• Another Problem for Russia in Ukraine: Effective Satellites Are Few and Far Between

    The Russian forces have faced many problems in Ukraine. A big item on the list of problems: satellites — there are too few of them, and too few with high-quality capabilities. According to experts and open-source information, Russia has long been saddled with a small and inadequate fleet of communications and surveillance satellites that in many cases rely on either outdated technology or imported parts that are now harder to come by due to Western sanctions.

  • How Ukraine Has Defended Itself Against Cyberattacks – Lessons for the U.S.

    In 2014, as Russia launched a proxy war in Eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea, and in the years that followed, Russian hackers hammered Ukraine. The cyberattacks went so far as to knock out the power grid in parts of the country in 2015. Russian hackers stepped up their efforts against Ukraine in the run-up to the 2022 invasion, but with notably different results. Those differences hold lessons for U.S. national cyber defense.

  • Curbing Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas

    The Ukrainian city of Mariupol is one of the latest examples of a populated area that has been turned to rubble by the relentless use of heavy explosive weapons. Destroyed cities and towns in Yemen, Ethiopia, and Syria, among others, provide other examples. An international agreement under negotiation at the United Nations this week seeks to reduce harm to civilians by curbing the use of heavy explosive weapons in cities, towns and villages.

  • Tactical Tunneling to Help Military Operations, Rescue Missions

    New tactical tunneling technologies show the feasibility of rapidly constructing tactical tunnel networks that enable secure, responsive resupply in denied environments. These networks could provide infrastructure for logistics support, such as pre-positioning supplies in advance of an operation or providing ongoing resupply as troops move through a contested area. The ability to rapidly bore tactical tunnels could also be helpful in rescue missions.

  • Cyberattacks Have Yet to Play a Significant Role in Russia’s Battlefield Operations in Ukraine – Cyberwarfare Experts Explain the Likely Reasons

    Since the latter half of 2021 analysts offered contrasting predictions about the role cyberspace would play in an armed conflict. These predictions capture an ongoing debate about whether conflict in cyberspace is destined to supplant conventional conflict or exacerbate it. As the war has evolved, it’s clear that analysts on both sides of the debate got it wrong.

  • Russia's Failure Leads to the Next Phase of the Ukraine War: Interview

    Russia’s failure to achieve its initial objectives in Ukraine – and achieve them quickly and cheaply — has led to a rethinking in Russia about the next phase of the war. “You can’t bomb urban areas into submission. You can’t even bomb entrenched soldiers into submission. Military history proves that you have to eventually close the distance and take what you want,” say a military expert. “[Russia] would like to get reinforcements and resupply the southeastern fight. If they really want that objective of connecting the separatist areas [to Crimea] and pushing back the Ukrainian military and [that] being what they’re able to negotiate as their win, that’s still a tough fight that [they will] have to close the distance for.”

  • China Has Capability to Use Space for Military Purposes: Experts

    Military analysts say that China now has the technology, hardware and know-how to coordinate a war from space. The Chinese military would most likely use military technology in space to seek control in the disputed East and South China seas and fend off challenges on the high seas of the Western Pacific just beyond China’s near seas, analysts say.

  • With Threats of Nuclear War and Climate Disaster Growing, America’s “Bunker Fantasy” Is Woefully Inadequate

    Faced with a Congress unwilling to fund large-scale sheltering measures — although in Europe and elsewhere, vast public shelters were built, the community bomb shelter was almost universally rejected in the U.S. as communistic — the Kennedy administration decided instead to encourage the private development of the individual shelter industry and to establish dedicated spaces within existing public structures.

  • A Proxy War in Ukraine Is the Worst Possible Outcome – Except for All the Others

    The United States and its European allies clearly said that they will not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine. Sam Winter-Levy writes that these statements obscured an important truth: The United States and its allies are already in the midst of a full-blown proxy war with Russia. “Western policymakers should not deceive themselves about just how ugly proxy wars tend to be… Ultimately, the only options worse than a proxy war are a cheap Russian victory in Ukraine — or a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.

  • Ukraine War: Four Weeks On, Pt. 1

    The end of the war is not yet clear, but certain patterns have emerged which are as clear as they are surprising, chief among them the sheer breadth of Putin’s miscalculations. The Russian forces have not been well-prepared for war, and they are patently inadequate for occupation. Moreover, the Russian forces have suffered an astonishingly high rate of attrition. But even if Russia can no longer engage in maneuver warfare at scale with a reasonable hope of success, it can still inflict enormous damage on the civilian population and infrastructure by continuing, or escalating, its use of artillery, rockets, missiles, and aerial bombardment. 

  • Russia-Ukraine War Splits Germany's Far-Right

    The Russian invasion of Ukraine has left Germany’s neo-Nazis confused: Should they support the authoritarian Russian leader or far-right nationalists fighting on the Ukrainian side?

  • Ukraine Tactics Disrupt Russian Invasion: Western Officials

    Western defense officials say Ukraine has been employing agile insurgency tactics to disrupt Russia’s invasion, and in the suburbs northwest and east of Kyiv, to push their adversaries back. Hitting and ambushing Russian forces behind the contact lines with fast-moving units, often at night, has proven among its most effective field tactics.

  • Western Officials: Russia's Failures in Ukraine May Make Putin More Dangerous

    New intelligence estimates suggest that up to 20 percent of Russian troops sent into Ukraine have been killed, wounded or captured as Ukraine fights Moscow to a near standstill. Senior Western officials are increasingly alarmed that Russia’s losses in Ukraine are making President Vladimir Putin more dangerous, some going as far as to compare him to a caged animal ready to lash out.

  • What’s the Threat of Nuclear War Right Now?

    As Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine on 24 February, he threatened any intervening country with “consequences you have never faced in history.” And during an interview Tuesday with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Putin’s chief spokesperson refused to rule out the possibility that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons. Is Putin serious? And if Russia did deploy nuclear weapons, what would that mean for the rest of the world?

  • Russia’s Remaining Weapons Are Horrific and Confounding

    Along with concerns over the possible deployment of tactical nuclear weapons, the Biden administration is now warning that the Russian military may launch a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine. Harvard Kennedy School’s Matthew Bunn assesses threat, possible fallout of chemical attack in Ukraine, including the excruciating choices Biden and NATO would face.