Commentary

How would our world be different if Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz, John Lejeune, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin had resigned after five or 10 years in uniform? As junior officers, they all likely knew they were among their peer group’s “best…

We are not yet at a paradigm-shifting moment in the role of autonomous or robotic systems at sea. Nor are we likely to reach a revolutionary precipice within the period in which the U.S. Navy must begin making the transition to a truly…

In March 2024, the Islamic State killed more people in parts of Syria controlled by the Assad regime than at any point since July 2018. The attacks are part of an ongoing trend since October 2023 that has seen Islamic State activity in this…

When I was a kid, I loved Legos and Transformers. They could take multiple shapes and let me play out a million different adventures from the same set of building blocks and plastic robot heroes and villains. Why can’t I have that…

Amidst escalating global tensions and growing challenges in the civilian aviation sector, an aircraft maintenance shortage has emerged nationally, posing a significant threat to Air Force operational readiness. Recent incidents in the…

Tensions between China and the Philippines have escalated dramatically in recent months around Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef in the eastern Spratly Islands. The Chinese Coast Guard has repeatedly attempted to block delivery of food,…

What is a country to do when military action and diplomacy are both presently hopeless? That is the situation the United States finds itself in today: Military escalation will not compel the Houthis to halt their anti-shipping campaign or…

Recent calls to create a Cyber Force are only the latest response to the U.S. military’s years-long struggle to train and retain talented cyber personnel. In 2019, for example, an instructor at the Cyber Center of Excellence noted the…

On April 2, 2024, Ukraine’s military struck several buildings in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Russia’s Tatarstan region. The strike demonstrated Ukraine’s steadily improving ability to hold targets deep inside Russia at risk. But it…

Over the weekend, the Philippines and China, which have been locked in a tense stand-off around the Second Thomas Shoal for months announced an agreement to deescalate tensions. While potentially positive, we believe that the long-term risk…