War on the Rocks

21/08/2024

Mike Kofman popped into WOTR HQ to speak with Ryan about the state of play in Ukraine. They review the situation at the front, with special attention to Ukraine’s offensive operation into Russian territory.

Mike Kofman popped into WOTR HQ to speak with Ryan about the state of play in Ukraine. From south to north, they review the situation at the front, with

21/08/2024

Given the increasing competition in the global defense market, now is the right time for South Korea to seek new partners, with Latin American countries emerging as promising candidates.

The last few years have seen a surge in defense spending, particularly in regard to conventional defense technologies. “We’ve had a huge increase in

20/08/2024

By shifting the point of competition from the prime contractor or subcontractor down to the datapoint and inference, the government can turn the acquisition of AI into a highly iterative, highly competitive market at the stroke of a pen.

In a now-famous blog post from 2014, journalist Steve Cichon compared a Radio Shack ad from 1991 to the then-current iPhone. The difference was stark. Of

19/08/2024

The attacks Europe has been grappling with since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seem to mirror Moscow’s Cold War-era sabotage doctrine in important ways.

Boris Nikolaevich Rodin was a known entity in the KGB. Operating as an intelligence officer in London from 1947 to 1951, he helped manage the defection of

16/08/2024

Susan Colbourn and Simon Miles discussed how different concepts of history have shaped the war in Ukraine and how students of international affairs should challenge their assumptions and embrace uncertainty.

At the Clements Center for National Security's Summer Seminar in History and Statecraft, Susan Colbourn and Simon Miles discussed how different concepts

16/08/2024

How will Russia recruit the next generation of professional enlisted soldiers and officers, having sustained an estimated 350,000 casualties in Ukraine since 2022?

After the war in Ukraine freezes or ends, the Russian military will begin a long-term effort to regenerate equipment and personnel. How will they recruit

15/08/2024

Why is professional writing crucial in the U.S. Army? Sgt. 1st Class Leyton Summerlin, Maj. Emily Lopez, and Lt. Col. Zachary Griffiths joined Ryan to discuss this question and more.

The U.S. Army, from the chief of staff on down, is putting its weight behind getting soldiers to take writing and publishing more seriously as an

15/08/2024

On this episode of Net Assessment, Christopher Preble, Zack Cooper, and Melanie Marlowe debate the findings of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy and much more.

Melanie, Chris, and Zack debate the findings of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy. They agree that there is a mismatch between U.S. defense

15/08/2024

The key to developing informed policy responses to Beijing’s global propaganda efforts — covert, overt, digital, and analog — is to study them in their totality and ground them in an informed understanding of the Chinese Communist Party.

In recent years, with the intensification of strategic competition between the United States and China, the “battle for the narrative” in the

14/08/2024

Soldier Pulse, our new members-only podcast, is launching next week. Become a member to hear current and former soldiers discuss issues critical to the U.S. Army.

14/08/2024

Unless the U.S. military’s talent management system becomes exponentially more agile, America will struggle to win wars.

When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine could not afford to waste time establishing an official drone corps before deploying unmanned quadcopters

12/08/2024

NATO member states have made some progress in addressing their own air defense weaknesses. Yet cracks and shortfalls remain.

For two years, Russia has launched constant air and missile attacks against Ukraine, featuring thousands of ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missiles,

10/08/2024

Enjoy this special open-access episode of the Russia Contingency, where Mike and Dara Massicot discuss the fast-developing situation in Kursk. If you’re a member, you can listen to part two.

This is part one of a two-parter on Ukraine's operation into the Russian oblast of Kursk and it's from our members-only show, "The Russia Contingency"

09/08/2024

Ryan sat down with the TNSR’s new editor-in-chief, Prof. Sheena Chestnut Greitens, an award-winning scholar and associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs.

In this episode, TNSR publisher Ryan Evans spoke with the journal's new editor-in-chief, Prof. Sheena Chestnut Greitens, an award-winning scholar and

09/08/2024

Slowly and deliberately, shadow reserves are helping China achieve a perceptible degree of diversification within the dollar system even as Beijing works toward the internationalization of its own currency.

