Realism and Restraint
I’ve taken a close interest in civil‐military relations for decades. I was taught the importance of civilian control over the U.S. military as a young NROTC midshipman....
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Synopsis: Russia’s post-Soviet arms exports to China were a pragmatic bargain: Moscow needed hard currency and industrial survival, while Beijing needed a rapid modernization...
Synopsis: By likening Vladimir Putin’s campaign to King Pyrrhus’s costly victories over Rome, Russia is trading men for inches. -With claimed losses approaching 1.2...
Summary and Key Points: Canada’s fighter debate isn’t really about whether the Saab JAS 39 Gripen, Eurofighter Typhoon, or Dassault Rafale can defend Canadian...
Summary and Key Points: China’s defense minister Dong Jun urged Russia to deepen military coordination during a video call with Russian defense minister Andrei...
Key Points and Summary – The recent NATO summit in The Hague, where European allies agreed to a new 5% of GDP defense spending...
The Trump administration made the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire its priority foreign policy initiative shortly after the inauguration. Setting aside Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric that he...
The strain in US-European relations under the second Trump administration stems primarily from a deepening ideological divide, not just policy disputes over trade or...
Since the ill-fated Oval Office meeting between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, the headlines have been dominated by pronouncements about the end of NATO, the...
Synopsis: The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Musashi—sister ship to Yamato—was among the largest warships ever built, displacing about 73,000 tons and mounting 18.1-inch guns...
Synopsis: The Pentagon debate isn’t whether aircraft carriers matter—it’s whether they can survive inside China’s A2/AD strike complex long enough to generate combat power....
Synopsis: Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz believed leadership meant listening down the chain: “Some of the best advice…comes from junior officers and enlisted men.”...
Synopsis: Greece is reshaping its fighter mix around F-35A stealth jets, upgraded F-16 Block 70/72 “Viper” aircraft, and Rafale F3R fighters from Dassault Aviation,...
Summary and Key Points: Thomas Alva Edison’s career is a study in persistence—an inventor who kept iterating until an idea became practical, scalable, and...
Summary and Key Points: Although widely attributed to Mark Twain, the quote “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their...
Summary and Key Points: Despite being the face of the one-hundred-dollar bill, Benjamin Franklin famously warned that “money never made a man happy,” believing...
Summary and Key Points: Mark Twain—born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835—rose from a modest Missouri upbringing into one of America’s defining writers and satirists....
World War III in 2026? Summary and Key Points: With restraints on great-power behavior weakening, 2026 could bring sharper escalation risks across five arenas....
Summary and Key Points: China’s military leadership is in upheaval after reports that General Zhang Youxia was removed from the Central Military Commission and...
Summary and Key Points: Despite persistent online commentary suggesting China may annex parts of Siberia to reclaim historical territories, experts argue that military conquest...
Dr. Robert Kelly analyzes the Trump administration’s new National Defense Strategy, praising its decision to disengage from Europe and force NATO allies to manage...
Key Points and Summary – When North Korea stormed across the 38th parallel in June 1950, an exhausted post-WWII US Army rushed a tiny...
Key Points and Summary – North Korea’s special operations forces are often overlooked, but estimates place them among the world’s largest elite formations. -Designed...
Key Points and Summary – North Korea’s most underrated weapon isn’t its nukes or artillery, but its vast tunnel network under and around the...
Summary and Key Points: –North Korea‘s deployment of 15,000 troops to support Russia in Ukraine offers critical battlefield experience that could significantly enhance its...
I’ve taken a close interest in civil‐military relations for decades. I was taught the importance of civilian control over the U.S. military as a young NROTC midshipman....
The hospital at which I work offered antibody serology tests to all medical staff last Wednesday. The test detects IgG, the immunoglobulin that appears in...
In a post last month, we raised concerns about the unforeseen and underappreciated costs of expanding export controls on U.S. technology. Either those concerns fell on...
