Moby-Dick or, The Whale. More sophisticated readers than me can debate whether Moby Dick really is the great American novel. But there’s no doubt in my mind that Herman Melville crafted the gre...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/mid-afternoon-map-the-tragedy-of-tragedy-a-tragedy-in-two-books/
Referring to the People’s Liberation Army, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command recently reported to Congress that “we haven’t faced a threat like this since World War II.” The natu...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/forging-the-force-a-joint-task-force-in-the-indo-pacific/
Nick sat down with Eric Brewer, Dana Stroul, and Gavin Clough to discuss how the conventional, proxy, and nuclear threats Iran poses are evolving. Who was deterred and who wasn’t by the latest ...
The Clements Center for National Security, the Center for European Studies and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies hosted Michael Kimmage, Professor of History at Catho...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/the-multiple-collisions-involved-in-the-war-in-ukraine/
In 2019, Brandon Davenport and Rich Ganske wrote “‘Recalculating Route’: A Realistic Risk Assessment for GPS” for War on the Rocks, in which they argued that threats to GPS are regularly...
Chris, Melanie, and Zack discuss Gavin Wilde’s recent article in the Texas National Security Review on foreign media manipulation. How vulnerable are citizens of democracies to manipulation thr...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/countering-foreign-media-manipulation-or-not/
After spending years working and living in Africa, I have learned you cannot take anything for granted. Even though foreign navies and coast guards exist on paper, that does not mean they have bo...
A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening i...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/in-brief-defense-integration-of-commercial-space-capabilities/
While developing the nuclear bomb, Robert Oppenheimer and his colleagues expressed concerns about the possibility of igniting the Earth’s atmosphere. Today, with the emergence of autonomous wea...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/will-fearless-and-tireless-robots-lead-to-more-terrifying-wars/
As we enter spring 2024, Ukraine’s military position looks tenuous. Its counter-offensive in 2023 did not achieve the ambitious results that Ukraine’s allies had hoped for, and the Ukrainians...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/a-prussian-strategy-for-wars-of-attrition/
The United States is engaged in its first major naval combat since World War II, according to the commander overseeing U.S. naval forces in the Middle East. But instead of pitting the world’s m...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/solving-the-houthi-threat-to-freedom-of-navigation/
Trainees of the Seychelles Coast Guard didn’t expect to be baptized by fire when they left Victoria harbor that morning. Yet there they stood (or ducked for cover) on the deck as 7.62×39-mm ca...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/anti-piracy-lessons-from-the-seychelles/
If you think America’s controls on China’s access to advanced chips are important, you might have been troubled by the claim from the chief of one of China’s most important semiconductor eq...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/how-washington-can-save-its-semiconductor-controls-on-china/
Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below. *** I...
On the sidelines of the National Space Symposium, we threw a little party and recorded a podcast, because why not? Our special guest was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/spacepower-and-the-private-sector/
The Clements Center for National Security, the LBJ Presidential Library and the UT-Austin History Department hosted Talmage Boston, historian and partner at the Dallas law firm Shackelford, Bowen...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/leadership-lessons-from-our-top-presidents/
On 11 March, Iran, Russia, and China launched the fourth iteration of their four-day annual trilateral naval exercises. According to Iranian Second Rear Admiral Mustafa Taj al-Dini, the exercises...
In 2021, Lami Kim wrote “A Hawkish Dove? President Moon Jae-In and South Korea’s Military Buildup” for War on the Rocks, in which she discussed contradictory South Korean policies of peace...
Elizabeth Varon, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South (Simon & Schuster, 2023) When I recently visited Montgomery, Alabama, I went to see the rows of rusted plinths that toget...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/longstreet-and-how-much-work-remains-to-be-done/
A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening i...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/in-brief-the-conflict-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/
Chinese war drums beat on as pundits hotly debate if or when Beijing will try to seize Taiwan by force. There is no apparent countdown to D-day for initiating a blockade or invasion, but major st...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/china-is-battening-down-for-the-gathering-storm-over-taiwan/
In July of 2023, Japan’s largest port, Nagoya, fell victim to a lockbit ransomware attack, causing operations to grind to a halt and Toyota to suspend its import-export packaging lines. This ...
Recently, a journalist questioned Vice Adm. Brad Cooper of U.S. Central command about naval operations in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, “When was the last time that the U.S. Navy operated a...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/houthi-attacks-in-the-red-sea-a-new-twist-on-the-jeune-ecole/
Earlier this year, China’s Coast Guard forced a Filipino fishing boat captain and crew away from Scarborough Shoal, which the United Nations International Tribunal has established as the territ...
