Empire of Confusion
Tyrone Groh and James Lockhart do a fine job laying out the history and current state of the American empire debate, lamenting the imprecise language and conceptualization of the debate in many...
View ArticleFour of the Biggest Challenges Facing the Next President
Many esteemed observers of world affairs argue that the world is becoming more dangerous. Some go further, contending it is even more perilous than it was during the Cold War. While this refrain is...
View ArticleFabian Strategies, Then and Now
There’s a hardy perennial question among practitioners and scholars of strategy. Namely, how do weaker warring parties overcome the strong? Sometimes they do. Looking back through history, one...
View ArticleFighting Joe Dunford’s World
Next week, Marine General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Dunford will take over as the 19th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dunford will be only the second marine to hold the job, replacing Army General...
View ArticleOn America’s Way of Battle
The diagram below, drawn from U.S. Joint planning doctrine (JP 5-0), graphically depicts America’s current model for designing military campaigns, its way of battle. The diagram first appeared in U.S....
View ArticleHistory Restarted: The Return of the Machiavellian Moment
Francis Fukuyama’s thesis that history ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 has exercised a baleful influence upon Western foreign policy. Fukuyama, of course, argued that Western liberal...
View ArticleThe Five-Ring Circus: How Airpower Enthusiasts Forgot About Interdiction
Since the development of the Army Air Corps, airmen have been entranced by the possibilities inherent in airpower for a quick and relatively bloodless end to a major war. While the U.S. Army adopted...
View ArticleWhy is America Tactically Terrific but Strategically Slipshod?
Our men and women in uniform have made enormous sacrifices implementing the policies developed at the highest levels of our government. But those policies and the strategies to implement them have too...
View ArticleCorbyn’s Strategic Ignorance Would Make Him a Dangerous Prime Minister
Last week, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn made news by discussing with the BBC his views on nuclear weapons and their role in defending Britain. In doing so, he displayed a staggering lack...
View ArticleGot Landpower?
The armies of the Islamic State running roughshod over government forces in Iraq and Syria. Russian little green men infiltrating eastern Ukraine following the military annexation of Crimea. Houthi...
View ArticleCSI: Pentagon — Who Killed American Strategy?
Who killed American strategy? Discussion about American security and defense today often resembles TV shows like Crime Scene Investigation and its numerous spinoffs. There’s a dead body, a list of...
View ArticleYes, Sometimes There Are Military Solutions to Political Problems
Leading up to the 1999 Kosovo War, some critics argued that Western military intervention would fail. One foreign policy analyst predicted it would “mire Americans in another internecine conflict,”...
View ArticleAround the World: Episode 2
What’s going on around the world? For our latest podcast, WOTR editor-in-chief Ryan Evans was joined by a great group to talk about Russia and its intervention in Syria, the Middle East more broadly,...
View ArticleThe Moral Hazard of Proxy Warfare
It has been a very bad month for advocates of the “indirect” approach to U.S. national security policy. U.S.-trained rebels in Syria handed over their weapons to al-Qaeda; and the United States has...
View ArticleRemote Control Statecraft: The Limits of Offshore Balancing
In the fall of 9 A.D., two entire Roman legions were suddenly annihilated in the dark, rain-lashed depths of the Teutoburg Forest. Betrayed by their native allies, and encumbered by their heavy...
View ArticleWhat Texas Hold ‘em Can Teach us about Geopolitics
Poker doesn’t immediately make you think of geopolitics. However, the game itself, specifically No-Limit Texas Hold ’em, is a remarkable analog for the international system as viewed through a realist...
View ArticleFriendly Fire: The Risks and Rewards of Red Teaming
Micah Zenko, Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy (Basic Books, 2015) Despite all the fascination with new technologies and religious extremism, there is little new in war. So often,...
View ArticleCan Kennan Shake Us Out of Our Strategic Groundhog Day?
Since World War II, the United States has entered into many situations with military force from which it has never left. The country still maintains forces in Europe and Japan. It participates in...
View ArticleAmerica’s Victory Disease Has Left it Dangerously Deluded
VICTORY DISEASE. The affliction that is caught by most armies and nations after they have won a war. The disease is characterized by arrogance, a tendency to believe myths as to the underlying reasons...
View ArticleAsh Carter: The Interview
How will the U.S. military stay competitive? This is about far more than platforms, bombs, and guns. It is fundamentally about people. And with archaic personnel systems plaguing the armed forces and...
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