Commentary

Africa presents a uniquely complex challenge for China. Political instability — wars, coups, civil unrest — poses challenges that may undermine China’s peaceful rise and compel it to deploy military and security forces to protect its…

The Kremlin’s preoccupation with prevailing in Ukraine is pushing it to contemplate geostrategic risks and adopt a more proactive approach in regions like the Red Sea. In the past, the Yemeni quagmire had limited appeal even to Russia, a…

Australia and South Korea share a comprehensive strategic partnership rooted in their defense of freedom and democracy in the Korean War. This shared security and economic interdependence between the region’s most prominent middle powers…

The fact that Japan is a neighbor of Russia is often overlooked, especially in the West. In fact, Japan has had no land border with Russia for 79 years. But Japan has always faced Russia across the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, and…

What could be more challenging than negotiating peace between two distrustful competing warlords? Negotiating peace between three distrustful competing warlords. For the past year, a fierce battle between two Sudanese armed groups has…

Our military services are steeped in tradition built out of real-life heroics of our predecessors: George Washington and his soldiers fearlessly crossing a frozen Delaware river; Marines raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima;…

Infrastructure failure is inevitable. National defense missions rely upon infrastructure — such as water, electricity, communications, and logistics — and those systems are guaranteed to fail under sufficient stress. Hazards range from…

Russia’s war in Ukraine and the possibility of Donald Trump winning a second term in office have made it increasingly urgent to refine the substance of the hitherto still mostly declaratory strategic partnership between the European Union…

More than 10 years ago, former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno, former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos, and former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Adm. William McRaven observed that “conflict and competition…

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has brought the risk of nuclear escalation back to the forefront of popular fears and policy concerns. With the onset of renewed great power competition between the United States and the…