There are as many ways to survive war as those affected by it. Since Hamas’ attack on Israel last October, Palestinians have been confronting existential decisions about how to survive the war ...
This is a sneak preview of Mid-Afternoon Map, our exclusive members-only newsletter written by Nick Danforth that provides a cartographic perspective on current events, geopolitics, and history f...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/do-androids-dream-of-disorienting-maps/
On Wednesday, April 10, the Clements-Strauss Asia Policy Program hosted Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Professor of International Relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brus...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/south-koreas-grand-strategy/
The opening salvos of the U.S. response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine came from an unlikely place. As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for ammunition, Commerce and Treasury...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/operationalizing-a-doctrine-for-u-s-economic-statecraft/
In 2021, Jeffrey Bean and Stephen Ezell wrote “When the Chips are Down: Policy Priorities for Sustaining U.S. Semiconductor Leadership” for War on the Rocks, in which they argued that in orde...
Chris, Melanie, and Zack debate the 2024 ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute State of Southeast Asia Survey, in which regional experts assess power trends and perceptions among the members of the Ass...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/americas-report-card-in-southeast-asia/
Canada’s military is in a “death spiral.” This is how Minister of National Defense Bill Blair described the state of Canada’s armed forces at last month’s Ottawa Conference on Security ...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/dont-count-on-us-canadas-military-unreadiness/
Every military leader emphasizes the importance of cyber operations, but there is a perennial shortage of qualified personnel in the military cyber community, across all the services. As calls fo...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/leadership-culture-and-the-military-cyber-workforce/
A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening i...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/in-brief-further-escalation-between-iran-and-israel/
This deep and fascinating conversation is one of a two-part discussion that you can listen to on the Russia Contingency, a members-only podcast hosted by Michael Kofman. Become a member here: htt...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/mike-kofman-and-rob-lee-on-drones-in-ukraine/
It is a trope in superhero stories that the hero must try and be in two places at once. Europe is trying to do the same by splitting its military capabilities between the Euro-Atlantic and the In...
“It’s time for action!” “There could be war in Sweden.” “Who are you if war comes?” These were the messages and no longer rhetorical questions that Sweden’s top political and mili...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/in-from-the-cold-rebuilding-swedens-civil-defense-for-the-nato-era/
Recently, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that making support for Israel partisan hurts “ the cause of helping Israel.” Around the same time, Donald Trump offered a different pers...
If the United States is drawn into a new war in the next few years, what will that look like? Will the government deploy troops and heavy arms to a front in Eastern Europe or naval forces to the ...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/great-power-competition-will-drive-irregular-conflicts/
Nick sat down with Czech Ambassador to the United States Miloslav Stašek for a geographically wide-ranging conversation that moved from Munich to the Middle East to the Texas automotive industry...
Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below. ***...
On Tuesday, March 26, the Clements Center for National Security, the Army ROTC and the UT-Austin History Department hosted Kelly Eads and Dan Morgan for a book talk on their recent release Black...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/fighting-in-iraqs-triangle-of-death/
“By nightfall, you’ll have driven 30,000 to 50,000 Baathists underground. And in six months, you’ll really regret this.” Such a warning from a local CIA station chief would cause most pol...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/too-soft-americas-failure-to-learn-from-germany-to-iraq/
Cyber attacks have been characterized as “borderless” threats. The seeming lack of geographic constraint implies that one skilled hacker, presumably in a hoodie and Guy Fawkes mask, could tak...
In 2022, Daniel Fiott wrote “Relative Dominance: Russian Naval Power in the Black Sea” for War on the Rocks, in which he argued that enhanced support to Ukrainian naval forces would be requi...
“We have to build and sustain submarines in the next 15 to 17-plus years the same way we did in the ’80s with an industrial base that’s one-third the size.” On a recent trip to Lake Charl...
