Most Read War on the Rocks Articles of All Time

War on the Rocks turns 10 this month. Some days it feels like 10 years, other days it still feels so new. As regular readers will know, we do an annual most-read list. To mark a decade, below you’ll find the 25 most-read articles we’ve ever published. 

War on the Rocks began as a simple idea: to create an outlet that centered experienced voices to stoke and provoke a better strategic conversation. We work every day to just that. This list includes topics as diverse as your interests, from Russian military logistics to the U.S. Army’s physical fitness test. It includes articles that challenged you, pleased you, made you uncomfortable, and made you think. 

Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or joined us somewhere along the way, we are grateful for your time, your trust, and especially the sense of community you’ve built – and continue to build – with us. 

As always, there are changes afoot as we continue to add more value to our membership program, launch new shows, test new ideas, and maybe even launch a new publication. But through all this, we are staying true to that simple core idea that kicked this journey off.

1. Alex Vershinin, “Feeding the Bear: A Closer Look at Russian Army Logistics and the Fait Accompli”
2. Michael Kenney and Colin Clarke, “What Antifa Is, What It Isn’t, and Why It Matters”
3. Bryan McGrath, “More Than Just a Fire: The Implications of the Bonhomme Richard Catastrophe”
4. James Kraska, “China Is Legally Responsible for COVID-19 Damage and Claims Could Be in the Trillions”
5. David Barno and Nora Bensahel, “Dumb and Dumber: The Army’s New PT Test”
6. Tom Hone, “The Importance of the Battle of Midway”
7. Jonathan Panter, Anand Jantzen, Johnathan Falcone, “The 100-Ship Navy”
8. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, “How Many Fighters Does the Islamic State Really Have?”
9. Mike Benitez, “F-15EX: The Strategic Blind Spot in the Air Force’s Fighter Debate”
10. David Barno and Nora Bensahel, “A Striking New Vision for the Marines, and a Wakeup Call for the Other Services”
11. Michael Kofman and Rob Lee, “Not Built for Purpose: The Russian Military’s Ill-Fated Force Design”
12. Sean McFate, “How to Take Over a Small Country in 10 Easy Steps”
13. Anna Simons, “Here’s Why Women in Combat Units Is a Bad Idea”
14. Mike Pietrucha, “Of Course the U.S. Military Has a White Supremacy Problem. It’s Baked In”
15. David John Ulbrich, “The Importance of the Battle of Belleau Wood”
16. David Johnson, “The Tank Is Dead: Long Live the Javelin, the Switchblade, the …?”
17. Michael Kofman, “Putin’s Wager in Russia’s Standoff With the West”
18. Tim Kane, “Military Retirement: Too Sweet a Deal?”
19. Micah Zenko, “Millennium Challenge: The Real Story of a Corrupted Military Exercise and Its Legacy”
20. Jeremy Shapiro, “We Are on a Path to Nuclear War”
21. Col. ‘Ned Stark’, “A Call for Senior Officer Reform in the Air Force: An Insider’s Perspective”
22. Mike Benitez, “Air Force in Crisis, Part III: Dear Boss, It’s All About the Culture“
23. Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, “Putin Loses No Matter How This Turns Out, But We Might Too”
24. Angus Ross, “Rethinking the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Fleet”
25. Stephen Biddle, “Ukraine and the Future of Offensive Maneuver” 

Image: U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Callaghan