Ideas
Add special operators to the Joint Simulation Environment
The X-Men have the right idea: training needs to include the whole team.
How a beatdown at sea turned Russia's navy into China's junior partner
Even the new maritime truce with Ukraine can't change a strategic tilt of the past three years.
Heads must roll for Signal-chat debacle
To hold no one accountable would undermine operational security and send a corrosive message to troops.
France, UK must heed the call of Europe's new nuclear age
Paris and London can provide the assurances that stop a continental race for nuclear weapons, but it won't be easy.
China is waging cognitive warfare. Fighting back starts by defining it.
The US and its allies need a framework for this new domain of conflict: formal, explicit specifications for its concepts and entities.
The end of nonproliferation?
The United States' rejection of security commitments could lead to a spike in nuclear-armed states.
What military members need to hear from their leaders now
Policy guidance, to be sure—but also timeless messages that transcend administrations.
Trump’s coercive approach risks driving Latin America into China’s arms
Short-term wins should not be mistaken for long-term gains.
There’s a tanker-sized gap in this vision of the Air Force’s future
A recent Mitchell Institute study gives dangerously short shrift to global mobility.
Don't cut this key driver of technological advantage
Defense-related research and development at America’s universities has helped make the U.S. military the best in the world.
By halting Ukraine aid, Trump courts personal defeat
There’s still time to avoid emboldening America’s enemies—and a humiliation that dwarfs his predecessor’s Afghanistan withdrawal.
Insights & Reports
After Oval Office disaster, Europe emerges as Ukraine’s best hope
Friday’s fiery Trump-Zelenskyy meeting sets up hard choices across the Atlantic.
Trump’s plan to slash the federal workforce isn’t the first, it’s just the worst
The triple-meat-cleaver approach to workforce “reform.”
To China, DeepSeek is more than an app—it's a strategic turning point
Beijing views the AI tool as a breakthrough that reinforces its strategic autonomy and reshapes the U.S.-China balance of power.
How Trump could productively reshape the transatlantic defense relationship
If rearming Europe and ending the war in Ukraine deters China, all the better.
The future of military logistics is predictive
A recent commander of Army Materiel Command says the war in Ukraine illuminates the path to data-driven sustainment.
Teach how to think, not what to think
Professional military schools should not go overboard in interpreting the SecDef’s anti-DEI memo.
Featured eBooks
Trump must keep arming Ukraine if he wants a good peace deal
Europe must do its fair share, but it cannot carry the burden alone.
Defense One Radio, Ep. 172: The Air Force's force-design leader
Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel discusses his how his service's modernization strategy will shape the future of air combat in an increasingly complex security landscape.
Trump’s tariffs fit a growing global trend of hardball migration diplomacy
Such diplomacy works both ways, but richer countries by and large have the upper hand.
