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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Signing the largest Russia sanctions package to date and then floating a diesel arrangement looks contradictory only if one assumes the two acts are...
The Trump administration’s deal to allow Russian diesel into the United States blindsided Kyiv and Europe alike — halting peace talks, triggering threats to...
Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls Ukraine a “dangerous stalemate,” and the Kremlin agrees. Russia netted 104 square kilometers from January to late May,...
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has set June 2027 as the deadline for bringing the Popular Mobilization Forces under state authority. Five factions have reportedly...
Sabotage at Leipzig, Swindon, and Skarżysko-Kamienna. A curfew across the river from Narva. New garrisons at Petrozavodsk, Lupche-Savino, and Pechenga pointing at Finland's 830-mile...
The Witkoff-Kushner shuttle between Moscow and Kyiv ended, predictably, without a breakthrough — and Andrew Michta argues the failure reveals something deeper than bad...
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...
Retired Lt. Gen. Alain Pelletier, NORAD’s deputy commander from 2020 to 2023, told the National Post that the Royal Canadian Air Force can’t stand...
China marked the 15th anniversary of the J-20’s maiden flight on January 11, 2026, by announcing that the two-seat J-20S Mighty Dragon is meant...
Seventeen officers, about 100 enlisted sailors and Marines, and a 2026 Maneuvers Manual that sorts 105 stunts into High, Low and Flat Shows: that’s...
Lockheed never flight-tested the SR-71 past Mach 3.2, yet Ed Yeilding and J.T. Vida cruised at Mach 3.3 for most of the Blackbird’s final...
Four ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz Thursday against a 10-day average of 16. Iran said it hit tanker Trend on Friday. Brent is...
Jobs dropped out of Reed College and stayed on as what he called a "drop-in," sitting in on classes that interested him. One was...
"Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has,...
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...
Iran is reinforcing its borders and nuclear sites, piling dirt mounds around Natanz and Pickaxe Mountain, and urging civilians to take free weapons training...
Nine months after Riyadh gutted Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council, the Houthis took the port of Mokha on the Bab el-Mandeb, then struck King Khalid...
The rial has hit 2.5 million to the dollar, inflation is projected near 69 percent, and Iranian oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz...
Twenty-five years on, 9/11's lessons are still contested, except the simplest: the US mistook quiet for peace. A RAND strategist argues it is doing...
President Trump says he gets along with Kim Jong Un and wants a new summit before the end of 2026, along with smaller US-South...
Trump is reportedly considering another meeting with Kim Jong Un. The last round produced Singapore, Hanoi, and the DMZ, and by 2020 the status...
American doctrine promises that any North Korean nuclear attack will end the Kim regime. The Iran war has just tested that assumption. The United...
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...
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...
