• The Past, Present, and Future of Homeland Defense

    Homeland defense issues my be referred to as seams of ambiguity which doesn’t clearly define itself as either a defense or a law enforcement issue, and our adversaries have discovered the seam and they’re playing along that seam. And that’s what thrusts us into the gray areas that we’ve been talking about for at least two decades now.

  • Failure in the Sahel

    There may be an element of schadenfreude in watching Russia fail in the Sahel in a major play against Western interests and get caught in a mess, from which it can only extricate itself with a loss of face. But the problem is that the result of this failure has been to turn the Sahel into a center for extremist violence that risks spreading further.

  • Hezbollah, Hamas Down but Not Out, U.S. Says

    Israel’s war against Hezbollah and Hamas, while inflicting considerable damage, has yet to strike a crippling blow to either of the Iran-backed terror groups, according to a top U.S. counterterrorism official.

  • Houthis’ Lesson for the U.S. Army: How a Land Force Can Fight a Maritime War

    The US Army should consider borrowing a page from the playbook of Yemen’s Houthi militants. The character of war is always changing, and the Houthis’ ongoing attacks against shipping in the Red Sea may prove to be one of the more significant inflection points in military history.

  • Concerns about Elon Musk, Russia's Putin Not Fading Yet

    Reports that billionaire Elon Musk has been talking on a consistent basis with Russian President Vladimir Putin are cause of concern. Musk’s companies are doing work for the Pentagon NASA. Some of that work is so sensitive that Musk has been given high-level security clearances due to his knowledge of the programs, raising concerns among some that top secret U.S. information and capabilities could be at risk.

  • Vietnam Expands Strategic Capabilities in South China Sea

    Hanoi is building runways, military structures on reclaimed islands at a ‘surprising’ pace, a think tank said.

  • Threatening ‘The Enemy Within’ with Force: Military Ethicists Explain the Danger to Important American Traditions

    In a time of increasing political polarization, military educational institutions are focusing even more explicitly on the oath military members take to the Constitution, rather than to a person or an office. Military members have a duty to obey orders from superior officers, but the content of an order is not the only factor that determines whether it is a moral one. The political motivation for an order may be equally important, because the military’s obligation to stay out of politics is deeply intertwined with the mutual obligation of civilian officials not to use the military for partisan reasons.

  • World War I Was the Crucible of Air Power. Ukraine Looks the Same for Drones

    We seem to be seeing a new kind of air battle—lower, slower at close quarters and in a physical environment where fighter aircraft cannot intervene affordably or effectively. Could it be that Ukraine is to small unmanned systems what World War I was to aircraft?

  • The October 7 Attack: An Assessment of the Intelligence Failings

    Hours after the Hamas attack of October 7 began, they were widely attributed to an apparent Israeli intelligence failure, with pundits pointing to several possible sources, including a misunderstanding of Hamas’ intentions, cognitive biases, and an overreliance on the country’s technological superiority. Building on previous literature on surprise attacks and intelligence failures to examine both Israel’s political level and intelligence level prior to October 7, 2023, the findings suggest that the attack was likely not the result of a single glaring failure but rather the accumulation of several problems at both levels.

  • Al Qusayr Destroyed

    For years, the Institute for Science and International Security has been following and reporting on the Al Qusayr Underground Facility in Syria, close to the Lebanon border, where construction started as early as 2009 and continued until recently. A few days ago, the site was destroyed in an Israeli attack.

  • Each Year, Landmines Kill Residents of War-Torn Countries. This Innovative Tool Could Save Lives.

    Landmines and other explosive remnants of war killed or wounded at least 4,710 people in at least 49 countries in 2022, according to a recent report from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Ukraine reported 608 casualties. Afghanistan documented 303. Colombia recorded 145.

  • Taiwan Mobilizes Civil society to Bolster Civil Defense

    Most of the island’s people are remarkably ill-prepared for an attack from an increasingly aggressive China. For example, few Taiwanese would know what to do if bombs began shattering nearby streets. Taiwan has taken a big step towards bolstering civil defense, marshalling a range of resources and know-how across society.

  • The Weapons Which Killed Nasrallah

    The 83 tons of explosives which were dropped on 28 September 2024 in the heart of the Dahiya district in Beirut destroyed a deeply dug network of tunnels and bunkers which served as Hezbollah headquarters, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and about two dozen of his senior aids. The bombs were BLU-109 type bombs, which were fitted with a JDAM system to turn each “stupid” gravity bomb into a precision-munition smart bomb.

  • The Nasrallah Killing Is a Crushing Blow to Hezbollah

    Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah possessed a rare set of abilities that made the group a formidable foe to Israel and a power broker in Lebanon. His killing by Israel sharply weakens the threat posed by the group and its patron, Iran.

  • Remotely Exploding Pagers Highlight Supply Chain Risks

    The attacks against Hezbollah using weaponized pagers and walkie talkies serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of compromised supply chains and why Australia must secure its own against the threats from China.