Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Putin could win Donbas, but how much long-term damage can the Russian military take? On day 128 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military...
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In a new analysis, national security expert James Jay Carafano argues President Trump has already achieved America's key objectives against Iran and is de-risking...
North Korea has roughly 60 nuclear weapons and Kim Jong-un keeps demanding an exponential increase. Bruce Bennett works the problem backward, from Kim's objectives...
Ukraine says it struck thirteen more vessels from Russia's sanctions-dodging shadow fleet across the Azov and Black Seas in forty-eight hours, part of a...
With Iran's foreign minister ruling out concessions or any reopening of Hormuz, one analyst argues the only way to stop Tehran's attacks on shipping...
For all the talk of spending targets, the Ankara NATO summit's real work happened elsewhere. Europe is being handed responsibility for NATO's conventional defense...
Western analysts fixate on North Korea's missiles. The real danger is speed — a mass artillery-and-missile salvo in the war's first hours, backed by...
The second Trump administration is reviewing America's military footprint in Europe, and the worst-case outcome is a full withdrawal. Andrew Michta argues that would...
The US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding is being judged on whether it cools tensions in the Persian Gulf. Strategic-studies scholar Andrew Michta argues that's the...
The Wall Street Journal says a new front has opened after the Houthis declared an embargo on Saudi oil through Bab al-Mandeb. Reuters detailed...
China's Coast Guard is now flying a naval version of the Z-20 from its largest cutter, and imagery shows a surface-search radar. What it...
The United States is moving special-operations forces, fighter aircraft and medical staff toward the Middle East, with bomber crews in America and Britain on...
The Kremlin appears to be preparing a new mobilization, according to an ISW assessment, with the Duma opening military contracts to people carrying unexpunged...
No vessel entered any of the three Ukrainian ports in the Odesa region on Wednesday, the first such day since the grain corridor opened...
Oil futures are signaling that traders expect prices to fall over the coming months, despite the war and the disruption around Hormuz. The bet...
Ukraine's long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have spread the fuel crisis into the countryside just as harvest begins, one analyst argues, with farmers...
Two tankers loaded with Saudi crude reversed course in the Red Sea — without being fired on — after the Houthis threatened any ship...
Zelensky met Raytheon executives in Kyiv, saying Ukraine is moving to co-produce Patriot missiles under plans he discussed with Trump — though waiting lists...
The Pentagon's official count of American troops killed in the Iran conflict dropped from eighteen to fourteen between Wednesday and Thursday, the New York...
Trump is underwater in all fifteen polls in the RealClearPolling average, and one election analyst traces the slide to Iran. A Washington Post survey...
American forces struck Iran for an eleventh straight night as the Houthis pressed their blockade threat against Saudi shipping. Only three commodity vessels crossed...
Xi's first Pyongyang visit in seven years, a ratified Russia pact, and a declaration that the arsenal is permanent: Andrew Latham on why the...
Last year North Korea's newest destroyer rolled over at its own launch, and the world assumed the program was finished for years. Instead Pyongyang...
The KN-23, North Korea's version the Russian Iskander missile, showed up to fight in the Ukraine war. And it isn't the same platform as...
On May 21, 2025, a brand-new North Korean destroyer rolled over and partially capsized at its own launch ceremony — with Kim Jong Un...
Putin could win Donbas, but how much long-term damage can the Russian military take? On day 128 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military...
This week, NATO officially invited Finland and Sweden to join the international alliance. It will formally end decades of neutrality for the two Scandinavian nations;...
Iraq’s political stalemate continues almost nine months after elections. Earlier this month, Muqtada al-Sadr, whose movement won a plurality, called on his 73 parliamentary...
For several hundred years, Sweden and Russia had been regional adversaries – and it was only after the Napoleonic Wars came to an end...
Last year, severe droughts and prolonged water mismanagement catalyzed deadly protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The demonstrations erupted in the central city...