In the ongoing U.S.-Chinese financial war, Beijing has focused on insulating China’s strategic trade from dollar-based financial sanctions. This objective

08/08/2024

The fact is, if the United States hopes to deter or defeat a Chinese attack on Taiwan, it should be prepared to effectively implement a draft.

Conscription — a practice most Americans believe should be relegated to the dustbin of history — has returned as an uncomfortable topic of conversation

07/08/2024

Ryan sat down with Melissa Griffith, Anne Marie Schumann, Alexis Bonnell, and Tyler Sweatt for a free-wheeling, candid, and thoughtful conversation on the challenges of cyber security in the Defense Department.

Ryan was joined by Melissa Griffith (SAIS-Johns Hopkins), Anne Marie Schumann (Department of the Navy), Alexis Bonnell (Air Force Research Laboratory),

07/08/2024

U.S. policy should be to seek to turn NATO into a true partnership between the United States and Europe so that on the alliance’s 100th birthday we can truly say it is stronger than ever.

Apart from the heat, the NATO summit went off without a hitch. Yes, Washington was consumed with the political whirlwind surrounding President Joe Biden.

06/08/2024

As with other emerging technologies, the solution to AI governance problems may lie more at the level of policy than law.

AI-enabled warfare has reached its “Oppenheimer moment.” From the backroom to the battlefield, AI is now being integrated into the full spectrum of

05/08/2024

The hesitation to admit that obesity is a disease despite ongoing breakthroughs in medical science prevents the armed forces from tackling its crisis head-on.

To anyone following the brouhaha surrounding fitness standards across the U.S. military, the Air Force’s six-month delay in resuming body composition

02/08/2024

Perhaps the most difficult challenge the United States and Japan face is truly integrating their long-term strategies, which have heretofore been inter-related but not inter-dependent.

This week, Tokyo hosted the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee, which brought together the two countries’ defense and foreign ministers. Although

01/08/2024

As Africa is seeing a dramatic rise in violent conflict and elected governments there are falling to coups, Chris, Zack, and Melanie sat down to discuss US policy for the region. What are America’s national security and other critical interests in Africa? What should the United States do to protect those interests?

As Africa is seeing a dramatic rise in violent conflict and elected governments there are falling to coups, Chris, Zack, and Melanie sat down to discuss

01/08/2024

Col. Everett S.P. Spain discusses how to retain the Army’s “best and brightest” junior officers in his new article.

How would our world be different if Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz, John Lejeune, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin had resigned after five or 10 years in

31/07/2024

The Navy’s approach to acquiring and fielding unmanned systems for deployment at sea should ultimately reinforce and support the maritime domain’s still-dominant weapons system: long-range anti-ship missiles.

We are not yet at a paradigm-shifting moment in the role of autonomous or robotic systems at sea. Nor are we likely to reach a revolutionary precipice

30/07/2024

NATO understands what it takes to fight as an interoperable force, even if it struggles at times to achieve it. But now it needs to start thinking in terms of fungibility as well.

When I was a kid, I loved Legos and Transformers. They could take multiple shapes and let me play out a million different adventures from the same set of

30/07/2024

U.S. forces in Syria should brace for a period of growing instability in the medium to long term, particularly in the event that a conflict breaks out between Israel and Hizballah in Lebanon.

In March 2024, the Islamic State killed more people in parts of Syria controlled by the Assad regime than at any point since July 2018. The attacks are

29/07/2024

Amidst escalating global tensions and growing challenges in the civilian aviation sector, an aircraft maintenance shortage has emerged nationally, posing a significant threat to Air Force operational readiness.

Amidst escalating global tensions and growing challenges in the civilian aviation sector, an aircraft maintenance shortage has emerged nationally, posing

26/07/2024

Ryan Evans talks with Philip Zelikow about his recent article for TNSR, “Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking.”

Ryan Evans talks with Philip Zelikow about his recent article for TNSR, "Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking." Their

26/07/2024

Beijing’s conduct toward the Philippines and Vietnam differs because Manila and Hanoi have different capacities to impose strategic costs on Beijing.

Tensions between China and the Philippines have escalated dramatically in recent months around Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef in the eastern