Where, when, and how might offensive cyber operations impact the outcomes of war? For over 40 years, this debate often spiraled to the extremes, whether offensive cyber operations are revolutionary or mostly hype, a warfighting game-changer or useful j…

Five years ago, we warned that a snap decision to depart Syria — abandoning the U.S. Kurdish-led partner force that has fought the Islamic State in Syria for the last 10 years while thousands of suspected fighters remained in detention — would provide …

“In the United States people are singularly oblivious of the close relation between peace and preparation.” –Alfred Thayer Mahan, 1912 Only 34 percent of Americans can find Taiwan on a map and they are even less aware of U.S. strategic interests …

For decades, the United States has relied on airpower and the qualitative superiority of its aircraft to gain an advantage over its adversaries. But that advantage is rapidly eroding. The Chinese military is fielding sophisticated air defense networks …

A 1953 advertisement for the U.S. Air Force’s civilian Ground Observer Corps described America’s air defenses as a “10 mile high fence full of holes.” Seventy years later, the United States again finds itself unable to reliably detect and identify thre…

In a press conference on Jan. 7, President-elect Donald Trump declined to rule out using military force to acquire Greenland. Previously, he proclaimed that American “ownership and control” of the semi-autonomous island, which is part of the Kingdom of…

Should a war erupt with China over Taiwan, many observers seem to think that Europe would be largely irrelevant as far as the actual fighting is concerned. Those who share this opinion typically point to Europe’s reluctance to confront China or a lack …

Russia wields a formidable capability to target NATO’s undersea infrastructure in critical regions such as the Baltic, Barents, and North Seas, as well as across the world’s oceans: its “research” vessels. These are ostensibly civilian ships used for s…

As we close out 2024, War on the Rocks reflects on the stories and analyses that resonated most with our readers during a year marked by evolving geopolitical tensions, transformative military technologies, and the enduring echoes of history. From stra…

Editor’s Note: In honor of Christmas, we proudly publish the text of Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe’s 1944 Christmas letter to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne. An image of the letter can be found here. Read the story behind this famous…