Author Archive
Ideas
Nord Stream Leaks Underline Gray-Zone Risks
Damaging a neighbor’s environment can be easy, cheap, and deniable.
Ideas
Putin’s War, and His Rule, Are In Trouble
Russia’s mobilization is an epic disaster. Can it become a movement against the regime?
Ideas
The Danube Won’t Solve Ukraine’s Grain Problems
Europe’s second-longest river isn’t deep enough to carry ocean-going grain vessels.
Ideas
What Turkey Got for Letting Sweden, Finland Join NATO
And the prospective alliance members got a lesson in the politics of collective defense.
Ideas
Sweden’s NATO Bid Is in Trouble
Domestic politics have elevated a Kurdish parliamentarian, and that worsens Stockholm’s Turkey woes.
Ideas
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.
Ideas
Sweden, Finland Gave Up Neutrality a Long Time Ago
Their collective-defense rights as EU members suggest a way forward for Ukraine.
Ideas
Ukraine Gives Urgency to Giant NATO Cold-Weather Exercise
Russia is surely watching the 29-country wargame closely.
Ideas
Russia Is Choking Off Air Travel to Ukraine
Moscow doesn’t need troops and roadblocks to isolate a target country.
Ideas
Italy Is a Quiet Pillar of NATO’s Aerial Policing
Rome seems happy to contribute more than their share of ground troops and jets to NATO missions—as long as they can do it sotto voce.
Threats
In an Information War, Be Careful What You Amplify
An announcement about an annual Russian reserve-forces exercise has some people speculating unhelpfully.
Featured eBooks
Ideas
How Irish Fishermen Took on the Russian Fleet and Won
The action illustrates how the private sector can help governments respond to Russian gray-zone aggression.
Ideas
What If Moscow Cancels Airline Overflight Rights?
The interconnected world gives Russia tools that the Soviet Union never had.
Ideas
Biden’s Gray-Zone Gaffe Highlights a Real Dilemma
It’s high time for NATO and its member governments to define what kinds of aggression short of war require a unified response.
Ideas
‘War Is Coming’: Mysterious TikTok Videos Are Scaring Sweden’s Children
The campaign offers an early test for the country’s new anti-disinformation agency.
Ideas
Belarus Is Laying Tinder for a War. How Will NATO Respond?
The weaponization of migrants shows how gray-zone tactics flummox an alliance set up to deal with conventional or nuclear attacks.
Ideas
Belarus’s Weaponized Migrants Offer a Primer on Gray-Zone Warfare
Western governments would do well to study Minsk’s actions—and prepare their populations to be on guard.
Ideas
Why France Is Getting No Sympathy for Its Lost Sub Deal
Its European neighbors have long bristled at Paris’ self-dealing and aggressive sales tactics.
Ideas
Italy’s Carabinieri Were the Perfect Force for the Kabul Evacuation
The soldier-policemen of this hybrid outfit went outside the wire to bring thousands to safety.
Ideas