War On The Rocks

Will President Donald Trump really seek to use U.S. military force to retake the Panama Canal as he has threatened? Let’s hope not. Given the fraught nature of retaking the canal by force or even by economic pressure, it could be…

Where, when, and how might offensive cyber operations impact the outcomes of war? For over 40 years, this debate often spiraled to the extremes, whether offensive cyber operations are revolutionary or mostly hype, a warfighting game-changer…

Syria’s new leaders are in desperate need of partners who can provide fiscal, economic, and diplomatic support. Since overthrowing the Assad regime, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s leader, Ahmed al Sharaa, has actively reached out to multiple…

Five years ago, we warned that a snap decision to depart Syria — abandoning the U.S. Kurdish-led partner force that has fought the Islamic State in Syria for the last 10 years while thousands of suspected fighters remained in detention —…

“In the United States people are singularly oblivious of the close relation between peace and preparation.”–Alfred Thayer Mahan, 1912 Only 34 percent of Americans can find Taiwan on a map and they are even less aware of U.S. strategic…

Over the past couple weeks, everyone in Washington and the world has published their geopolitical forecast for 2025. The beauty of these predictions is that you can simultaneously make fun of the vague ones for being vague and the clear…

Iran’s inability to support Bashar al-Assad’s regime and prevent its collapse, coupled with recent significant blows to Hizballah and Israeli strikes within Iranian borders, underscores Tehran’s unprecedented regional weakness. With…

<!-- category --> January 15, 2025 In this special episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Rick Landgraf talks with Jane Vaynman and Tristan Volpe, co-authors of “Dual Use Deception: How Technology Shapes Cooperation in International…

In 2022, Kathleen J. McInnis, Benjamin Jensen, and Jaron Wharton wrote, “Why Dictators are Afraid of Girls: Rethinking Gender and National Security,” where they analyzed how gender can break or bolster authoritarian regimes. We asked…

For decades, the United States has relied on airpower and the qualitative superiority of its aircraft to gain an advantage over its adversaries. But that advantage is rapidly eroding. The Chinese military is fielding sophisticated air…