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The Trillion-Dollar Question
Defense

The Trillion-Dollar Question

President Trump's call for a 50% defense budget increase promises to fix America's military readiness crisis. But the system that converts dollars into capability is broken. More money through broken channels produces contractor profits, not combat power.
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Michael Soren
The Philippines Cannot Defend Its Undersea Cables—and Neither Can Anyone Else
Asia-Pacific

The Philippines Cannot Defend Its Undersea Cables—and Neither Can Anyone Else

Ninety-five percent of Philippine internet traffic travels through fiber-optic threads that no navy can protect. China's gray zone operations exploit legal voids and attribution impossibilities, leaving Southeast Asia's digital infrastructure structurally vulnerable to interference that cannot...
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Michael Soren
America's Nigeria Problem: Why Military Strikes Risk Handing Beijing a Strategic Gift
Great Powers

America's Nigeria Problem: Why Military Strikes Risk Handing Beijing a Strategic Gift

The Christmas Day airstrikes against ISIS in Nigeria exposed a deeper tension in American strategy. Washington wants counterterrorism results and Nigerian partnership—but its methods may be driving Africa's most consequential state toward China's waiting embrace.
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Michael Soren
Why China Keeps Pouring Concrete into the South China Sea
Asia-Pacific

Why China Keeps Pouring Concrete into the South China Sea

Beijing's artificial islands violate international law, alienate neighbors, and invite American warships into contested waters. China builds them anyway. The reason reveals uncomfortable truths about its Taiwan planning horizon and the method behind apparent recklessness.
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Michael Soren
Trajectory Daily Brief: 11 January 2026

Trajectory Daily Brief: 11 January 2026

Sudan's 150,000 dead get 6% of Gaza's funding. Trump's $1.5T defense budget hits production walls. Philippines' $30B digital economy threads through Chinese waters as UAE preps for Iran.
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Michael Soren
The parasitic lock: How defense spending enriches contractors while readiness decays
Synthesis

The parasitic lock: How defense spending enriches contractors while readiness decays

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The Philippines cannot defend what it cannot reach
Synthesis

The Philippines cannot defend what it cannot reach

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How US intervention in Nigeria creates the dependency it claims to prevent
Synthesis

How US intervention in Nigeria creates the dependency it claims to prevent

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Trajectory Daily Brief: 10 January 2026

Trajectory Daily Brief: 10 January 2026

UAE abandons Yemen for Iran while Trump's trillion-dollar military surge hits a wall: America's defense factories can't absorb the spending as China maps cables to cut Philippine communications.
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Michael Soren
UAE's Red Sea withdrawal: Strategic repositioning toward gulf defense
Synthesis

UAE's Red Sea withdrawal: Strategic repositioning toward gulf defense

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Why more defense spending won't fix America's production crisis
Synthesis

Why more defense spending won't fix America's production crisis

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Can the Philippines survive if China cuts its undersea cables?
Synthesis

Can the Philippines survive if China cuts its undersea cables?

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