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Defense

Coverage of military posture, weapons systems, defense industrial base, and the evolution of modern warfare and force structure.

The Ledger and the Loophole

Economic Statecraft

The Ledger and the Loophole

Iran now openly offers missiles for cryptocurrency. North Korea funds its weapons program with stolen Bitcoin. As sanctioned states build parallel financial systems, the West faces an uncomfortable question: what happens when economic coercion loses its teeth?

The Shells That Count: What Ukraine Reveals About Western Defense Procurement

The Shells That Count: What Ukraine Reveals About Western Defense Procurement

Ukraine fires 6,000 artillery rounds daily while Western production struggles to keep pace. The conflict has not proven that mass defeats precision—it has exposed a procurement philosophy built for wars that may never come while neglecting wars that might.

The Defibrillator Problem: Why American Counterterrorism Keeps Failing in the Sahel

The Defibrillator Problem: Why American Counterterrorism Keeps Failing in the Sahel

The United States spent half a billion dollars training Sahelian security forces. Terrorism surged 2,000 percent. The correlation reveals a structural flaw in counterterrorism strategy that no amount of precision targeting can fix.

The Commitment Trap

The Commitment Trap

Australia's $368 billion submarine program locks it into US alliance dependency while China remains its largest trading partner. Trump 2.0's economic loyalty tests are eliminating the space for strategic hedging.

The Precision Mirage: What Happens When GPS-Guided Weapons Meet Systematic Jamming

The Precision Mirage: What Happens When GPS-Guided Weapons Meet Systematic Jamming

Western militaries built three decades of doctrine around satellite-guided precision. Russia and China built their counter-strategies around denying it. The weapons still work—but the advantage they promised is eroding faster than the modernization meant to restore it.

The Sahel's Sovereignty Ritual: Why the Junta Alliance Fights Wars It Cannot Win

The Sahel's Sovereignty Ritual: Why the Junta Alliance Fights Wars It Cannot Win

Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have launched joint military operations against jihadists with a force one-twentieth the size counterinsurgency requires. The offensive is not a strategy for victory—it is a performance of sovereignty that the three military governments cannot afford to abandon,...

The Quiet Realignment: How Australia and Indonesia Are Rewriting Indo-Pacific Security

The Quiet Realignment: How Australia and Indonesia Are Rewriting Indo-Pacific Security

The new Australia-Indonesia defense treaty creates strategic ambiguity that complicates adversary planning while preserving Indonesian non-alignment—a model that could reshape regional security cooperation beyond traditional alliance structures.

The Nuclear Mirage: Why Australia Can't Actually Maintain Nuclear Submarines

The Nuclear Mirage: Why Australia Can't Actually Maintain Nuclear Submarines

Three years after AUKUS, Australia lacks the dry docks, workforce, and industrial base to service nuclear submarines. The gap between political promises and physical reality grows wider each year.

The Sacrificial Fleet

The Sacrificial Fleet

Australia's military exists to signal commitment through spectacular failure, not to win wars. This explains why $50 billion in annual spending hasn't produced readiness for high-intensity conflict.

The Carrier Question: China's Missiles and the Future of Taiwan Defense

The Carrier Question: China's Missiles and the Future of Taiwan Defense

China's long-range anti-ship missiles can now theoretically reach American carriers thousands of miles from its coast. But whether this capability translates into strategic advantage depends on kill chains, countermeasures, and political will—variables that neither side has tested in combat.

The Decade That Decides: America, China, and Russia's Collision Course

The Decade That Decides: America, China, and Russia's Collision Course

Three great powers operate on three incompatible timescales. Washington resets every four years, Beijing plans through 2035, Moscow thinks in generations. The next decade will reveal which clock keeps better time—and whether any of them can be synchronized before collision.

Japan's $58 Billion Bet: Deterrence or Target Practice?

Japan's $58 Billion Bet: Deterrence or Target Practice?

Tokyo's record defence budget buys genuine capabilities that will complicate Chinese military planning. But constitutional constraints, industrial limitations, and alliance dependencies mean the billions purchase time and options—not security guarantees. The honest answer: Japan is creating both...