Ideas

History is replete with cautionary tales about the dangers of ideological purges, particularly when they target national-security institutions. One of the starkest examples comes from the Soviet Union, when Joseph Stalin’s purges gutted the…

This commentary is published in coordination with the 2025 Global Security Forum, of which Defense One is a media partner.The AI-powered weapons and systems that the Pentagon is racing to build will come with a significant vulnerability:…

This commentary is published in coordination with the 2025 Global Security Forum, of which Defense One is a media partner.The leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah disbanded their al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist group last June—but the schools that…

This commentary is published in coordination with the 2025 Global Security Forum, of which Defense One is a media partner.Last month’s Signal chat scandal was the latest of several moves by the three-month-old Trump administration that…

I didn’t join the Navy to fight for a country that bans books. I joined to defend one that never would.I went to the U.S. Naval Academy because I believed in the values laid out in its mission: to develop midshipmen morally, mentally and…

This commentary is published in coordination with the 2025 Global Security Forum, of which Defense One is a media partner.One of the less-heralded features of the Global War on Terror—roughly, the two decades that followed the 9/11…

I recently resigned from my role on the Board of Visitors at National Defense University, the venerable institution of joint professional military education at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.I did not want to leave the job. I loved advising…

Lately, it has been fashionable to discuss the use of artificial intelligence as a component of wargaming, with reports, conferences, and journal editions dedicated to the topic. One of the authors recently participated in a discussion…

President Trump’s April 9 executive order, “Modernizing Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base,” hits the right notes and endorses the right approaches. After decades of ever-new studies, commissions, and…

Ukraine’s tactical drones are “inflicting roughly two-thirds of Russian losses,” making them “twice as effective as every other weapon in the Ukrainian arsenal,” says a recent study by the Royal United Services Institute. This is a…