During his New Year’s Eve address, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping said that “China will surely be reunified” and that “all Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a c...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/the-crisis-in-east-asia-korea-or-taiwan/
Ryan popped into Austin to see what the Army Applications Laboratory was getting up to. Its director, Dr. Casey Perley, was kind enough to sit down with Ryan and break it down for him. If you car...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/the-laboratory-building-the-future-of-the-army/
A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep into a single issue happening...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/in-brief-the-terrorist-attack-in-moscow/
Across the Department of Defense, today’s watchword is innovation. In 2018, Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and the first chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board, aptly dec...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/innovation-adoption-for-all-scaling-across-department-of-defense/
On Oct. 7, 2023, a nonstate actor, the violent Palestinian organization in control of the impoverished Gaza Strip, inflicted the worst defeat in the history of the country with the strongest mili...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/04/dereliction-of-duty-israeli-blunders-on-the-way-to-october-7/
Even as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping a were forming “a new epoch in relations” between their two countries, Russia was still planning for the poss...
As a new surface warfare officer, your time is split between running a division and getting qualified. While much of qualifying means opening every publication and tactical handbook you can find ...
Dear War on the Rocks Community, As we reflect on an incredible decade of delivering in-depth analysis and perspectives on strategy, defense, and foreign affairs, we stand at the precipice of a n...
As the Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer popularized the story of the Manhattan Project, we were reminded that foreign-born geniuses like Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi played a major part in Amer...
Welcome to Mid-Afternoon Map, our exclusive members-only newsletter that provides a cartographic perspective on current events, geopolitics, and history from the Caucasus to the Carolinas. Subscr...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/mid-afternoon-map-the-collective-punishment-club/
First, there are rumors, then comes the announcement: “Relieved of command due to a loss of confidence.” So, it went for several Air Force officers, who were removed from command in 2023. Mil...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/aim-high-fixing-the-air-force-commander-selection-process/
In 2017, Brian Petit wrote “Playing Zone Defense: Niger and the Risk Versus Reward of Remote Operations” for War on the Rocks, in which he argues for a “zone defense” in Niger that involv...
In the minutes after a launch detection or nuclear detonation, would America’s nuclear command, control, and communications system enable the president to make a timely and accurate decision to...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/america-needs-a-dead-hand-more-than-ever/
The United States finds itself in a curious position as one of modern history’s few great powers that doesn’t control its commercial shipping. In fact, it’s not much of an exaggeration to s...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/its-time-for-a-comprehensive-national-maritime-strategy/
Chris, Zack, and Melanie sit down to talk about the 2024 Annual Threat Assessment, created by the U.S. intelligence agencies. The report focuses on state actors and transnational issues that coul...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/the-2024-annual-threat-assessment/
A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening i...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/in-brief-u-s-israeli-tensions-over-gaza/
When fighting in Myanmar’s civil war escalated last fall, Chinese-origin weapons could be found on both sides. The military junta’s air force includes Chinese-supplied jets, while the anti-re...
Does the United States need both an armed service and a unified combatant command to defend its national interests in outer space? The answer is yes, given the imperatives to counter threats pose...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/organizing-to-deter-or-prevail-in-space-warfare/
China-watchers are worried about war. A dangerous mix of regional and domestic politics is pushing the great powers towards conflict, they say, despite the enormous risks to both sides. Making ma...
Steve Coll, The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq (New York: Penguin, 2024). Was the Iraq War a product of mutual misperception by U.S. a...
Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below. *** N...
Marshall Kosloff, the Clements Center National Security media and journalism fellow, moderated a discussion with Jeff Decker, the managing director of Tech Transfer for Defense at Stanford Univer...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/understanding-the-defense-departments-industrial-base-problems/
Nick Danforth sat down with Moldovan Ambassador to the United States Viorel Ursu last week to discuss democracy, energy and Russian hybrid warfare, not to mention Black Sea security and the post-...
I often get asked by prospective investors, other venture capitalists, or Department of Defense officials why defense technology has suddenly become salient to venture capitalists and entrepreneu...
Early last year, Julian Waller wrote “Public Politics in the Wartime Russian Dictatorship” for War on the Rocks, in which he argues that Russia is becoming a regime that is “being outflan...
At the height of the “Global War on Terror,” I spent over 10 years as an intelligence analyst. My work informed military counter-terrorism operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and supported the...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/learning-from-the-war-on-terror/
In October 1884, as part of the wider Sino-French War, a contingent of heavily armed French warships sailed toward the harbor of Tamsui, in northern Taiwan. When the fleet approached the estuary ...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/delay-disrupt-degrade-mine-warfare-in-taiwans-porcupine-defense/
A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep into a single issue happening...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/in-brief-gang-uprising-in-haiti/
A flight of three U.S. Army special operations helicopters conducting a night patrol over the ocean encountered a small Iranian freighter. Commonly known as MH-6 “Little Birds” due to their s...
