Commentary

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s 60th birthday on Dec. 21, 1939, marked the nadir of the Red Army’s military campaign in Finland. A few weeks earlier, the party head of the Leningrad District, Andrei Zhdanov, had boasted he would personally…

Editor’s Note: This is the introductory essay for Volume 6, Issue 1 of the Texas National Security Review, our sister publication. Be sure to read the entire issue. Scholars — especially those whose work is read by policymakers — should…

The policy of masking advanced academic degrees from major and lieutenant colonel promotion boards has long been a contentious one in the Air Force. Recently, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall repealed the department’s on-again, off-again…

Senior leaders at the Pentagon love their acronyms and buzzwords. The soup du jour is “innovation,” embodied in various entities such as the Defense Innovation Unit, Defense Innovation Board, Small Business Innovation Research, Rapid…

Amid drastic negative changes to its security environment and fundamental questions about the long-term reliability of the United States, South Korea is drawn — as it once was in the 1970s — to nuclear weapons. On Jan. 11, South Korean…

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has handled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with consummate skill so far, but may be on the verge of making a potentially catastrophic mistake. According to the New York Times, the administration…

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce is continuing to take action against Russia and those who enable Russia’s war in Ukraine. We added trade restrictions to seven Iranian entities involved in Iran’s drone program for supporting Russia’s…

During the Cold War, U.S. Special Operations Forces accepted extreme levels of operational risk during routine training exercises. The Green Light teams, for instance, would practice parachuting into “enemy territory” with live Small Atomic…

In the marginalia of his copy of On War, influential fighter pilot-theorist John Boyd laments that Carl von Clausewitz never thought about inducing friction for the adversary: “Overcome friction, yes—but also why not magnify friction for…

The camera from a small drone steadies on a Russian T-72 tank somewhere in Ukraine. Slight movements can be seen in the video as the Ukrainian operator makes final adjustments to the drone’s position. Then, release. The munition – a grenade…