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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The logic of the capital ship is impeccable. The impediments are daunting for the Trump-class. The Congressional Budget Office puts each hull at $18...
When the American military destroyed Saddam Hussein's army in Kuwait, Chinese planners were reportedly stunned by the ferocity and speed of it. For thirty-five...
USS Abraham Lincoln will have logged 295 days on deployment by September 12, the second-longest carrier run since the Cold War, behind USS Gerald...
If Taiwanese drones are still finding targets over a beachhead in week three, Chinese units moving supplies inland, widening a lodgment, or reopening a...
German Foreign Minister Wadephul's fourth Kyiv visit — two days before Ukraine's Independence Day — capped an accelerating shift: Berlin is becoming Ukraine's principal...
The Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative emerged from US Army Europe and Africa and NATO's Allied Land Command as a concept for restoring deterrence by...
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...
In 2005 a Swedish diesel-electric submarine put simulated torpedoes into USS Ronald Reagan. A year later a Chinese Song-class boat surfaced within torpedo range...
When the Russian Tu-16’s wing contacted the sea at hundreds of miles per hour, the bomber was forced into a cartwheel, which caused disintegration...
USS Guitarro was still under construction when a civilian crew began flooding tanks in her after section. Half an hour later a second crew...
In May, USS Texas fired blanks from her forward 14-inch guns during the final stages of her restoration at Galveston. The last time those...
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has unveiled Operation Economic Outcast: secondary sanctions across five sectors and more than sixty targets, with no relief attached. Iran's...
Rezaei's threat goes beyond the strait: no oil leaving the Gulf by any route if neighbors cooperate. In practice that would mean strikes on...
Of the 1.5 billion barrels in emergency stocks, the IEA cannot order the commercial half released, leaving governments under a billion. The American reserve...
The Houthis have no warships. It doesn't need any. A blockade holds if shipowners and insurers decide the passage is not worth the risk,...
Analysts dismissed American control of the Strait of Hormuz as a near-impossible task. The US government now says it has been helping tankers move...
Drones reached Moscow on three of the last five nights. A ballistic missile would not extend Ukraine's reach so much as compress Russia's warning...
Georgia Gilholy reports on Trump's map post declaring Hormuz 'New U.S. Territory,' a vessel struck off Oman hours earlier per UK Maritime Trade Operations,...
When it comes to severe economic pressure, Washington has massive options between everything and nothing. Something in the middle that hurts Iran a lot...
Trump ordered Ulchi Freedom Shield cut from eleven days to five before Kim Jong-un had agreed to anything in return. Kim Yo-jong dismissed the...
As President Trump downsizes the Ulchi Freedom Shield war games after South Korea declined to help with Iran, one uncomfortable fact goes almost completely...
Russia has used North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine since late 2023. The early shots missed by kilometers. Later ones did not. That combat...
Iran's Shahab-1 came from the Scud-B and reached 300km. The Khorramshahr, derived from North Korea's Musudan, reaches 2,000km — a 6.7-fold increase in reach.
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...
