Ideas

A Swedish Compromise Won’t Solve NATO’s Turkey Problem

As two Nordic nations bid to join, Erdogan’s hostage-taking should force the alliance to reckon with a member that is increasingly a security risk.

Ideas

Could Ukraine Offer a Template for Better US-Gulf Security Relations?

The outpouring of aid to Kyiv shows that a formal defense alliance is inessential to effective wartime assistance.

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Defense One Radio, Ep. 100: Phil Klay

A conversation about veterans, citizenship, and the American way of war.

Ideas

Ending Production of This Warship Is a Mistake

The Navy’s new shipbuilding plan would replace all but three more LPD-17s with a vague plan to get started on a replacement class.

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Stop Making a Big Deal of NATO’s Next Members

Moscow wants to pretend that admitting Sweden and Finland would represent a far larger military change than it actually is.

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The Middle East’s Indifference to Ukraine Is a Warning

What looks like international solidarity against a lawless invasion is something far more transactional and fragile.

Ideas

Does the West Want Ukraine to Win or Not?

The relative trickle of advanced weapons to Kyiv suggests Western leaders would be fine with a stalemate.

Ideas

Four Ways China Is Growing Its Media Influence in Southeast Asia

Beijing is trying to burnish its image in the region. What if it took aim at America’s instead?

Ideas

Four Lessons that Should Upend the Pentagon’s Five-Year Strategy

From the quick consumption of weapons in Ukraine to rising inflation, the current resourcing plan is untenable.

Ideas

We Need More Amphibs, and We Need to Buy Them Smarter

Buying amphibious warships one at a time has left us with too few, and little prospect of closing the gap.

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Defense One Radio, Ep. 99: The role of drones in Russia’s Ukraine invasion

Two drone researchers explain some of the lessons we’ve learned about drone-assisted warfare after almost three months of war in Ukraine.

Ideas

Don’t Overinflate the Pentagon Budget

There are plenty of perennial problems draining the military’s coffers that need attention.

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How to Gauge the Risk of a Nuclear Escalation with Russia

Escalation theories can help NATO policymakers avoid nuclear war—but it is ultimately up to Putin.

Ideas

The UN Must Do More for Ukraine—and Itself

Russia’s invasion of a sovereign state is also an attack on the basic principle the international body was founded to prevent.

Ideas

GEOINT 2022 Conference Wire: AI Grows Up

Tracking the growth of small artificial-intelligence programs, and more from Day 2.

Ideas

The Security Dimension of the Abraham Accords

A year and a half later, a look at what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what still might.

Ideas

Sweden, Finland Gave Up Neutrality a Long Time Ago

Their collective-defense rights as EU members suggest a way forward for Ukraine.

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GEOINT 2022 Conference Wire: NGA's Takeover

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency will take control of a seminal AI effort, and more from Day 1.

Ideas

GEOINT 2022 Conference Wire: In the Spotlight

The Ukraine war has put space imagery and mapping at the center of discussion.