The United States Invaded Iraq 20 years ago under false pretenses. Historians and social scientists have spent two decades investigating what went wrong. George W. Bush and other senior officials in his administration claimed former Iraqi president Sad…

In describing the Wagner Private Military Company forces fighting in Ukraine, some Western commentators have used the term “mercenaries,” while others have preferred “penal battalions.” Neither term is particularly flattering. For Americans, mercenarie…

In early April 2020, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel and a Vietnamese fishing boat collided near Woody Island in the South China Sea. The Chinese government claims this island as sovereign territory. Accounts of the incident differed at the time. China cl…

NATO has taken a combined approach towards defending against drones. Now, it should show the same collaborative effort in deploying them.   Enabling interoperable drone swarms across the alliance could yield immediate benefits for the Department of Def…

In Greek mythology, the ship of Theseus slowly replaces individual pieces over time. Eventually, all of the pieces that comprise the ship are replaced, presenting a philosophical question: Is it still the same ship? One could argue the United States mi…

Defense strategists have long held that rigorous — if not ruthless — prioritization is the key to success. Frederick the Great captured this sentiment best when saying: “Little minds try to defend everything at once, but sensible people look at the mai…

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s appointment of a new director for the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine is the most recent in a series of actions taken to eradicate the country’s endemic corruption and move closer to the European Union. This mo…

No one knows precisely when the last naval sword was used in combat. After centuries of being considered standard military-issued weaponry, the sword’s utility waned in the gunpowder age. The enlisted cutlass disappeared entirely by the 1940s. The offi…

On Jan. 10, 1984, a guidance computer in a U.S. Minuteman-III missile suffered a glitch. As a result, operators in the nearby command center received a message that the missile, aimed at Russia, was entering its launch sequence all on its own. It carri…

Munitions are the currency of exchange in armed conflicts. The existing acquisition and procurement process exposes the defense industrial base to significant short- and long-term risks: hampering America’s capacity to surge production and impairing mi…