, the inability of Saddam’s forces to apprehend him, in part because of the US enforced no-fly zone eclipsed more rational decision-making. Never the less, as the US entered into Iraq, Zarqawi formalized his Al-Qaeda in Iraq banner by ta