Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Key Points and Summary – This piece explores whether Donald Trump’s proposed Trump-class battleships make more sense as high-end battlefield sensors than as traditional...
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For decades Beijing and Moscow treated North Korea as a shared client — “as close as lips and teeth,” in Mao’s phrase. Ted Galen...
Dr. Robert Kelly, a professor of international relations at Pusan National University, argues the separation of powers in American foreign policy has nearly collapsed,...
Dr. Robert Farley argues a renewed US-Israeli air campaign against Iran awaits only the midterm elections, citing a New York Times report of personnel...
American-flagged vessels account for less than 0.3 percent of the shipping carrying U.S. trade, and the country graduates several hundred naval architects a year...
Putin’s proposal for a U.S.-China-Russia trilateral in China — with Ukraine and Europe excluded — has revived Beltway enthusiasm for a “Kissinger-in-reverse” bid to...
The Trump administration’s deal to allow Russian diesel into the United States blindsided Kyiv and Europe alike — halting peace talks, triggering threats to...
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...
“I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.” Harrison Kass takes George S. Patton’s line back...
USS John C. Stennis has been in its Refueling and Complex Overhaul since May 2021. The exit date slipped from August 2025 to October...
Military expert Sean Spoonts follows the Zumwalt-class from a floating artillery battery for Marines to a hypersonic sniper. The stealth destroyer was built around...
Summary and Key Points: Expert Steve Balestrieri argues the F-16N Viper was the best adversary jet the Navy ever flew: 26 stripped Block 30...
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...
Both sides would use a Ukraine war pause to rearm, and a longer pause may mean a bloodier spring. Michael Rubin argues Kyiv should...
For four and a half years the request was essentially a check, and the argument was that a properly supplied David could match Goliath....
Let Trump be Trump—which he will be anyway. Even if his peace efforts fail (which is entirely possible), American interests will be protected, and...
Dr. Robert Kelly argues that Donald Trump’s second term is alienating allies as no president has since 1945: refusing Saudi Arabia’s request to strike...
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...
Key Points and Summary – This piece explores whether Donald Trump’s proposed Trump-class battleships make more sense as high-end battlefield sensors than as traditional...
Key Points and Summary – The F-22 Raptor is widely regarded as the world’s premier air-superiority fighter, yet the U.S. will never build more...
Key Points and Summary – Turkey’s failed 2016 “coup” became the pretext for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to remake the Turkish military and crush...
Missouri is nicknamed “The Show-Me State” (along the way inspiring the name of a sports bar & grill that’s a regional competitor with Hooters),...
Key Points and Summary – The Iowa-class battleships were the greatest gun platforms ever to sail, but on paper their planned successors—the Montana-class—were even...
