Commentary

In 2007, a ceremonial (titanium) Russian flag was planted on the seabed at the North Pole. Then Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay quipped “this isn’t the 15th century, you can’t go around the world and just plant…

If a naval aviator quotes from the movie Top Gun in the wardroom, they are going to have to buy a round of beers for the squadron. We are prepared to be fined. “He’s too close for missiles, Goose. I’m switching to guns.” It’s an iconic…

The U.S. Intelligence Community’s 2023 Annual Threat Assessment contains some alarming estimates, especially as it relates to the cyber capabilities of the People’s Republic of China. It states that Beijing would “almost certainly consider…

Security cooperation has been a critical pillar of U.S. statecraft for decades. However, the enterprise has gotten a bad reputation since the beginning of the 21st century because of the costly misadventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and…

A worst-case Taiwan scenario for Chinese leader Xi Jinping would be a major military operation in which the People’s Liberation Army fails spectacularly or displays shocking incompetence akin to Russia’s in Ukraine. Could this happen? …

On May 14, Turkey is scheduled to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, which many have called the most important votes of 2023. Most things in Turkey seem to be on hold, as everyone awaits the outcome. Yet diplomats in Turkey’s…

Is the current French model of warfare viable? In 2021, I co-authored a study with Stephanie Pezard suggesting that the answer was no. We argued that the French military — now indisputably the most capable in Western Europe — could do a lot…

Earlier this year, a small drone flew over a Belarusian airfield, perched atop a Russian warplane, and blew up. The attack put out of action one of Russia’s last few A-50 radar aircraft, which helped hurl ballistic missiles towards Ukraine.…

On Oct. 26, 2022, eight months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reading the news felt something like watching a Star Wars movie. At the United Nations, Russia, represented by a senior Russian foreign ministry official, was threatening…

Dear policymaker, if an intelligence analyst had the chance to offer you candid feedback about your relationship, what would they say? This question is largely hypothetical because intelligence analysts like me are primed to be deferential…