When it comes to bombing Yemen, Congress seems more interested in being consulted than in the substance of that consultation. When the Biden administration began striking Houthi positions earlier...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/congress-needs-to-do-more-than-just-exercise-its-war-powers/
In my nearly 37 years of service, I’ve seen the strength of the Army profession in action — in the courage and dedication of our soldiers, leaders, and army civilian professionals on the batt...
Mike Kofman, fresh back from a research trip to Ukraine, spoke with Ryan about Ukraine’s main challenges in facing down Russia this year. Image: Ukrainian Ministry of Defense The post F...
There’s been a great deal of discussion about the decline of Western civilization over the past few centuries. I suppose at some point it’s inevitable, but after hundreds of years of crying w...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/mid-afternoon-map-nostalgia-for-the-non-existent/
On the most recent episode of The Russia Contingency podcast, Michael Kofman and Rob Lee discussed a variety of structural factors impacting Ukraine’s ability to fight, from drones to manpower,...
Philip Taubman, a lecturer at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, discussed his latest book, In the Nation’s Service: The Life and Times of George P. Shul...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/george-shultz-and-the-end-of-the-cold-war/
In 2022, Dimitar Bechev wrote “War Won’t be Coming Back to the Balkans” for War on the Rocks, in which he argues that, “while Russia has an incentive to open a second front against the W...
Chris, Melanie and Zack take a close look at the United States’ relationship with countries in Latin America. Why has the United States neglected Latin America in the last several decades? Shou...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/competing-for-influence-in-latin-america/
The United States first deployed nuclear weapons in Europe in September 1954. Over time, thousands were sent to a series of bases to offset the vast conventional advantage of Red Army and Warsaw ...
A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep into a single issue happening...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/in-brief-europes-new-defense-industrial-strategy/
French Navy Adm. Raoul Castex (1878–1968) is the greatest naval strategist you probably never heard of. He is easily at the level of French army luminaries Marshal Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929) ...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/admiral-raoul-castex-the-naval-strategist-for-non-hegemons/
The United States faces two serious challenges: China and climate change. Ships can help solve both of them. China is run by an authoritarian and increasingly militarily capable government determ...
Ryan visited Ambassador Marek Magierowski at the Polish Embassy in Washington. They spoke about Poland’s military build-up and the challenges posed by Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. Mu...
In January 2024, British Chief of the General Staff Gen. Sir Patrick Sanders warned that British youth were now part of a “pre-war” generation. Pointing to the threat from Russia, he drew a d...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/the-british-army-and-the-lessons-of-the-boer-war/
Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below. Chi...
The Middle East has long been defined by complex conflicts, yet pride of place is likely Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. U.S. forces, operating there since 2014, officially aga...
Dr. Meg Reiss, the founder and CEO of SolidIntel Inc., sat down with Marshall Kosloff, the national security media and journalism fellow at the Clements Center for National Security, to discuss s...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/ai-and-making-the-supply-chain-more-robust/
During the 2014 Gaza War between Israel and Hamas, Jacob Stoil wrote “Why a Gaza Ceasefire is So Difficult” for War on the Rocks, in which he sought to answer one question that was as pressi...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/why-a-gaza-ceasefire-is-so-difficult-with-jacob-stoil/
Of all the symbols of American power abroad, the U.S. special operations soldier occupies a unique place in the public’s imagination. The public appetite for tales of derring-do and gutsy ventu...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/send-in-the-a-team-a-graduated-response-for-ukraine/
Today, the U.S. Air Force faces an almost-existential crisis. During the past several years, the service has been battered by the loss of its prestigious space mission to the nascent U.S. Space F...
A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening i...
The British Army began World War I with only two machine guns per infantry battalion. One gun was a spare, meaning the effective ratio was one per 1,000 soldiers. Historian John Ellis summarized,...
Ryan sat down at the Pentagon with Gen. Gary Brito, who leads U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, to talk about strengthening Army professionalism, which Gen. Randy George, the chief of staf...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/gen-brito-of-training-doctrine-command-talks-army-professionalism/
Headlines would lead one to conclude that the age of killer robots has arrived. In Ukraine, autonomous drone swarmssupposedly hunt for enemies and independently decide what to attack. Because Ukr...
Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Gover...
http://warontherocks.com/2024/03/americas-effort-to-shield-itself/
“It is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union,” George Kennan wrote in 1947, “must be that of long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment o...