• DEFENSE ACQUISITIONTime to Accept Risk in Defense Acquisitions

    By Erin D. Dumbacher, Michael C. Horowitz, and Lauren Kahn

    U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth launched enterprising Pentagon reforms that prioritize speed in acquiring new military capabilities, but this ambitious proposal is at risk of running into the same bureaucratic obstacles that have plagued past efforts.

  • DRONESHow Drones Are Altering Contemporary Warfare

    By Peter Dizikes

    A new book by scholar and military officer Erik Lin-Greenberg examines the evolving dynamics of military and state action centered around drones.

  • THE AMERICASTrump’s Squeeze of Venezuela Goes Beyond Monroe Doctrine – in Ideology, Intent and Scale, It’s Unprecedented

    By Alan McPherson

    The actions of the current U.S. administration smack of a long history of interventions in the region. But while it does hearken back to some quasi-piratical practices of the U.S. Navy, the U.S. military buildup now is in key respects both unprecedented and shocking. It could also damage U.S. relations with the rest of the hemisphere for a generation to come.

  • THE AMERICASDon’t Repeat Libya: The Dangers of US Intervention in Venezuela

    By Justin Logan and Lawrence Montreuil

    Calls for US military action against the cartels have evolved in some circles into a push for regime change in Venezuela, and the US has assembled the force to do it. If Trump pulls the trigger on a “Libya model” intervention, it would risk repeating a disastrous foreign policy mistake that resulted in civil war, a refugee crisis, and regional instability.

  • ARMS RACECold War Arms-Control Pioneers Perhaps Weren’t Peacemakers We Thought They Were

    By Sy Boles

    Nuclear-age historian argues scientists who backed arsenals as deterrent aided military-industrial complex, hampered disarmament.

  • SHIPBUILDINGCollaborating Toward a Shipbuilding Renaissance

    By Daniel Justice, Miyeon Oh, Brian Persons

    America is a maritime nation, and its security and prosperity are inexorably linked to the sea. Yet the United States has let its ability to design, build, and sustain the fleet of ships that are the backbone of this prosperity atrophy. A maritime nation that cannot build ships cannot long thrive.

  • CRITICAL MINERALSU.S. and Australia Deepen Critical-Minerals Engagement to Counter China

    By Alice Wai

    Engagement between Australia and the United States on critical minerals has matured from technical cooperation into a strategic partnership, aligning resource security with clean energy and defense priorities. 

  • NUCLEARPOWERED MISSILESNuclear-Powered Missiles: An Aerospace Engineer Explains How They Work – and What Russia’s Claimed Test Means for Global Strategic Stability

    By Iain Boyd

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, dressed in a military uniform, announced on Oct. 26, 2025, that Russia had successfully tested a nuclear-powered missile. Here is how these weapons function, the advantages they present over conventional missile systems, and their potential to disrupt global strategic stability.

  • AIR/MISSILE DEFENSEFor Air-and-Missile Defense, Israel Offers the Economic Solutions

    By Sam Goldsmith

    As more countries contemplate building multi-layer, integrated air-and-missile defense (IAMD) capabilities (such as the proposed Golden Dome in the U.S., an Israeli solution may offer the best value-for-money.

  • THE AMERICASTrump Plans to Tell Congress About New Drug War, Won't Seek Permission

    By Brett Rowland, The Center Square

    Since September, Trump has been using the U.S. military to destroy suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. On Friday, Trump ordered the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the U.S. Southern Command.

  • CHINA WATCHThe Key to Winning a Pacific War: Cheap Cruise Missiles

    By David Axe

    Cheap ground-launched cruise missiles could be the decisive weapons of the next Pacific war. They’re concealable, mobile, just accurate enough to hit some of the time, just powerful enough to inflict meaningful damage and—most importantly—simple enough to be inexpensive and mass-producible. These munitions could sink fleets, wipe out air forces, unravel supply lines and devastate war industries.

  • ARMS RACECan the U.S. Navy Stay Ahead of Russia and China? This Expert Has a Plan

    By Cyrus Moulton

    To put this 5-part plan in action, Northeastern University’s Stephen Flynn is advocating not for a national, top-down process but for a “federated approach” that emphasizes regional strengths.

  • CRITICAL MINERALS China, the United States, and a Critical Chokepoint on Minerals

    By Michael Froman

    Critical minerals today are “America’s most dangerous dependence,” in the words of CFR’s Heidi Crebo-Rediker. With near total control of the world’s critical minerals production, China maintains significant economic leverage over access to inputs that are necessary for everything from everyday products like smartphones to advanced weapons systems like the F-35.

  • ECONOMIC WARFAREEurope’s Banks Quietly Mobilize for Economic Warfare

    By James Tennant and John James

    For years, banks treated defense as a reputational issue, as well as an environmental, social and governance risk, often lumping it with tobacco or fossil fuels as something to be managed at arm’s length. That era is ending. Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s coercive trade tactics and the United States’ pressure on Europe to shoulder more of its defense burden have exposed the limits of moralistic restraint. Financial mobilization is the new norm.

  • CHINA WATCHDespite Hiccups, Chinese Military Modernization Still a Threat to Region

    By Rowan Callick

    Modernization is at the core of the CCP’s mission to change China, and the world beyond. But while Xi has provided the armed forces with cutting-edge weaponry, key signs point to his lack of confidence so far in the process of modernizing its top personnel.